Summer is flying by fast, and the real world is more than a little scary, but in the stationery universe there’s still plenty happening – so here’s an update on some of the good stuff!
We start with a hat-tip to fellow stationery bloggers who run a news and update service of their own – but we don’t see them as competitors, because it’s a small world out there – positively a nanosphere, in fact. A subscription to the Nanosphere email service conveys a regular fresh wave of pens, paper and even stationery walking tours (NB not stationary), and the eye for a novel product which previously made Bureau Direct such an interesting site is now roving all across the interwebs…
Talking of hat-tips, the Fountain Pens UK group on Farcebook have collaborated with Diamine to produce two terrific inks, Scribble Purple and Monboddo’s Hat. This supply of purple goodness has brought great utility to Scribble Monboddo even if the United Inkdom style guide forbids the use of first person singular, thus constraining effusive expressions of joy. They’re available from Diamine directly or from any good fountain pen specialist, and we’ll try to provide a proper meta-review here once everyone has had a chance to play with them. Don’t forget the apostrophe, mind!
Diamine are all over the electric high street at the moment, with a new ink to celebrate fifteen years of Cymru’s finest nibtacular retail establishment, Pure Pens. Their Alexandrite is a bit of a sheen monster, apparently, and even comes in a shimmering version too. Sheen and shimmer – now you’re really spoiling us.
Not be outdone, Cult Pens have exercised Diamine’s finest minds and then named inks after them – and thus Chris and Phil can now now fill your converters as well as answering your emails. Philip, in particular, is a seriously gorgeous purple, but it’s fair to say that the whole ‘Iridescink’ collection is worth a look.
Staying with purple but moving on to pens, The Writing Desk have found another beauty from Sailor…
…while Andy’s Pens now include a cheeky Vac700 impersonator, the Wing Sung 3013. It’s currently available at a well-known auction site for £3.01 and a wait of a few weeks, or from Andy at lightning speed for £7.20 – and there are some colours other than purple, but why would you want that now that you’ve seen this?
Write Here’s ex-OMAS friends at ScriBo are sticking with greens and blues so far, but the latest incarnation is looking close to irresistible, if you have the cash.
Beyond these shores, Californian firm Ensso are back on Kickstarter with a very tempting metal offering, the Italia. Kickstarter’s artificial intelligence seems to have been somewhat bamboozled by the name into displaying sundry site text in, err, Italian, but that’s hardly a problem for most dedicated nib fans. Meanwhile, following some customer service and quality control issues with the Ixion it appears that Namisu have paid the price and had to accept defeat with their most recent attempt at a Kickstarter, the unusual Stratos; we wish them better luck next time.
Finally, something to look forward to if we survive Hallowe’en after all. Roy from the mighty Izods is organising a new pen show just south of Marylebone on the 13th June 2020, and there are even rumours of Robert Oster flying in himself! Watch this space…