(click to view more pictures in the gallery)

I thought I’d do something a little different with my blog today; use some pictures!

Also, I promised I’d say something about whether I liked the new fountain pens I had purchased in this post.

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t pay more than $40 for any of the pens. Most were in the $15-$30 range. Also, I found 3 pens I had completely forgotten I had bought while I was looking for the boxes that some of the pens came in. I’m waiting for another ink color to arrive before I ink one of them. I know, I’m wacky. I’m comfortable with it.

The blue lettering was written with a Gui Guan #20 (current asking price is $15) using Noodler’s Luxury Blue ink.
The purple lettering was written with a Jinhao Dragon’s Descendant Golden Black (current asking price is $30) using Noodler’s La Reine Mauve ink.
The black lettering was written with a Hero 200A (current asking price is $27.88) using Noodler’s Heart of Darkness ink. You can see where I messed up and didn’t let the ink dry - it has so much color saturation in the ink that it takes a while to dry.

Of the pens I have inked from my order, those are my three favorite. The Gui Guan just glides across the page like it’s nib is covered with oil. The Jinhao is extremely gaudy, quite heavy (which isn’t as uncomfortable as you would think), and also quite nice to write with. The Hero is just a really good all around writing pen. It sounds scratchy when you are writing with it because it’s a fine nib, but it’s not scratchy to write with. That’s the pen I carry in my purse.

The quote is from The Arbuthnot Anthology of children’s literature (see this post regarding this book. It seemed only natural when I was casting about for something to write to copy a poem from it. I really love that book, and I’m so happy that my replacement was a used copy with the owner’s name inscribed in it. Today while I was looking in the book I found near one of the dividers a cut and colored butterfly. It’s been there so long that it’s discolored the facing page. How great is that? I can imagine it was a treasured gift, to be looked at and smiled at whenever the book was used, and it makes me happy. Library or mint copies just can’t compare.

Please be gentle about my handwriting, I have broken my thumb more than once and osteoarthritis is setting in. I have neglected my handwriting because of it. Perhaps I will make writing on Wednesday a regular feature to combat it? What do you think?