“Do you have any left-handed fountain pens?” I want to say, go fish. I want to say, do you have any left-handed sunglasses, any left-handed smartphones, any left-handed automobiles? Such things may exist, but aren’t necessary. So it is with the left-handed fountain pen. They exist, much in the same way the rusty, raggedy, probably tetanus-infested left-handed scissors existed in the first grade. It exists, but why would you want to use it? There are two components to a pen that might make it left-handed. Number one: the grip. Shaped grips for left- and right-handed use are very popular…on pens for children. Or adults who have no idea how to hold a pen. If your left-handed friend likes bright, fun colors or has expressed interest specifically in a grip shaped for left-handed use, then buy away. Otherwise, pass on this often gimmicky left-handed feature. The second left-handable feature: the nib. This is more pointless than the shaped grip; it makes the undoubtedly right-handed presumption that all lefties write in exactly the same perverse and monstrous fashion, such that a special nib is required to overcome this malignancy and successfully convey ink onto paper for all left-handed persons. Not only is […]
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Don’t get me wrong. If you did buy me a fountain pen, we would be lifelong friends you and I. My appreciation would know no bounds. Not being a pen person yourself, you tried so hard to understand what I like. What my passions are. You came up with the fantastic idea to give me a gift I would absolutely love. For that I cannot fault you, nor your wonderful intentions. The fountain pen itself? Highly likely to be another matter entirely. You? I love. The gift? Perhaps not so. I so don’t want to disappoint you, and if you were to ask whether I like it, I might say it’s a nice pen; I may even say I’ve been using it at work today and it’s been great. On the slight chance you have managed to somehow pick the right combination of looks, size, weight, balance, nib size/style and an infinite number of other intangible factors then yes, I would truly love it. Unfortunately, without specific instruction on the pen I have chosen as my next, that is unlikely to happen. The problem? Mine dear friend, not yours. Problem? What problem? If someone you know is into pens. No […]
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I have long lusted after a Namiki Falcon. What lured me to this Japanese pen was the promise of a flexible nib attached to a modern writing instrument whose name combined the allure of Japan with the elegance and speed of a bird of prey. I knew that the Day of the Falcon has come when on a visit to the Fountain Pen Hospital in Manhattan I saw a Namiki peering out of a glass cabinet. The visit almost coincided with a significant birthday so it didn’t take me too long to become a proud owner of a Namiki Falcon. The Namiki Falcon is not a fancy pen. With its polished jet black resin body and gold trim Namiki has a conservative design its only decoration being the chain link detail with Namiki Japan engraved on the cap band. The gold clip is modern and simple and the flat cap and shiny gold bands give the pen an understated elegance. It also feels quite light. Namiki is not a hefty pen so not one for those who like their writing instruments to possess some weight or a wide girth. Uncap the pen and the Falcon’s hooded nib is revealed. It […]
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I’ll start off my guest post by thanking Maybelline for having me as a guest. My name is Sandra Strait. I’m a self-taught artist, who enjoys sharing her passions, and I’m here to share my thoughts about fountain pens and mark making. In almost all aspects of art, you hear about mark making. Quite simply, that’s the act of making a mark with any particular medium. Anything from a stick scraped across the ground, beautiful oils spread across a canvas or, in the case of this discussion, lines and color created by putting ink on paper with a fountain pen. I seldom write, because I get caught up in feel of the mark-making and my spelling and syntax suffer. Instead, I prefer to doodle or draw or actually paint with a fountain pen. Sometimes, I use them to make lines, swirls and patterns as I did with this Zentangle® inspired piece, done with an FPR Dilli fountain pen (review) fine nib using Diamine Chocolate Brown ink in a Rhodia DotGrid WebNotebook. Other times I go full color with a variety of pens, as I did with this piece on a sheet of Clairefontaine DotGrid GraF it (review) paper. I used J. Herbin Inks […]
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I met Maybelline at a Sheaffer event where I was talking about using fountain pens for drawing. So I thought maybe I’ll write about the same topic. I use a variety of pens for drawing, mostly technical pens and fountain pens, and to a lesser extent, ballpoint pens. Technical pens are my favourites because I like the uniform strokes they produce. And for that reason, I also prefer fountain pens that produce uniform strokes. The sketch above was drawn with the Faber Castell Ambition (review). However, there are also fountain pens that are capable of producing more than uniform strokes. The advantage fountain pens have over other pens is the ability to choose your own inks and nibs. And with different inks and nibs, you can get different effects. Here are the points to take note of when choosing the fountain pen, nib or ink for drawing. Nibs The standard fine, medium and broad nibs are going to produce uniform strokes. They are great for technical works where details are required. In addition to the standard nibs, there are also the specialty nibs such as the fude, music, calligraphy, flex, falcon, zoom, Spencerian and many more, some of which you can see […]
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At this time of year the cultural narrative centers on gifts—with the focus on the gifts we buy. While I enjoy those kinds of gifts as well as anyone, I’m cognizant that they are not the only kind of gift. Indeed other kinds of gifts can bring surprising joy. Sometimes the simplest written message can be significant– I’ve had just that kind of experience lately and it’s gotten me thinking. In the last two years three elders in my family have passed away. They were all in their 90s—with long memories full of family stories. I inherited many boxes of memorabilia which contained, it turns out, some intriguing writings and drawings. I came across one little chapbook my grandfather wrote to celebrate Christmas in 1920. In it, he wrote poems and stories to describe my grandmother at the piano, playing and singing and their happiness with their little baby, my mother. What a gift to find these stories and drawings now—this first Christmas without my mom! What a comfort to know that she was so loved within a happy family. I was reminded that as a child, seeing my grandfather’s writings, inspired me to learn penmanship. So he is to […]
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Before the first day of Christmas, my fountain pen came to me: 12 bloggers on OFP. Merry Christmas Eve, dear readers! I know I haven’t been blogging very consistently over the last 2 weeks, and there are a number of reasons involved. One is that I have been ill for a week (yes, again. Grr…). Another is that I have been trying to work on getting more awesome stuff for this blog. I’m still working on it, and meanwhile, I have put together something exciting for all of you this holiday season: 12 days of Christmas with fountain pen bloggers! As you may know, the first day of Christmas starts on Christmas day itself, the 25th of December. It then runs all the way to the 5th of January, being the 12th day of Christmas. Starting tomorrow, we will have one fountain pen blogger a day, guest posting here on topics related to fountain pens and writing. I’ve already received some of their posts, and I’m pretty sure you’re going to enjoy it. Are you as excited as I am? Stay tuned! First post starts tomorrow!
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Congratulations to Devvy and Ning for winning the J. Herbin Scented Inks! The winning entries are both from leaving a comment on my blog post. You will both get one set of the inks each. Time to send out some perfumed letters or cards for Christmas! All you need to do is to: 1) Comment on this blog post to acknowledge winning 2) Reply to my email so that I can have your mailing address to mail the inks to you 3) Do both of the above by Sunday, 21 Dec 2014, in order to fully qualify winning the inks! Thank you, Fook Hing Trading Co., once again for sponsoring this giveaway. For those of you who did not manage to win but are keen on getting the inks, you can head down to Fook Hing Trading Co. if you are in Singapore, or you can contact your local J. Herbin retailer, or buy it from Amazon. Read my review of the inks again here.
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SFPL stands for the “Singapore Fountain Pen Lovers”, and we are really a bunch of fun and cool fountain pen enthusiasts indeed! If you had been following my Twitter account, you may have noticed that I posted a tweet about the pen meet that was going to happen on 7 December 2014. Well, the meet turned out awesome, and we had so many more people than expected! Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure: When we had to confirm the booking of the room, responses had been slow, and we booked a room that could fit about 40 people. In the end, about 60 or so people actually turned up! Yes, many of them had no chairs, and I feel apologetic as the room was indeed a little cramped and just full of people everywhere. Everyone seemed really happy and engrossed in talking about their pens, inks and accessories. The room was bursting, not only with people, but also with all the chatter and energy! Despite the gloomy weather and rain outside, everyone seemed cheerful. Now for the items. We had Renover Life Notebooks as the door gifts in 3 different colours and styles (grid, ruled, and blank). The […]
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About a month ago I was browsing pens from Straits Pen when Sunny (owner) decided to let me choose an Ohto pen that he would sponsor me to play with and review on my blog. Ohto has never been a brand that I usually take note of, and although I already had an Ohto Rook which a friend had given to me before, I have never gotten down to reviewing it. Well, it’s good that Sunny pointed this pen out to me, because this is giving me a chance to show you how adorable it is! Just a disclaimer, all opinions in this review are my own, but I do have a personal bias towards favouring small, pretty pens… 😛 The Ohto Poche comes in 4 different designs, namely the Diamond, Zebra, Leopard, and Arabesque. Out of the designs that were available, I chose the Arabesque, because I was really attracted by the swirly design on the metallic body. The Ohto Poche Arabesque combines exotic traditional patterns on a modern-looking aluminium body without looking awkward or mismatched! When I checked Wikipedia about Arabesque art, it gave me two entries, one being European Arabesque and the other being Islamic Arabesque. I’m not sure which kind […]
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