Shopping Highlight: Arturo Manuel Papeleria in Valencia

Last week I was going through the pictures in my phone and I noticed that I have not yet told you about the wonderful stationery shops I had found in Valencia while being on vacation there last March. Well, let me correct that mistake and share one of them with you today, Arturo Manuel Papeleria. This is a picture of the storefront and judging by the advertisement displayed, it looked promising and let me tell you it definitely was!

This is the view when you come in. It's actually quite a large store and they have a variety of items for sale, from from office furniture to luxury fountain pens and even art supplies!! Let me tell you, I was like a kid in a candy store!

The view from the opposite end of the entrance. The kind lady you see at the counter helped me a lot, showing me pens (there were a couple I wanted to see) and I found more of my fave turquoise ink ever and made it my Unicorn Ink!! Yep!! Ok, this is going to be picture heavy, so you can see more pictures of the store below and all will be revealed about the Unicorn Ink as well :)

Pens and Ink: Favorites of 2016

In terms of growth, it's always good to have moments to reflect upon things you have done in the past. Not only to see if they will help you move forward but also to appreciate the fact you have actually DONE these things. And in these quiet days in between the rush of Christmas and New Year's EVE creeping around, it's a good time to look back on the year I leave behind. 

In this post I look back on my top 10 pens and inks pairings of 2016.

The above pens are my personal favorite fountain pens I've used over this year. They are not ranked in any way, just placed together in groups and you can see that one brands take the crown in this year's favorites, Pelikan!
From left to right: TWSBI Al Green, Franklin Christoph Model 65 in Tiffany Stained Glass finish, Swan Leverfiller in Jade green, Pelikan P3110 Ductus, Pelikan M805 Vibrant Blue, Pelikan M205 Taupe, Pelikan M620 city series Shanghai, Pelikan M620 city series Grand Place, Omas Bologna in Black and Gold celluloid finish and the Omas Ogiva Alba in Orange.

(FYI: the Pelikan M205 Taupe looks more pink in this photo due to the warm filter over it, The pictures below represent the actual color better)

Very kind friends of mine gave me this wonderful pen box and I usually keep my currently inked pens in here. This box helps with presentation for this post as they have been in here at some point or other this year. Also it's a good cut off point to keep it at just 10 pens. I thought for sure it would be Omas, but looking back, Pelikan definitely got more writing time from me so they are more represented in this year's top 10! 

Let's take a closer look at each one. (Oh and I do apologize for the magnified dust and cat hair in the pictures, but yeah it is what it is..)

Starting at the far right is the Omas Ogiva Alba Orange and it's was a tie with the Omas Ogiva Alba Green, but this one won out due to the extra flessible fine nib. This flex nib showed the shading in writing beautifully. In the pens and ink post I had had paired it with Private Reserve Shoreline Gold (original version) but later I also loved this pen inked with Sailor Jentle Apricot. Which is the winning combination in all honesty.

Moving to the left is a pen I couldn't get out of my head when I saw it at the store after I left to get this pen (also a beautiful stunning pen from the same line, which I got for my birthday). So after a month I contacted the store and they kindly put it on hold/layaway for me. This was such a kind gesture and I'm really happy I saved up and got this pen because the pen material is just stunning. I paired the Omas Bologna in Black and Gold celluloid with Omas Dandy Turquoise. My absolute fave turquoise ink, ever.

Then comes a couple of Pelikan M620 pens from the City series I did my best to hunt down. I got lucky with a few collectors letting their pens go and I am thrilled to have them in my Pelikan Collection as they are both so very stunning. First is the Pelikan Grand Palace which I had inked with KWZ Monarch, the ink exclusive to Fontoplumo. A lovely warm autumn pair up. Which is a fun contrast to the lovely sakura spring colored match up of the Pelikan Shanghai with Caran d'Ache Sunset. Every time I look at these combos it brings back the feeling of Spring and Autumn.

Next to them is a smaller sister, the Pelikan M205 Taupe, which I actually got on a, well wouldn't say whim, but I was in a "I need a shiny new pen" mode while entering Akkerman in the Hague which is a dangerous place to be when you're in that mode! This one surprised me the most, because the color was a bit meh at first (won me over later!) but I knew that Caran d'Ache Storm would look SO great in this one. And boy was I right! The BB nib esp. makes the writing such a wonderful experience and I have this one in my 3 pen pouch with I take with me to work since I bought it! A stunning and stylish EDC (every day carry) for sure.

Starting out with another classy EDC on the left is the TWSBI AL Green which was a limited edition release. It was my "one of each" hunt for my TWSBI collection and it took me a while to find it, but thankfully Scrittura Eleganta had one with a juicy broad nib. I paired it with Montblanc Jonathan Swift, but popular consensus was to have paired it with Sailor Tokiwa Matsu as they commented on my FB/IG poll. I might try that next. 

The pen next in line is definitely a what I would consider a unicorn pen. When I saw an IG friend of mine selling this pen, I jumped on it straight away. What a stunning pen this Franklin Christoph Model 65 in Tiffany Stained Glass is! I paired it with a harder to find ink at the time, Organics Studio Jane Austen Violet, but they since then started to manufacture inks again so it's available again for the masses, huzzah! This pen though still is one of few made or as FC said in an IG convo I had with them "only 12 of them were made for the Stockroom and maybe one or two at a pen show, so you have a rare and unusual Model 65 Stabilis". So yes, this in my unicorn pen, for sure!

Then comes the only vintage pen in this year's top 10, the Swan Green Marbled self filler, a purchase from the Tilburg Penshow this year. I paired it with a mossy green Diamine Safari which the flex nib of this pen showed off really nicely. 

I have another mossy green ink in my line up, Diamine Salamander which is in my Pelikan Ductus P3110 and in the 3rd slot in my EDC 3 pen pouch. This pen was the surprise of the year. Mainly because I had no idea I would like this pen so much, but it's a beautiful, classy pen and also very comfortable in hand. In MY hand, a hand that prefers Pelikan M400/600 size pens. It lays more comfortable in hand than the Pelikan M805 which is next to it and they are essentially the same size. It's a unique pen and often referred to as the "ugly ducking" of the Pelikan family, but I love this under appreciated pen a lot. 

And then on to the last pen in my top 10; The Pelikan M805 Vibrant Blue Special Edition. It's a stunner of a pen really. I had inked it with Organics Studio Nickle Teal and enjoyed writing with this ultimate blue pairing. 

So there you have it, my top 10 pens and ink pairings of the year. I'm planning on doing more of these posts next year, but maybe not as frequent because I am planning on slowing down on pen/ink purchases for a while and enjoy what I have more. Yeah you can call it a new year's resolution of some sort, but well let's see how long that will last. Rumor has it that Lamy is going to have an ocean blue Al Star release for next year and well you bet I'll be adding that one to my collection!

Thank you for all the support you given me and my blog over the past year. It's much appreciated. Stay tuned for more round up's this week. Have a great day!

namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas Bologna with Montblanc Dandy Turquoise

This post is going to be an appreciation post of this pen, which is the Omas Bologna in Black and Gold Celluloid finish. I was lucky enough to find this one for sale at a local boutique and since the Omas pens are not readily available anymore, I jumped at the chance and got this gorgeous writing instrument.

Look at that stunning celluloid finish! I bet you could not resist this beauty when you've seen it up close!

It's fitted with a 14k fine "colonnade" nib. Not my preferable nib grade, but you can't be too choosy with pens that are hard to come by. Thankfully the Omas nibs are somewhat springy so it does offer a nice line variation in writing.

I've paired this pen with my fave turquoise ink, Montblanc Honoré de Balzac Dandy Turquoise, a special edition ink from last year. I love this color and have a few bottles of it, but only use it sparingly because what if I run out of it?? That is the perpetual fear of owning LE inks Isn't it? I decided this pen is definitely worth that special ink though! It's got some great shading and sheen, which even a fine nibbed pen like this Omas can bring out quite well.

I am definitely loving this pairing a lot. And this pen is just so shiny!

What I also like about this pen is that it has a lovely detail on the finnial, the "O" gives it a nice finishing touch.

The clip on the pen is a bit different than their usual clips with the little wheel on the end. It's also a bit more springy than those clips. Certainly fits the overall look of the pen.

It also came in this leather pen sleeve, one that came with older Omas pens. Love the deep blue color it has and I prefer it more than the felt pen sleeves that came with the resin ogiva's for example. This has a classier feel to it. My Omas Bologna in red celluloid also has this same pen sleeve, So it think it only came with certain special edition or older pens.

I got this Bologna for a great deal at a local boutique because of a clearance sale and I still can't believe the luck I had with that! It's definitely a stunner of which I am proud to have in my fountain pen collection. If you ever have the chance of picking one of these up, definitely don't hesitate! 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day. 

namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas Lucens with Omas Sepia

Returning to an Omas pair up this week.  This pen was one of my purchases at the Tilburg Penshow last year. The pen is a vintage Omas Lucens and has an amazing stub nib on it. Even though it did cost me a pretty penny, it simply had to go home with me. 

I paired it with Omas Sepia, a gorgeous vintage looking brown with a lot of character, just what this pens needs! First some more info on this pen.

 

The pen has a beautiful black and amber transparent body and the engraving for such an old pen is pretty crisp on it. I found a vintage Omas booklet where these pens were described and I'll share the pages here.

The Omas Lucens has a cylindrical shape and the Omas Lucens Extra has facets as you can see below. My pen doesn't have the art deco ring band on the cap so it means it's from a later production.

The arrow clip sure does look a lot like a parker pen, doesn't it? The nib also has an arrow on it, but I can tell you that these Omas nibs are really not comparable to the parker ones!

There was a wide assortment of nibs on the Omas Lucens fountain pens. You can say the nib I have on mine is "extra Grosso" seeing the line variation it can produce, it's definitely larger than the width shown here. It's a vacuum filler pen, so it does take a bit of fiddling to get the pen working properly. But when it does, oh such lovely writing!

The pens surely does have some start up issues, but I got it fully working and wrote a page in my loving kindness metta meditation journal with it.

The wide stub nib shows a nice line variation and the shading of the ink pretty well. It's got a gorgeous coffee brown color to it. This pen lays down a lot of ink but Claire fontaine paper is a trooper, held up really well!

The nib is pretty difficult to whield I must say. Even though it flexes, perhaps it's not what you're supposed to with it. When I flex the nib, the ink flow just stops completely, but when you write normally, without too much pressure, the ink flow keeps up pretty nicely. Maybe I need to reset the feed (I heat set it a few times but still didn't work) but I am hesitant taking this pen apart seeing everything else works well. And vacuum fillers are fickle pens to fiddle around with!

About the ink, it's a beautiful vintage brown color with great depth. I'm glad I snagged a bottle of this at akkerman with Omas Turquoise when I had the chance!

I like to experiment with fountain pen inks in my art so it's fun to test and try different things with the ink. And with this ink I noticed that when you let it dry naturally it's dries up a reddish brown, as you see the ink smear above. When you apply a heat gun to the ink to dry it, it becomes a more burnt umber color, as you can on the writing below. That's pretty fun to see the different characteristics to an ink!

It's definitely a gorgeous pen and such a beautiful writer (when you can get it to work properly) but it's not a daily carry due to it's fickle filling system and start up problems. I think this is the first pen that I actually got because I wanted it in my collection and not necessarily to write with. But it's fun to take it out once in a while and take her out for a drive :) 

Hope you enjoyed this week's pairing. Next week an iconic Bauhaus style fountain pen and some great news on a returning ink company! 
Thanks for stopping by & have a great day!

namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas Blue Paragons with Sea Blues

At the Tilburg penshow last year I found one of my grail pens, an Omas Vintage Paragon with BB nib stubbed by Mottishaw. Such a beautiful pen body with a great nib! A few months later I had the opportunity to buy some vintage LE Omas pens from a collector and one of them was the one on the right, the blue marbled paragon with a b nib. So happy to have these in my collection! They both write really wonderful and I have paired them with turquoise inks.

The Omas with the BB nib has Omas Turquoise ink (I finally got a bottle through Akkerman in the Hague, but now they are all sold out everywhere it seems :( ) and I inked the Omas Paragon with the b nib with Roher and Klinger Blu Mare. Both are gorgeous turquoise inks. But I have to say that my fave pairing is this one:

Such a beautiful and unique nib - esp. since it's hard to get a pen worked on by a nibmeister esp. in Europe. So I am really glad that I got this one through Sarj Minhas at the penshow last year!

I try to write my daily loving kindness metta meditation to get a good feel with the pen and ink combo. I came to the conclusion that I need to have this pen in rotation more (and write more letters to use the ink up). And of course keep practicing my written meditations in my loving kindness journal. With that a more personal note...

Last sunday I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about compassion and yesterday there was a book reading both by Thupten Jinpa, the author of a Fearless Heart. It was definitely insightful and very helpful with my own mindfulness and compassion practices and trainings. He said so many things that struck a chord, it would be a very long post if I recited it all. But if I could choose of the things that really struck with me and which I want to share with you, is that when you set the "tone" in the morning for the day and reminding yourself of that intention you set, it will keep you connected and grounded with yourself. We often loose touch with ourself during the busy course of the day, and while you can always return to your breath to stay grounded in the moment, reminding yourself of the intention you have set from within your heart, helps to reconnect with your inner core and cultivates compassion. Compassion is a core value we all have, but it's also a choice to act on it or not. We just need to cultivate it more so it extends beyond a reactive setting and becomes more active and natural in our daily lives. So when you are dealing with difficulties/obstacles through the day and catch yourself thinking unkind thoughts towards another, try to turn it around. This is where Jinpa said to add "just like me" to your thoughts/intentions toward others. So for example instead of thinking "that bastard cut me off" and whatever profanities may come next, while in traffic, think "This person wants to be someplace, just like me. May they arrive safely to their destination, just like me." etc... This way we can connect to humanity, in compassion and kindness. And we also "set the tone" of the world around us and especially within us. 

Luckily I don't drive, but daily irritations towards your fellow human being, can be found anywhere!

It takes courage to be actively kind and compassionate (hence the "fearless"heart) but it's a choice none the less. Every morning I will try to set the tone from my inner core and consciously make the choice to engage and act with kindness and compassion. 

Tonight we will remember the fallen in WWII and we'll have a collective national silence at 8pm to remember the deceased. And tomorrow we'll celebrate liberation and life in freedom. It's a good moment to be reflective and think about what life in freedom means to oneself. And to me, life in freedom means to always have a choice, at every moment. 

And I hope we will choose to act with kindness and compassion towards one another. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week (...just like me :) )

Namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas AIV Liquid green with Akkerman Groenmarkt Smaragd

This is where I decided I wholeheartedly loved Omas - the first time I held the Omas Arte Italiana Vision in my hands.  The beautiful design of the pen in a gorgeous liquid green color = indeed ART. I imagine OZ having buildings with this material in the Emerald city. Or it being some kind of kryptonite ... it has that dangerous magnetic pull. At any rate I could not stop thinking about it and went back to Akkerman at the end of the day and got it home with me. 

I got a bottle of Akkerman Groenmarkt Smaragd with it, which compliments the pen perfectly.

The nib is a B that writes more like an 0.8 stub. A very smooth and wet writer.

Love the accents on the pen and grip section. Even though it's metal, it does not feel slippery at all in long writing sessions.

Comparing the Ogiva medium extra flessible with the B 18k nib and sections. Both really gorgeous pens with their own personalities.

Stencil doodles work brilliantly as well! By the way "smaragd" = Emerald in dutch & groenmarkt is an aria in The Hague. 

Next week a couple of vintage Omas pens.

Thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas Bologna with Diamine Syrah

When I saw this Omas Bologna pen I really had to have it. With help from my sweetie I got this pen for my birthday. I'm completely inlove with it.   I'm very fortunate that I was able to find one of these pens as they sold out pretty quickly everywhere.

The nib design is gorgeous and the pen material is stunning too. 
A beautiful wine red celluloid.

The wine red of Diamine syrah has a beautiful shade. Matches this pen body material perfectly.

Such a beautiful pen body. The celluloid has so much depth. 

The nib is outstanding to write with, just the hint of flex that adds the nice flourish to my every day writing.

If you find one of these in the wild, definitely get one while you still can!

Thanks for stopping by.

namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas Ogiva Alba Green with Diamine Tropical Green

When I saw this color pen in the Omas Ogiva Alba line when it came out, I immediately wanted it! I got it for myself as a Sinterklaas present a few years ago.

I chose a medium Extra Flessible nib. It has beautiful line variation. This ink is Pelikan Edelstein Jade, which does have a nice shade of emerald green.

I do love this ink, but it wasn't a complete match with this pen. A bit of a darker green is what I was looking for.

And a trip to Akkerman in the Hague provided again... Diamine tropical green in their 50th year anniversary bottle is a beautiful match for this pen.

One of my fave quotes from one of my fave writers in one my fave books.

This pen and ink is a fantastic combination, it shows off shading and some sheen really well on paper. The paper I used here is Crown Mill laid paper. 

I definitely need to ink this pen up soon again, seeing I talked about my 35th birthday here... and I already gotten a year older in the mean time ;) Next week I'll show you when I received from my sweetheart for my birthday this year. Yes, it's Omas themed ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Pens and Ink: Omas Ogiva Alba Orange with Private Reserve Shoreline Gold OS

After hearing the sad news of the Omas company, I'm going to dedicate the next few weeks of Pens and Ink to my Omas pens. I did a tribute post of them last week. You can read about the situation around Omas in this blogpost on Peneconomics.

In a previous post I had already showed you my Omas Ogiva Blue Angel (from the cocktail series) and today I'll post another Ogiva in my collection; The Ogiva Alba Orange. It's in the Limited Edition range of the from the Aurora Borealis series. You can read more about these pens here.

This pen is a beautiful dark orange and I thought a great shading ink would go well with it. I picked Private Reserve Shoreline Gold and it's the older version of the ink. It's a more brown to deep orange (burnt sienna) tone than the new formula.

A comparison of the old and new versions of shoreline gold. I'm not sure when they changed the formula, but I think the newer version is much closer to Orange Crush. And the older version does have a lot more shading. 

These are Limited editions and Omas only made 327 of them. The number is inscribed on the section of the pen. As you can see my pen has the number 272.

The Omas nibs are definitely a thing of beauty and this Extra Flessible nib in fine gives a lovely line variation. It will give you that extra flourish in your every day writing. 

I had my nails polished with Essie's RRRoarange the day I got it, so yeah I had to take a fun pens and polish picture. The pen below the Orange Alba is the Jade Green Ogiva Alba which will be featured in next weeks Pens and Ink.

Thanks for stopping by! 

namasté