Pira
April 11th, 2016, 04:22 PM
Thought I'd be polite and swing by this thread & introduce myself.
I honestly can't recall how I was reminded of the existence of fountain pens a couple of years ago, but suspect it was at the moment when I was ranting about school boards (including the one educating my children) having dismissed handwriting as old fashioned and useless, beginning to limit or eliminate the teaching of cursive.
With the internet at my fingertips I soon found myself wallowing in the wide world of fountain pens. My learning curve was steep and fast, as I tried to figure out what it was I wanted in a writing pen. I learned I prefer Japanese F or EF nibs, have a serious soft spot for those Esterbrook J series work horses and their exchangable with Osmiroid nibs, & tend to coo stupidly over the pens designed from the 1920s - 50s pens. My writing fountain pens of choice currently are my Sailor 1911S F & a Monte Rose EF (mid-60s). I also have an addiction to ink. Modern, old school, permanent or handmade by basement chemists...it's all exciting to me.
Self taught, I like to draw with & photograph the above said inks, although I tend to jump around subject matter, methods and mediums when creating like a bug on a hot plate. Sorry...the muses really never turn off in my head and ink is fascinating stuff that demands exploring!
My quest for ever finer nibs found me at a crossroad of sorts. I have all the writing pens I need...German. English. Japanese. American. Canadian. New, vintage, old...really old... so no fountain pen grails to quest for. And yet I was on a quest....for finer and finer drawing nibs.
Which sent me down the rabbit hole after...my lovely, vintage dip nib pens. Flex or no flex ...I love the sound of scritch scritch scritch across my drawing paper. There is a nib for every purpose and you don't know flex till you've done it with a dip nib. Clever those long dead people. Now I look at the selection of fountain pen nibs and think...wow, that's startlingly limiting. How can people stand it? ;)
But that's the great thing about pens & ink...there is something for everyone.
It's a pleasure to have found this forum and I'm happy to be here.
I honestly can't recall how I was reminded of the existence of fountain pens a couple of years ago, but suspect it was at the moment when I was ranting about school boards (including the one educating my children) having dismissed handwriting as old fashioned and useless, beginning to limit or eliminate the teaching of cursive.
With the internet at my fingertips I soon found myself wallowing in the wide world of fountain pens. My learning curve was steep and fast, as I tried to figure out what it was I wanted in a writing pen. I learned I prefer Japanese F or EF nibs, have a serious soft spot for those Esterbrook J series work horses and their exchangable with Osmiroid nibs, & tend to coo stupidly over the pens designed from the 1920s - 50s pens. My writing fountain pens of choice currently are my Sailor 1911S F & a Monte Rose EF (mid-60s). I also have an addiction to ink. Modern, old school, permanent or handmade by basement chemists...it's all exciting to me.
Self taught, I like to draw with & photograph the above said inks, although I tend to jump around subject matter, methods and mediums when creating like a bug on a hot plate. Sorry...the muses really never turn off in my head and ink is fascinating stuff that demands exploring!
My quest for ever finer nibs found me at a crossroad of sorts. I have all the writing pens I need...German. English. Japanese. American. Canadian. New, vintage, old...really old... so no fountain pen grails to quest for. And yet I was on a quest....for finer and finer drawing nibs.
Which sent me down the rabbit hole after...my lovely, vintage dip nib pens. Flex or no flex ...I love the sound of scritch scritch scritch across my drawing paper. There is a nib for every purpose and you don't know flex till you've done it with a dip nib. Clever those long dead people. Now I look at the selection of fountain pen nibs and think...wow, that's startlingly limiting. How can people stand it? ;)
But that's the great thing about pens & ink...there is something for everyone.
It's a pleasure to have found this forum and I'm happy to be here.