Forgotten Art Supplies : Nostalgia (or not!)

Thanks to some informative tweets from Graham McArthur about content on Drawger.com, I recently found the "The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies".

It made me smile to see rapidographs, elipsographs, Letraset, film erasers, stencils and scribes... I trained as a Cartographer, and was amongst the last to be taught traditional drafting in addition to CAD. Also, my mother used to work as a Geological Draughtsperson, so between us, we own about three-quarters of the supplies shown in the above-mentioned Museum.

The thing is though, I still *use* about half of those supplies today. I have a deep love and appreciation for them! After all, I was a child who was given sheets of Letratone and a burnisher/stylus to play with, not scrap paper and crayons. I didn't use pencils to colour illustrations or diagrams for my school assignments; I used self-adhesive Pantone Letrafilm in a rainbow of PMS colours.

Last year I wanted a new set of French Curves and some small triangles. I looked high and low for a set of decent quality cut and weighted plastic curves, but all I readily found were cheap and poorly finished sets with seams - they were almost disposable! (For someone who always buys the best hand-tools she can afford, and who considers an all-brass rolling parallel ruler as one of her most treasured possessions, this experience was a tiny bit heartbreaking.)

Quality over quantity... those were the days. ;)

July Update

It's been a quiet few months in pendom for me of late. Work, art and friends have been taking up more and more of my time. But, there are some small tidbits of (old) news to share...

• Pilot Iroshizuku Autumn Inks
  Three gorgeous new inks came out several weeks ago, and I must say that the Autumn edition is my favourite Iroshizuku release so far. With the gorgeous red-orange fuyu-gaki, burgundy-brown tsukushi, and subdued brown tones of yama-guri (which is a match for Penman Mocha, by the way), Pilot couldn't really miss this time around.
  However, I expect others will be less pleased with the Autumn range than I am, because in pendom, blue ink *still* reigns supreme, and I am in a distinct minority because I don't care for blue ink - at all. ;)


• OMAS Princess Scarlet Red
  A second Scarlet Red Princess will join my collection this month, taking my Princess total to six. Scarlet Red is my favourite OMAS celluloid after the beautiful Saft Green.


• Nakaya Piccolo IV
  By now, I should have already ordered my fourth Nakaya Piccolo, but I just can't decide on a design. I have several designs of my own creation short-listed, but love them all equally, so I keep dithering between them and never choosing.
  In the meantime, I have decided to order a Aka-tame Desk Pen. No design motifs, just that classic lacquer with a rose gold SEF nib.

Old becomes new!

Behold my new pen!

Somewhat of a Pilot Super clone with that big (brassed) cap band, this pen is actually made by "Ever", a low-tier maker active in 1950's Japan. I rediscovered this humble pen in my junk box this afternoon, and became especially interested in it when I noticed that the inlaid steel nib appeared to be exceptionally fine. The potential for exceptionally fine nibs always excites me, so I decided to give the pen a little TLC.

The pen had been in the junk box for about two years - with good reason. It had been given to me as a parts pen, even though it was NOS and still had two stickers on it. The clip was loose and the trim showing a lot of brass. I tried various methods to tighten the loose cap without success, so in the end, out came the two-part epoxy adhesive! I removed the stickers, cleaned the pen up, and polished the cap, barrel and trim with a bit of carnuba wax. The feed is ebonite, as is the whole grip section. This made the pen slightly more interesting - the less potentially brittle plastic, the better.

The steel nib is imprinted with 'Venus', and bears the 〄 mark. The tines were quite misaligned, but I soon had that fixed, and then inked the pen with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-Ryoku. I'm pleased to report that the line is ridiculously fine! :)

Pilot Iroshizuku Ito-Ya Inks

The other day I received two bottles of Pilot's 'Tokyo Limited Edition' ink. These were made especially for the stationery store to end all other stationery stores, Ito-Ya, Ginza district, Tokyo.

Click to enlarge!

Three inks were produced: Shimbashi-Iro, Edo-Murasaki and Fukagawa-Nezu. Not being a fan of blue, I passed on the Shimbashi-Iro, but the rich red-violet and green-grey tones of the other two were unmissable!

The ink samples I brushed on above are: Yama-Budo, J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune (Moondust), Edo-Murasaki, Fukagawa-Nezu, Fuyu-Syogun and Kiri-Same.

I don't write ink reviews, but keep your eyes on Inkophile, because samples of Edo-Murasaki and Fukagawa-Nezu will be with Margana shortly.

OMAS Princess #5

Recently another long-awaited OMAS Princess fountain pen joined my collection - a 1997 Arco Green Princess with gold-filled trim!



This is the fifth Princess in my collection, and the sixth OMAS celluloid I have had the pleasure of owning. The diminutive Princess and Dama models were released along with the Paragon as the Classic Celluloid Collection in 1991. The Princess is as beautifully made as the 1930s ring top models which preceded it, and there is nothing like it amongst modern OMAS offerings.

A 5-Piece Scarlet Red Classic Celluloid Set: Dama Ballpoint #C2811, Princess Ring Top Fountain Pen with Tassel #8141, The Paragon Fountain Pen #8711, Dama (Lady) Fountain Pen #8811, and The Paragon Rollerball #5711. (Photo © Unknown)

The Classic Celluloid Collection was a high-quality OMAS range which featured their faceted, twelve-sided (dodecagonal) design turned out in four beautiful celluloid stocks: Scarlet Red, Saft Green, Pearl Grey and Arco Bronze. Later, three additional celluloids were added – Blue La Royale, Arco Green and Senape Blue:



The Classic Celluloid Collection was discontinued in ~2002. All subsequent releases in these celluloids feature different models, including several revisions of the Paragon. Models and sizes can be confusing in regard to these OMAS pens, but as a general guide:

• The Princess is a clipless ring top, and it is tiny. It is 4.3" / 110mm capped.
• The Dama is also known as the "1930" model. It is a very small pen, and sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Mini Paragon". It is 4.6" / 118mm capped.
• The Milord is the model sized between the Dama/1930 and the Paragon. It was not part of the 1991 collection.
• The Paragon has been revised several times. When part of the 1991 collection, it was 5.5" / 142mm capped.

My Arco Green Princess has a 0.3mm Stub nib, and both pen and nib were courtesy of Dillon Ang, who like myself, has long appreciated what a exquisitely crafted little pen the Princess is. I have a couple of nibs from Dillon now, and have been very pleased with them. The pen is inked with Diamine Umber, which goes beautifully with the grey-green Arco Green celluloid.

The older OMAS nibs are of a very high, if slightly inconsistent quality, while the newer (2000 onward) Bock nibs are more uniformly produced and inconsistencies have largely been eliminated. However, this is of little concern to me... every one of my OMAS pens has a customised nib. ;)

If you have very deep pockets, only one store which I am aware of has any stock of the celluloid pens left - Pens in Asia. Be prepared to spend up for one, NOS.

Nakaya Piccolo III - Review

I have just posted the review for my third Nakaya :

• Piccolo Chinkin Palmet - Shu with Colored Powders

Nakaya Piccolo III - Photo!

So this morning I woke up to a fantastic post by SJM1123 in a recent thread on the FPN about Japanese lacquerware decoration. The post links to a wonderful database of techniques, including Chinkin, which is what I chose for my third Piccolo.

I was so inspired by the videos that I got the camera out and started snapping away. Here is a teaser from the shoot:


I couldn't find my remote cable release and I was all in despair over the lighting quality... but I think they turned out OK.

Just Inked: OMAS Princess #4

Today one of my stunning OMAS Princess fountain pens returned to me after spending some time with Deb Kinney. The nib is now a very nice Kinney 0.3mm Cursive Italic, and much more usable than the original (shudders in horror) B nib.

This 1997 Princess is all inked up with Iroshizuku Yu-Yake. The soft shade of orange goes beautifully with the Senape / Saffron Blue / Autumn Blue celluloid. (I have no idea why this celluloid has so many different names... but I like them all.)

I'm planning to photograph some pens this weekend... hopefully I might have a few more photos to update this with. This is definitely one of the less common OMAS celluloids.

Also, at some point in the near future I will have a Arco Green Princess arriving... another delicious and uncommon celluloid!

Sailor "Smoke Green" LE

Today a wonderful Sailor Professional Gear arrived!

Behold the full-size Sailor & Bunzo Stationery 2009 "Smoke Green" LE - only twenty-five pens were produced.


This limited edition pen was accompanied by a bottle of Sailor green ink, specifically blended to match the colour of the pen. It's a beautiful deep green ink that looks perfect coming out of the EF nib.

Gorgeous, gorgeous GREEN!

Nakaya Piccolo III - Update

I forgot to post this Nakaya update earlier (which in itself is an amazing occurrence), but my third Nakaya has been completed, and photos are available on the Nakaya website.

The pen will remain in Japan for some time yet, until the design of a new rose gold nib is complete.

The normal Chinkin technique of engraved line work into highly polished lacquer has always seemed too much of a visual contrast to me, so I opted for the subtler approach of line work into a unpolished Shu urushi body. The unpolished finish is akin to a 'satin' finish.

In a couple of months I will be starting talks with Nakaya for a fourth Piccolo, one with a completely custom design. I don't expect to see it until 2010, however, my tradition of at least one exquisite Nakaya a year is something which I love. I never mind waiting for pens like these. :)

Photo © Nakaya Corporation.