They were looking for artists who had experience using Ecoline, a type of coloured ink, to give feedback. I asked if there was anything in it for the artists and they invited me to their factory in Apeldoorn, in the original location where it's been since 1899! :D

It was like Willy Wonka for artists; since they also produce other art supplies like acrylics and water-soluble oils under other brand names, they had so much stuff! And a surprising amount of products are still being made or finished by hand! Like the large India ink bottles are filled and capped by hand! Only 20% of what they produce is sold inside the Netherlands, so if you have a large bottle of Talens India ink elsewhere in the world, it might have been filled and capped by a Dutch guy :3
After our interviews (there were 3 other artists) we got to try some new prototypes for their relaunch of Ecoline too! I don't think I can say much about it, but if what I saw was any indication of what will be on the shelves of art supply stores in a while, I'm definitely going to be using more Ecoline in the future!

Lots of exclamation marks because I am still excited the day after! :D

It might seem like a silly thing to be excited about, but I love art supplies; my heart beats faster when I enter an art supply store, a hardware store or even a thrift store because they might have something I can use to make something spiffy! I love experimenting and playing with art supplies, and I can talk about it for hours.
Sadly I don't know many other people with the same passion and I often get shut down when I start raving, so to be invited to talk to someone and maybe influence the future of the supplies I love so much is crazy exciting for me!
I've had the chance before; I posted a review of my experiences with Paperblanks products as sketchbooks and they contacted me, asking if they could send me some paper to try and share my opinion on. Then they paid me in sketchbooks :3

I'd love to visit them sometime, but Canada is a little further away from where I live than Apeldoorn is. We live in hope! :D