• melbaboutown
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    24 days ago

    Nooo. I put my tin of charcoal pencils on my bed to do a quick stick vac and then they fell off. Snapped the leads off two of them. And it was a tin with plastic grooves for them to sit in too, intended to protect them during transport. But they were sharpened shorter so there was room at the top allowing them to fall and break at a vertical angle.

    I’ll sharpen them again.

    If I had the energy I’d get a small shallow wooden box with a closure, cut a piece of foam to wedge inside, and then make slashes in the foam to hold the sharpened charcoals gently in place. Perhaps hollow out the foam around the tips to allow space so it doesn’t put any pressure on the most delicate part.

    If I wasn’t constantly so exhausted and depressed with no proper workspace I could make some cool things.

    Edit: Also the art book I’m working through very slowly is like $40-50 on ebay. It feels like all of the really solid tradish art books are going out of print and becoming really expensive if they’re even available. I did see a bundle of three similar ones for about the same price 🤔 To be honest it’s still cheaper than the art classes I see

      • melbaboutown
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        24 days ago

        It might be a little flexible to protect them from my clumsiness. I have a sketching kit of that stiff non-woven fabric with elastic loops to hold those charcoals but don’t trust it. If dropped or squashed even a slight angled impact might be enough to snap them off

        Edit: Also the charcoal might rub off on the lining and transfer to my hands, and then get touched onto everything. That stuff is almost as bad as glitter

    • Thornburywitch
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      24 days ago

      Have you tried Anna’s Archive? Link I don’t have a problem using this for out of print stuff and stuff that Amazon Australia AND Goodreads has blocked for Australia. Also anything that’s too bloody expensive and I can’t find it secondhand.

      • melbaboutown
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        24 days ago

        Ooh, ty! I don’t think this particular book is out of copyright yet though (borrowed a copy from the library) so I hope this site doesn’t get in strife…

        Oops. It looks to be a torrent site and I don’t have a vpn 😳

        Edit: As much as I hate to use Amazon I managed to find a used copy in England for $30 with $5 delivery, I jumped on it because I think it’s the best I’m gonna get.

        • Thornburywitch
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          24 days ago

          There’s a non-torrent option for ‘slow connections’ that I’ve been using, with few problems so far. Only problem if you could call it that is downloading items that are pdf files - takes a while and is more of a pain to read on desktop kindle. The epubs are easily readable on kindle.

          • melbaboutown
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            24 days ago

            I’m worried about the legal side. I agree with torrenting in theory to archive stuff that would otherwise be lost, and the probability is low, but I can’t afford to risk any hassles