This is the Derwent Safari. The cover is thick fabric given a suede-like treatment with obvious grain. It’s around 17 x 12 cm, and has 80 sheets of 200 gsm paper. The inside front cover has a flap. The back has a pocket. The sheets inside are thick and sturdy. Fountain pen ink, watersoluble graphite, …
Month: March 2010
I couldn’t resist grinding the nib of the Oldwin down to a fine. All Oldwin pens have medium nibs. It’s not a bad thing, but medium nibs are not my thing. And I wanted to see if the flex would be more noticeable. I have it down to half of its previous width, but the …
Poor Pentel brush pen. It didn’t do anything wrong. I just wanted to see if I could use fountain pen ink in it. I took off the white ring as instructed. Then I removed the stopper from the ink cartridge. (The cartridge is also the body.) The stopper isn’t meant to be removed; it’s there …
Automatic pens aren’t for automatic writing. Or maybe they are, if you’re channeling the spirit of a calligrapher who overdosed on iron gall. I bought a set of automatic pens on a whim more than a decade ago. The ferrules are loose. The plates of the nibs are pitted and ink-stained. It doesn’t matter. They …
Pens with glass nibs were popular during the war, because all metal went to the war effort. Today’s glass pens are all dip pens. The wartime ones had bodies made of cheap, cheerful material, and crescent or lever-filling systems. I love drawing with my Spors. The glass tip produces fine lines when used normally, and …
Why bother with horoscopes and psychic hotlines? The Google search box contains all the crowdsourced, search engine marketer-manipulated mysteries of the universe. It tells me what I want. (Mostly song lyrics. Plus death.) It tells me what today will be. (Lyrical. And better. I swear.) It tells me what tomorrow will be. And because in …
The ballpoint is a Lamy, the pen is an Eversharp Skyline, and the video is short.
The first fountain pens were eyedroppers. The entire barrel held ink. I expect this was a relief to scribes weary and wrist-sore from dipping nibs into inkwells. (Centuries before that paper from plants rescued generations of goats from becoming papal bulls. Science, ever forward!) The Waterman 12 is a slim eyedropper. It was quite popular …
I found it in National Bookstore and gave it a try, because P112.00 is not bad for a watercolor pad. Twenty-four spiral-bound acid-free sheets of practice goodness. The paper is a warm off-white. I also grabbed a couple of Chinese brushes to practice with. The result is two unusual girls having their usual hit of …
The audio is classic bad instructional video (voice-over talent I am not), but the video should be useful if you’re interested in seeing this unusual nib in action. The ink is Caran d’Ache Storm, diluted – it shades even more wonderfully that way.