2010:365:61 I is for Incredible Indelible Indigo Ink

Purple ink has to be one of my favourite luxuries!  This particular variety I bought by mail order and it has a strong rich depth as it flows freely from my best fountain pen.  "Best" pen because I have three, well, four actually, but one isn't working and not worth having repaired, so best of three.  This photograph didn't happen by accident.  The first attempts were, to put it mildly, a tad boring!

It took a while to get the blots just as I wanted them and there are a number of discarded sheets lying around.  Eventually the low angle of the selected photograph above was chosen as the 365Project entry for today.  The table light through the ink pot gave some interesting shadows and colours and I love the way that the big blot has begun to bleed into the paper.

Since school days I have used fountain pens and one of "the three" dates from that time.  I have memories of being the ink-well monitor and filling the little black pots from the tall royal blue jar with a little metal nozzle in primary school.  

Later, when we'd moved beyond the "dip pens", if my fountain pen was clean, I was allowed to use Dad's blue-black ink.

Then, in sixth form, when we were making application to universities, came the era of black ink!  And one of my pens is always filled with that strong dark colour.  

To look at my handwriting now you'd wonder if I ever learned to write at all.  I did try to do this shopping list as neatly as I could.  Usually they're scribbled in pencil on a scrap of paper but for this one, since the pen was already in use, I took a little more care.

The pen is a special one, engraved with my name and given to me by a group of friends in a prayer group just before I left for training for the ministry.  With it I wrote exams and filled out forms.  With it I now complete church registers and inscribe baptismal or confirmation certificates.  It writes beautifully and has managed to "live" in its original box!  

Writing has always been an interest.  At school we were taught Calligraphy and over the years I've developed that skill a bit - recently sadly neglected.  Colour in the writing pleases me.   This is a photograph of a piece where I used two colours, blending them in various proportions from left to right, having first used both to provide a background add interest to the paper.  It was an exam submission and fun to do - part of a prayer of Saint Columba.  Maybe I should get back to the Calligraphy hobby ... 

O God, you called your servant Columba
from among the princes of this land
to be a herald and evangelist of your kingdom:
Grant that your Church, remembering his faith and courage,
may so proclaim the splendour of your grace
that people everywhere will come to know your Son
as their Saviour, and serve him as their King;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen. 

Book of Common Prayer

Feast of Saint Columba - 9th June