Most fountain pen inks aren’t water-resistant. Unless you have a habit of spilling coffee on your notes, you normally wouldn’t mind. It’s for a good reason: modern pens, with finned plastic feeds and relatively tight tolerances between feed and nib, need inks that flow easily. What can make an ink water-resistant or waterproof can inhibit flow, stain …
Beyond a certain optimum utility (writes and draws as it should, doesn’t give its user problems like burping or skipping, handles well, carries well, ages well), a pen becomes a pursuit. And the price of that pursuit is higher than most sane people are willing to spend on what is essentially an object that makes …
I used to write a lot. Then I wrote on occasion. Then I wrote only when needed. The number of pens I have has nothing to do with the number of words I commit to paper. This doesn’t stop me, however, from accumulating more pens, for many reasons that have almost nothing to do with writing. …
Imagine spotting a rare vintage pen in a flea market. Your breath catches. Your heartbeat accelerates. You pick it up and gently, gently, twist open the cap. Wait… there’s no nib. Could it be a safety pen? In that case, it might be even more valuable! You peer inside the section in anticipation. And then… …
UPDATE: A5 Journal Guides are available at Common Room (for Manila-based peeps) and now online at Vanness! You get a suggestions sheet, and four guides printed on thick, high-quality, laminated cardstock. (I can try other materials in the future, but this feels better under a thin sheet, for some reason.) And now on to the …
I sold handmade jewelry on eBay in 2002. EMS from here to Europe and the US cost a minimum of USD 10 in a marketplace where shipping was free or under a dollar, so I tended to discount my labor costs to stay within a reasonable price range. PayPal had yet to make it to …
My videos tend to highlight a particular obsession of mine at the time they’re made. This one is all about the shimmer. Tyrekickers is a dreamy song, and it makes me think of afternoon sun slanting into abandoned cars and bouncing off mirrors. When I make these videos, I steady elbow and forearm against the table. …
The only good Waterman is a vintage Waterman, unless it’s a Carene with a factory stub, or a Serenité with a cursive italic by Mike Masuyama. The Serenité is an anomaly in the modern Waterman portfolio. Discontinued but still available in a few shops or from online and show vendors, it was the first pen …
Ever since there were fountain pens, there were ebonite fountain pens. Ebonite or vulcanite or hard rubber remains a nostalgic, classic material, evoking pens as they were first made in the late 1800s. Below, from top to bottom: a giant Ranga (modern), John Holland hatchet filler (vintage), Waterman 55 (vintage), Danitrio raw ebonite (modern). Many …
They remind us of our mortality and look good on t-shirts. We all have one but we’d much rather not get to see it while we’re alive. I’ve had a thing for skulls since I was younger. (They were probably hot pink skulls too, because it was the 80s.) Different cultures have made fetishes of …