Making my own Bamboo pens!

DIY Bamboo pens!

Here's my preparation work for the third exercise of the #6weekartchallenge . TAKE CARE WHEN USING SHARP TOOLS! WEAR EYE PROTECTION.

This is how I made the bamboo pens myself, since my local shops don't stock them, and the online stores want to charge too much for imported Japanese pens.

As I live in Sichuan, China, I can actually find wild bamboo within walking distance! I made sure not to remove any live plants, only picking up a few select shafts from the ground.

Firstly- I washed and dried a few sections of bamboo (I simply used my hands to bend/snap each bamboo-finger at the knuckle.)

 

I then drilled a hole through one end, and inserted a sharp knife, and carefully drew it down the shaft in order the split the bamboo cylinder into two halves. (May need to wash/dry again!)

Each half will become a pen.

Start by sharpening one end into a rough point. Then drill a small hole a little up from where the stick begins to taper to a point.

Insert the tip of a craft knife into the hole, pointing towards the pointed end of the pen, and carefully cut away from yourself in order to split the tip into two halves.

You might find that the split isn't in the middle- sharpen and shave either side of the pen-tip until its symmetrical enough.

After that, you can shave and sand down the sharp edges along the shaft of the bamboo.

Finally, I added some wood varnish in order to try and protect the permeable bamboo. Time will tell whether this was a good idea or not!

At least for now I have a set of six varied bamboo pens, ready to experiment with!

For the third exercise, you will need:

-Bamboo pen. (a sharpened shaft of hard bamboo- I had to make my own.)

-Loose ink + container.

-Humans. (Safety first!)

-Paper/sketchpad.

 

#artist #artstudent #drawingaday #drawing #artchallenge2021 #sketch #sketchaday #bamboopen #lifestudy #portraiture #diycrafts #diydippen #diybamboopen #artsandcrafts