One of my first pens was two Parker 51 pens that I inherited from my parents. Iβve always loved the form factor of the hooded nibs (and semi-hooded nibs) so when I read of the announcement of the 2017 Aurora Duo Cart re-release just 63 short years since the pen was first released in 1954, I became very interested in the pen. When Pen Chalet gave me the opportunity to review this pen I was eager to try it.
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The Reserve Bank of Australia is releasing a new $10 note on the 20th of September this year. Featured on this note is a couple of fountain pen nibs to represent the fact that the people featured on the note both wrote. There was a suggestion somewhere that an ink should be made to commemorate the inks and so I semi-seriously prompted Rob to make said ink. Recently he released the inkArt Australian Ten Dollar Note Colour Pack. This pack is listed as a 2-pack of Blue and Green but comes with a Teal as a bonus colour. The bottles are 15ml and, I should stress, do not cost $10; they are just commemorating the new $10 note!
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I like to keep swatches of all my inks in a binder. In the past I've used Rhodia 80gsm but paper never felt right; too flimsy and I was never good at cutting accurate and consistent rectangles. In the past there was Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards (which I never used), this year (2017) there is the new Col-o-ring cards, Robert Oster has some swatch cards as well and I have also found some good card stock myself. I'll be comparing these 4 different card stocks with Rhodia 80gsm and Tomoe River (as baselines). They all often perform quite differently and bring different attributes to the table! This is a very image heavy comparison with over 135 images!
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I never fully appreciated Nakaya pens (or any of the artisan Japanese pen makers) but I've found myself looking at them closer and closer this year. I recently ordered a Nakaya Decapod Aka-tamenuri (it takes many months for them to be made) but in the mean time this Nakaya Piccolo Writer was very generously lent to me by a friend on the other side of Australia from where I am. It's a beautiful and subtle pen that feels surprisingly light and is a very comfortable writer.
UPDATE: I've received my Nakaya Decapod Writer Aka-tanemuri and reviewed it here.
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Sailor Inks are one of my favourite brands of ink β this is no secret. In general the characteristics their inks are what I look for in an ink. Reds are not my favourite colour but Maroons, Burgundies, Bordeauxs (etc.) are shades of red I really like, in fact they are one of my favourite colour families. The range of colours in this family move from inks with more blue, to more brown and more yellow. They also vary quite dramatically depending on the paper. This is by no means a complete account of Sailor's offering in this colour gamut but I think it still has a decent selection (but I clearly need more!)
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