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Category: Fountain Pens

SPS Series: Spotlight on Val Myburgh

Posted in Fountain Pens

Welcome, or welcome back, to my Stanford Pen Studio (SPS) series. If you haven’t seen my previous posts, I suggest you check them out to see the amazing work the SPS collective produces. This entry is spotlighting Val Myburgh who you can find on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and X/Twitter.

SPS Series Posts: SPS Overview | Brandon Lodewyk | Carla Nel | Di Möhr | Hanna Farmer | Kseniia Nel | Lana Le Roux | Lisa Strachan | Val Myburgh | Yulia Glas | Zelna le Roux | Initial Wrap-Up


Val is the second SPS artist I commissioned a pen from, but she bears the distinction of being the first SPS partner artist. She specializes in educational, medical and scientific illustrations, with an amazingly diverse portfolio of work. Val works both traditionally and digitally, and it looks like there aren’t many techniques she hasn’t tackled.

SPS Series: Spotlight on Hanna Farmer

Posted in Fountain Pens

Welcome, or welcome back, to my Stanford Pen Studio (SPS) series. If you haven’t seen my previous posts, I suggest you check them out to see the amazing work the SPS collective produces. This entry is spotlighting Hanna Farmer who you can find on Facebook and Instagram

SPS Series Posts: SPS Overview | Brandon Lodewyk | Carla Nel | Di Möhr | Hanna Farmer | Kseniia Nel | Lana Le Roux | Lisa Strachan | Val Myburgh | Yulia Glas | Zelna le Roux | Initial Wrap-Up


Hanna Farmer is the third SPS artist I commissioned a pen from — in this case, pens, plural. Her specialty, both in traditional and pen art, is nature-inspired zendoodles, an incredibly intricate craft, as can be seen in the photos below. Hanna’s tools of choice include Sakura Pigment Micron pens of various sizes, and that carried over into her pen art.

Pen Porn: SPS Cats and Books

Posted in Fountain Pens

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.

Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉

I fell in love with this pen when Yulia Glas posted her first preview of it to her stories. Then, when I saw the second preview, I knew I needed to have it. Cats AND books?! Literally two of my favorite things! I turned on alerts for Stanford Pen Studio (SPS), and pounced (pun intended) as soon as they posted the pen for sale. Before you continue reading my post, I suggest watching Di’s video — it’s only 90 seconds — where she reads each book title.

Stanford Pen Studio Cats and Books

Spotlight on Stanford Pen Studio

Posted in Fountain Pens

My love of Stanford Pen Studio (SPS) started with the first pen I commissioned from them back in 2022. This was when they were still Stanford Wood Studio, and before they began collaborating with other artists. But even then, Di and Dave Möhr were making gorgeous works of art.

Since then, SPS has carved out a large name for themselves in the pen world and my pen collection. I own more pens from them than from any other indie maker — 10, and soon to be 11! I only own 6 from the next most prevalent indie brand in my collection.

Pen Porn: Engraved Sleeve

Posted in Fountain Pens

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.

Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉

I spotted this pen on Country Made Pens‘ Instagram feed back in 2020. This was before engraved and painted pens jumped in popularity — and availability — among indie makers. I can’t remember how long I’d been following Troy at that point, but I hadn’t seen a pen like this before, and I wanted it.

What looked great on Instagram looked even better in person, and I’ve done my best to give you a good, close look at this gorgeous engraving.

Country Made Pens Engraved Sleeve

Am I a Weirdo?

Posted in Fountain Pens, Ink, and Stationery

Well, yes, definitely, but perhaps I should explain better.

I’ve had this post on my “idea list” for quite a while. It was time to buckle down and finally write it. I know I think differently than many others. I get reminded of that fairly often. That’s what inspired this post. I’m curious to see if I’m basically alone in these feelings, opinions, and actions, or if others agree and/or do the same.

Pen Care

Cleaning pens each week

Let’s start with an easy one. I know there are people out there who do this.

With rare exceptions, I clean out my pens within a week of finishing their rotation. And I ALWAYS clean my pens before putting them away. I also don’t mind cleaning out my pens. It’s not the best part of pen ownership, but it’s not onerous.

Pen Porn: Journey in Space

Posted in Fountain Pens

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.

Per usual, you can click on the pen images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉

I first saw this pen as a story on Yulia Glas‘ Instagram account. I thought she was planning a bubble pen. Clearly, I was very wrong. I believe I next saw it on Stanford Pen Studio‘s stories, and knew I had to have it.

Stanford Pen Studio Journey in Space

Keeping Nibs Straight

Posted in Fountain Pens

If you’ve been here a while, you already know I have a lot of altered nibs. If you’re fairly new here, then my recent nib overview post likely gave you a clue.

I have 32 altered nibs from 9 different nib customizers/meisters. About 10-15 nibs ago, I realized I need a foolproof way to keep track of them. I settled on a two-part system involving marking the nibs and storing them.

Storage

The storage is the simpler part, and likely isn’t unique to me. I store the nibs in a bead storage box. I’ve done this for a while, but recently downsized for portability. I store the rest of my unaltered nibs in the previous, larger container.

Pen Porn: Aurora 100° Anniversario

Posted in Fountain Pens

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.

Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉

To be completely transparent, I’ve been feeling a bit disenchanted with the 100° Anniversario since Aurora released the Duca. I don’t like that a pen as special as this one — developed as the company’s signature 100th anniversary pen — has been “copied-and-pasted” in blue for a regular release. I’m hoping this post will rekindle my love for it.

Aurora 100° Anniversario

Pen Show Nibs Overviews

Posted in Fountain Pens

As promised, I give you a post dedicated to the five nibs I bought at the DC Pen Show this year. This post is part showing off — sorry, but at least I admit it — because the nibs are awesome, and part review.

This is absolutely not a rating or ranking post. I’m sharing these alphabetically by nibmeister then by nib grind name. You can click on any picture to view it larger.

Displaying My Pens

Posted in Fountain Pens

As I’ve said before, I have a lot of pens, too many, really. I can’t use them as much as I’d like, which means they spend far too much time put away in pen cases. Most of my pens are in use for only a week at a time. That means none of them, and especially my special pens, don’t get the appreciation they deserve.

When my pen collection first expanded to include pens that couldn’t go in a standard pen case — mainly urushi pens — I kept them in pen sleeves. After a while, I decided to get a pen box. It didn’t take me long to move the pen box to one of the display cases I’d purchased years before for my Pop Figure collection.

Defining “Pretty Ink Stick”

Posted in Fountain Pens

As I’ve mentioned a few times now, one of my rules for this year is to not purchase any “pretty ink sticks” — which I’ve broken. As the DC Pen Show has approached, “pretty ink sticks” have come to mind more, since I know I’ll see lots of them. But, recently, I’ve been considering, what qualifies as a “pretty ink stick?”

Before I really get into this post, I want to make clear that I don’t consider “pretty ink stick” derogatory in any way. It’s a classification of pen — along the lines of urushi, black pen, and painted — one which many people love. I feel like many people, though, use “pretty ink stick” as an alternate term for “indie pen.” And that, to me, is derogatory. So I want a better definition.

Fountain Pen Alignment

Posted in Fountain Pens

A while back, I came across idipbananasintocoffee‘s Fountain pen alignment chart, I think in a newsletter. It’s a fun idea, and I decided to try my hand at it, but with some adjustments. Most importantly, my chart is based solely on the pen’s appearance. I do not take into account the performance of the pen, as idipbananasintocoffee did.

For those completely unfamiliar with alignment charts, they are 3×3 tables with good, neutral, and evil on one side and lawful, neutral, and chaotic on the other. Good-evil is fairly self explanatory, but the general consensus is that they are levels of empathy. Lawful-chaotic relates to adherence to consistent moral principles. Decisions are according to principles (lawful), need (neutral), or impulse (chaotic).

Pen Porn: 2024 Pilot Shareholder Gift

Posted in Fountain Pens

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.

Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉

I have a different type of pen porn post for you today: the 2024 Pilot Shareholder 1,000+ shares gift. While there is a fountain pen, and I do have some good photos of it, this time I’m more interested in sharing the packaging, because it’s really nice.

Pilot Custom 74 Brown

Stationery Crazes

Posted in Fountain Pens

This is my second attempt to write this post. As happens every so often, when I finished the first version, I was rather unhappy with it. Since you’re reading this now, it’s safe to say that this second iteration was much more to my liking.

Over the time I’ve been part of the pen world, I’ve watched several stationery crazes hit. Sometimes, the hype is strong enough to sweep everyone along. The new “it” thing will sell out continuously, with many more left desperately searching for one to buy. Other times, that hype is just a steady hum, inspiring interest and conversation, but not many purchases.

Pen Porn: Cypress Kawari-Nuri Pink

Posted in Fountain Pens

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from viewing this post.

Per usual, you can click on the images to view them larger. I do my best to provide you with high-quality pen porn. 😉

There isn’t as much to say about the Cypress Kawari-Nuri Pink as other pens. I picked it up secondhand from Inks.And.Anchors on Instagram. It’s beautiful, and I love the color palette.

Be aware, I’ve done my best to edit photos to show true-to-life colors. However, anything with red in it — like pink — shows significantly more red on camera and requires a lot of editing.

Cypress Kawari Nuri pink

Outgrowing a Pen Case

Posted in Fountain Pens

I’m not a stranger to outgrowing a pen case. In my early days of pen collecting, I tried to stick to a Girologio 24-pen case. I think my collection grew out of that after a year or so. So I got their 48-pen case. And, when the collection grew out of that one, I picked up a second one.

For the past 4+ years, I’ve had 3 48-pen cases. I divide my collection into less expensive, more expensive, and indie-made pens for my pen rotation. It makes sense to me to store them that way, too.

A Fountain Pen Rainbow

Posted in Fountain Pens

Tomorrow starts Pride Month, and as a proud pen collector, I couldn’t let it go by without a pen rainbow. It was hard to narrow down a single pen for each color, and even harder to stick to pens that are primarily one color — I didn’t fully succeed there. Maybe I’ll do another one of these later in the month with the Bi flag. We’ll see.

Proud pen addict button/pin

There are plenty of pen pictures, so this one could count as a pen porn post, too. To include more pens, I cheated a bit and added brown, black, and white. I know they aren’t actually part of the rainbow, but I doubt anyone will complain.

If you want to have some extra fun, try to guess what pens are in the “rainbow.”

Pen rainbow photo blocked out by the colors.