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Post by stompie on Oct 15, 2018 18:27:43 GMT
Did you get to the pen show?
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Post by katiel on Oct 15, 2018 18:31:56 GMT
Not yet! The show is this coming Friday. I’m looking forward to it, and the boys can’t wait. They’ve been trying to do extra chores to earn more money to take to the show. Lol!
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Post by Mia on Oct 15, 2018 23:07:57 GMT
And you'll need inks too! Looking at the dealer list, Anderson Pens sell inks, so you should be in luck.
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Post by MKB on Oct 16, 2018 5:58:38 GMT
Katiel - Let me see if I can put this in scientific terms. Pen show = Black hole.
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Post by katiel on Oct 17, 2018 1:47:48 GMT
But what a glorious black hole it will be! And to Mia: Ooooo, ink! My real true love! The show just keeps sounding better and better.
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Post by katiel on Oct 19, 2018 15:27:10 GMT
We’re already counting down the hours to the pen show tonight. Excitement is running high in this house. The boys have ended up doing lots of odd jobs for friends and family and have surprisingly earned enough that they may actually be able to find something they can actually afford there. Jeff gave me my whole Christmas budget and told me to have fun shopping. I’m curious to see how this goes. Fingers crossed it will turn out well (and be fun), not exactly sure what to expect...
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Post by filpot on Oct 19, 2018 17:31:31 GMT
I hope you and your boys have a whale of a time. Looking forward to reading all about it!!
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Post by katiel on Oct 19, 2018 21:32:22 GMT
So we just got home from our first fountain pen show! It was awesome. We had a great time! The boys were very excited about choosing just the right pen (even with their limited budget, they had several options, I was impressed). It was so cute, they very solemnly asked questions about the pens and their operation and filling systems with the sellers, and the sellers treated them very seriously back, but were clearly tickled that someone so young was so interested in fountain pens. They gave the boys some ridiculous deals on the pens they chose, AND gave them both free Tomoe River notebooks (wow!). The boys even had enough money left to buy some beautiful ink for their pens. Devin chose Monteverde Purple Mist (a gorgeous bright pale purple), and Seth got Diamine Golden Oasis (a shimmery one - perfect for his new stub-nib Pilot Perna, that was bright leaf green with gold glitter)(I seriously loved this one too. If he hadn’t gotten the last bottle, I’d have gotten one, as well). Shockingly, I walked out without any new pens (there just weren’t any that grabbed me), but I fell victims to my one weakness: Shimmer inks. I came home with 2 shimmer inks: pink with gold shimmer (pink glitz) and orange with silver shimmer (citrus ice), both Diamine. This was seriously fun. I’m sure we’ll do it again.
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Post by filpot on Oct 20, 2018 4:43:50 GMT
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Post by hoyabella on Oct 28, 2018 10:23:01 GMT
I own 6 fountain pens and they are failing me! Two of them leak and stain my finger, in one the ink flow is too scarce and so on. I'll look for suggestions about how to fix the problems but in the while I'd like to ask: do you have any tips on how choosing a pen online? One of my fps (which I bought in a real shop!) is too big, heavy and slippery for my hand, so I would't like to buy one to discover that it does not suit my small (but not tiny) hand... I wish I could go to a fp show :-)
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Post by MKB on Oct 28, 2018 21:30:15 GMT
For online shopping, I recommend reading reviews and discussions about pens and checking out video reviews. For videos, I like sbrebrown videosFor discussions and forum reviews (as well as information on how to fix your pen issues), I like The Fountain Pen Network
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Post by katiel on Oct 28, 2018 22:25:56 GMT
I also have to add, that if you have a pen pal or friend who is into FP’s and knows your writing style well and is familiar with your preferences, getting a recommendation from them can be a huge help, since they can kind of help you zero in on the pen that might suit you best. (MKB helped me find my current favorites)(Thanks, Matt!)
Also, I’m still totally new to this, so I could be wrong, but I think I read that fountain pens need to be cleaned fairly regularly or they get kind of gummed up with slowly drying ink residue inside over time. I noticed in another thread you mentioned often not cleaning the pens between colors (and your description sounded totally gorgeous), so maybe a good soak and cleaning will fix the ones with the slow-flow issues? Might be worth a shot. Maybe someone who actually knows what they’re talking about might have some better advice though. I just thought I’d throw it out there. Good luck, Hoyabella!
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Post by hoyabella on Oct 29, 2018 12:09:41 GMT
MKB and Katiel, thank you for the useful tips 😊
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Post by stompie on Oct 29, 2018 13:28:06 GMT
So we just got home from our first fountain pen show! It was awesome. We had a great time! The boys were very excited about choosing just the right pen (even with their limited budget, they had several options, I was impressed). It was so cute, they very solemnly asked questions about the pens and their operation and filling systems with the sellers, and the sellers treated them very seriously back, but were clearly tickled that someone so young was so interested in fountain pens. They gave the boys some ridiculous deals on the pens they chose, AND gave them both free Tomoe River notebooks (wow!). The boys even had enough money left to buy some beautiful ink for their pens. Devin chose Monteverde Purple Mist (a gorgeous bright pale purple), and Seth got Diamine Golden Oasis (a shimmery one - perfect for his new stub-nib Pilot Perna, that was bright leaf green with gold glitter)(I seriously loved this one too. If he hadn’t gotten the last bottle, I’d have gotten one, as well). Shockingly, I walked out without any new pens (there just weren’t any that grabbed me), but I fell victims to my one weakness: Shimmer inks. I came home with 2 shimmer inks: pink with gold shimmer (pink glitz) and orange with silver shimmer (citrus ice), both Diamine. This was seriously fun. I’m sure we’ll do it again. I am so glad you and your sons enjoyed yourselves! Fountain Pen folk are great and, if you interact on FPN with folk in your area there are normally folk willing to send you little vials of ink that you might like to try. Some folk even do Fountain Pen Loaner stuff where they will lend you one of their fountain pens if you are thinking of buying one. That way you can tell if it suits you or not.
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Post by katiel on Oct 29, 2018 16:27:41 GMT
Interesting!
Also, thanks for the heads-up about this show, Stompie! I’m really glad I didn’t miss it (the boys are too - they’re still talking about it - you should have seen them proudly showing their new pens to their grandparents when they came to visit on the weekend). It was definitely a fun experience. And I had no idea it was happening until you mentioned it! Excellent timing!
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