A little intermission from my Omas pens and ink postings this week as it's Kingsday in the Netherlands! Since the nation is being clad in orange today, I thought it would be a fun idea to have this week's pens and ink post to color coordinate accordingly.
Seeing I don't own many orange pens, but I know someone in particular who does like them and even customized one, I asked him to help me out this week. I've also asked him some questions on how he uses his fountain pens which also fits this months theme on Stationery Wednesday at Bureau direct; "Everything you wanted to know about fountain pens, but were to afraid to ask" So thank you, my husband Cris, for indulging me and answering a few fountain pen related questions :)
How did you get (re)acquainted with fountain pens?
My first fountain pens I used in school, which meant a lot of inky fingers and a lot of collecting of the little agitator balls that are left in standard cartridges. But stopped using fountain pens the day I left primary school behind.
I got reacquainted with fountain pens because my wife, the wonderful Miss Thundercat, started using them. While she was using more and more elaborate pens (eyedroppers, piston fillers etc) my interest was mostly just technical. The construction, the use, the techniques the idea's. When I finally got around to buying my first fountain pen, I was quite happy with the way it could be handled, wrote and the choice of inks.
What was your first fountain pen purchase?
My first fountain pen was the Lamy Al-star Black, a gorgeous, matte black, "stealth" looking pen. I thought that it was a really cool pen even though the cap look a bit "chunky" but fitting as as Al-stars are robust pens. I was sold on fountain pens ever since.
Do you have a favorite nib size?
I have a spidery cursive handwriting, so to keep it legible, I go for extra fine or fine points. I also enjoy them for art projects. I have experimented with broader nibs and trying to change my handwriting, but nothing consistent has come out of this so far.
What do you use your fountain pens for mostly?
I use it for writing projects or (small) notes and planning of RPG's mostly. I like to use hard back notebooks like Leuchtturm 1917 A5 size in dot grid. I also enjoy creating map drawings with them and different sizes nibs and ink color choices are really useful.
How did you get the idea to customize your Lamy Copper Orange?
So I started with Lamy with the Matte Black Al-star, which had all black parts and love the looks of that. I really love the deep color of the Copper Orange pen body, so I got the pen when it came out. But the chrome clip and nib just seemed "off", they didn't add to the pen and just seemed to disappear against the really outspoken color of the body. For a while the pen kinda languished on my desk, being merely "okay".
After witnessing the breaking of a really old Safari cap I had done a some research to fix it and eventually got enough to understand how they worked.
I ended up buying a Lamy Safari Charcoal to strip for parts (I didn't know I could just get the spare parts from Bureau Direct back then) and assembled the clip on the Copper Orange. My pen went from merely okay to really shining. The black clip and nib adds something to the pen. Black and orange just go really well together. After people saw this transformation on my Instagram, I got requests to customize the Copper Orange for other people. Fun to see it was a hit with others as well.
What ink do you like to pair it with?
The Terracotta from the Diamine 150 anniversary ink line goes really well with the color of the pen. It's deep and rich with enough "bite" to complement the orange of the pen.
And I have to agree, the pen and ink combo looks wonderful... even with a fine nib! Within a year Cris's collection has grown quite a bit. To see more of his pens and map drawings, you can follow him on his Instagram.
Thanks for stopping by!
namasté
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