Good Art Pens?

[Nancy Bell Scott]

What are your favorite pens to use in mail art?  I have a few good (sort of) ones for my regular-size collage work -- for applying lines, not for actually writing -- but they aren't turning out to be great for mail-art scale.  New ones for writing, asemic writing, drawing, and outlining are needed.  All suggestions welcome.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Thanks for your photo, Catherine, I do love looking at them.  My favorite in how yours look is the one second from top (or from right?).  And you even included your refills!  How nice and thorough!

[Amy Irwen]

I use the same pens as SH...sharpies ultra fine and faber castell Pitt artist pen

[Nancy Bell Scott]

I am enjoying immensely all replies here and need to absorb.  Val's is especially challenging because it sounds like we are in the same boat in ability to open a stationers.  I said I *use* a few in regular collage work, but I *have* a ton!   Will have more to say in a few days.    Thank you all.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Moroccan pen story.

 I once went on a walking trip in the Moroccan mountains. We would come across villages in which time seemed to have stopped a long while ago. No electricity. No running water. Mud hut type buildings. etc.

There were schools though.

The children would run after we rich Westerners and appeal for 'Stilos! Stilos!' ie pens, pens of any sort.

I vowed that if I ever went back I would carry with me a box that I have under one of my bookshelves that must have about 500 pens in that I have acquired over the years from bars, restaurants, hotels, conferences, companies etc. I'll never use them, but the Moroccan kids would.

Alas, I don't think that I'll ever go back to Morocco.

End of pen story.

[Amy Irwen]

We could start a pen collection and send thru the Red cross!!?? Any thoughts on this?

[Valentine Mark Herman]

It's a good idea Amy, BUT to make it work we'd each need to send our own pens to a local RC Centre and not send them all to one place (like your house!) for forwarding, otherwise too much money would be spent on postage that could otherwise be spent on pens. For example, you can buy 30 or so cheap pens in the UK for £1, but then the postage costs are much, much more. It would be best to donate money to a 'Pen Fund' and then spend it on...pens. BUT again, there might be some sort of IGO Educational Relief:Charity that says that, for example, pencils are of much more use than pens. In other words, I really don't know. Regards

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Michael O'Leary story.

Michael O'Leary is the CEO of Ryanair which is, I think, Europe's most popular airline.

O'Leary is famous/notoruous for his cost-cutting measures, and for trying to screw as much money out of his passengers as possible: he recently wanted to charge people for going to the toilets on his planes, but the European airline authorities canned (ha!) this.

Rynair employs thousands of people. O'Leary doesn't provide them with stationery. his message to them is basically bring your own pens and pencils and paer to work, or rip it off from other companies.

End of Michael O'Leary pen story.

Regards, JE Sweefoo

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Also thanks to Amy, Theresa, and Skybridge -- Skybridge for those excellent sites to peruse.  If I ever buy a lottery ticket and win, I might order every single pen at those sites, they look great.  I have bookmarked them to try to figure out one or two to try.  It would be great to try to send a collection like Amy suggested -- the ones I don't use anymore, plus years and years of colored editing pencils, would make up a big box by themselves.  It's too bad to have them going to waste.  I know, as Val said, that the bureaucracy of it all would prevent this. :--(

The Pigma Microcon interests me, Theresa, in that it's archival -- and doesn't smear if it gets wet, yes?  Most people online gave it good reviews.

[Lois Richter]

We use the local "FreeCycle" to offer unwanted but still useable items to our neighbors.  It's amazing how many teachers snap up anything that writes!  If you go to freecycle.org and enter your ZIPcode, it will tell you what Freecycle groups are near you.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Almost forgot:  soaked and cleaned my two fountain pens thoroughly, and at least one may be coming back to life, very exciting!  I wrote Thom a letter with one the other day and it was just getting going and seems better since.  If I keep using it every day or something maybe it won't dry up like it has the other 86,000 times.

It's a beautiful French pen -- I can almost not read the name -- would it be Pecife? or Recife?  I will post a picture because it's wonderful even just to look at.

The other is a very heavy Yafa fountain pen, maybe from Israel -- don't think they make them anymore?  The whole thing seems to be thick stainless steel or something.  I like them fat and heavy; skinny ones cramp the hand.  The Yafa is cleaned but not tried yet this go-round, we will see.

Of course neither of these can be used much in art, they would smear, I'm pretty sure, though will experiment with them.  I love pens and paperclips and pencils and envelopes and all that stuff, and I'm happy you all contributed your thoughts on your favorite pens.  Some great info came of this, thank you.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

"Found" pens!  Skybridge!  That idea is huge, and what a great one you made.  So many plans are now swirling around in my head.  Thank You Very Much.

And also for finding those sites -- it was several years ago that I tried and failed.  Quite a few pens on the Yafa site look good and not expensive, eh?

Yah, the Recife was a splurge like nothing I'd ever done before (nor since).  My husband was away sometime in the '90s and I decided I needed a treat, so went to a specialty stationery store in Portland and plunked down 150 of our not-many dollars on the Recife!  I really loved it, but also felt guilty, especially when it didn't get used regularly enough and kept drying up, so the "treat" wasn't even real.  It will be now, though, finally.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

This is called "overdoing it," but here is photo of my two fountain pens, which you all gave new life to by reminding me: