Here are contributions of fountain pen stories for October 2015. Stories have been edited slightly for language and coherence. I Draw With Fountain Pens, And I Collect Pink Ones – Annie, Singapore The first time I got into contact with a fountain pen was in school. I’m studying architecture and drawing was an important part of our curriculum. Of course, drawing was done not only with pencils but also with technical pens. We had to purchase technical pens by Rotring for our drawing exercise. Rotring pens are not easy to use unlike fountain pens with customised nibs. The technical pens are basically a pointed needle where the ink flows out, and it breaks REALLY easily too. So fountain pen is really a much better alternative to obtain nice strokes for drawings. My first fountain pen was a Lamy Safari, because it was new in the market then and really affordable. It took me some time to really get used to writing and drawing with fountain pens, and now, I use them for my daily activities! So how did I develop this obsession with pink fountain pens? It started with me going to Eslite bookstore in Taiwan, where they had a promotion […]
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This is my fourth and final part of the Iroshizuku Inks And Their Meanings series of reviews, where I reviewed 6 Iroshizuku inks per part. In this last instalment, I will review the remaining 6 inks: Murasaki-shikibu, Chiku-rin, Ina-ho, Ama-iro, Take-sumi, and Shin-kai. To read about how I log my inks, click on this article. It may be helpful for you to read that to understand some of the terms and references that I make in my post below. Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu Murasaki-shikibu (紫式部) has a couple of meanings. Most call it “beauty berry” but Murasaki Shikibu is also the nickname of a famous Japanese poet/novelist from the Heian period. She was from the Imperial Court in Japan and served as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress then. In fact, when I asked my Japanese colleague about the meaning of “murasaki-shikibu”, this lady was the first to cross his mind. Other than that, the Japanese beautyberry (Callicarpa japonica) is a tree that has purple berry fruits, a plant native to Japan. Ink Characteristics This is the only purple ink in the whole Iroshizuku series, a bit of a pity because I love purple inks myself and hope that there might have been more purple options. But at times, […]
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I’M SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY in putting up this post. Finally I have picked the lucky winners to receive the prizes of the Mystery Draw this last quarter! First let’s have a look at the prizes. They are all Chinese brand pens and a notebook: I’ve gotten a few of the above pens for myself and decided to run a giveaway as they are pretty interesting. I have not tried the Hero 345 yet myself, though. Here’s my review of the Sailor fude nib pen for you to check out what fude nibs are. I’m also including a Penbbs notebook in the pack. It comes in either dotted or lined format. So the pack you will receive looks like this: Now… for the winners! There will be two such packs available and they will go to: a*******y@gmail.com and s*****.a***@gmail.com Congratulations to the winners! I’ll be emailing you and you have one week to reply to this post to acknowledge winning, if not I’ll give your prize away to someone else. And fret not if you didn’t win anything yet. Stay tuned for December’s OFP Mystery Draw for your chance to win stuff! For those of you who are clueless […]
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This is the third instalment of my Iroshizuku ink review series, where I talk about Iroshizuku inks and their meanings, and also observe their characteristics. Here I will review Fuyu-gaki, Kiri-same, Fuyu-syogun, Tsukushi, Yama-guri, and Kosumosu. For a brief on how I log my inks, read this article. It may be helpful for you to understand some of the terms and references that I make in my post below. Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki Fuyu-gaki (冬柿) translates to “winter persimmon”, which is an orange fruit that can be found worldwide, but mostly in China, Japan, and Korea. These fruits turn ripe and are ready for harvest in autumn, and most of the persimmons that are available at the end of the year are of the fuyugaki type, with softer and juicier flesh (as opposed to the jirogaki, which has a harder and crunchier flesh). Ink Characteristics As expected from the name, the ink is a bright orange colour, the colour of fresh, ripe persimmons. It’s a very attractive orange, especially when the first layer of ink is swabbed on the paper. Interestingly, when the second layer of ink was laid down (refer to the top half of the swab area), the colour turns into a duller […]
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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 […]
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Welcome to Part 2 of my Iroshizuku Ink review series. This time I will be looking at Shin-ryoku, Tsuki-yo, Yu-yake, Yama-budo, Ku-jaku, and Syo-ro. For a brief of how I do my ink logging, have a look at my write-up here. It may help to understand some of the references I make and the terms I use. Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku Shin-ryoku (深緑) means “dark green”. I can’t find a direct reference to a part of the Japanese culture from the name of this ink, although I noticed that some online sources mention this as a “forest green”. I have also found out that a certain type of Japanese green tea is called “Sencha Shinryoku”. It may be related, or not. Ink Characteristics Looking at this green ink, it feels to me like a very solid, typical green colour. I would call it a primary green. I tend not to like greens very much, and this is a less interesting green to me. This ink is quite a saturated and wet ink, but some sheen can be observed while writing. It doesn’t do well with water resistance, but you can see it either ways – the yellow parts of the ink […]
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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, […]
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Pilot has launched their Iroshizuku range of fountain pen inks for some time now, and it is a very popular range among fountain pen enthusiasts and collectors of inks. Following the success of their 50mL glass bottled Iroshizuku inks, Pilot has recently launched the Mini Iroshizuku inks that come 3 in a set. Each mini glass bottle contains 15mL of an ink, and you can mix and match your preferred colours for each set. I decided to dive in and let myself be tempted by the inks, as I had held back from buying them long enough to jump onto the opportunity to buy all 24 colours when the Mini Iroshizuku inks came out. I didn’t need 24 bottles x 50mL of inks, as I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to finish them all! So when the 15mL were out, it was perfect for me. All 24 bottles fit into a little box which I tucked away nicely in my cabinet. Iroshizuku inks are named in Japanese, so while I found it exotic and attractive, it was really quite difficult to remember. I haven’t found a way to remember the ink names yet, but I have decided to take […]
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I’m trying out this new series where I share a couple of fountain pen stories from readers, friends, and fellow fountain pen enthusiasts, in the middle of each month. Let’s see how it goes. Here are the stories for September 2015. Stories have been edited slightly for coherence and language: My Grandfather Led Me Into The World Of Vintage Pens – Roy, Singapore I had always wanted to try or see this mysterious pen which wrote with a nib. Remembering that people used fountain pens in the past, I decided to ask my grandfather if he had any fountain pens. He went to dig around, and came back with a grey/green pen with a gold cap. It had a hooded nib, so I was surprised when I first saw it. I was wondering how on earth the pen worked. He passed me a huge bottle of Parker Quink ink, and I pressed the sac to see if ink would go in, and it did! After I brought it home I thought that was it, and I left it in a corner because I was busy with work. A week later I decided to Google and find out more about the pen, which stated “Parker […]
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Everyone does ink logging in different ways. I have come across a variety of interesting ways that people record their inks. Some techniques may be good representations of ink being laid down on paper when writing with a fountain pen, some may not. For me, my method is not perfect, but I like it anyway. Here’s sharing with you the procedure by which I log my inks. Materials used: Memo word cards, 90mm x 38mm Round paper stickers (Sun Flower Brand Labels, #1013) Cotton swabs Kitchen towel, cut to desired size (mine is about 25mm x 50mm) Plastic dropper/pipette (for inks and water) Inks (here I am using the Rohrer & Klingner Viridian Green) Water Dip nib holder and dip nib (I use a WM Mitchell Pedigree Fleetwing #0528) The Process Step 1: Dip the cotton swab into the ink and let it soak for 5 seconds or so. This is to ensure that the cotton is well saturated with ink. If you do not soak it well enough, the swab may turn out paler than what it’s supposed to be. Step 2: Perform your swabbing on the word card. I do it from left to right and trying not […]
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