Glass Inkwells

Hand made inkwell -purchased in France. Date unknown.

The Meaning of Limited Editions and Special Editions

I've always been skeptical of Special Editions and vague Limited Editions. Take the The Franklin Mint's promotion of "Limited Edition", as something "limited to x amount of firing days," without revealing if there are fifty or fifty-thousand pieces of that designed item in the kiln, or even multiple kilns fired on each of those firing days. They certainly produced as many of each item as they believed they can saturated the potential market with. Nothing limited about that, just a sales pitch to make the items appear to be scarce.

You really do need to read the fine print and not just the advertising blurb.
A Limited Edition is usually a small, quality production run, with each item numbered with its number within the edition quantity, of an in demand item. The certificate is usually signed my the maker, for it to be of real value and not just a marketing gimmick.

Buying limited editions in the hope of getting a financial return might be more fun than buying lottery tickets and the odds, if you buy wisely, about the same.

Hand made inkwell -purchased for Ryn Shell's 74th birthday.

I have two beautiful heavy glass ones that I treasure. I use one to hold the tall bottles of Robert Oster ink if I am using it as I'd not dare take the lid off those bottles of ink otherwise. Have I mentioned I like squat bottles for ink? Occasionally, I will make ink soup in the other ink well if I want to evacuate unused ink from a pen.  I usually use every drop of ink before refilling, and my ink wells are primarily decorative.

The Divine Discontent of Artists

I'll tell you a story I always told my advanced students.
Two artist's who'd known and admired each other's work for year met again after a long gap in time. They asked each other how their art was going and each was shocked when the other spoke about feeling they were not painting well. Both disbelieved that it was possible the other wasn't creating great art, so they agreed to view each other's latest works and honestly appraise it.

The consensus of opinion was, they were not painting badly, it was a case of their expectations had increased. One thing that trained art tutors stress is that you will never be 100% satisfied with any work. You have to leave it though, and put all you feel you learned from creating it and all that you'd have done differently if you could, into a future work.

Accept that if you did create perfection what a handicap that would be. You'd probably give up, knowing perfection isn't repeatable. Better to feel you haven't achieved what you are after as yet and keep trying for it.

The French art masters call it "mécontentement divin" The divine discontent, and believed t is normal for an artist to go through phases f hating the artwork they are doing, or even a body of work. Understanding that all artists suffer from this (I certainly do) helps.

Getting into the confident mood to move ahead believing you can do it is essential and we just have to do that. Your work is EXCELLENT. That horse was labour intensive to create, you look at it and remember some of the fatigue. in creating it and aren't as aware of the beauty of it as those who come across it—not seeing the hours of labour behind it.
Take care my friend. You are truly gifted.

My Vintage Glass Inkwell Collectable Finds

What pen preferences, if any have you developed over time?

My preference isn't a brand it's a type. I prefer pre-owned or discounted, if I can get a better price for the quality that way. I would not pay over $500. and rarely pay more than $200. 

I want a generous size piston fill, preferring a pop cap, but will tolerate a screw cap. As good price for quality performance in my main consideration I tend to own mostly black and gold trim preferred or classic coloured pens. I dislike bling and marbled plastic looking bright coloured pens. For a nib, I like a Japanese medium gold nib or German fine gold nib best but will go down or up one size from there for the right pen. 

I once preferred lighter fine pens. I now, having learned how to glide the pen on the paper, I prefer a heavier weighted pen. 

I have gone off vintage pens with bladders, and anything that doesn't have a generous size piston fill, plus all my light weight pens. I should do another sell up, but I still keep all my pens inked up and in use and don't wish to pay out more to have pens I'd prefer to the ones I have which do the work I need done adequately. I also try to avoid selling physical goods, it's inconvenient.

What to do when the Muse doesn't visit?

To be a writer, you must write. You need a goal, an action plan to achieve the goal, and a to do list focused on the action plan.
Muses are optional.

The muse sees you at work and will often join you, which helps the words low faster. But the muse would rarely arrive and sit down to do the job with you. It’s persistence, not muses, that achieves success.

Set your goal, then create the action plan you need to do to achieve that goal, then just do it. One foot it front of the other on those days when it is hard to keep going. We all have an area in our lives where we need to, “Just do ti!”

It’s even okay not to write if you don’t want the goal enough to carry out the action plan. But, you can get through those slumps by just sticking with an action plan even when it’s difficult, if you want that goal enough.

Maybe ask yourself if you are chasing a goal that excites you enough to do the work.
There’s no failure in modifying or changing the goal to one that motivates you to do the work.