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.

[Frieder Speck]

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Ha, RES, join the club. I have found no rehab treatment for pen addiction, though, so watch out. Glad you posted--I just had a great time rereading the whole discussion.

[Lorinna Denise Hastings]

I solved this a bit, or reduced by becoming addicted to various papers, so to moderate this I became addicted to paints of various types. ....help!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

They look beautiful, Frieder, laid out like that.  I think I see a fountain pen along with India ink pens and the brush.  What are the others, especially that intriguing-looking marbleized implement?

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

sharpie ultra fine.

they come in assorted colors.

 

also, if i don't need to write on slick surfaces, i also like Stabilo pens.

[Frieder Speck]

I think you mean the piece to draw music lines?

The Black one is a japanese ceramic roller pen, one of my favorite to write.

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

oh, that reminds me - i also have one of my dad's (now deceased) cross pens.

i'm not overly fond of it for its writing, but it is sentimental. sentimentality

is always something to consider. i'm sure you know that already though. ;-D

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yes, Frieder, that's the one -- a pen for music staff lines -- I never imagined there would be such a thing.  It's beautiful.  Thank you for all of this.

SH, you don't find the sharpies' line gets dull and fat over a short time?  That's my problem with them.  A cross pen wouldn't thrill me either, but sentimental value is high value.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Bonjour!

 I have so many pens that I could open a stationers! Perhaps that's because I was a writer who became a Mail Artist a year or so ago.

Amongst my collection of pens are:

* a super expensive broad-nibbed Italian fountain pen that I use for flamboyant signatures and 'heavy' letters to my bak and other people who pester me

* a fine nib Lamy fountain (cartridge and ordinary ink) pen for detailed work

* a broad nibbed Lamy (catridge) pen for caligraphy work

* two sets of caligraphy fountain pens, each with 3-5 interchangeable nibs of different sizes that I use for ...er caligraphy!

* 5 different 'drawing and aristic' pens by Faber Castell: sort of roller ball nibs ranging from 0.05 to 0.7 for fine and not-so-fine line drawing

* a variety of different coloured 'magic marker' pens that I use when I can't be bothered to get out my water colours or acrylics

* about 20 different coloured felt tip pens that I use for highlighting things here, there and everywhere

* and then there are lots of very old 'ink nib' pens (like the top two in Frieder's photo) that I use with the bottles of ink that I bought in Florence a while ago

* a few boring biros, that I use when I'm bored;

And then there's my collection of pencils...but you didn't ask about those!

Regards, JESweefoo

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

what about your pencil collection, val? ;-D

[Valentine Mark Herman]

At the request of the superhero, I will now bore you silly with a slisting of my pencils.

Yawn. here goes:

* there is a black Lami propelling pencil that is very nice when it writes more than three words, but has a built in an in-built 'lead destruct' feature that automatically operates after 2 words

* a lot of Castell and Fabre and Lakeland pencils acquired over the years, of various hardness (a bit like me, really),

* two 'recreation' medieaval-style pencils that I bought in leiden, Holland, when my daughter (finally) multi-graduated. they look very nice but are hopeless to write with. (Again, a bit like me really). I have 2 because I lost one, bought another, and then re-found the first one

* a Parker propelling pencil circa 1955

* lots of very ordinary pencils that I've collected from hotels, restaurants, conference centers etc over the years

* some really good pencils with rubbers from a manchester, England, law firm called Pinsent Masons. 'Help yourself to as many as you like, Val', they foolishly said. As we were paying them a small fortune in legal fees for some useless advice I took them at their word (and lifted about 50 of them).

I think that's all.

If you can manage to handle anymore of this stuff, I can tell you about my ciollection of crayons if your like.

Thought not!

Regards, JE SWeefoo

[Nancy Bell Scott]

You look in ultra fine shape with your pen collection, Val/JESweefoo.  I love the list, and it makes me want to do a serious inventory also -- not that you were deadly serious :--).  One thing I've never used, and can't imagine why, is the India ink pens.  There is a really great art store in Portland, Maine, where I get most of my stuff, and their staff is fantastic -- they would show me what to get and how to use it.  Maybe today!  It's the original Artist & Craftsman Supply, but now they have branches in I think about 8 or 10 other cities around the country.  Anyone know it?