Jim Woodring's giant dip pen project

Woodringpennn

Boing Boing fave cartoonist/fine artist Jim Woodring wants to make a massive giant steel dip pen and penholder. If you're not familiar with Jim's work, I highly recommend The Book of Jim, Seeing Things, and his latest, Weathercraft. I have an original drawing by Jim hanging in my office and just one glance triggers an instantaneous dream state. The idea of him wielding a massive dip pen is delightful and strange, just like his art. Please help Jim raise the funds to make the instrument. From ProjectSite:

 2005-Mar Current Images Jw Jimwoodring 3
The dip pen is a bit of fetish item for me (as it is for many pen users). The pen is extremely difficult to master but ultimately allows for an extraordinary degree of expression. The well-constructed pen and ink drawing is a monument to perseverance, requiring tremendous patience and control. I am thrilled by the challenge of creating such drawings in public and introducing new audiences to the allure of the medium. The pen (nib) itself will be approximately 16 inches long, made of steel and fully functional. The holder will be six feet long and made of wood with a metal sleeve insert to hold the pen. Nib and holder will resemble as closely as possible the actual implements on which they are based.

Once the pen and penholder are built I will train myself to ink with it; and once I've done that, I will arrange at least two public performances in which I will use the pen to ink large graphite drawings on 3' x 5' sheets of bristol.

Jim Woodring's "Giant Steel Dip Pen and Penholder for Demonstration and Display" (Thanks, Bruce Stewart!)