The Piccolo is possibly Nakaya's best-known canvas for its unique aesthetic. It has been made to look like stone, lacquered to evoke ancient tea ware, covered in sumi and carved with dragons. There are Piccolos with skulls, Piccolos engraved with twining vines and flowers, light pink Piccolos, demon-studded Piccolos, Piccolos sprinkled with iridescent butterflies. Machining …
It’s been 3 years since my first Nakaya. What an adventure in beauty it has been! I have always admired artists who are able to direct the lightning of their ideas through their fingertips. Nakaya’s pens are truly ideas solidified into fountain pen form. They could just as well be watches, or cutlery, or trousers …
When I’m in a hurry, I abandon cursive. Goodbye loops, goodbye shading, goodbye thick and thin lines that swoop and scroll into descenders, ascenders and pretenders in between. My G looks like a 6, my R can’t be bothered to close its loop like a lady. Slow writing isn’t necessarily slow thinking. Sometimes the words …
If a haiku were reincarnated as a pen, it would be the Nakaya Piccolo. The seminal Nakaya pen has to be the Piccolo in the kuro-tamenuri (blackish red) finish. It is a triumph of aesthetic restraint. It was the first Nakaya I liked, but the one I never bought, until last weekend. The shape, size …