1. Prepare a New Recipe

Open a random page of a cookbook and prepare that recipe. Cooking is a fun way to slow down, reflect, or bond with others—plus, you get to enjoy a new dish.

2. Host a Listening Party

Purchase a new album and listen to it the entire way through. Or, invite friends to bring their favorite records and take turns playing them from beginning to end.

3. Write a Love Song

Do you play an instrument? Spend part of the day writing a love song for a real or imaginary lover. Bonus points for crafting your lyrics using a Blackwing pencil.

4. Dine Out (Without Your Phones)

If you don’t feel like cooking this year, grab a table at your favorite restaurant and leave your phones at home. Enjoy your food, enjoy the conversation, and don’t worry about your notifications. If you drove, leaving phones in the car works too.

5. Do Arts and Crafts

You could paint, draw, or make Valentine’s Day cards over a bottle of wine. Hang your creations on the refrigerator for the rest of February (or until spring).

6. Go Outside

Weather permitting, get some fresh air. A hike, a jog, or a walk in the park are great ways to slow down while moving your body. Consider striking up a conversation about the nature of love along the way.

7. Stargaze

When was the last time you spent an evening looking at the stars? It’s a beautiful and romantic way to appreciate our universe. Of course, February can be chilly in some parts, so bundle up and bring hot chocolate for added warmth.

8. Read a Book… Out Loud

Take turns reading a story or a collection of poems out loud with your partner or friend group. This is a relaxing way to stimulate the imagination—and perhaps more enjoyable around a fire. Flying solo? Reading aloud can still be an effective way to slow your mind and body. Savor every word.

9. Visit a Museum or Art Gallery

Take a trip to a local museum or art gallery and immerse yourselves in culture and history. Since it’s Valentine’s Day, keep an eye out for works that appear to explore the theme of love. Then, grab desserts afterward and discuss your favorite pieces.

10. Try Out the New Blackwing Essentials Gift Sets

Finally, purchase one of our new gift sets for someone special in your life—or for you! Featuring several of our most popular products, they’re an elegant way to experience of Blackwing.

The post Slowing Down Together: 10 Creative Ways to Reconnect This Valentine’s Day appeared first on Blackwing.

Technology has made it easier than ever for people to share ideas. Yet, as our relationships with each other and the world around us have digitized, we’ve lost something profoundly important: meaningful connections. We’ve long believed that there’s something about an analog experience, a physical interaction, that’s in our DNA, and we want to help people reconnect to that aspect of their humanity.

You’re going to begin seeing a new emblem popping up on some of our products, starting with the new apparel line we launched today. The emblem is made up of a series of disconnected lines that, when viewed independently, amount to nothing more than simple, but obtuse, geometry. But, when taken together, they become much more than the sum of their parts; a tapestry of curves and corners forming a greater whole.

We hope it will become a symbol of our connectedness; as pencil users, record collectors, book lovers, and makers from different places, backgrounds, and experiences brought together by our common desire to live deliberately.

We’re calling our first apparel capsule “Blueprint.” It lays the foundation for where the Blackwing brand is going, and gives us something to build off of. In it, you’ll find designs inspired by our new emblem and the process that birthed it, and glimpse of things to come. We hope you’re as stoked about it as we are, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

The post Introducing Our New Emblem & Analog Apparel appeared first on Blackwing.

This Saturday 04/16/2016 is Record Store Day, and we’re stoked. Like pencils, records are part of the analog world where every action has an tangible, visible or audible reaction. I’ve collected records since I was a kid going to punk shows in veterans halls, but I’ve never stopped to think about the nuances of their production. So, I did a bit of digging and came up with a Cliff Notes version of record manufacturing.

History

To learn how records are made, we need to go back to the beginning. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, a cylindrical tube of tin that captured sound waves in the form of grooves and deviations in the surface of the metal. As a stylus (or needle) was drug across these deviations, the stylus vibrated, creating a faint reproduction of the recorded sound. This is analog music reproduction in its most basic form: creating deviations in the surface of a material and dragging a stylus over the deviations to produce a sound.

One of Edison’s early phonographs circa 1877.

Fast forward 130 years, and vinyl records are still being produced using a very similar system.

Master Disc / Lacquer Cutting

The first step of the manufacturing process is cutting a master disc or lacquer. This disc is physically cut by a grooving machine that receives the audio signal from the digital master audio file. This is a very hands on, artisanal process, and it takes a well-trained eye and ear to detect the nuances of the grooved audio. In fact, when we were producing our first record, we learned that there are only a handful of lacquer cutting masters still practicing their craft today.

Metal Plating

Once the lacquer is finished, it is then metal plated to create what is known as “the matrix.” Silver is was used for the initial plating, followed by a layer of copper, nickel and/or steel to provide structural support. Once the plating has hardened, the lacquer is removed (sometimes being destroyed in the process), leaving behind a metal negative of the recorded sound.

The Mother & The Stamper

This metal negative is then pressed into another piece of malleable metal to create a metal record known as “the mother.” The mother resembles the vinyl records you have on your shelf, only quite a bit thicker and heavier. This mother disc is then plated using the same techniques used previously to produce what is known as “the stamper.” Since mother discs are made of metal, they are very durable, and can be used to create multiple stampers over their lifetime.

Test Presses

With the stamper in hand, the actual record pressing begins (fun fact, record production is called “pressing” because the stamper is physically pressed into the soft vinyl to create the finished record). Before mass production begins, test presses are produced and sent to the artist/label to ensure they are pleased with the sound quality.

For many record collectors, test presses represent the holy grail of any given release. Since there are only a handful made for each album, they are incredibly rare. In our case, six test presses were made during the production of Knuckleball Prime. Once the test presses have been approved mass production can begin.

Production

At this stage of the process, the stamper is used to press the final product. Labels are applied, the vinyl is sleeved and the finished records are shipped to the label.

In honor of Record Store Day 2016, every physical copy of Knuckleball Prime sold on 04/16/2016 will be signed by Willy Tea Taylor himself, and will include a Blackwing pencil. Head over to BlackwingMusic.com to grab your autographed copy of the album.

The post Record Store Day 2016 – How A Record is Made appeared first on Blackwing.