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May 11, 2006

The Life of a Pen

I have been following with interest the life of a pen series on Dave Shelton's weblog. Back in January Dave had the idea "to take one new pen and use it exclusively in a new sketchbook until the last drop of ink had departed its valiant, ragged fibre tip. The pen may not be used outside of its dedicated book and the book may not be marked with any other pen."

As the Fulani say, So mbaggu weli na yidi bileede - even if the drum is sweet it needs to be hung up. Or in English idiom, All good things must come to an end. Yesterday, the end came for Dave's black Pentel, on page twenty-seven of his A5 Fabriano sketchbook.

The end did not come easily. In his comment on page twenty-seven, Dave writes: "Because there was pretty much no fibre tip left sticking out of the metal barrel of the pen at the end, those last drawings are almost engraved into the paper as the barrel dug into the page." Ouch.

And for what it's worth, here's my favourite page

Posted by sahelsteve at May 11, 2006 12:13 PM