Happy Golden Jubilee, Singapore! 9 August 2015 marked the day Singapore turns 50 ever since gaining independence in 1965. For all my fellow Singaporeans and those living in Singapore, I hope you had a blast during the Jubilee long weekend of 7-10 August! To commemorate this exhilarating year, a task force has been set up to support the year-long celebrations, and it’s called SG50. Throughout the island, one can see the SG50 red dot printed on many places, and as you all already know, on fountain pens too. Before we all get back to work and school tomorrow, let’s have a look at which SG50 fountain pens are up and running about right now, and where to get them (if you’re still able to)! Staedtler SG50 Flora and Fauna Limited Edition Fountain Pen Staedtler was the first that I’ve heard which launched an SG50 pen. It features a Crimson sunbird and the Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid, Singapore’s national flower, imprinted on cowhide leather using Staedtler’s innovative inkjet technology. Such a colourful fountain pen, but is limited to only 98 pieces in the country. Check out my #pendelight article about this pen written here. Where to get it (if it’s still […]
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What is Patreon? I first stumbled upon Patreon a few months ago and felt that it was an excellent concept. Patreon comes from the word “patron”, which in turn simply refers to a person who provides support to an individual, group, or a cause. On Patreon, you can provide support via financial aid to an artist or a creator that you like. If you’re familiar with Kickstarter, you would be able to understand this concept a little better, except where Patreon is different. Like Kickstarter, you fund a creator so that the creator is able to create a specific, usually tangible product to be sold for the amount that the public individual has pledged. The end goal is a product, and there are different tiers for different product types. Patreon has this tiered concept as well, but the end goal may not necessarily be a tangible, physical product. As a Patron, you fund to support creative works being made. OFP On Patreon Yes, of course OFP is on Patreon! The reason why I started doing this was, of course, to earn a bit of extra income, as blogging during my non-working hours is really not an easy task. After a day at my […]
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Pierre Cardin is a famous French fashion brand, and I never thought they were into stationery as well. I’ve just had the chance to use and review a Pierre Cardin fountain pen for the first time, and the pen I received was the Pierre Cardin Grand Aqua fountain pen! The pen came in a nice smooth box with the Pierre Cardin logo debossed on it. When I opened it up, I was really happy to see a beautiful white pen with rose gold trims! The pen looks very elegant with a smooth, shiny white pearl body, and it comes with a converter. The gold trims appear around the barrel, section, and on the clip area. First impressions scored many points for the pen. It was relatively lightweight, which suits it size. It is a medium-sized pen but slightly on the slimmer side. The cap is a pull-off and interestingly, snaps shut at two stops. I believe there is an inner cap which grips the pen at the first stop, and as you push it further, the cap is fully closed. Inner caps are supposed to prevent the nib from drying out – we will see how it performs later. The […]
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Hello there dear readers! Thank you so much for the support on the SG50 Online Vision Calligraphy Set. There was an overwhelming number of entries! I have not had the chance to pick the winners the last few days, but I am finally able to do so today. I bet you are all excited. The winners are: a Rafflecopter giveaway Congratulations to Sandra and Sok H.! Sandra has won for leaving a comment on this post, and Sok has won for subscribing via email to OFP. Of course, I have also verified if they have performed the mandatory action to qualify for the draw (which is to leave a comment on the original post), and they have: To the winners: I’ll be sending each of you an email on winning. Please reply me with your contact details so that I can get the gift to you. Also, leave a comment on THIS blog post to acknowledge winning. To those who didn’t win: don’t give up! There will be more giveaways on OFP in future, so do stay tuned, especially via your blog subscription, to be the first to know about latest posts, reviews, and giveaways!
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After weeks of renovation and revamping its boutique in Singapore, Faber-Castell relaunched the boutique last Friday, 24 July 2015. More than 60 guests turned up at the reopening event, and I was very honoured to be one of those invited to it! I rushed down from work to the event at Ion Orchard, and very unfortunately missed the opening speeches. I arrived in time, though, to the beating of drums and clashing of cymbals, as the lion dance troupe danced in celebration of the reopening ceremony. Lion dancing is a traditional Chinese dance, very popular among the Chinese community to celebrate special occasions, business openings, and other ceremonies. The sound was deafeningly happy. It was indeed a joyous occasion! There was a registration booth where you could drop your namecards and write well-wishes in a guestbook provided. There were also goodie bags for the attendees. On another table, a local calligrapher, Susan Lui, wowed everyone with her elegant swirly calligraphy on cards holding meaningful quotes. You could get a personalized card, for example getting your name written, in the ink of your choice. Faber-Castell inks were featured and you could choose one or more inks for the writing. Congratulatory flower stands […]
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Alright, as promised yesterday, I have an awesome giveaway for my readers today. In case you’re wondering, yes, it is the Online VISION Special Edition Calligraphy Set which has been launched to commemorate SG50, Singapore’s 50th birthday! The sets are disappearing fast, but I’ve managed to secure 2 sets to be given away, thanks to the very supportive sponsorship of Fook Hing Trading Co. The VISION Calligraphy set consists of a pen with 3 italic nibs of different sizes: 0.8mm, 1.4mm, and 1.8mm, which can be fitted onto the brilliant red body of the VISION fountain pen. The pen itself has a red barrel, the colour of the red of the Singapore flag. It is made of aluminium with a brushed surface, and on it there is a diamond-engraved map of Southeast Asia, featuring Singapore as the star of the region. The pen comes together with a chrome cap with the SG50 logo engraved on it. There is also a 15ml bottle of Rubin Red ink included – “Rubin” being the German word for “Ruby”. The ink is of a bright red hue. The packaging of the product is very attractive – in contrast to the metallic material of the pen, the […]
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If you are looking for a special and exotic nib, try out the Sailor Fude nib. A couple of years ago, I bought this pen because it really fascinated me, but due to multiple distractions, it has been cast aside and almost forgotten. Such a pity! This pen is a Sailor Profit fitted with a Fude nib. By the way, it’s pronounced more like “fuh-deh” and not really “fewd”. It is one of the more affordable, below 20 USD pens, which is a real delight for anyone who want to try one of Sailor’s exotic nibs but don’t want to detonate a bomb on the wallet. You can get it on Amazon as well. It comes in a cardboard box – don’t expect too much from the packaging department at such a low price point – but it protects the pen well. Unboxing it, you’ll get the Sailor Profit Fude pen itself, as well as 2 Sailor cartridges. Sailor cartridges are for Sailor pens only and you can’t use international cartridges in the pens. The pen is very easy to dismantle. Just unscrew the cap, unscrew the barrel, plug in a cartridge, and screw all the parts back. This nib has a […]
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Why is this nib “rare”? It’s been about a year or two since Pelikan has discontinued nibs larger than broad. In the past, they used to have special nib sizes such as oblique broad (OB), double broad (BB) and triple broad (3B). Now, they have discontinued them and are down to extra-fine (EF), fine (F), medium (M), and broad (B). Isn’t it a disadvantage for Pelikan, as there is one less selling point to attract their customers to buy their pens, precisely because of their wide range of nib choices? Anyway, sometimes we don’t agree with the decisions that companies make, and while I don’t agree that the big nibs – especially the obliques – should be discontinued, I did not rush out to get one for myself. I don’t know what I was thinking. However, Mike, a nice friend of mine, has lent me his OB nib which flew to Singapore all the way from Europe, and stayed with me for a good many months before I actually came down to reviewing it. I put it onto an M1000 body for the purpose of this review. The Pen The Pelikan Souverän series of fountain pens is one representing the premium pens […]
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I’ve been desiring a few new pens lately, so I have been snooping around eBay, Amazon, and Aliexpress. Last year, I have made a list of the top 10 bestselling fountain pens on Amazon. Amazon releases a bestsellers list for each product category every hour. As fountain pens are a relatively niche product category, I did not expect the bestseller list to change that frequently, which is why I am only doing a follow-up of it only now. Last year, we saw a number of familiar pens in the top 10 list, such as the Lamy Safari, Jinhao 250, and Pilot Varsity. This year, the top pens still did not change much from the last, so I did a count of the number of times a brand name appeared in the top 100 list of fountain pens on Amazon, to find out which were the bestselling fountain pen brands on Amazon. No. 3 on the list: Jinhao Coming in 3rd on the list is the Jinhao fountain pen brand. Out of 100 bestsellers, Jinhao products take up 21%. Jinhao originates from China and produces a number of good quality fountain pens. Some of their fountain pens, with their low price point, can […]
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Have you been looking forward to the OFP Mystery Draw that is held once every quarter? The June draw has finally taken place, but before I announce the winners, let me talk about the prizes first! This draw’s exciting gift pack that each winner will get will be: One Kaweco metal gift tin One Kaweco Sport Chess fountain pen (either in black or blue), F nib One cartridge each of all the Kaweco ink colours There are two sets available, which means 2 potential lucky winners could get one of these prizes. The ink cartridges have been sponsored by Fontoplumo, while the fountain pens and gift tins are sponsored by… yours truly (me)! Now for the lucky winners… Cchang0122 and Janisf Crystal_lancer (Janisf did not reply to my email!) Congratulations! You will each receive an email from me on how to redeem the prizes. If you do not reply to my email by 5 July (next Sunday), I will have to pick a new winner instead. To be eligible for the next draw, be sure to subscribe to my blog via email (subscription form in my sidebar)!
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