Rarely do my two worlds (advertising and pens) intersect, but when they do, the result is bound to be interesting.
Lowe Singapore created an ad for SANA (Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association) and asked me to do the calligraphy.
Different lines asked for different ways of writing. I covered tables and tables with giant sheets of Daler-Rowney fine grain paper. I used a variety of inks, supported by Dr Ph Martin concentrated watercolors.
There are many people who will tell you not to be so impulsive. Many times, they will be right. Especially when it comes to impulse shopping, impulse eating, and impulse snarking. (Raven, in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, has Poor Impulse Control tattooed on his forehead. In his case it has more to do with anger and weaponry.)
Impulse arting is the very nature of art, so it is perfectly fine.
That impulse, I’d like to believe, is on a spectrum. In its earliest, simplest form, it is the impulse for artistic expression. We all have it, and we will all be better off for giving in to it. It is coating our fingers with chocolate and drawing on the wall, and making up songs with funny words and doodling in a journal and arranging our peas and bacon into smiley faces. Then there is the impulse that leads to art that shreds your soul and pieces it back together again but not like it was before. The difference is – for lack of a better word – craft. This couplet, this arc through space: just so. We are left speechless, or if we are art critics, with too many sentences, all inadequate.
Craft is intentional, at first. It takes attention to create a habit of seeing like an artist, processing like an artist, and then practicing what you see. Then something midway between willpower and brain-muscle fluidity takes over. Your hands (or toes, if you’re into that) can recreate in watercolor, pixel, pencil, pebbles, thread, what nanoseconds ago was a flicker, an instinct given form, in your mind’s eye, but better. With practice, you breathe in impulse, breathe out craft.
So. Doodle every chance you can, whatever comes into your head. I call it “doodling” to take away the pressure that comes from calling it “drawing,” “illustrating,” or any word that implies any modicum of skill or talent. (There are many ways to get around your Inner Critic. This is one of them.)
I need my head examined
Go off on tangents, even in the middle of a sentence. Interesting stories emerge at tangents. Use your sketchbooks and notebooks to aid unexpected collisions. Doodle on the same page on different days. Acquire a fondness for marginalia.
If we are to escape the sins of the present
Passive consumption is bad for you. It deadens your impulses and distracts you from practice. Consume less. Create more.
Making sense was never on the agenda
You will not be able to engage in social chitchat about American Idol. It will make you feel out of place sometimes. So learn not to mind being out of place. Or transform your discomfort into a doodle. Sublimation has worked for centuries; it worked for Proust and Van Gogh. It will work for you.
I have multicolored fingers
Find other impulsive people and collaborate with them, preferably on the spur of the moment. Yes, it happens.
Flowers, now with words, thanks to Gabie
Other people have called what I do art. I think I will die reluctant. I shy away from the label. I am by no means an artist. I have no pretensions to greatness or soul shredding. What I have is impulse, an unreasonable love of practice, and a decades-long pitched battle against my Inner Critic.
The side of ink no one sees
This struggle makes me think of ink. Not the ink in the bottle, but the ink left in the cap. There’s not enough of it to flow back into the bottle, to wet a feed or a nib. Because there’s not enough of it, it doesn’t have the pressure of being ink and doing inky things. It can just stay in the cap. It can smear your fingers. It can invent little dances when no one’s looking. In its littleness, its not-enoughness, it is free.
You know what they say: With great power comes great responsibility. This is what I believe: With small impulses come great possibility.
None of these went home with me, but I did get a chance to play with them during a recent visit to Aesthetic Bay.
Hello, Sailors.
The original Sailor Professional Gear Saibi Togi (a swordpoint nib) came with gold trim. There’s now one with shiny white metal trim and a rhodium-finish 21k nib.
Stealthy
There is a new stealth Pro Gear that made me consider, for a very brief moment, a medium nib. The matte finish with the blackened metal trim and nib is a drop-dead sexy combination. Sailor’s outdone themselves on this limited edition.
I tried the Sailor Sapporo Saibi Togi too. This is also a limited release, in shiny deep red with black accents. The nib is 14k, and pens in the Sapporo line generally cost less than the Pro Gear. If you want to add a Saibi Togi to your collection, and like using smaller pens, you might want to try this one.
Not much to say here, except: wow. Orange.
Faber-Castell Ondoro
One side burning, the other side chrome. The design makes me think of high-tech coffeemakers and Betabrand’s disco skirt.
Is this shiny enough for you?
This is not my usual pen. It’s not vintage. It’s not Japanese. The nib isn’t flexible.
A fine nib
I therefore conclude it must be The Power of Orange.
Juicy, sunny, happy orange
A summer pen, then. For taking to the beach and stirring banana shakes with. And for posting. This is one pen I enjoy using posted – the cap gives the plastic body a fair amount of heft. Besides, aligning hexagonal pieces is fun.
Posting away
It writes with the straightforwardness you expect from a nail.
Writing sample
I need an orange bikini to match now.
It is possible, using one’s powers of observation, to deduce the characteristics and motivations of the individual members of the peculiar tribe known as Pen People from their tools. Known to congregate around platters of pasta in centrally-located malls, Pen People are quite ingenious at devising ways to carry their pens and accessories.
Subject no. 1 Exhibit A
Subject 1 is a seasoned forager. Observe how he has accumulated pens of different forms and colors. Not only that, he has appropriated a commercial pen tray for his own use. The same subject also seems to be an ink enthusiast, as the contents of his bag indicate.
Subject no. 1 Exhibit B
Subject 2 is very particular about grooming, as can be seen in his neat arrangement of pens, notebooks and pen repair tools, each with an assigned bag section.
Subject no. 2 Exhibit A
The same subject also displays an unusual level of logic and organization. His pens are in some kind of esoteric arrangement – perhaps alphabetical?
Subject no. 2 Exhibit B
The third subject has a finely tuned sense of aesthetics. This sense is not crucial to survival (“Oh look, what a graceful sabretooth!” is usually followed by a scream and a gurgling, cracking sound) but is highly valued among the Pen People. Note the warm tones of the pen wrap complementing the leather bag’s golden clasp. The bead is a statement of form and function, beautifully keeping the ribbon in place.
Subject no. 3
Subject four is a stealthy, cunning creature, whom field researchers conjecture might be one of the tribe’s hidden leaders. The extensive use of black across bag interiors, pen case and notebook covers could be proof of that theory.
Subject no. 4
In the wild, Pen People can pass for other kinds of People. Subject five is a good example of this phenomenon. The thick cotton bag could very well be carried by Green Fashion People, belying the pen wrap with foulard print and mother-of-pearl mosaic ribbon stopper within. This form of mimicry has served the tribe well, allowing members to elude Predators and Pickpockets.
Subject no. 5
Our last subject belongs to the peculiar subset of Pen People we call Minimalist Pen People. This subset does not carry many pens or notebooks, usually preferring a single representative of each, two at most. While this behavior triggers inquiring looks from other Pen People (“What? You only brought one pen?”), it is not a deterrent to friendly interaction.
Subject no. 6
If you would like to contribute to our ongoing study, please do. If you have spotted other ways of carrying pens, you can also upload photos for analysis in the comments section.
Don’t worry if your comments have disappeared. They’re being imported into the Disqus system. I hope they come back within 24 hours.
If you pass by this blog a lot, why don’t you say hi in the comment thread? If you have a topic you want to see me write about, say so. I might not know enough about it, but it would be good to try.
(This is my way of fishing for blog entry ideas. Do help me out, will you?)
I picked up a couple of TWSBI Diamond piston-fill pens at Scribe Writing Essentials over the weekend. (This is your fault, Karlo.) I wasn’t really intending to mod one, but these thoughts do cross your mind when you’re working overtime on a Sunday.
The EF nib felt – normal. I pulled it out of the collar and tried a Waterman no. 2 nib. The no. 2 was bent away from the feed to an alarming degree, and I wasn’t about to try to bend it closer. So out it went.
The beginning of the end
On to the Eversharp Skyline nib, which is slightly shorter than a no. 2. In the image below, you can see how it and the feed weren’t even talking to each other.
Mad scientist at work
I took a cutter to the feed and deepened the channel. (When you do this, practice restraint. You can take out more later, but you can’t put it back.) My first try yielded a pen that would write with light to normal pressure, but blanked when flexed.
First try
I had better results the next round. The pen had decent flow, but the nib had to be set low for it to be in contact with the feed at the right point. That meant the feed would touch the paper at every downstroke.
If it's not one thing it's another
Just a little bit more.
There is a light at the end of the feed channel
Mission accomplished.
Finally.
Tinkering and TWSBIs go together. At the last pen meet I tried JP’s Conklin nib in a TWSBI and liked how it wrote. If you have a spare vintage nib lying around, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Be careful, go slowly, pause often and check your progress.
TWSBI Stock EF, 1.5 mm, vintage Eversharp Skyline nibs
I love it when a non-plan comes together.
Feed comparison
Have you modded your TWSBI? Do share.
There are notebooks, and then there are Japanese notebooks. Who else thinks of making notebooks with diagonal lines?
This is the slim version of the Midori MD notebook.
Midori MD slim notebook
The stitching on the spine tells you what kind of paper is inside. Red means blank.
Stitched color-coding
India ink on this paper looks rich and velvety.
Where you will go, no one knows.
Life is a popular notebook brand in Japan, with many sub-brands. The Schöpfer notebook has 40 leaves of the smoothest paper imaginable.
Schöpfer notebook by Life Company Limited
Scribble and scrawl and spatter.
A light wash is all you need sometimes
There’s more of the same beautiful paper in Life Noble Note.
Life Noble Note Plain - love those letter E's.
Each notebook is made of four signatures, bound together.
Signatures
The paper accepts watercolor, graphite, ink and tea without complaint.
Ink and Earl Grey samurai
Doodling in this notebook can be addicting. I’ve gone through almost 50 leaves in a week.
Scribbled into being
I wish there were more Japanese notebooks available in Manila. In the meantime, I ogle them on Maido, Jetpens, Bundoki, and Rakuten.
A visit to Aesthetic Bay yielded a lot of ink, and goldfish. The Platinum Kanazawa-Haku line features five new designs, each one a classic Japanese theme from nature.
Kanazawa-haku is a gold leaf technique, and here variations of it are applied on a slim Platinum body.
Platinum Kanazawa goldfish
A thin coat of clear lacquer protects the applied design.
Goldfish in vermilion
The goldfish are iridescent, shading gold and red and orange when they catch the light.
Another goldfish
The Kanazawa-haku pens only come with fine and medium nibs. I chose the fine. This style of Platinum nib, which is found in their entry-level maki-e pens, is softer than the nib on the 3776, and closer in feel to the nibs of the 1970s Japanese pocket pens.
Platinum 18k nib in fine
The converter has what looks like a golden hanko on it. I have no idea what it says. This converter is a special edition, only available with this line.
Special-issue converter
The fine nib writes with a little give. I chose Rohrer & Klinger Morinda to go with the goldfish. As usual, perfect out of the box. No skipping, no catching on paper, just a smooth writing experience.
Writing/doodle sample
The slim Platinum falls in between a Waterman 12 and a Pelikan M101N in girth.
In good company
Visit Ink Nouveau for beautiful shots of this pen, and the others in the Kanazawa-Haku line, including The Moon and a Rabbit, and Changing Autumn Leaves.
