This week’s denizen of the Daily Carry is Lisa Miyako. If that name doesn’t ring a bell then maybe you’ll recognize her screen name: ethernautrix. She’s very active in many of the fountain pen circles found both online and off. She brings a witty, subtle sarcastic tone to the conversation that keeps things lively and fun. She’s an advocate of Nakaya fountain pens and after seeing her daily carry, I can understand why. Sit back, attach the bib, and let the drooling commence!
Here’s something we’ve not seen before. Lisa actually carries these inks and a syringe. Since she describes it better than I ever could, I’ll just let her tell us what she carries:
I think that I keep the same inks in the same pens, but a moment’s pause reminds me that I tend to switch inks out more frequently than I realize, but they’re usually the same inks, just for different pens (usually cos of the nib variable), to wit: Noodler’s Black and Walnut and the elusive exclusive Schreibtinte Braun. I like to keep one red in rotation, which is the Platinum Mix Free SPSY. And then sometimes I’ll throw in one more ink, either Sailor Rikyu Cha or Sailor Blue-Black or a green…. Today, though, because I have only five pens inked, the line-up is two blacks, two browns, and the one red. Unless you count the Pilot Parallel, in which case it’s three browns.
In the photo above are two Nakayas in Quiver two-pen holders. Each one is meant to carry two, but as you can see, she uses them as singles. They’are attached to a Markings by C.R. Gibson notebook (a Moleskine lookalike). The three-pen case is a Fiocchi Italy three-slot pen case with a wide loop that snaps over a belt or other strap. Serving as a back drop are two Franklin-Christoph Lucky 13 Penvelopes, one in boot brown, the other in black.
The pens from left to right:
- Nakaya Desk Pen (kura tamenuri)
- Nakaya
Neo-standard (aka tamenuri)Piccolo Cigar (unpolished shu) - Nakaya Mini Decapod (heki tamenuri)
- Montblanc 100-Year Historical
- Franklin-Christoph #65 Desk Pen
The Daily Carry portrait. Believe it or not, missing from this picture of Lisa’s daily carry pens is a Montblanc Agatha Christie ballpoint! These are all the same pens as above, just in a different order.
From left to right:
- F-C #65
- Nakaya Desk Pen (kura tamenuri)
- Nakaya Mini Decapod (heki tamenuri)
- Nakaya
Neo-standard (aka tamenuri)Piccolo Cigar (unpolished shu) - Montblanc 100-Year
While not part of Lisa’s daily carry, the penvelopes do tag along every now and then. Identifying all the pens in these two cases could be a game in and of itself. Anyone care to participate?
The usual roster of benchwarmers next to a four-slot pen case that Lisa has jerryrigged with safety pins to wear pinned to the waistband of her jeans but also used with a strap to wear over the shoulder. This setup debuted at the LA Pen Show a few months ago to massive fanfare and resulted in several licensing deals between Lisa and several pen case manufacturers (not really, but we can pretend, right?).
From left to right:
- Danitrio Komori
- Nakaya Piccolo Cigar (solid black)
- Nakaya Piccolo Writer (heki tamenuri)
- Montblanc Agatha Christie ballpoint
- Pelikan Toledo (W. Germany)
- Nakaya Negoro (shiro tamenuri)
Lisa Miyako is a figment of Lisa Miyako’s imagination. They, we… both enjoy using fountain pens, particularly Nakaya, particularly Nakaya’s ruthenium-plated nibs (the full range, from F to M). Ink of choice is Noodler’s Black, with Noodler’s Old Manhattan Black so close behind that it’s practically a tie. But that is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Efforts to pigeonhole Lisa Miyako’s pen and ink tastes tend to meet with obstacles which might explain why Lisa Miyako doesn’t collect pens: It is difficult to cateogorize je ne sais quoi. Having said that, Lisa Miyako admires pen people whose collections show a singularity of focus and understands why some people don’t want to ink and use some of their pens.
Lisa Miyako and her imagination apologize for writing this in the third person. It was awkward for me, too.
