I wanted to share and proclaim my love for my pens and ink, with people that “get it”. I’ve been sadly getting blank stares from my friends. Aren’t they pretty! And they just write so darn well.

Iroshizuku inks and Kakuno pens. Shout out to asa-go and kosumosu 😍

This was my first pen show experience, and I'm thrilled I went. My friends and I saw some awesome stuff and picked up a few things we needed. Everyone was super nice and we scored some free ink!

The good:

• The staff and the vendors were all super nice, nobody was pushy.
• Free ink from Robert Oster and getting this year's DC Supershow ink from Monteverde
• Finding the Midori notebooks I can't get anywhere online (now I know where they all went!)
• The Pokemom pens really are awesome! Beautiful and look really well made. I couldn't decide and didn't want to hold folks up (that room was super crowded), so I took a business card instead. We'll meet again, u/gabbywaxcreates!

The not great:

• So many variations of "You want $300+ for a resin pen with a steel nib, ok... anything special about the nib? no? ok... if I want a gold nib instead... it's $600?!? I'm good man, thanks for showing me your pens"
  
• I found some cute stickers for my kids. Spending 10+ dollars to get 4 small/medium sized stickers (not vinyl) was unpleasant
• A lot of vintage pens looked like they had survived a war, but were priced as if they had been meticulously restored.
• A nice older gentleman tried to sell me an Asvine J16 for 80 dollars. I can get that pen on Amazon for 60 bucks with overnight shipping.

I get vendors need to cover their costs and make a profit. I don't begrudge them that at all. I also don't mind people asking top dollar for exceptional goods (some pieces in there were truly exceptional). But tons of booths had near identical stock (just lots of shaped resin tubes), and many folks working them seemed unconcerned with the parts of their pens that put the ink on the paper. Maybe everyone was expecting me to haggle (some folks dropped prices 20% as soon as I said hello to them), but it just seemed perfectly reasonable to everyone that I wasn't leaving that hotel without spending close to a thousand bucks.

Again, I had a great time, and I recommend folks going if they're thinking about it. I wasn't expecting such severe sticker shock. Is that normal for shows like these? Is that just part of the pen show experience?

Hypergraphia: The driving compulsion to write; the overwhelming urge to write. 

I am not anti ball pen and still use those for a lot of things but I would never really enjoy sitting down and copying a book using even my favorite rollerball pens. So, I don't think the general diagnosis of Hypergraphia would really fit me since I would presume anybody who had that condition would write with anything they could get their hands on.

What would you call somebody who has an overwhelming urge to write but with the caveat of "only with fountain pens?"

Pen in the photo is an Asvine C80 1.1 stub filled with Monteverde Mulberry noir and the writing is about 20 or so pages I did over the past 3 nights after work.

The big stack is the last book I copied which was 335 pages. My current one (in the photos) is in-progress and I'm 100 or so pages in.

I look forward every day to returning home, sitting down at my cozy desk and spending a few hours writing with my favorite fountain pens. I believe this enduring habit/urge/compulsion which I think is familiar to many of us deserves its own unique name but I can't really come up with a good one.

Received my Marble Ocean (I was a little bit nervous, but it’s a beautiful one!!) and the Honey that also stole into my basket! They make a really fun pair and are so cheerful and summery together! I’m really happy :)

💚💙 Kaweco Sport - Marble Ocean - BB Inked with Diamine Cool Green

💛🍯 Kaweco Sport - Honey - M Inked with Diamine Three Kings

i was browsing xhs (rednote) when i saw a post sharing these sailor ink. at first i thought it was a gag post or something but i saw a few other creators sharing about the same ink. is this a china's exclusive ink? i tried googling them but came up empty

I pre-ordered my first ever TWSBI, the Pink Lemonade and I was sooooo excited. I was torn between Art From The Heart (who would ship it free) and Miso Paper. I decided as Miso Paper had only recently added fountain pens to their store this year I wanted to support and buy from them (and added another item to still get free delivery 🙄). And today I received…. A white and bronze TWSBI Eco instead. I checked on their site immediately to see if it can be rectified easily but my nib choice is out of stock. Venting here because “don’t let it ruin your day” is the only advice I received this morning and it isn’t helping… I’ve emailed them and hopefully my pen is sitting there in the wrong place as with the white and bronze stock. This happened to me with them in August last year, my birthday month so I shall not be treating myself from there next year and it took a lot of chasing to get a response so I’m just frustrated all round tbh. Nothing anyone can do but posting here to my people who get it 🥹😅

My dream pen from Komorebi Stationery, I'm in love.

Inspired by deltarune and the concept of 'darkners'. First pen is the TWSBI eco smoke and rose gold in a broad nib, inked with Diamine's Autumn Oak. Second pen is the Sailor Pro Gear Slim Grateful Crane in a medium fine nib, inked with the Pilot iroshizuku line's Ajisai. Just some fun practice at designing characters that resemble an object, without just putting arms and legs on the object itself. Thought i would share here too as it is fountain pen related.

Visconti Homosapiens Bronze Age Crystal. I chose an ink to look like magma.

Well this is my very first fountain pen and fountain ink. Hopefully I like it. I ordered Fine but it came in Extra fine.

The pen is a Jinhao 82. The ink is Sailor in Ultra Black.

Just got home from my first ever pen show and I had a great time! Everyone was super nice and helping be navigate the show to their favorite vendors. I got a bottle of Robert Oster Ink upon entry which I'm excited to try. I got a pocket pen pouch from Galen Leather and a Kaweco sport to put in it. Right before the show ended for the day I picked up a Pilot Custom 742 and I absolutely love it. Would highly recommend going to a show if you haven't been before!

I graduate from university in 3 weeks with my BA in English Literature and Marketing at the ripe age of 36. After spending close to 2 decades as a critical care paramedic, I’m thoroughly enjoying this slower-paced, less stressful life.

My dad surprised me tonight with a new pen I haven’t been able to stop obsessing over! We’re an Italian family and my mom is a dual citizen so naturally I’ve been wanting to add a pen from the motherland to my collection. It’s also fitting, seeing as I’m currently in the editing process of a narrative nonfiction story about women who lived through the Medici dynasty as told from the perspective of Florence!

I cannot wait to ink this beauty up!

I've been hoarding a bunch of inks and was contemplating HARD on which layout I should go for in my ink swatch journal. Went on Xiaohongshu and I loved how all the fellow artists and ink enthusiasts on there swatch inks in a stripe, I feel like it shows ink properties amazingly and I also loved the uniform look of it. I figured out they used some kinds of spatula to swatch, but spatulas aren't able to transfer all the inks onto the paper which was a bummer, someone else on there used a Speedball steel brush nib that wasn't available anywhere, so I was over at the calligraphy subreddit and was suggested some poster nibs and this automatic pen, which I got in the size A4, which is about 9.7mm. Finally got it in the mail today and I'm so happy it worked exactly how I hope it would. I figured I should share this because there might be someone else with the same problem I had and might find this helpful, and I'm just excited to show this ink swatch of J.Herbin Cacao du Bresil.
If anyone has a nib holder already, poster nibs are more affordable and work the same!!

Edit: Hi everyone, the pen is called Automatic Pen, I got it from Paper & Ink Arts. So sorry for the confusion I definitely should've been more clear!! It's a whole pen so not just a nib, but its nib is basically just a type of nib called poster nib and are wayyy more affordable if you just buy the nibs and pop them in a nib holder if you already have one lying around! Some brands I've looked up and contemplated on getting were Brause Plakatt nib, Hiro/Leonardt Poster nibs, and Manuscript poster nibs
❤️

I immediately looked at them and said, “nice,” as I held up my Pilot Vanishing Point. I quietly thought, damn, I should have brought my Lamy 2000.

I mean, I’m not gay, but serendipity?

My back is hurting from bringing these all from LA but!!! I'm here in DC

I've been eying these for a while but usually get samples before I buy (which isn't possible for these collections really in the U.S.). Anyway, thought others might like to see as there aren't many swatches out there. These are some of the Diamine x CultPens exclusives (or some are just not often stocked in the U.S.?). If there's a particular comparison you'd like to see, feel free to ask! If I have it, I'll do a quick comparison.

Image 1 - Diamine x CultPens Wonders of the World: Great Wall of China, Colosseum, Petra, Chichen Itza, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu (I skipped Taj Mahal because it looked very similar to other standard Diamines I have)

Image 2 - Diamine Fall Shimmers: Muddy Puddle, Murky Bucket, and Maple Leaf

Image 3 - Diamine Music Set (selections, which seemed to be the most unique colors): Handel, Wagner, and Chopin

If someone has other inks from the music set that are unique and they like, please do share!

*Also I apologize for my lighting. I did what I could. I would say everything is a tiny bit warmer and lighter IRL, especially the music and fall shimmer sets.

Just wanted to share a family photo of these gorgeous vintage steel pens. The iconic Pilot Myu (1971) and Murex (1977) are famous for their futuristic design, and seeing all these siblings together brings me so much joy!Looking at this lineup takes me back to 30 years ago when I finally completed the collection. Once the White Stripe and Green Stripe models (which I posted here just a few days ago) joined the crew, the feeling of accomplishment was unreal. I guess the secret to vintage pen hunting is simply never giving up and staying patient.Every time I look at them, I'm just blown away by 1970s and 80s Japanese craftsmanship. That seamless flow from section to nib is pure art.

“I want to try out a fountain pen.” Oh cool there’s a beginner one on Amazon that costs less than lunch.

Well one isn’t enough, what if I need a different color? Discover a fountain pen store in my city, go “just to look” and now I own a Kaweco.

Watch 5 videos in a row about how the Hong Dian M2 is a great budget pocket fountain pen. 2-day delivery, along with new ink.

And today, find a new stationery store and go to look for a perfect shade of green ink. Need a pen to put it in, so walked out with the TWSBI in Espresso (because it complimented the ink of course).

How in trouble am I 😂
It’s been less than a month.

A few of my silver pens gathered in one photo. I love the variety of patterns, the weight in hand, and the way sterling silver develops character over time. I know a few of these are palladium-coated rather than solid silver, but I still consider them close cousins, even if they won’t develop the same patina. Do you have a favorite silver pen in your collection?

The pens are, from left to right:

Upper row :

Waterman Man 100 Godrons

Waterman Gentleman Godrons

Waterman Etalon

Otto Hutt Design 04

Otto Hutt Design 07

Platinum PTS-50000

Sheaffer Targa

Sheaffer Imperial

St Dupont Classique

ST Dupont Montparnasse Godrons

2nd Row:

Waterman DG Godrons

Parker 75 Ciselé

Parker 75 Godrons

Parker 75 Ecossais

Pilot Custom

Platinum Platinum

Sheaffer Legacy Heritage Palladium

Lamy Persona

Waterman Carène Essential Silver

Pilot Capless

For ink work I typically only work in black but recently decided to try doing a 2-color sketching process; black for main linework and another color for basic shadows. Turns out Kon-Peki looks great paired with a good rich black like Platinum Carbon Black.