Speedball (art products)
Encyclopedia
Speedball is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 company that manufactures art materials and other stationery
Stationery
Stationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials: paper and office supplies, writing implements, greeting cards, glue, pencil case etc.-History of stationery:...

 items. The company, first famous by its dip pen
Dip pen
A dip pen or nib pen usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted on a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and plastic, while some pens are made entirely of glass...

s, has expanded its range of products to other art areas such us painting, sculpture and printing press.

History

In 1899 C. Howard Hunt formed his own company and established it in Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...

. The "Speedball" pen was developed and patented by sign letterer Ross F. George of Seattle. This pen had a square-tipped pen could make broad and thin lines. George took the patent to the C. Howard Hunt Pen Company in 1915.

A new chapter to the history of Speedball began November 14, 1997 when CEO Walt Glazer led a buyout of the Speedball division during Hunt Corporation’s restructuring. Subsequently, Hunt pens are currently commercialized under the "Speedball" brand.

Products

The following is a list with the Speedball’s and other brands products commercialize by the firm:

Brand/s Products
Speedball Screen Printing, Block Printing
Linocut
Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised areas representing a reversal of the parts to show printed...

, Acrylic
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...

s, Mediums, Calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...

 Nibs, Ink
Ink
Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

s, pen holders, ceramic glaze
Ceramic glaze
Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...

s, pottery tools and accessories, Pallete
Palette (painting)
A palette , in the original sense of the word, is a rigid, flat surface on which a painter arranges and mixes paints. A palette is usually made of wood, plastic, ceramic, or other hard, inert, nonporous material, and can vary greatly in size and shape...

s, Glass Markers, Empty Containers
Artista Pottery wheels
Athena Brush
Brush
A brush is a tool with bristles, wire or other filaments, used for cleaning, grooming hair, make up, painting, surface finishing and for many other purposes. It is one of the most basic and versatile tools known to mankind, and the average household may contain several dozen varieties...

es
Bienfang Paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

s, Young Artist Paper line
Boss Pottery wheels
Elegant Writers Marker
Marker
Marker may refer to:* Marker , a morpheme that indicates some grammatical function* Marker , a special-purpose computer* A set of sewing patterns tightly arranged within a rectangle that is placed over cloth to be cut...

s
Mona Lisa metal leaf
Metal leaf
Metal leaf, also called composition leaf or schlagmetal, is a thin foil used for decoration. Metal leaf can come in many different shades. Some metal leaf may look like gold leaf but not contain any real gold...

, Adhesive
Adhesive
An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

s, Sealant
Sealant
A sealant may be viscous material that has little or no flow characteristics and stay where they are applied or thin and runny so as to allow it to penetrate the substrate by means of capillary reaction...

s, Paint thinner
Paint thinner
A paint thinner is a solvent used to thin oil-based paints or clean up after their use, although all such solvents have other uses. Commercially, "paint thinner" is usually a name for mineral spirits.Products used as paint thinners include:*Mineral spirits...

, Brush Cleaners, art boards
Printmaster woodblock printing
Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper....

 Inks, Printing Press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

es
Pink Soap Brush Cleaner and Conditioner



Speedball makes nibs for dip pens in a variety of sizes. The sizes for their C-series flat-tipped pens (such as for Italic writing) are given below:
Nib size Width of nib
C-0 5mm
C-1 4mm
C-2 3mm
C-3 2mm
C-4 1.5mm
C-5 1mm
C-6 0.5mm

Artists

Speedball and Hunt pens have been widely used by a legion of comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 artists to ink their pages. Hunt pens were the choice of Walt Simonson
Walt Simonson
Walter "Walt" Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist. After studying geology at Amherst College, he transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1972. His thesis project there was The Star Slammers, which was published as a black and white promotional comic book...

, Dale Keown
Dale Keown
Dale Keown is a Canadian comic book artist from Grande Prairie, Alberta who currently resides in Toronto.-Career:Keown started working in comics in 1986 drawing several series for Aircel Comics, including Samurai, Elflord, Dragon Ring , and Warlock 5.Keown moved to Marvel Comics in 1989, where he...

, Bob McLeod
Bob McLeod
Robert William McLeod was an Australian cricketer who played in 6 Tests 1892-93. His brother, Charlie, also played cricket for Australia.-Biography:McLeod was born in Port Melbourne, Victoria....

, Kevin Nowlan
Kevin Nowlan
Kevin Nowlan is an American comic-book artist who works as penciler, inker, colorist and letterer.He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic production, from "design to draftsmanship to dramatics".-Biography:Kevin...

, Bill Sienkiewicz
Bill Sienkiewicz
Boleslav Felix Robert "Bill" Sienkiewicz [pronounced sin-KEV-itch] is an Eisner Award-winning American artist and writer best known for his comic book work, primarily for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin...

, Joe Sinnott
Joe Sinnott
Joe Sinnott is an American comic book artist. Working primarily as an inker, Sinnott is best-known for his long stint on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, from 1965 to 1981 , initially over the pencils of industry legend Jack Kirby...

 and Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning is a British comic book writer and inker, known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and for his collaboration with Dan Abnett.-Career:Lanning works primarily at Marvel Comics and DC Comics as an inker...

 (#102 model), George Pérez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...

 (#100), Mike DeCarlo (#103), Drew Geraci (#22), and Joe Rubinstein (#100, 103) . Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...

 used a Speedball A-5 or B-6 for lettering the dialogues although he was an Esterbrook
Esterbrook
Richard Esterbrook was the largest pen manufacturer in United States, having reached a record of producing 216,000,000 pens a year. -The beginning:...

enthusiastic.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK