I continue the series on the most important tools artists use to create their work…

"For years I used yellow legal pads because the pad’s flat surface is easy for left-handers. This year I’ve switched to a notebook, college-ruled with thick black binding from Michael Roger Press, Inc. (www.mrrogerspress.com) from a shop called Stevdan on 6th Avenue downtown (NYC)."

Daniel Nester | God Save My Queen | Soft Skull Press |Editor, UES | http://www.unpleasanteventschedule.com

"Every week in my third-grade classroom, the student with the best (i.e., most Kittle-like) handwriting received the privilege of one week’s use of the Penmanship Pencil — the first mechanical pencil I’d ever seen. However much I coveted it, though, I never won it, not even once. Years later I discovered that the particular model is called the Scripto Classic, and that I could simply buy one, even without Mrs. Rickman’s official sanction. But buy it I did, and now my words are perfectly aligned, my loops uniform, my descenders gracefully turned."
Mike Fleming, writer, http://www.dutchgirl.com/foxpaws