Shimmer home mixes + mail call

Well, the transfer over to A4 paper is basically complete, but I'm stalling.  I'm not sure why, but I've got this major fear about offering A4 sets on etsy.  I've really got to get over it and let it go live, so I'll work on that next week.

In the meantime, I've been playing with some lustre dust added to ink while I wait for the new Diamine inks to show up at my doorstep.  I've had some successes and some abject failures.  What I've learned is that it takes A LOT more lustre dust than I originally thought to make an ink shimmery.

That is a mix of J.Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite and some random Sailor blue I've forgotten the name of.  I added some red plum lustre dust into the mix, and although it's darker than I had hoped, it is still fairly pretty.

Next up, some Penman Sapphire, into which I threw a ton of light blue dust and a smidgen of clear crystal dust as well.

Not bad for some first attempts!  I'll keep trying with different mixes.  I made a really interesting Sailor pink with gold shimmer.  If it's sunny next week I'll try and take some pictures.   Next up - orange with gold sparkles!  Or maybe clear ones?

Also, mail.  I've had only two incoming letters recently, but they were both lovely.

And I've already sent out replies.

I was so sad and bereft without a pen pal to write to that I trolled a site for a new one, and came across a girl in Finland that I thought I might click with.  I decided the hedgies were so cute I couldn't help but make my new pen pal a cute hedgie envelope for my initial letter.  It's nice to have a pen pal in Finland again.  Things ended not so well with my last one, who decided I was too analytic for her tastes.   <sigh!>  I actually still think about her a lot, and while I don't think we make great pen pals, I do wish her the best and miss her letters terribly.  She was great at mail art.

Well, I'm off to pick up a library book for my sci-fi university course reading list.  Catch you guys next week.  Happy letter writing!