Fountain Pen People in the News

Some of the writers noted for beautiful handwriting are fountain pen people including Leigh Reyes and Clement Dionglay. 6 People with Seriously Swoon-worthy Handwriting is the title of the article at CNN Philippines. Beautiful handwriting indeed!

Improve Your Writing With A Handwriting Journal

3.3 million views for a handwriting video is impressive. The use of a Lamy fountain pen, Aurora black ink and a Traveler’s Notebook add to its aesthetic presentation. Need a bit of encouragement to try your hand at something new? This might be just the thing to get you started.

One of the most useful points made is that it takes repetitive effort to create muscle memory. Just keep practicing and that new style of lettering will become natural. My suspicion is that the first style is the most difficult and successive ones are more easily learned.

Another useful point is to write slowly. That breaks writing habits associated with one’s usual handwriting.

Kudos to the video’s creator, MyLifeinaBullet on YouTube, for inspiring writers to write and for using a fountain pen to do it.

 

 

 

Lessons From 2021 And Plans For 2022

2021 was my year to reorganize and consolidate making the most of what was on hand. The result was a lean kit of basic tools that make writing a pleasure.

Honestly, it was pretty simple. Selling pens financed the purchase of four inexpensive Chinese models one of which has become my favorite daily writer. A contaminated bottle of a favorite ink was replaced. Paper purchases included identical replacements for completed journals along with paper for two A5 loose-leaf notebooks. Hardly adventurous, but it was satisfying to use familiar tools. All of this led to more writing and less fiddling. And that’s a good thing.

Writing more slowly improved my letter forms and my hand was less stressed during rare longer sessions. My softer touch created less drag so extra-fine nibs were less scratchy making them useful again.

Lessons from 2021 that will apply to 2022:

• Sell pens that will never receive the love they deserve.
• If a pen doesn’t thrill me but I am not ready to sell it, there is a drawer where pens-in-waiting can commiserate. In the future, it might be perfect for my needs.
• Converter fillers with satisfying nibs are best for me. Keep no more than three to five filled at a time including pens for testing ink.
• If an ink is terrific, keep using it! Iroshizuku syo-ro in a fine fude is #1 these days with eighteen refills in recent months. Platinum Classic Lavender Black is getting a lot of love, too.
• Stick to my paper niche of Tomoe River 52gsm, a planner with MD paper, and only an occasional tryst with a new brand.
• Write slowly with a soft touch and don’t worry about how my writing looks so long as it is legible.
• Handwritten notes spark ideas for my websites so do it daily if only a sentence or two.

2022 plans include only one new addition, a watercolor journal. In the past, notes, swatches, sketches, palette ideas went in all kinds of places including unrelated notebooks, my personal journal, backs of envelopes, napkins. You name it and I wrote and painted on it. Time to change my ways most likely with a Stillman & Birn Beta or Zeta Sketchbook. Both have paper that will handle watercolor swatches and sketches as well as notes made with fountain pens and pencils. A single notebook is all I will need.

On a different subject, social media can be entertaining if sometimes brutal as I experienced when a narcissistic, delusional FB bully attacked me. Anyway, no one and no topic is worth being the target of that kind of abuse. The lesson here is to trust my instincts and ignore or block people sooner. I am worth it and so are you. On the plus side, this episode encouraged me to reevaluate and expand my plans in a way that I would not have done without the bully’s attack. Instead of doing less, I am doing more. Ironic, eh?

Now you know how my 2021 tool selection evolved as well as the year’s life lesson. The opposite may be better for you with lots of pens, constantly changing inks, a huge variety of notebooks and paper, and handwriting that does not need tweaking. You might even like interacting with a bully. Hey, whatever makes you happy!

Lastly, I learned that I have a namesake. Cute, eh?

Margana, the Camel

 

Pen, Ink And Paper Links Plus A Picasso

Fountain pens and other delights…

• Gourmet Pens: Paper for Fountain Pens Graphilo Notebooks
• Gentleman Stationer: Best Notebooks For A Commonplace Book
• Anderson Pens: 3 Oysters Colors
• The Well-Appointed Desk: Kuretake Karappo Empty Brush & Felt Tip Pens
• ReadCursiveFast.com: “Oops, I Forgot How To Read Cursive!”
• UK Fountain Pens: The results are in: the great fountain pen survey, part 1
• Fountain pen blog: Some thoughts on the Lamy Nexx fountain pen.
• The Pen Company: How to make your handwriting more beautiful
• 12 Famous Artists’ Signatures and What They Can Tell You

 

Sunday Reads: Edison, Italics And A Crush

Confession: I can’t use a BIC without feeling like I’m slumming. Am I a snob?

• Why I Swapped Out my BIC for a Fountain Pen
• Why I Keep an Idea Journal and Thomas Edison journal
• UK Fountain Pens: 11 phenomenal stubs and italics for any budget
• Mountain of Ink: Ink Review #785: Robert Oster Velvet Crush

Favorite traveling companions…

Sunday Reads: Pens, Inks And A Monster-Fighting Kitten

Life Imitates Doodles has had problems with WordPress. Disappointing to see but no surprise given my experiences. For your amusement, an intrepid kitten battles a mechanical monster but does it win?

• Michael’s Essay: The Lost Art of Writing Letters
• Gourmet Pens: Just the Basics: Using a Flex Nib Fountain Pen
• Handwriting: An Elegy
• The Writing Desk: How To Choose A Fountain Pen
• Inked Happiness: Indian Fountain pens – Ebonitus Extinctus?
• 5 Types of Mobile Apps You Should Stop Installing
• Mountain of Ink: 2 years and 700 inks
• The Well-Appointed Desk: Ink Review: ColorVerse Pen Chalet Special Edition
• Leigh Reyes: How to Test a Fountain Pen Before Buying It And Other Life Skills
• Ed Jelley: JACQUES HERBIN 1798: KYANITE DU NEPAL INK REVIEW
• Life Imitates Doodles: THE LAST SATURDAY LINKS TO TANGLES, TUTORIALS AND GIVEAWAYS

Best cat toy ever!

Sunday Reads: Pens, Ink And Happy Hour

So what do pens have to do with happy hour? Read on.

• Pen Chalet: Conklin Duraflex Limited Edition Fountain Pens (If I were in the market for a new pen, this one looks just right.)
• Quick Fountain Pen Review: Nemosine Fission Gunmetal Quick Fountain Pen Review
• Teoh: IndiGraph – This fountain pen can use India ink
• Mountain of Ink: Ink Review #639: Jacques Herbin Ambre de Baltique
• The Pen Addict: Faber-Castell NEO Slim Fountain Pen Review
• Fontana Penna Furore Collection (I like the Arancio but I am always a sucker for that color.)
• Plooms Fountain Pens in the U.K. (Check out the blotters.)
• Forbes: Is Writing With A Pen Better Than Happy Hour?

From the archives, my kit from five years ago. Only one pen has remained a constant in my rotation. Can you guess which one?

Pens: Platinum #3776, Noodler’s Standard Flex, the Pilot Prera Italic and the Sheaffer Taranis Medium. Inks: Diamine Sepia, Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses, Noodler’s Black and Diamine Steel Blue. Autopoint Mechanical Pencil, a daily user that has never failed me.