Showing posts with label fountain pens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fountain pens. Show all posts

Sunday, November 4, 2012

ink love

I would absolutely love to get inks for Christmas.

I downloaded this ink sample document from the J. Herbin site,

a link that I discovered through Rants of the Archer,

a person who has made pens and paper his passion and as such he receives free stuff to sample and review. I am vert with envy.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

the gifts of clarity

Ever since I have been clarifying aspects of my life in the past few days and acting according to that clarity, there have been little events that demonstrate how things can fall into place.

No it's not magic or superstition. The way I see it, because I am clear with what I want and where I want to go, then my own awareness is attuned to that clarity. As a result, I am better able to spot opportunities or to recognize the things, people, and events, that can be helpful to my cause.

As opposed to being vague and uncertain, even if all the chances were given me, I would fail to recognize them as opportunities because I would not be sure that they are indeed opportunities. There would be doubt and there would be fear and there would be a lot of hesitation.

I am not even referring to grandiose desires here. Even with little things this whole formula of clarity leading to paths does work. When I am sure and clear then I am better able to discern what the next best step would be. And it is not about knowing exactly how and what the next step is for the whole stretch, but simply knowing at that exact perfect moment that it is time for the next step. My intuition is sharper. My gut-feel is more solid.

One of the first things I became clear with is my desire to literally write better and write more. I mean writing by hand, improving my penmanship, creating more handwritten works such as letters and postcards and design in general. I have been greatly inspired by a friend and role model, Leigh, who has very beautiful handwriting (and who also happens to be a passionate pen collector). I have been shying away from acknowledging my own enthusiasm for pens and handwriting until I actually lost patience with myself and decided that I want to nurture that aspect of me. Hence I made that post openly acknowledging myself as a pen enthusiast and its natural relation to a fondness for calligraphy and lettering.

So that became clear to me : I want to learn more and practice better handwriting, I want to eventually be able to do some level of calligraphy, I want to have my own modest pen collection, I want to integrate my writing skills into my artwork, I want a stronger handwriting habit in my daily life, I want to have a decent foundation of knowledge on pens and inks and their applications.

One of the first things I did was send a personal message to Leigh to thank her for her very enlightening blog because reading her posts definitely helped steer me in the right direction -- very useful since I really had no idea how to begin. In response, she gave me a vintage pen -- which for me was like a blessing and a welcome and a recognition all rolled into one. Her generosity helped dismantle the last few traces of any hesitation to move forward.

The note was written with the pen. Sadly I cannot yet reproduce the same quality of penmanship. :D
On that very same day, my mom stumbled upon my long missing glass dip pen -- it has been missing for years.


Today I took a walk around the neighborhood and found myself in a Surplus Shop specializing in items from Japan. I left the store with:

Five Ink Brushes at only Php10 each. 
A brush pen (also at Php10) that looks like it can be refilled with ink. It writes beautifully.
From deciding to evolve the literal act of writing it naturally followed that my own writing, the poems, the stories, the journals, also took a step to level up. It is like a whole Writing Revolution in my life, my writing is expanding itself and deepening itself, both inside (content and meaning) and outside (penmanship and calligraphy).

Already I am beginning to feel its ripple effect on other aspects of my life. The next thing to be bathed in the spotlight of clarity is my desire for baking, which in itself has always been on a defensive half-baked stance. I have started to sort it out since last night, and the resolution of the matter will be the subject of another post.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

a fledgling pen enthusiast

That's me. Even though I have been naturally drawn to fountain pens and calligraphy pens for years, I have never really taken any serious steps to studying these objects. I just pretty much went by with how I felt or how I liked a particular writing instrument.

I've always had a strong fondness for sharp and thick inks, and have little love for the blandness of ballpoint pens and their inks. My disposable pens are either gel pens or technical pens that are at least 0.5 mm -- pens that write wetly and darkly on white clean pages.

I have a preference for brown inks, possibly inspired by the letters of Sabine to Griffin. I love the sight of ink pooling at the edges of letters and along the fancy loops of words. I love calligraphy writing. I love the flow of thin and thick lines through every stroke.

from Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
I love handwriting. I love hand-written anything. One of my projects this year is to revive snail mail by starting to write letters to people instead of always falling into the default of the convenient e-mail or text message. It will also be a chance for me to showcase my artful envelopes as well as my love for marginalia. Maybe when I become a well-known artist in my own right then those friends will be grateful for my simple-letters-turned-valuable-artwork.

One of my recent joys was discovering my grandfather's old Speedball textbook as I was clearing clutter a couple of weeks ago.


And we have heard it said that the Universe supports our heart's desire especially when we set ourselves to move towards it. In the same manner I stumbled upon this book which will help inspire me in my calligraphy and marginalia artwork.


Meanwhile here are my small attempts at beautiful writing.


Practice makes perfect, but I am not even aiming for perfection. Just maybe a few notches above ordinary.

Currently I have a very humble pen collection:
1) a silver Waterman, my most expensive at about Php 2,800 if I remember correctly
2) a Rotring Art Pen, 1.5mm
3) a set of Sheaffer calligraphy pens, with fine, medium, and broad nibs
4) a white Lamy Safari, my newest purchase, with a medium nib. I also purchased a broad nib for variation
5) a dip pen that was gifted to me last year, with a very fine nib that scratches noisily on paper. I think it's semi-flex. I like how it writes though even if it's scratchy.

I hope to have a few more. I'm on the lookout for pens with flexible nibs. Most modern pens are said to have un-flexible nibs so there's a lot of advice to hunt for vintage ones. Brand-new pens with flexible nibs do exist but I believe they would cost me my fingers and possibly even both hands so there would be no sense in having them afterwards. It's going to be a tough hunt but I remain optimistic.

What passion bug has bitten you lately?