Old art supplies being dragged out from retirement. These are Blending Stumps and Tortillions, used to smear and blend graphite, pastel and charcoal. The stumps and tortillions are both made from rolled felt paper. The stumps are double-ended and the tortillions are single ended. I never noticed until now, but it looks to me as though they are mostly made in China.

I’m thinking about making a really large painting or drawing of these. Hey, why not?

I think the idea here is that the relaxamat is meant to replicate the experience, in a far more benign and less scary manner, of the traditional bed of nails. Regardless, I think it has tremendous graphic appeal.

I don’t know where to begin. So, what I will say is that I have fallen particularly hard for Present & Correct and their corresponding blog. The store has an abundance of quirky office ephemera, both old and new. And the blog is a virtual treasure trove of images. Many that I have not seen before. No easy feat in this era of ubiquity. These items are but a teeny example of what’s in the shop. Those numbered tags and pins are the best things I’ve seen in awhile. All photos from Present & Correct.

I read the obituaries in the NYT every day. And I know I’m not alone. I take heart when those, to whom tribute is paid, were at least over 90 when they died. And I find even deeper inspiration from those who were still working away at something they loved. One of the best obituaries I ever read was for a blacksmith by the name of Francis Whitaker. He worked almost right up to the end and, miraculously, grasped a hammer on his deathbed. Today’s obits required two full pages. Never good. Some names held meaning for me in a distant way. Others I had never heard of. Larry Stevenson is one of the latter. I learned that in the Southern California of the early 1960s, he went from lifeguard to successful and innovative skateboard designer in the most linear of careers. He began building surfboard-like skateboards, but by 1969 he introduced a new design that incorporated a “kicktail”: that singular modification to the standard surfboard shape that allowed skateboarders to embark on those crazy airborne tricks that demarcate the skateboarding style that we see today. To his credit, he patented both the single and double kicktail. RIP Mr. Stevenson. Photos courtesy of Lion City Skaters.