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Tag: ARTUS

My 2023 Top Tens

Posted in Fountain Pens

Once again, I’m sharing my current top pens. Last year’s approach to my top tens worked well, making me actually stick to lists of 10. I swear, this post gets harder every year. The nibs aren’t too hard, but the pens! It takes me more and more time to narrow down to ten, and then actually figure out the order.

Since I’m keeping to the same format as last year, I’ll compare my lists

But without further preamble, enjoy my top tens of 2023.

My 2022 Top Tens

Posted in Fountain Pens

Once again, I’m sharing my current top pens. I took a somewhat different approach this year, so that I actually choose a top 10. I’m judging my pens based on appearance and the way they write. So I have two different top ten lists. Because of this, I won’t be comparing to last year’s top pens, which ended up being a top 28.

This was just as hard as I expected it to be. I’m fortunate enough to have an absolutely fabulous pen collection, so narrowing it down to my favorites grows increasingly difficult each year.

But without further preamble, enjoy my top 10 pens of 2022 by appearance and by nibs.

Ridiculous Pens

Posted in Fountain Pens

Today’s post is somewhat inspired by a YouTube video. “Weird pen collabs” seemed like a fun topic, at least until I realized the only one I could find/think of was the Montegrappa & Harry Potter series. And that’s only weird for what Montegrappa chose to draw inspiration from. The Quidditch pitch, really? But I digress.

So, I modified the idea to ridiculous pens. The pens I chose are either ridiculously bad OR ridiculously good. On the bad side of things you have poor design and pricing. On the good side you have amazing showcase of materials and skill. I’m sure there are many other ridiculous pens I’ve missed, but I tried to go for a variety, and I think I succeeded.

Side note before I begin: I’m not judging the artistry or craftsmanship on the “bad” pens, just the decisions.

Now, let’s start small and work our way up, shall we?

My Pen Collection Part 4

Posted in Fountain Pens

“Always Inked” Pens

Alright, we’ve made it to the fourth, and final, part in this series, my “always inked” pens! Hold onto your hats, because the really expensive pens are in this grouping. Just keep in mind that I purchased several at steep discounts and received some in exchange for work.

Once again, please use the form at the end of this post to vote for pens you want to see “pen porn” posts about.

I store this group differently than the rest of my pens. These have a display case away from direct light. That way, I can see them when they aren’t in use, and there’s no worry of damage.

Year in Review – 2021 Pens

Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

Both last year and in 2019 I wrote about my biggest pen wins and regrets. It was fun to look back on my pens, so I decided to do the same thing this year. However, with my 2021 Top Pens post, I basically already did that. So, I decided to do something I’ve seen in the YouTube makeup world — surprise, surprise — and rank all of my pen purchases.

Note: Some of the pens have already been discussed in recent posts. If a description looks familiar, that’s likely why. Also, where possible, I linked to an Instagram photo from the pen maker or store they collaborated with. When that wasn’t possible, I linked to a good photo on Instagram (consider following those fine folks). And, when all else failed, I linked to my own photos on Instagram.

My 2021 Top Pens

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

My planning from last year has paid off. This year, I’m revisiting my 2020 Top Pens and seeing what differences there are in comparison to my 2021 top pens.

As I said last year, I tend to sell or trade pens that don’t make me happy to own. I’m getting closer to all of my pens being favorites, but I made myself narrow them down to a top 10 and top 20. I kind of cheated with the Always Inked section, but don’t judge me too harshly.

This was so much harder than I expected it to be. I slightly adjusted my judging criteria this year. I did my best to put these pens in order of which ones I’m most disappointed to un-ink (clean out). And so, I give you my top pens as of the end of 2021.

My 2021 Brand “Discoveries”

Posted in Fountain Pens, and Storage

When I sat down to start writing this post, I thought it would be rather short. Then, I looked through my Airtable database and found that I’d purchased pens from 15 new-to-me brands this year! Wow! Now, when I say new-to-me, I don’t mean I’d never heard of them, just that I’d never before purchased a pen made by that brand.

I bought from a decent mix of indie and mainstream brands, which makes me happy. I like supporting indie brands. And I’ve found, especially recently, that my interest is piqued by indie brands more than mainstream brands.

Anyway, let’s start with mainstream brands to get that out of the way, then jump into the indie brands. FYI: The lists are in alphabetical order.

ARTUS Four Elements Air

Posted in Fountain Pens

My last ARTUS post. If you didn’t see my previous posts about the Water, Fire , and Earth, you may want to go back and take a look at them. This is the Air, the true “sister” pen to the Water, done by the same artist. Since I covered how I came to own the Earth and Air yesterday, I’m not going over it again. You can read the story in the Earth post. Note: You can view any of the images below a little larger — much larger if you’re on mobile — by clicking on them.

Photo showing the full pen.

Enjoy all of the delicious pen porn contained within this post. I take no responsibility for purchases resulting from them.

ARTUS Four Elements Earth

Posted in Fountain Pens

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my story about doing “something big” with relation to pens. Well, that something big was completing my ARTUS Four Elements set. I already shared the new pens there, and even took a week where my “rotation” was just the set. Like the Water and Fire, the two new ones, Earth and Air, are beautiful. Air will get its own post tomorrow. Today, I’m focusing on Earth. The leaves and swirls are beyond stunning. And the flowers are masterpieces in their own rights. Note: You can view the images a little larger — much larger if you’re on mobile — by clicking on them.

Photo showing the full pen.

Enjoy all of the delicious pen porn contained within this post. I take no responsibility for purchases resulting from them.

ARTUS Four Elements Fire

Posted in Fountain Pens

Ah, another ARTUS pen. As I said in my 200th Pen post, I wanted my next pen purchase to be something special, and this certainly qualifies. Like its “brother pen,” it’s a magnificent work of art. The layers of paint give the flames a three-dimensional quality that tricks my eyes. Every time I look at it I find something new to look at. Note: You can view the images a little larger — much larger if you’re on mobile — by clicking on them.

ARTUS Four Elements Fire

Enjoy all of the delicious pen porn contained within this post. I take no responsibility for purchases resulting from them.

My 200th Pen

Posted in Fountain Pens

5 years, 8 months, and 19 days after buying my first fountain pen, I purchased pen number 199. Granted, I haven’t kept all of those pens. Between selling, gift, breakage, and loss, I currently own 121 pens, of which 110 are in regular use.

But, the main point is that my next purchase will be pen 200!! That’s huge, and deserves an appropriately special pen.

Because I wasn’t carefully cataloging my pens yet, I blew right past pens 50 and 100 — although, by sheer dumb luck, #50 was my first 18111 pen. And I didn’t think to save 150 for a special pen, so 200 has to be awesome.

18111 Ivy Pen
Pen number 50. She’s certainly gorgeous.

Capsule Pen Collection

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

Ink Journal’s September 10th Flex Nib Friday issue included a link to ukfountainpens.com‘s article The Three Pen Collection for £1,000. The idea was based on a series of posts on the watch blog Worn & Wound called the three watch collection for $5,000. UK Fountain Pens adapted the idea to pens, dropped the budget to $1,000 because “watches are much more expensive than pens” — *chortle* some watches are much more expensive than some pens — and limited picks to pens you can go out and buy today.

It’s an easy enough premise. My problem, however, is that the pens I’d choose don’t work out well with the budget provided. So, I gave it some thought and decided to curate two collections, one with the adjusted $1,000 budget and one with the original $5,000 budget. As a note, I did not include taxes when figuring out my choices.

2021 DC Pen Show, Part 1

Posted in Pen Shows

You all know how much I’ve been missing pen shows. I can’t say how great it was to go to the Washington DC Fountain Pen Supershow (AKA DC Pen Show). I intend to write a few posts related to the DC Pen Show, this one covers my general experience at the show. Still to come are my review of the show, and some reviews of what I bought. It was so lovely to see pen friends and chat with everyone throughout the show.

Friday – Show

This was the first time I’ve attended the DC Pen Show on a Friday, so I can’t say how different it was to normal, non-COVID years. However, in comparison to what I’m used to from the DC Pen Show, this year felt rather empty. There were additional vendors arriving throughout the day, though.

I was at the show from about 9:30am to about 1:15pm; leaving early after accomplishing my main missions. I needed to pick up Jim to go back for the unofficial Pen Show After Dark hangout, and I didn’t want to be stuck in traffic. And anyway, there were still two more days.

My first stop upon arrival was the registration table. I’d heard a rumor amongst the DC Pen Crew that a Weekend Trader Pass allowed you to bring a spouse. Turned out it was true!! So I picked up my badge and a badge for Jim (we were very thankful for that later). Then, because it was still so early (only about 9:38), I sat in the lobby for a bit. But by 9:52, I couldn’t contain my excitement anymore and snuck into the smaller room.