Ink!!!

My inks finally arrived from Pendemonium! Nine delicious colours:

- Diamine Umber
- Noodler's Russian Chekhov
- Noodler's Russian Dostoyevsky
- Noodler's Russian Pushkin
- Noodler's Apache Sunset
- Noodler's Golden Brown
- Private Reserve Burgundy Mist
- Rohrer & Klingner Fernambuk
- Rohrer & Klingner Morinda

...plus some Red Platinum cartridges and some silicon grease to use on my Sailor Eyedropper, which has a point-section leak.

Very pleased with all the colours except Diamine Umber and Noodler's Dostoyevsky. Umber was touted as a Pelikan Moss Green alternative, which is so not true. Moss Green was a yummy olive shade, while Umber is just a forest green. Meanwhile, Dostoyevsky looks like a slightly faded Sheaffer Turquoise. Boring.

Rohrer & Klingner Morinda and Private Reserve Burgundy Mist are my favourites from the bunch. :)

Samples and such posted here (FPN).

More Paper

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Original Crown Mill Stationery, an extremely nice paper I was able to buy locally. The quality is comparable with G. Lalo, which is great; because that was the paper I most wished I could buy here in AU. While I can buy Crane & Co., it's very expensive.

I ordered a couple more OCM A5 pads in Cream today, and some C6 Cream envelopes with different tissue linings - Chocolate, Bordeaux, Kraft, Bamboo and Navy. Yummy!

Pen & Ink Updates

I have been advised by Pendemonium that the Diamine Umber shipment may finally be arriving. It's been a few months now, nearly four, I think. Damn Diamine.

I've rationalised the number of pens I had inked, and I'm down to eight. Once the Pendemonium inks arrive that amount will easily double, so I might have to trim the current number to five or so...

My writing box restoration is going splendidly. The box has cleaned up very well and I'm in the middle of re-papering the inside compartments with a sedate charcoal-coloured paper. It’s looking really neat and tidy now. :)

Lastly, I've ordered another two Pilot 78Gs from HisNibs, as well as two Hero 329s. I love those F nibs on the Pilot 78G - they are perfection. I'll have every colour now: Teal, Red, Dark Green and Black. :)

A Writing Box

I recently picked up a small ladies writing box, which I plan to restore a little so that it displays nicely. It’s not the type of writing box which opens back to create a sloped surface, but rather one which opens to a small tablet for writing which then folds back into the lid to reveal the compartments beneath.

The box is from around 1840, appears to be made from mahogany and the top of the box is inset with a floral tooled leather design. It’s not a valuable item, and has certainly seen better days. All the compartments are present, though a couple of dividers have come loose. The compartments are lined with an unattractive paper, which I hope to remove or replace. The glass inkwell with a brass cap is present. The bottom compartment is a correspondence drawer divided in two, with one side marked Answered and the other side marked Unanswered.


Now, to read up on how to safely clean leather, and find out what type of paper is best to line the compartments with...

OMG 2007 !!!

Yes, 2007 is upon us.

(How horrifying! Where have the years gone?!? My life is passing me by at a great rate of knots! I remember my 21st like it was yesterday, dammit!)

But, enough panicking. What's new in pendom?

1. Original Crown Mill Stationery. I picked up a pad and envelope set from this Belgium paperier just before Christmas and I love it. It is cream laid paper with a beautiful texture and feel. Currently I have the classic correspondence set in Grey. OCM is also available in A5 pads, which is what I prefer, because pads vs. sheets are much better value. Also, they offer C6 envelopes in Cream with your choice of 21 different coloured linings. Excellent stuff.
2. Richard Binder. I have finally sent my 10 pens to Richard for nib customizations. The wait will be awhile, but it will be so worth it. :)

No Pens = Wrong

In what can only be termed as a cruel twist of fate, the arrival of my Nakaya has removed all thoughts of other pens from my mind. My Urushi Piccolo is seriously special, and certainly perfect - but this perfection has been my downfall.

I no longer crave more pens.

It seems appalling to admit this. It seems wrong! So very, very wrong!

There are no pens coming in the mail. There are no exciting eBay snipes. There are no eBay blurry-pictured, bargain-priced mystery pens! There is *nothing*.

The only pen news on my horizon is the fact I have ten (10!) fountain pens set aside to send to Richard Binder. Will some of these ten pens return with nibs so delightful that my interest is rekindled?

I for one, bloody well hope so. Frankly, the whole situation is highly disturbing and odd.

21 Days Off

I finished working for 2006 today, and now have three weeks to myself before I am due back on-site. I wouldn't have minded working over Christmas, because you get a hell of a lot more done with that many people away, but it wasn't to be. The end of year systems-freeze is in place, so my projects will have to wait until 2007.

Ha! The SAP Enterprise Portal work came my way again today. I last looked at that Portal in April and it was a load of crap back then. Unfortunately when I looked at the QA environment again today, I found that nothing has changed.

We're pushing for local site administration so that I can manage our content like I do for the current Plumtree Portal - if we have to have head office manage every little thing, I think we'll kick up a stink and ask to remain on Plumtree...

I cannot believe how ugly the Portal is either. No one seems to have idea how to effectively manipulate the interface, there are scrollbars galore in every single portlet/gadget and the positioning and layout is terrible. As a complete perfectionist, it offends me to even look at it.

Ok, enough nerdy ramble... onto pens!

Except that I have no pen news, other than I intentionally filled my Nakaya with Private Reserve Shoreline Gold, without rinsing out the Copper Burst. The resulting colour is delicious. :)

Pen Ramblings

More of an update today... no new news to share. :)

Firstly, my Nakaya Piccolo. It is incredibly perfect - I love this pen so, so much.

Next, my Aurora Mini Optima. Not long after I bought it, I felt the ink flow was a little too much. The wonderful Pamela B sorted it all out, and in a roundabout way also gave me the opportunity to have an Extra Fine stub nib ground for the pen. I’m really looking forward to getting it. :)

Two cute Pilot 78G's arrived from HisNibs today - a Teal and a Cinnabar with Fine nibs. Being Japanese this means they are more like extra-fine nibs, and so far the dip-test has indicated these pens are winners! Lovely service from Norman, as usual. :)

Perhaps it's just the combination of the EF nibs and dry-writing pens that I use, but my FPN Special-Edition ink isn't really so brown at all. In fact, it's a middle-of-the-road dirty red-orange. I can see with a wet writer that the colour would deepen, but really, there's a heck of a lot of red in there.

Nakaya Urushi Cigar

I took some good photos of my new Nakaya today, and have posted a comprehensive review over at the Fountain Pen Network: Nakaya Urushi - Cigar Piccolo

Enjoy!

My Nakaya Arrived!

I picked it up this afternoon and it is exquisite! I think I will be buying a second one next year. :)

The Kuro-Tamenuri (Blackish-Red) Urushi finish is stunning...

More on this beauty later. :)