Author Archives: leslie

Wordy Weekender: Circle the Wagons

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As many of you may know my blog was trolled last night due to a blog post I wrote about trollz. My point was immediately made and I really feel I don’t have a lot more to add to the conversation. Read it and you’ll understand what today is about.

Today it’s time for the art journaling community (and anyone else) to circle the wagons around the campfire, put on some good eats, and a pot of coffee and talk about love, forgiveness and community.

If you would like to contribute a design to the cause, let me know and I’ll load the image up to zazzle and you’ll be able to buy a shirt with your design on it. I’m going to play around with some sketches and upload some images. The consensus seems to be that we should go with pink butterflies on chocolate brown.

There will be a stream-a-thon as well. If you are planning on streaming today; post a link and time in the comments so everyone knows when you’ll be streaming. I’m flexible in when I stream but I’ll stream after 2pm.

 (For peolpe interested in zazzle, the image needs to be 150ppi, and for a small image 600x600pixels wide, if interested in other sizes, or a full image on a shirt message me and I'll get you the zazzle info.)

Wordy Weekender: Real Friends

Earlier on twitter I started a series of tweets with the hashtag #trollz. It was juvenile and to me, funny. Ricë said it was too negative. I was attempting to get a group of people talking about the recent rash of trollz in the art twitter-verse. I ended up encouraging people to tweet about a more positive bend with the hashtag #realfriends. It got some conversation going.

I have written before about how I think internet issues should be handled, like adults and “behind the scenes.” Etsy calls the public outing of a person “naming and shaming.” I had a recent interaction with an Etsy seller, who I shall not name*, that was negative. In fact I left my first negative feedback on Etsy, ever, in years of purchases and sales, I’ve never left negative feedback.  Selling me something and then never shipping it, is a reason to leave negative feedback.

What I did, I propose all people do if they are cheated on Etsy, eBay, or another sales site. Handle it appropriately; first file a claim with PayPal. I pay for everything online with my paypal card. Why? I can file a claim in all of 2 minutes no matter how I use it. It’s easy, painless, and fast. I keep an eye out, if I don’t get my purchase within 2 weeks, I write in my planner when 30 days is up. At the 15 day mark I contact the seller and try and resolve thing privately. If I still do not get satisfaction or I’ve been assured that the product has been shipped, I contact the seller again at 30 days. At this point I give them an ultimatum, give me a tracking number in 24 hours or I contact paypal and file a dispute.

I don’t back down. I draw a line and I stand behind it.  If I don’t get a tracking number I file a dispute with paypal. I’ve had to do this twice, and in each instance I’ve gotten my money back in 24 hours.

What I don’t do is make public tweets, defamatory comments, or anything that could be libelous or slanderous. I try and keep in mind that most of the people I deal with online are real people, trying to make a living just like me. When I’m a happy customer I talk about those instances, I rave about great customer service and FAST shipping. I make positive tweets, face book posts, and blog posts. What I don’t want to do is tear people down, I want to build up the people that are doing a good job and send them more business. **

In my personal dealings I never want people to think of me as a troll, it is to me perhaps the absolute worst insult one can throw on the internet. Trollz ruin internet fun and activities. When a troll enters the chat you are on high alert, worried about the inevitable contrary attacks on some little comment. If you say you love something they hate it and disparage it. They call you names, make fun of your appearance, and send you private messages in the hopes to get you going. They make empty threats and say nasty things. Internet drama is a drug for them and they feed off of it, they are addicted to the high of making others feel bad. For a moment the delight of making someone’s day a little worse builds them up. The problem with any addiction is its need to be fed, constantly, as the addiction grows the need for the high grows and soon enough all the troll does is seek a new thrill. It’s a sad spiral.

I suspect and hope that this post will be the last post you hear from me on the subject of trollz. I’ve gone through and blocked them all and won’t look at them again. I suggest you do the same, they aren’t worth your time.

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Flickr FridaY: ThermoMix

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ThermoMix
Originally uploaded by Laura Serra

 

Images like this remind me that you can see the beauty in the everyday object. the simple, ordinary, and everyday object can be transformed into art if you only look at it the right way. Maybe what you need to do is turn the object on its side and look at it from a different angle, or maybe you need to adjust how you view the world.

No matter this pic is a perfect image of how that works.

Review: Moleskine 6×9 Sketchbook

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This sketchbook contains 80 roughly 110lb plain cream colored pages. They are contained within plastic covered hard black covers. The plastic is imprinted to look like leather. This sketchbook is very often suggested for people started out in art journaling.

The paper is stiff and smooth. It’s good for writing and drawing. I find that the paper has a coating that repels wet media like watercolors, which it absorbs but gives a blotchy appearance. It does the same with some inks. It can be quite a pain in the rear. I’ve found that if I got through my sketchbook and spritz the pages with a little water so they are evenly damp and then allow them to dry before working in watercolor or ink the blotchiness is minimized.

The paper responds favorably to pitt and zig pens. They remain perfectly black and don’t show any blotchiness. The paper is also heavy enough to support many layers of collage and acrylic paint. When working with wet media it’s best to be aware that the paper will cockle and remain wavy even after it dries. I like the wavy paper but most don’t.

The heavy weight paper does not show strike nor bleed through except when using sharpies and copic markers. Fountain pens do just fine on this paper. Some fountain pen inks get blotchy.

The sketchbook has a great form factor with its smooth hard black covers, pocket in the back and elastic closure. I can’t say that the paper would be a reason to recommend it. The pages can take abuse but if you erase too much or scrub the pages with a brush you’ll end up will pilling of the top of the paper. I’ve read reports of the spine breaking on these sketchbooks but I’ve abused the heck out of mine and never had a broken or damaged spine, and I’m not gentle with my sketchbooks and journals. The price however is quite prohibitive at $18 for 80 pages.

If you are looking for a sketchbook that handles a variety of media relatively well, with a nice hard cover, at a ridiculously high price this is a good sketchbook. There are others similarly shaped and sized that will work as well at a lower price.

 INterested in purchasing a moleskine sketchbook? Follow this link, it was the best price I could find on them:

 

Not So Wordy Wednesday

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It’s wordy Wednesday again! How the time flies. I’ve been sick, yet again, some sort of sinus thing and I managed to catch a company policy manual with my face. Needless to say I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and foolish.  Paper cuts on the nose will do that to you, every time.

I’ve been in a rut.  There I said it. I haven’t written in about 2 weeks. I’ve done some art but it hasn’t held the kind of feeling that I usually get from it. Instead it’s been flat, lifeless, and without passion. Add to that my weird sinus issue seems to be back, after only a week of it being gone and well I’m making excuses. My face and sinuses hurt, though I suspect the book to the face only did minor damage and really the issue is with my sinus issues.

Excuses. Really I need to let them go and get back to doing what I do. Writing and art needs to be something I stop avoiding, well I’m not avoiding I’m simply too tired after a full day at the DayJob to really get anything done.

I can’t wait for spring, this cold snow filled winter really has been hard.

Word Power Blah Blah Blah

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I went on a tirade on twitter about the word tribe. I was annoyed because I’d followed a link to a link to a link for a blog that referred to paying members of an online group and advertisers as their “tribe.”  It rubbed me the wrong way.  Is that the real meaning of tribe? Or is it that language has changed so much over the last few years that it’s okay to refer to people who pay you for a service rendered as part of your tribe?

Words have meaning, words have power, blah de frickin’ blah. I’d like to go out on a limb and suggest that misusing a word or phrase has power too.  I’m not suggesting anything about being political correct.  It’s about how people misuse words, sometimes on a daily basis, and not bothering to actually learn the actual meaning of the word in question. My problem here is willful ignorance not the lack of political correctness. It’s the fact that the writer, a term I’m using loosely here, didn’t bother to use dictionary.com or even pick up a dictionary and look up the term before labeling her customers and clients as her tribe. It is clever marketing, if somewhat ignorant and insulting to the reader*.

I often see this trend online. One marketer** will decide to appropriate a term for his/her use and stick to it over and over and over, creating their own meaning and the people that read their blog, books, and articles eventually come to associate that meaning with the word.  This mutability is what makes language so fascinating and beautiful.

I will continue to stick to my meaning of tribe that states that unless you are Micmac I’m not a part of your tribe. Otherwise, I can be your supporter, client, customer, and even in your network.

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Flickr Friday: My to do lists are a mess

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My to do lists are a mess
Originally uploaded by featherbed

 

While this isn't my to do list (Follow the link below the image for more great pics) I am a to do list keeper. Mine are less pretty than this mess, I write in my chicken scratch with whatever pen comes to hand, they are multi-colored barely legible lists of things like "Don't forget the TP. Pick up milk. We need dish detergent. Find the broom*"

*True story, I can't find our "in the house" broom. No idea where I put it. Its driving me nuts.

Thursday Review: MiquelRius Grid Notebook

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MiquelRuis 300page Grid Notebook with Red vinyl cover

I bought this notebook 4 or 5 years ago while searching for a Ciak brand notebook. As a notebook snob and a bookbinder I find this book to be just MEH.

First it’s perfect bound- glue with no stitching. Eventually with hard use pages will fall out. It’s just a matter of when not if. Perfect binding is simply not sturdy enough for the kind of abuse I put my notebooks and journals through. I will say that I’ve been carting this notebook around for 2 or 3 months and it’s held up pretty well so far. Also due to the binding and thickness of the book, it will not open completely flat while writing, which is a nuisance.

The pages are 15 to 18 pound in weight and very thin. Almost every pen I own strike through (is visible on the reverse side) and 90% bleed through. This means I can only use one side of each sheet of paper. So that drops the 300 pages of the book down to 150 usable surfaces. So even if I wanted to brave the non-flat writing surfaces of the left side of the notebook, I could barely read what I wrote. Additionally some of the inks I own feather like mad on this paper. I’m talking about relatively well behaved inks like Diamine Chocolate Brown.

The paper is very smooth and has the best light pale blue grid I’ve ever seen. It’s what drew me to the brand in the first place. After looking at a dozen or so gridded notebooks, I fell in love with the pale blue of this grid. It’s pale enough to blend into the background and not interfere with the writing when you are referring back to your writing. The pen glides over it. It’s not as smooth as Rhodia or Claifontaine paper but its way better than Moleksine paper. Ink is better behaved on the right side of the MiquelRuis paper than moleskine paper. The paper definitely has a right and wrong side for fountain pen use. One side is smooth and the other has a little more tooth to it and grabs the tip of the pen ever so slightly.

The format of the book I purchased is great- at 6×8 inches I’m finding the page size perfect for writing and recording thoughts and sketches. The size is good for slipping into a book bag.The 300 pages is a tad on the heavy size for every day toting about but if it were the only notebook you were to carry it wouldn’t be bad. They come in 100 and 200 page counts as well.

Would I buy another one of these notebooks? Probably not. The bright vinyl cover is nice but doesn’t speak to me the way a leather cover does. The paper’s lovely pale blue grid is about the only thing I really like about this notebook. Using both sides of the page is important to me, using just one side seems very wasteful to me. I prefer a stitched notebook for durability. I have to mention that pale blue grid again; it’s why I keep reaching for this notebook. This would be a good gift idea for the vegan writter on your shopping list. They also offer a host of recycled vinyl options that I'd like to see.

I purchased mine about 5 years ago at Barnes and Noble. I notice that the brand is no longer listed on their website. When I purchased this particular note book it was the last one on the shelf. It cost $10. You can buy these notebooks at the miquelrius website here.

Pros:

  • 300 Pages
  • Sturdy Vinyl Covers
  • Cheap $10
  • Great pale blue grid
  • Mostly fountain pen friendly o n the right hand pages
  • Smooth paper is nice for writing

Cons:

  • 300 pages are heavy
  • Almost all my pens and inks exhibit strike through and bleed through
  • Not good for a wet nib
  • Can only write in it- sketching would result in horrible bleed
  • Forced to write lightly
  • Perfect bound- not very sturdy
  • Won’t lay flat when writing.

Some inks that did well on the paper:

Noodler’s Bulletproof Black, Eel Blue, Walnut, Beaver, Eternal Brown and anything BUT Herbin Bleu Nuit in an EF nib.