(no subject)

[arliss]

New Noodler's: Bulletproof Bad Black Moccasin, Bad Blue Heron, Black Swan in Australian Roses, Dragons Napalm. Pens: Sheaffer Balance Aspen, Parker Sonnet Ambre Lacque


New inks! Pelikan's Edelstein in Topaz, Montegrappa in Bordeaux, Herbin's anniversary Rouge Hematite, and Visconti in turquoise.


Inkwell-ish bottles: Edelstein Topaz, J. Herbin anniversary, Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo, Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea, Montegrappa Bordeaux, and Caran d'Ache Night Sky. Pens: Sonnet, Sheaffer, and a Preform, a Pelikan knockoff, new old stock.

The small black leather journal is a B&N Bombay, medieval binding, watermarked cream paper heavy enough and with a good tooth that takes fountain pen ink well. I took a wood rasp to the page edges. Result: not quite hand-torn, but softened. I think it's more appropriate to the soft cover than a square-cut block of pages. The purple cover had an unfortunate graphic in the cutout pane on the front cover. I glued in a greeting card someone handmade for me. Result: improved appearance and a way to keep an important memento.


The green cover with sun, river, and tree was the first hardbound blank book I bought for journal-keeping. I've never seen another like it, and I still love the design.


Some of my filled journals.

crossposted to fountain pens, stationery perv, and my lj, to embodiment, paper journals, fountain pens and my journal at DW

Comments

[surpassingly]

These are all just so gorgeous!

[arliss]

Aw, thanks! I may be a packrat, but I'm a *shiny* packrat!

[muladhara]

I have to say, this community makes me feel a lot better about hoarding stationery.

Your journals are so pretty! And all that ink looks so wonderful as well (I've got dip pens and nibs, but I don't dare use them).

[arliss]

Oh my goodness, why not?! You don't really need expensive ink to practice writing, and dip pens are wonderful for learning how to shape and connect letters. They taught cursive when I was in school, and my first year, we used dip pens. After that we went to Sheaffer cartridge pens, and then ballpoints took over, as long as the teacher could read our writing.

I'd get a book on cursive, a bottle of ink from your local stationer--less expensive is good to start, but I *would* get fountain pen ink in case you wanted to use it in a fountain pen later on. Pigmented inks for dip pens only will corrode and ruin the innards of fountain pens--best avoid. Get some reasonably nice paper. Tell the person at the store you're practicing calligraphy and need a paper that's heavy enough the ink won't bleed through, and with enough tooth the ink will actually dry. Copier paper tends to be slick and nonporous, but there are inexpensive papers that work well. You don't need fancy stationery to practice.

And then, have fun! Use those nibs--especially if you have stubs or italics. Learn how they like to be held and what kinds of lines they make on the paper.

Wow, you couldn't tell I'm at all absorbed in this hobby, huh?

[muladhara]

Oh, thank you for such a lovely response! This is such a good idea. I originally bought the inks and nibs for drawing - it started with a set of comic inking nibs and branched from there. So I've got this large variety of nibs and never touched them.

I think I'm scared of messing up a picture using them. So maybe if I learn how to use them by writing, that might help some. Stupid thing is, I used to use a fountain pen all the time for the first few years at high school, so I don't know why I'm so afraid of them, really!

[arliss]

Hi. Yeah, dip pens, nibs, ink, fun, stuff.

WHO is that gorgeous person in your userpic? Um, that's not me being abrupt and rude is it? TELL ME! TELL ME NOW!

[muladhara]

Ah, that's not being rude or abrupt at all! (I honestly don't think there's anything else you could've said related to pens and ink). That gorgeous creature is Daniel Henney, and you can find a bunch of icons I made of him here (if you're interested).

[arliss]

Ah yes, Dr. Lee. Between him and Alex O, I don't *understand* why Three Rivers didn't last longer than a half-season. Really. Nice iconage!

[adnarel]

Your ink collection makes me green.

[arliss]

And blue, and several shades of red, and orange, and brown (and brown, and sepia!) and black, and, and, and!

And if that don't work? I have Private Reserves mixing kit, with the syringes and the wee bottles so I can mix my own colors! See, when most people say, "Got new ink," they mean tats. Me? It's a chemistry set!

[adnarel]

HA. Chemistry set. I LOVE THAT. So we're mad scientists? XD