Liv
January 31st, 2013, 07:52 PM
Hi everyone,
I'm from Paris, France, not quite yet 30. I translate and sell books as a living. That means I have two part-time jobs. It keeps me flexible enough to clear some time and indulge in what is our common passion and obsession.
How I got started with all this: when I was in primary school in France, we first learned how to write with pencils and paper, and chalks on little blackboards. The letters we were to take example from were in old-fashioned cursive handwriting, with thin upstrokes and larger downstrokes. Pretty soon after that, we were introduced to fountain pens, around the age of 8 or 9 I would say. I don't actually know how writing is taught now, I should ask some friends who have kids. Maybe it has changed. I'd be interested in finding out.
Anyway, that's what I used to write and take notes, up until university. Then, even though I believe I still carried a fountain pen and used it from time to time, for some strange reason I used a lot of ball-point pens and rollers and gel pens, because, I don't know, you had so many colors available, and it was easy, and I thought it was more modern and practical, I suppose. I progressively stopped using my good old Waterman, which wasn't working very well anymore. I had tried to clean it, but didn't even know you could take out the nib and feed. Nobody had explained this to me, not even the guy I had bought the pen from. And that was before you could find about anything explained in a Youtube video. My pen was just in need of a good thorough cleaning, but I didn't know that, and kind of gave up. I kept my old Parker Vector with black cartridges and used it from time to time, always with pleasure, but not really with the excitement writing gives me today.
Of course, I knew that you could buy red ink, purple ink, green ink. My grand-father had a bottle of Waterman's "Bleu des mers du sud" in his study (South Sea Blue). What did I think you could do with a bottle of ink? Either use a dip pen, or take a syringe and fill a cartridge with it. Ha! :crazy: As for other colors, all I knew were J. Herbin's little metal boxes with six funky colored cartridges inside. But you couldn't write your essays in those colors, and you had to clean the pen before and after, and it was a bit expensive compared to the regular blue and black ones... I didn't use them for a very long time.
And then, last year, I don't remember how or thanks to whom, I discovered that you could use piston converters in fountain pens instead of cartridges. I looked into it: turned out, there were dozens and hundreds of different shades of ink you could chose from! Dozens of brands! I had no idea! Then I came across this video (http://youtu.be/pRebkWHsHC0), and that was the end of my sanity.
How could I not know about pistons and inks, being such a bookworm and a stationary lover? Why did nobody tell me about it, or show me a proper fountain pen when I was a kid? My grandpa for instance? It's a mystery to me. Maybe he did, but I was too young and forgot, I don't know.
Anyway, I became a kid again, and started buying a few more pens and a few bottles of Herbin inks (the kind that are easiest to find in France, other than the regular Quink, Waterman, Pelikan etc.) And I started to play around. To read about them. To search for pictures and reviews. To admire the beauty of the handwritten word. I became addicted to S.B.R.E. Brown and Brian Goulet's videos. I started collecting paper. Who would have thought that Clairefontaine and Rhodia, who, to me, meant school, homework, exercices, graded essays, produced one of the best kinds of paper available?
So, here I am. I'll probably keep on being more active on the French forum, forum.styloplume.net, but will enjoy reading about pens, inks and paper here, and posting from time to time.
Thank you!
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8077/8339471959_470125aae3.jpg
(https://secure.flickr.com/photos/supercool/sets/72157632415495307/)
I'm from Paris, France, not quite yet 30. I translate and sell books as a living. That means I have two part-time jobs. It keeps me flexible enough to clear some time and indulge in what is our common passion and obsession.
How I got started with all this: when I was in primary school in France, we first learned how to write with pencils and paper, and chalks on little blackboards. The letters we were to take example from were in old-fashioned cursive handwriting, with thin upstrokes and larger downstrokes. Pretty soon after that, we were introduced to fountain pens, around the age of 8 or 9 I would say. I don't actually know how writing is taught now, I should ask some friends who have kids. Maybe it has changed. I'd be interested in finding out.
Anyway, that's what I used to write and take notes, up until university. Then, even though I believe I still carried a fountain pen and used it from time to time, for some strange reason I used a lot of ball-point pens and rollers and gel pens, because, I don't know, you had so many colors available, and it was easy, and I thought it was more modern and practical, I suppose. I progressively stopped using my good old Waterman, which wasn't working very well anymore. I had tried to clean it, but didn't even know you could take out the nib and feed. Nobody had explained this to me, not even the guy I had bought the pen from. And that was before you could find about anything explained in a Youtube video. My pen was just in need of a good thorough cleaning, but I didn't know that, and kind of gave up. I kept my old Parker Vector with black cartridges and used it from time to time, always with pleasure, but not really with the excitement writing gives me today.
Of course, I knew that you could buy red ink, purple ink, green ink. My grand-father had a bottle of Waterman's "Bleu des mers du sud" in his study (South Sea Blue). What did I think you could do with a bottle of ink? Either use a dip pen, or take a syringe and fill a cartridge with it. Ha! :crazy: As for other colors, all I knew were J. Herbin's little metal boxes with six funky colored cartridges inside. But you couldn't write your essays in those colors, and you had to clean the pen before and after, and it was a bit expensive compared to the regular blue and black ones... I didn't use them for a very long time.
And then, last year, I don't remember how or thanks to whom, I discovered that you could use piston converters in fountain pens instead of cartridges. I looked into it: turned out, there were dozens and hundreds of different shades of ink you could chose from! Dozens of brands! I had no idea! Then I came across this video (http://youtu.be/pRebkWHsHC0), and that was the end of my sanity.
How could I not know about pistons and inks, being such a bookworm and a stationary lover? Why did nobody tell me about it, or show me a proper fountain pen when I was a kid? My grandpa for instance? It's a mystery to me. Maybe he did, but I was too young and forgot, I don't know.
Anyway, I became a kid again, and started buying a few more pens and a few bottles of Herbin inks (the kind that are easiest to find in France, other than the regular Quink, Waterman, Pelikan etc.) And I started to play around. To read about them. To search for pictures and reviews. To admire the beauty of the handwritten word. I became addicted to S.B.R.E. Brown and Brian Goulet's videos. I started collecting paper. Who would have thought that Clairefontaine and Rhodia, who, to me, meant school, homework, exercices, graded essays, produced one of the best kinds of paper available?
So, here I am. I'll probably keep on being more active on the French forum, forum.styloplume.net, but will enjoy reading about pens, inks and paper here, and posting from time to time.
Thank you!
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8077/8339471959_470125aae3.jpg
(https://secure.flickr.com/photos/supercool/sets/72157632415495307/)