Click, click! Pilot introduces annually some new designs for their Capless retractable fountain pen, and this year they have just unveiled 3 new designs. Two of them are the Kasuri designs as seen above, in green and red. Kasuri refers to fabric that has been woven with dyed fibres that create specific patterns and motifs in the fabric, particularly in the 18th century. The two Pilot Capless Kasuri pens show a simple repeating pattern that is not too flashy, and is subtle enough for everyday use. I wonder why they chose these two colours – might there be some link to the Chinese traditional “red for male, green for female” symbolism? The Pilot Capless Kasuri pens have nibs that come in fine, medium and broad sizes, and are 18K rhodium plated, along with the trims of the pen. In addition, Pilot has also introduced a less traditional-looking, and more modern variant which is the Pilot Capless Midnight Blue. This pen boasts a striking blue colour, with matte black trims which fit the description of being a “Midnight Blue”. This pen looks a little more masculine and might attract those who enjoy a contemporary and sleek-looking pen. The blue barrel has a […]
Read More
Another #pendelight post this week, this time it is about the Danitrio YOK-3 Jurojin fountain pen. I was recommended by Arthur (House of Pens) to take pictures of this wonderful looking pen, the Danitrio YOK-3 Jurojin fountain pen of their Kyokuchi (Zenith) Collection. I have a personal problem where I tend to only look at pens especially when they are exceptionally intricate-looking, and feel wowed by them, and forget to take pictures to share here on my blog. Not so anymore, and you’ll probably get a chance to see more beautiful pens in future posts to come! The Danitrio YOK pens are made using Japanese ebonite for the cap and body, with 18K gold nibs (#50 size, which is huge). In contrast to the body of the pen, the nib is rather plain-looking. I suppose it is to draw attention away from the nib and towards the masterpieces that are hand-painted onto the pen body instead. “Yokozuna” in Japanese Sumo wrestling refers to the highest rank a Sumo wrestler can achieve. For fountain pens, it refers to the huge pens that Danitrio produces, each with a lot of space for the maki-e artists to work on to implement their art […]
Read More
It’s been a long time since I last posted up a #pendelight. I was delighted that Fook Hing Trading Co. let me take photos of this gorgeous pen, the Montblanc Writers Edition featuring Leo Tolstoy. Just a note, though, that I did not write in the picture above, but this pen photographed above is the Leo Tolstoy 1868 fountain pen, which is different from the regular Writers Edition Leo Tolstoy. Why 1868 The most famous book that Leo Tolstoy wrote was “War and Peace”, and 1868 marks the year that the first edition of the book was published. Some Similarities And Differences Both pens have similarities, having the centre section of the barrel designed with an special uneven texture, but the non-1868 version is silver-plated while the 1868 version is gold-plated. The cap of the non-1868 version is made of precious dark grey resin with platinum-plated fittings, while the 1868 version has a blue lacquered cap with guilloche patterns that reminds us of the aristocracy in Russia. At the end of the barrel, there is a wooden cone attached to represent the trees among which Tolstoy requested to be buried. The wooden cone tells the story of his beloved estate, Yasnaya Polyana, […]
Read More
I spotted this beauty of a pen the other day and decided to set up a #pendelight article on it. This is the Caran d’Ache Year of the Goat Limited Edition fountain pen, which I should have talked about during the Chinese New Year, but did not get a chance to. The pen is designed for the Year of the Goat, which is the 7th animal in the Chinese zodiac sign, and also the sign representing this year. Those of you who like (or were born in) the Goat Year, and like Caran d’Ache, you are in for a treat with this pen! On the pen barrel, you see the outline of a goat being carved onto it. The metallic material inside the carvings is rhodium-plated. It gives off a lively and vibrant feel to the pen. There are also carvings on the section, which I thought was interesting as sections are not often places penmakers would put an artwork on. Caran d’Ache is a Swiss pen brand from Geneva, Switzerland, so you see the words “Swiss made” engraved on the trim. This pen also makes use of black Chinese lacquer for the body. We often hear of Japanese […]
Read More
This year is a milestone year for Singapore. 2015 marks the 50th birthday of Singapore ever since it became independent in 1965. Over 50 years, the country/island/city has evolved at top speed from a developing nation to a first-world country today! Since the Golden Jubilee is an important event, a nationwide celebration effort has taken place, known as SG50. To join in this effort, Staedtler has launched the SG50 Flora and Fauna Limited Edition fountain pen on 6 June 2015. I was at Fook Hing Trading Co. right on this very date and had the chance to experience the pen for myself! This pen is based on the Intium Corum Urbes range of premium writing instruments by Staedtler. The first thing you’ll notice is the colourful design on the barrel of the fountain pen. The barrel has a roll of fine quality cowhide leather around it, with the design of a bird and a flower on it. The bird is known as the Crimson Sunbird, the unofficial national bird of Singapore. I have never seen this bird myself in real life, but seeing it in pictures, I can tell it looks really pretty! The flower is Singapore national flower, a […]
Read More
Being a blogger is being lucky sometimes, especially when you meet people who willingly lend you their pens to blog about! SH Wong has kindly lent me his TWSBI Vac 700 to play with, and I’ve decided to write a #pendelight article on it. The TWSBI Vac 700 is a large and long pen. TWSBI has been making faceted pens since their Diamond range which I have reviewed here before. The Vac 700 has a cylindrical barrel, though. The cap has diamond-shaped facets running the length of it, and the plunger knob at the back has triangular shaped facets in a decagon. As the name of the pen suggests, it is a vacuum filler which makes use of air suction to draw ink up into the pen. There is a knob at the end of the pen that you can unscrew to pull up the plunger inside. The plunger slides up smoothly, but when closing it, the cylindrical internal part opens up into a wider chamber, so the plunger snaps through it as you push the knob. While the TWSBI Vac 700 generally has glossy metallic trims around the pen, the clip stands out in that the metal is […]
Read More
I recently met a fountain pen buddy during a dinner gathering for fountain pen lovers over the Chinese New Year. I knew he owns some beautiful limited edition fountain pens and found out that he owns a couple of Montblancs. Requesting to have a look at his pen pouch, which was a nice black leather case with two pen slots, I found the delightful-looking Montblanc George Bernard Shaw inside! I didn’t manage to find a white background to place the pen on while taking this photograph, so we’ll have to make do with this view for now. The black background does not complement the pen design well. But you can still see the green marbled pen barrel interspersed with rings of metal. What a beauty! George Bernard Shaw was an Irish writer who has contributed literature of various forms, such as plays, novels, essays and critiques. One of his most notable works is Pygmalion, the story of Eliza Doolittle, which may be better known in popular culture as My Fair Lady. This fountain pen was designed with Pygmalion in mind, representing the development of Eliza Doolittle from a poor flower girl into a well-refined lady. This development is portrayed on the pen design as […]
Read More
If you have been even a tiny bit engaged on social media, you would most likely have heard of the latest hype about a black and blue dress that looked like white and gold to some others. If you haven’t, you can read about it here. In case you wanted to know, I saw it first as light blue and brown, but as i looked multiple times, it got more and more undoubtedly black and blue. Maybe you don’t care, but… I went to browse around at Fook Hing to look for black-and-blue and white-and-gold fountain pens. I wondered how these pens would look in these colours. I realised it wasn’t too easy to find a pen that is really black and blue in colour. Most of those on display were blue marbled with white, or all-blue. But I finally found one, and a “matching” white-and-gold pen as well: On the top we have the Pelikan M800 which Prem has reviewed right here, followed by the Aurora Optima. Both pens have gold trims. For the Pelikan M800, this is a classic pen of the Pelikan brand, the smaller sized version of the flagship M1000. For the Aurora, the Optima has been […]
Read More
Today’s #pendelight is the Omas FPC Limited Edition fountain pen, a pen with significant meaning, and a beautiful sight to behold. I spotted it while browsing pens – a silver sliver of visual delight in the display cabinet. The Omas FPC was launched in the year 2008, the same year that the worldwide total of personal computers has reached one billion. You can read about the news here on Reuters. This pen was launched to celebrate this milestone. Crafted in treated aluminium, the pen body is silver-coloured and has a smooth feel. It is a limited edition pen and there were 1008 pieces of fountain pens made, with 1000 rollerball pens, making up a total of 2008 pieces – the same number as the milestone year for personal computers. On the body, there are guilloché engravings. Guilloché is a technique where precise and intricated patterns are engraved onto a material. These patterns tend to be repetitive. According to Omas, the two front sides give a detail of the design of the first hard disk made in 1956; the clip affixed to these sides represents a stylized form of an abacus used in 1200 AD. The third side shows a detail […]
Read More
This is a Cross Townsend Garnet fountain pen. Cross is a fountain pen brand by the A.T. Cross Company, and originates from the US, where it is probably one of the first companies making fine writing instruments in the country. Although it also makes other products, it is most well-known for its writing instruments. Did you know that Cross has acquired Sheaffer last year from Bic? Now, I wonder what’s going to change between the two brands… Fortunately I have managed to celebrate Sheaffer’s Centennial when it was still Sheaffer (even though under Bic). Now let’s see what synergy the two fountain pen brands can come up with in the years to come! The Cross Townsend range of pens has a variety of design and colours, but Garnet seems to be one of the discontinued colours as one cannot find it on the Cross website anymore. So I feel I am pretty lucky to be able to have a look at one before it is even going to be snatched up by another customer! This pen is delightful to me mainly because of the colour. I tend to be attracted to red-blue-purple-orange colours easily, and this garnet colour of the Cross Townsend […]
Read More
