When the ballpoint took over, fountain pens graduated to the special shelf, where they hung out with the fancy china. From everyday tools, they became markers for significant occasions. Â Back then, people favored fine points, for compact writing on lightweight onionskin, perfect for letters in the mail. Then medium and broad nibs took over the …
Growing up, I read two kinds of books: fantasy and science fiction. Fantasy worlds have an internal logic, by fiat; there is no need to explain the provenance of dragons or magical abilities, unless the explanation is pivotal to the plot. Science fiction obsesses over its coherence and plausibility, even behind the scenes in the …
The previous edition gave you the words. Now, you need to guess. Enjoy. 🙂 This one can be a word, and also a question. 😉
A pointy or chisel end, a pigmented liquid, a surface, some capillary action, and a little surface tension. You could be writing with a sharpened stick or a highly-engineered fountain pen, and those ingredients would come into play, either way. We are first attracted to how a pen looks, and the attraction is validated or …
It was Thomas R. Hall (@penucopia on Instagram and enabler to the enablers) who lent me his Shinobi pen and first told me about Shawn Newton. He’d asked Shawn to use translucent acrylic in blue and grey, and make a custom section for a Pilot nib ground to a 0.2 mm needlepoint. The pen came with a flat …
Do not run around and squeal and behave like it’s your first pen show ever ever. Even if you see many, many beautiful pens. Do not even think of going out for food or air if you value your place in Mike Masuyama‘s nib magic queue. Do not buy more ink than what your baggage …
When Richard emailed me a picture of this Barch-Payzant lettering pen set, I squealed. Oh wonderful world that has such elegant solutions in it. These pens are forward-weighted; solid brass nibs, light wooden handles.They immediately reminded me of the Indonesian tjanting, used to apply hot wax to cloth for resist batik. Unlike the tjanting, these lettering …
I seem to have a problem. Notebooks already have covers. Why do I need to cover them with more covers? Midori’s A5 MD notebook fits snugly into Labrador’s medium leather cover, and doesn’t seem to mind. Midori does make a cotton canvas carry pouch for the MD, with pockets for a smartphone and pens. And here comes …
I first heard of this project when Pierre asked me and many others to answer a survey designed to help him come up with a flex pen. We heard back from him in May, when he emailed us looking for a focus group. By July 2014, he’d sent us pictures of his prototypes. Desiderata Pens opened …
I’ve worked with brands for 25 years. That’s 52,000 hours of figuring out how to make brands engaging, persuasive, convincing – and ultimately, worth a place in someone’s life. The new Esterbrook has caused consternation among pen people. To me, it is an emerging story of the power of a brand, even after its original owners have gone, because of the meaning it holds for the people who love it.