Tools, studio and more.

My mother decided to clean out the entire garage and rearrange my studio space:

I have a shelf now! Exciting.

And lots of unused screen printing equipment.

My couch, my desk and my paper cutter. Those white things are my awesome drawers where I keep my ink and tools.

All my awesome tools and my desk.

Recently I have ordered a TON of tools from McClain's and the BarenForum mall. Slowly the packages have been trickling in from all over the world and each day I am excited to check and see if parts of my order have arrived.

So far my newest acquisitions are a 3mm Hangi-To knife, a 6mm bull-nose chisel, a 9mm chisel to be used with a mallet and a 6mm Hangi-To. And a deluxe mallet. Did I mention I am now the proud owner of a mallet? Both of the 6mm tools are the superior quality while my 3mm is part of my awesome professional set.

Mostly just missing my 18mm chisel which I hear is coming soon from the [Baren] Mall. Most of my excitement is reserved for the arrival of my FIRST BAREN. Go me. I went with a Murasaki Medium baren.

Alright so due to the demand on my twitter feed, I will do my best to get some sketches up of my comic-con experience. I'll be aiming for next week sometime.

Highlight of my day was having David Petersen the artist and writer for Mouse Guard explain to me a new printmaking technique. I was first in line to get a signature this afternoon when he headed back to his artist alley booth.

Its a shame he doesn't print much anymore but I LOVE his work.

Best. Day. Ever.

But I like shopping!

Oh, McClains. How your siren song pulls me under with your tempting offers of delightful tools and beautiful woods. I'm currently staring at the an open website with several items in my shopping cart. I know I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to order anything to be sure I'm making the right decision but I cant help agonizing over my choices. Wood carving tools don't come cheap. There are lots of things to consider when making a purchase: quality of the blades, affordability, size. What will I use it for? How often will I use it? If I break it, is the blade replaceable or at least easy to repurchase?

I've been on a real woodblock kick for some time now. Hopefully this new project I'm embarking on will greatly benefit from the addition of a few new tools (tiny chisel, here I come) I guess once I hit a certain point, I just missed printmaking too much NOT to do it. However it is late and I have a final to get to tomorrow. Hopefully this shopping experience can be my finals victory celebration.