Sticker Geek Fest

I have always been something of a hoarder. As a tiny child I had my own desk in the spare room, a magical sanctuary away from the room I shared with my brother. In its drawers I accumulated collections of erasers, stickers, writing paper and shiny 20 pence pieces from the tooth fairy. When my cousin came to stay, I insisted we play a game of 'post office', which involved pretending to sell the contents of my desk to one another.

As adulthood loomed, the contents of that desk were mostly neglected, the sticker collection being the part which survived the best. However, it was seriously harmed by the lack of decent stickers available in York and the fact that, when I did find some, I often stuck them on things quicker than I could replace them.

Times have changed. Not only do I now have the option of buying pointless things on the internet, but even high street shops like Paperchase are shaping up to sell some pretty nifty stickers. But this obsession really gained momentum during my time living in Taiwan. Yes, I have mentioned the stationery shops of Taiwan before, and no doubt I will again. Forget Stationery Box. Forget Rymans and WH Smith. How much of their stationery is adorned with impossibly cute creatures, inanimate objects with faces and nonsensical English with a nevertheless overwhelmingly positive message?

I love these guys

Luckily I still have friends in the Far East kind enough to send me stickers. I have also bought a few on the internet and in the few decent stationery shops around these parts and have recently been forced to relocate my sticker collection to a larger tin.

Incredibly girly new tin/carry case

The best of my stickers bought in the UK

As if this wasn't all nerdy enough, I also bought a sticker album in Taiwan in which I keep the ones I like the most and which I'll never be able to replace. The book has illustrations on most of the pages so it's nice to look through even though I haven't actually put many stickers in it yet.

Sticker album

Stickers from a Japanese photobooth I visited with my friends

Happy teeth and toothbrushes!

Stationery Geek Fest

Okay, so this is probably my geekiest post yet. Art materials and stationery probably don't merit this level of enthusiam, but I'm not ashamed, I tell you! If you're an illustrator, fine artist or just a lover of good pens you may find this of interest. If not, you probably won't remotely understand, but never mind...

I am truly obsessed with Pilot Hi-Tec-C pens. Apologies for the product placement, but I am yet to find a more useful pen for both writing and drawing. Seeing as I like to write long, painstakingly-decorated letters, it's always good to have a lovely writing pen handy. Sadly they do rather hurt my hands due to my recently-diagnosed hypermobility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermobility) and I need something with better grip, but presumably that can be rectified with a bit of foam or something wrapped around them! I will give it a try soon.

Yes, I own more than enough of them to write the above without running out of a different colour for each letter. They are not all the same thickness though. I prefer the 0.3 or 0.4 for drawing and 0.5 for writing.

Here is a birthday card I made recently for my boyfriend's dad. It's a picture of Roccatederighi, a Medieval hilltop village in Tuscany. Hi-Tec-C all the way. Oh and Copic Sketch markers for the writing (outlined with the Pilot pen!)

Nothing else will do for my myriad To Do lists.

The above was written in an amazing notebook bought in Eslite in Taipei (or maybe Hsinchu - I used to haunt both regularly!) Here is the front cover, which was not in fact hand-drawn but actually came like this!

I usually stick to a policy of not using pencil first so am forced to incorporate mistakes into pictures. I find it so much more satisfying to draw straight onto the page, especially as I used to be too precious with my art and spent far too long on the initial sketch.

Ah, watercolours. Probably my favourite type of paint. And guess what - they can be used in tandem with the pens!

I bought most of these pens in Taiwan as they were so much cheaper there (the equivalent of a pound at the most) and they cost about £2.75 in Paperchase in the UK. The colour selection here is limited to three at the most as far as I've seen (and not very exciting colours at that!)

I used to buy the black ones here before I went away so imagine my delight at discovering the ridiculous selection of colours available for cheap in the vastly superior stationery shops of the Far East! However, I've now discovered you can also buy them on eBay from Hong Kong and get them for almost as cheap as they are out there. Good to know as one day my precious collection will surely dry up/get used to death. Copic Sketch markers, on the other hand... well, I wish I'd bought loads more as they're insanely expensive over here.

EDIT: As a few people have asked me - all the artwork in this post is my own except for the notebook cover.