GOTHIC ARCHES-"Inventors"

This week's Gothic Arches Challenge is to make an arch featuring an inventor and to provide a little information about him or her. Although the basic fountain pen has been around for hundreds of years, it was Louis Edson Waterman who invented the capillary-feed fountain pen, which used air to help the flow of ink stay smooth and steady. In 1883, Waterman was a New York insurance broker who, when signing an important contract with a new "stylish" fountain pen he'd acquired, was dismayed and embarrassed when his pen broke and spilled ink all over the contract! He vowed to invent a better pen, worked on his idea in his brother's workshop, and subsequently obtained a patent for his design. He then sold his pens behind a cigar shop, guaranteed them for 5 years, and then was able to open a factory in Montreal in 1899. He died in 1901, but was inducted in 2006 into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

My background paper for the arch already had the large hand holding the pen and the handwriting on it; this is where I originally got the idea for my inventor. I added a vellum copy of a vintage ad, along with a vellum photo of the inventor, stamped the background with stamps from an old Stampin' Up kit I had, edged the arch with Colorbox ink, and finished up with German Scrap and some gold metal leaves (or are they feathers?) for decoration.