Treasures from the Island

Tags

andy everson, de atramentis, fountain pen, leather pen case, pen holder, qualicum stationers, vancouver island, william shakespeare, zebra

A couple of weeks ago we were on holiday on Vancouver Island. I wrote, read and sipped tea. And shopped just a little bit. 🙂

I bought two pens, a pen case and a journal. Let’s take a look at the journal first.

This is the Spring Finale Journal by Andy Everson. Andy is a First Nation’s Artist and you can learn more about him and his breathtaking art on his webpage. I actually found this journal on my last day, at the airport gift shop. Couldn’t pass it up at $15. Such beautiful artwork and the journal is well made too.

It’s a spiral journal but the spirals are protected by the binding. The dragonfly motif is repeated on the inside covers.

Lined pages. Paper is a medium weight and very creamy feeling.

Details about the artist on the inside back cover. I love his work and these journals are an affordable way of having some of his art to look at. I mean I could frame the cover it’s so beautiful. Here’s an inspiring quote from the description of this journal on Andy’s webpage:

 ‘Spring’s Finale’ represents a brief moment in time in which the dragonfly has stopped from its regular activity to rest on a cattail in a swamp. It also represents the crescendo of beauty that is the end of spring. Colours vivid with life have lived on rain and are now rejoicing in the ever-warming sun. ‘Spring’s Finale’ is but a moment in time that encourages you to reflect on the past and prepare for the future.

To purchase this and other Andy Everson journals, check out this link.

Next up, a wooden fountain pen.

I don’t have a lot of information about this pen. We went to Qualicum Stationers in Qualicum Beach. They had a huge art supply section and framing section, and a small stationery supply section. In their display cabinet at the cash they had some of these wooden fountain pens for $25 each. I was told they are made by a woodworker in Victoria. The barrel and cap are wood, with gold coloured accents.

The section is plastic I think, and the medium nib is gold coloured steel.

The nib had some false starts and skipped when I started to write, which you can see in the writing sample above a little bit. But it disappeared the longer I wrote. It was like it needed to warm up. It came with a standard international size cartridge but I wanted to see what De Atramentis William Shakespeare would look like in it and I really like it. It matches the barrel beautifully, which I like to do. Maybe with more use the nib will even itself out.

I also picked up this Zebra V-301 Fountain Pen, which I’ve never seen before. The package came with two refill cartridges as well. The pen does not take standard international cartridges but I can always fill them with a needle when they run out.

Very smooth writer, no hesitations or blobs. No leaks. Very comfortable in the hand. One thing I REALLY like is that it snaps to cap but also snaps to post! As a post-er myself I love a secure post on a fountain pen. 🙂

And lastly this blue pen case.

I spied the pen case right away in the display case, as I’ve been looking at them online for a long time. Real leather ones start at around $50 which is reasonable when you consider the amount of work that goes into making one. I couldn’t believe it when the salesperson said the price was $14.95. We actually went to this stationery store twice because on our first visit I bought one pen case. I thought about it overnight and took my husband’s advice and went back the next day to buy two more cases. And the interesting thing is, they came from the same fellow who made the fountain pens; his wife is a leather crafter. How cool is that?

I can fit both pens in comfortably; there is a leather strip down the middle that protects one pen from the other. Unbelievable deal. And such a great colour.

So that’s it for my holiday treasures and the memories they bring back. Can’t wait to use them all!

My New Ink Journal in an Old but Loved ARC Notebook

Tags

coleto, fountain pen, goulet pens, ink, ink journal, journal, lamy, slicci

Recently I decided my Ink Journal just wasn’t working for me any more. It was disorganized and messy. And I was missing my brown woven ARC notebook. So I combined the two.

Here she is again. I’ve missed her!

Missed this too. It’s an appropriate beginning to an ink journal, which will also contain all the details of my pens, both fountain and otherwise.

I had a bunch of colorful tabs that I wanted to use so each make of pen has its own page, as well as each ink company.

Here is a typical entry for one of my pens.

And here are the ink tabs. I like this system because I can keep everything in alphabetical order, unlike a bound book which was my former ink journal.

Here is my entry for J. Herbin’s Lierre Sauvage, which I only have in cartridges, at the moment. Where I have a bottle I will indicate that at the top. Not all of the inks have this much detail.

Today I cleaned out my Lamy Safari (which took FOREVER by the way; that nib holds a ton of ink) and inked it up with the new De Atramentis William Shakespeare. Love it!

De Atramentis ink is hand-made; that’s why each bottle can be on backorder for so long, according to Goulet Pens. The labels too I expect. I was very amused to see the typo on this label!

At the back of the book I keep track of my gel pen inventory, along with printed guides to some of the ink companies. Finally found a place to stick those Goulet Pens stickers.

I cut the tops off the Slicci refills and paste them into the book. I do the same with the Coleto refills.

So that’s about it for my new Ink Journal. I find it really handy when I want to write a letter or in my journal with a certain pen or a in a certain color; I can flip through this and find the combo I need.

Cadence Pens

Tags

cadence, fountain pen, j. herbin, pens, things engraved

So this past Christmas I found some beautiful fountain pens at a store called Things Engraved. They are also affiliated with Sears Personalized Gifts, Personally Yours, Creations Personelles and Centre de la Gravure. I bought three for myself and two for Christmas gifts.

I fell in love with this pen as soon as I held it in my hand. It has a nice weight but is not too heavy. I like my caps posted and these post securely. The cap is a snap cap, and closes with a satisfyingly loud click. They have never skipped and always start right away. There is a black band around the base of the cap and it reads “Cadence”.

I love them. But I can’t really find any information about them on the internet. At least, not about the fountain pens specifically. Cadence seems to make a lot of different pens, mostly ballpoints, in metal and plastic. The Things Engraved website lists four or five Cadence pens, but none of them are these fountain pens. I’ve tried the Personally Yours website as well with the same result.

This is the box they came in from Things Engraved.

The open box with the warranty info. The warranty info says Cadence Writing Instruments – Lifetime Mechanical Warranty. If I have a problem I should bring it in to the nearest Things Engraved store, or any store mentioned above. Standard really, but there was no card to fill out and send in.

The pens themselves are quite nice looking, I think. Burnished gold metal with silver or chrome accents, and that black band around the middle.

Here they are uncapped. I apologize for the glare; this was the best I could get, and as close as I could get without blurriness. The nibs have a curled line around the edge, say Iridium Point Germany and seem to have a daisy pattern around the centre hole.

Here are the feeds. I do not know what the numbers refer to, but from left to right the nibs are labelled 1, 3 and 4. There does not seem to be a number 2 available. No 4 seems to be a slightly finer nib, as you will see in the writing sample later.

These pens are engravable, which I did for the Christmas presents, and also one for myself.

Here is the writing sample in my Rhodia notebook. I think No 4 gives a slightly finer line and it definitely feels scratchier on the paper. No one at the store could tell me the nib size of any of the pens.

I keep these pens in a vinyl pen roll I purchased on ebay.

It’s hard to make out but the writing on the pen roll says “twilight”. Yes I think this is a movie tie-in item. I’m not a fan of the Twilight movies but I liked the pen roll.

Here is the pen roll open. The roll is also advertised to keep makeup brushes in, so that could explain the different widths of the slots.

I just like that it keeps my pens from scratching each other.

I googled “Cadence writing instruments” and found multiple listings for their ballpoint pens. When I googled “Cadence fountain pen” I found one entry on the Fountain Pen Network forum from 2011. And that’s about it. I would love to know more about these pens, if there is anything more to be discovered.

Tea with Journals

Tags

fountain pen, notebooks, phasha, tea, thomas paul

My sister was in town this week and we met up today to have tea and talk notebooks and pens, and various sisterly things.

Big sis spoiled me rotten, arriving with bags of food. She baked the yummy scones and provided the cheese and crackers and chocolate (and vegetables and fruit not shown here). I provided the tea and tea things, strawberry jam and Devonshire cream. It’s hard to see but one of my Phasha journals is sitting on the table to the right. My turquoise Monteverde Prima is sitting on top of it.

Here’s a closeup of the journal and some tea things.

We also invited my Thomas Paul Botanical Slipcover Journal to join us.

My Monteverde Prima looks very fetching with it, no?

We devoured the food and filled the tea pot twice. We chatted and laughed and admired each other’s fountain pens. A truly blissful afternoon, and I can’t wait to do it again!

Journal Writing Wednesday: 32 pages

Tags

alan bradley, fountain pen, fountain pen geeks, journaling expo 2014, parker urban, pens, writing

Journal I’m currently using: Navy Blue Cross Journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Jan 8): 32

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 109

Total pages written in 2014: 54

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze: 2 on Jan 14    (Sigh. Almost made it 2 weeks. But I am not giving up the experiment. Setbacks were expected. Read more below.)

Topics covered:

• Grumpy ramblings through a very bad cold
• The delights of the Fountain Pen Geeks website
• Thoughts on The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bow by Alan Bradley
• Notes taken during Journaling Expo 2014 (about 28 of the 32 pages)

Ok so it is confession time. Kinda sorta. We were given Amazon gift cards for Christmas. Both my husband and I have been very sick over the past two weeks and last night we decided to have some fun and go shopping on Amazon. I tried EXTREMELY hard not to spend my portion of the gift cards on notebooks or pens or ink. I succeeded in choosing four items that fit the bill but I couldn’t resist this Parker fountain pen set (I recorded it as two purchases above because the set comes with a pen and ink).

The pen is a Parker Urban and the reviews I’ve seen on Amazon and youtube are favorable. The set is an excellent value pack when you take into consideration the individual cost of the parts. So yes this is the first setback, I’m sure there will be more this year, but I want to continue the experiment. I am committed to buying less this year so we’ll see how it all unfolds. What will be the next thing that I cannot resist? Stay tuned!

Until next week, happy writing.

Writing Because It Is Fun

Tags

fountain pen, handwriting, jetpens, nanowrimo, notebooks, writing

I just read this heartwarming interview on Jetpens.com with Brent Acuff, a band teacher in Texas. He shares his love of fountain pens and fosters a love of writing by offering pens as prizes for writing competitions. This year he inspired more than 50 students to take part in NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer’s Program. We need more Brents!!

…the act of writing helps foster creativity by forcing you to slow down and take a little more time to get your thoughts in order. There is no ‘ding’ of email coming from your journal, no text message or updating blog to draw your attention away from the task at hand.

Well said Brent, and may you continue in your mission to foster the love of writing.

Pen Care and Maintenance

Tags

fountain pen, maintenance

I found this excellent Pen Care and Maintenance Guide on the Paper Papier website. This is the website of a fabulous looking store in Ottawa. Definitely hope to visit someday.

Goulet Pens also has an excellent video on maintaining your pens.

MonteVerde Prima and More Ink!

Tags

fountain pen, graf von faber-castell, j. herbin, lamy, monteverde, pens, private reserve, reid's stationers

I received a gift certificate for my favorite local stationers, Reid’s Stationers. I had a wonderful two hours looking at everything, weighing my options. The staff is outstanding; Maureen inked up quite a few pens for me to try before deciding on a final one. And we had a great discussion about inks. I would love a part time job there but I fear bankruptcy would be the inevitable result.

I’ve read and seen so much about the beautiful Visconti line of fountain pens; and Maureen let me try a Visconti Rembrandt in blue with a medium nib. Beautiful pen and exquisite writing experience. Very smooth, no stops, great flow. But it was a little more than I wanted to spend, even though this particular line is the entrance point for the brand. The Visconti I fell in love with, the limited edition pen created for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, was definitely more than I would ever be able to spend on a pen. But what a beautiful pen it is. Even better when you are holding it in your hand. I didn’t have it inked up for me as I didn’t want my heart broken entirely.

I wanted to introduce some colour to my fountain pen collection, but not use up my entire gift certificate as I wanted to buy some ink as well. So Maureen introduced me to the MonteVerde Prima. And I fell in love with the Turquoise Swirl. Nice chrome touches, lightweight, super smooth writer with great flow.

I felt very swank walking out of the store with this bag!

The box.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures but the pen is translucent so when you hold it up to the light it glows. I’m totally in love with this pen; I think it’s beautiful, writes like a dream and retails in Canada for around $60. I do realize that is still quite a bit to spend on a pen but as it was a gift I indulged myself. The Visconti Rembrandt cost almost 3 times as much. The MonteVerde pens come with cartridges and a converter; the Viscontis do not come with any cartridges and you can purchase a converter for about $10. Both pens take standard international cartridges.

The base of the box can be removed to reveal a compartment for storing cartridges and the converter (when I took the picture the converter was still in the pen). I did not use the cartridges that came with the pen; I put in a Bleu Pervenche cartridge from J. Herbin as the turquoise colour is an exact match to the barrel.

All of my goodies: Rose Cyclamen and Orange Indien J. Herbin cartridges sitting on the MonteVerde box; Hazelnut Brown and Stone Grey cartridges from Graf von Faber-Castell in the cream boxes; Violet and Turquoise cartridges from Lamy; and Plum cartridges from Private Reserve.

Wonderful day and I didn’t feel one bit guilty because I was spending someone else’s money. And I still have a balance on the gift certificate!! I will be sure to keep you posted as to where that goes, in the new year.

Happy writing.

Pen Update

Tags

fountain pen, j. herbin, manuscript, online, pens, writing

In honour of Fountain Pen Day just passed, I thought I would do a post on my pen collection. By my count I have done over 40 posts under the category of My Journal Collection, but only 3 under My Pen Collection. So this is long overdue.

Over the summer I purchased a J. Herbin Rollerball with a clear case. It was around $10 and I love it. Truth be told, I fell in love with the J. Herbin ink tins first, and fell in love with the pen later, probably due in large part to having something to use the inks in!

I have used the Lie de The ink and the Terre de Feu ink in it so far. Slight difference in the shade of brown between the two inks. It writes beautifully and you can get yourself one from Goulet Pens.

The pen takes any short international cartridge but I prefer the J. Herbin inks it was designed for.

An overview of the inks available from J. Herbin. I want to collect all 30! Each colour is also available in a bottle.

My collection. Only 25 to go!

My local stationer’s display of J. Herbin tins. This store also sold me my second fountain pen: the ONLINE College City Colors fountain pen in black, with a medium nib. It sold for $13.

The store display for the German company ONLINE. It comes in lots of great colour combinations and they even have a special edition for lefties.

I didn’t think I would like a medium nib (my Lamy has a fine nib) but I quite like it. The pen is unbelievably light (made of plastic after all) and a real joy to use. They take all international cartridges.

I tried to get a good close-up of the nib but there are too many shadows. You can just see the hint of blue from the ink it is loaded with (Bleu Pervenche for J. Herbin).

The Online College City Colors collection is available through Goldspot Luxury Gifts.

And finally I picked up this Beginner’s Calligraphy Pen set from Manuscript at my local Michael’s, for about $14. I’m delighted with it – I think it writes beautifully.

It also takes international cartridges but comes with a converter so I can put bottled ink in it. Fantastic features for such a low price point. The ink did take a bit of coaxing to flow and it is slow to start each time I start a new writing session. But other than that a really great pen. And I can purchase other calligraphy nibs from their UK website for about $5 each plus shipping.

Manuscript also has this neat service where if you are left-handed you can ship the nibs that came in the package to them, along with the cost of return postage, and they will ship the corresponding left-handed nibs to you. Awesome company.

And finally some writing samples. It’s crazy how the black ink of the Manuscript pen jumps off the page.

Hope you enjoyed this pen tour as much as I did. 🙂

Happy Fountain Pen Day

Tags

fountain pen, fountain pen day, handwriting, letters, pens, writing

 

See also http://www.fountainpenday.org/