Here are the contributions of fountain pen stories for November 2015. Stories have been edited slightly for language and coherence.
The Rise And Decline Of An Addiction – Eli, Singapore
My addiction with stationery began back when I was in secondary school. My favourite pastime while out accompanying my mum at shopping malls was to go straight to the closest stationery store to check out what new marvels they have imported in from japan that month. I started hoarding gel pens, to the point my mother remarked that ‘I don’t see your grades getting better despite that many pens’.
Fast forward to yet another day of staring at mosquitoes flying about in bunk during my time in the Army I decided I would get back to journaling. This is not something new to me, but I never managed to muster enough discipline to maintain it for more than a few months. I got hold of a suitable journal, but out of curiosity decided to do some research on fountain pens. One search led to another and I took possession of a brand new Lamy Safari Demonstrator pen a few weeks later. Like most budding FP addicts, I decided that I needed some bottled ink, and chanced upon the Fountain Pen Network and Goulet pens. I have since fallen very very very far down the slippery slope. Just last year I found a good deal and acquired my ‘grail pen’, a burgundy MB 146, as well as a Nakaya during a trip to Tokyo, prompting some questions about my own sanity.
What does the future hold? I am not entirely sure myself. I am at the stage where I am aggressively downsizing my pen and ink collection in light of my impending graduation. My future profession involves much reading and writing, but because of the large amount of information I need to process it is not very feasible to tackle tasks by paper and pen. While I still derive much joy from the act of writing, perhaps it will be confined to my private life, where concerns about ‘good paper that does not feather’ and ‘ink that does not bleed through’ do not distract me from the task at hand.
Movie Characters Led Me Into Fountain Pens
I was impressed with Leopold’s handwriting on an apology-cum-invitation card in the movie “Kate and Leopold” starring Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan. Naively, l thought fountain pens could do the trick. Luckily a good old Englishman corrected my perspective that l should use a flexible nib fountain pen instead. — SC, Singapore
I noticed that my dad had a pen that looked just like the type that Tom and Jerry used to spray ink at each other with. I asked him to tell me more about it, and the rest is history. — Colin, Singapore
Harry Potter “poisoned” me with the quill… I got interested in the nib. That was about 4 years back. I got my first fountain pen only this year, after which I “poisoned” SIX other friends into the fountain pen world too! — Xinlin, Singapore
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Have you got a story to share, too? Write to me at maybelline@onfountainpens.com and share with me about it! A nice picture to accompany would be a great bonus! Some ideas of stories you could share about:
- Your most memorable fountain pen
- What you’re targeting to get next, and why
- How you started on fountain pens
- Accidents that happened with fountain pens
- How you “poisoned” others to use fountain pens too
I hope you’re enjoying reading these stories so far!
I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.
