May your days be Merry...

It's been a long time between drinks and sobriety has clearly made me forget my obligations to you, readers, so apologies are in order!

My new Year's resolution shall be to be more regular (a good thing at my age) and to blog more frequently too!

Whatever the horrors that may have recently impacted the globe, now is the time to remember what unites us all.

The fountain pen is a wonderful reminder of how so many common interests and passions can bring us together. Not all at once, but multiple times in multiple places and spaces all around the world.

So, I trust that whatever your cultural background, you have the chance to take time to spend with your family and friends, enjoy and appreciate their company, reflect on the last 12 months and prepare, with excitement for its potential, for the year ahead.

Until next tine, here are a few recent pen pics to take us to the new year:

Christmas preparations: Fountainpen Day loot, a Montblanc Proust, Twsbi 580 orange piston, Montegrappa Extra

Omas 556 GF

Aurora Oceania

Fountain Pen Revolution

Aurora Oceania and Bungbox Mt Fuji Pen stand

Not a good year for Conway Stewart (a Simpole overlay CS)

The only negatives I accept at this time of year!

Vintage Wahl-Eversharp 

Omas LE Lucens

Visconti HS Crystal

Karas Kustoms "INK"

Newton Pens Preston - Don't you love this colour?

Omas Alba - italic nib

"INK" and inks (and a 3776 Bourgogne by Platinum)

1938 Omas Imperiale

pic of a postcard by talented Perth (Australia) artist.

Wahl-Eversharp Skyscraper - My first pics!

It arrived on Fountain Pen Day and here it is, the Wahl-Eversharp Skyline Skyscraper....

What? Can't see it behind the Crystal?

How's this?...

Impressed?

The Skyscraper comes complete (as a limited edition) with certificate and general information; with the pen initially coming securely in this little plastic cover:

The Crystal display unit comes boxed and well protected from the evils of the post:

But the Skyscraper does not just soar because of its packaging (as good as the packaging is). The Fountain Pen itself is actually quite beautiful:

  

The detail on this pen is just supurb.

As for the official blurb; this is what Wahl Eversharp has to say: 

"Spanning the first 100 years of WAHL-EVERSHARP history, perhaps nothing embodies the essence and spirit of achievement of that era more than the iconic, soaring skyscraper. Thus we chose the skyscraper as the emblematic design for our most ambitious pen design to date. It naturally takes place at the top of the entire Skyline Collection of fine writing instruments. It's quintessential Mid-Century Modern "Clean-Line", harks back to the peak of achievements in industrial design."

Bottom line, this is a lovely looking fountain pen. 

What I can't tell you yet is what it's like to write with. The information leaflet boasts a semi-flex nib so I'm looking forward to trying this out. I haven't inked it yet - I have a lot of pens I inked for FPD that I really want to use first - but watch this space for a writing sample some time in the future.

Until next tine...

From stoplights to skyscrapers, turn anywhere in civilization and you will see imagination at work. It's in our inventions, advances and remedies and how a single parent masterminds each day. Imagination is boundless, surrounds us and resides in us all.

Geoffrey S. Fletcher

And the winner is...

I set you a challenge.

You set your minds straight

Delivered with feeling

and little debate.

The outcome is awesome

I'm truly in Zen

You've shown all-and-sundry

The power of PEN!

Thank you all for a truly wonderful effort in submitting your entries to my Fountain Pen Day Competition.

As I mentioned in my first blog on this competition, the winners are not chosen at random; but are the poems that I was most moved by. Yes, I know this may put me at odds with some who may argue the relative merits of one poem over another; but that is what is so wonderful about literature and art, there is no right and wrong answer!

So thank you again. Especially to the winners who knew just the right pistons to turn to deliver the best outcomes.

Picking the first few, was honestly a difficult task. In the end, I went with my emotions and this is what you delivered:

FIRST:
Eric Aycock for this beautiful piece:

The light dims, as the pen moves

Describing life and places

From humble thoughts to lonely faces.

Observing a life at a passing glance

Processing and distilling each experience to a word

Be it known or new, strange, familiar, or absurd.

An ageless grace of love

Romantic, heartfelt, and pure.

A pen stroke creates at a glance

A look of change so demur,

The Poet creates a world

With each stroke, the meaning grows deeper

And soaks each phrase and word

Like a pot of tea left to steep.

Eric will receive the Jinhao of his colour choice, one of two Field Notes notebooks, the Pressy and Pressy t-shirt and a collection of FPD loot. Well done and thankyou Eric.

SECOND:

Geoffrey Bennett Speer for his imagery and humour:

You can take my fountain pen away

And force me to write all day with a 

Vulture talon dipped in blood,

Or a greenbrier thorn inked up with mud,

Some axle grease on a piece of barbed wire,

Or a red hot poker just drawn from the fire,

Creosote on the end of railroad spike,

Or lipstick on the butt of a Lucky Strike,

I'd crank out verse like Poe, Byron or Donne

With communion wine from an ole tattoo gun,

I'd rather hand copy the phone book

With any of them

Than sign my own name

With a cheap ballpoint pen!

Geoffrey gets the Jinhao of his colour choice too, the other of the Fieldnotes Notebooks, a Pilot notebook and FPD bits. Great effort!

THIRD:
Gerald Taylor for his take on the eternal lament of the Pen acquirer :

I think I have a problem

That is plain to see

Fountain pens keep coming

Through the mail to me

I tell myself "don't worry"

It will be all right

But still I keep on shopping

Especially at night

That's it I've had enough!

I swear I'll buy no more!

I just found three new slips

All waiting on my door

But oh there are those colours

Materials that delight

And all with golden nibs

I cannot win this fight

I give up.

I want all the pens.

Gerald gets a Jinhao (he'll need to tell me his colour preferences incase the first two have taken his preference) FPD bookmark and bits. This is the second time Gerald has done well in an Eclectidbits competition, clearly a skilled communicator! :D

... and FOURTH: 
Aumbrine for this thoughtful work:

The paper in my notebook

Waited with abated breath

As its lover wrote out

the words to MacBeth

The ink flowed out 

Like a melody to a song

As my pen

Stringed the notes along

My pen and I 

Do this dance, you see

This love affair

Is hard to believe

That someone like me 

Who had no sound to this voice

Who now writes words

Like it's even a choice

Give me a pen, a nib

And some ink if you please

My mind, body and heart

Will surrender with ease

This tongue will no longer fold

With stories untold

This voice, it will echo

Words laced with gold

Aumbrine also wins a Jinhao (I will again need to know colour preferences incase the first two have taken your preference), FPD bookmark and paraphernalia. 

Of course there are still more pens and FPD material so there are a few more winners too. Congratulations also to:

• Chris Edwards
• Josiah
• Robin Keys
• Bonnie
• Raschon
• Janet Faught and 
• Sara

All of whom will get a Jinhao plus stuff! Just email me your details so that I can send them. By all means tell me your colour preferences and I'll see what I can do  - but no promises!

For everyone else, thankyou again for participating and let's do it all again next year!

Until next tine...

Eclectidbits

Fairwell Fountain Pen Day

We here in the Southern Hemisphere have now well-and-truly bid Fountain Pen Day goodbye :(

Of course you Northerners still have some time to go and we're happy to let you try to catch up - although we know you never will! 

The day has been glorious!  

My FPD has been marked with two extremely well timed arrivals:

The Wahl-Eversharp Skyline SkyScraper Fountain Pen

Only the box for now; I'll de-cant it once I get it home. More pics to come.

Delta Unica (from Goulet Pens) - ain't she a cutie?

So a productive day indeed!

Full marks to Mr Fountain Pen Day, Cary Yeager, for his outstanding work in growing this day in such a short time (starting in 2012) to the fabulous success of this year.

I will not be announcing the winner of my competition until after the Northerners finally say adieu to FPD; but the standard has been great and people have really produced some marvellous poetry, entering into the competition with verve!

Very few of you have left email addresses, so a direct email with your details would be helpful.

So, until next tine (or at least tomorrow when the winners are announced),


EB

 Here are a few of my FPD instagram pics:

From top: FPGeeks badge; Omas Arco 360 (don't you just love that pattern?); the Wahl-Eversharp Skyline SkyScraper, Omas Alba

The box inside of which lies the goodies for my FPD competition

My Omas Extra Lucens says goodnight to Fountain Pen Day for another year!

Melbourne Pen Show Review

Hello all, and welcome to the week before Fountain Pen Day (November 7) and my review of the Melbourne (Australia) Pen Show for 2014.

While Australia may not boast the fountain pen retail networks of USA and Europe; we more than make up for it in enthusiasm and a delight in sharing our passion.

"Passion" was the theme (not officially, but to my mind at least), that saw a show this year (one day only) that focussed on the collector rather than the retailer - and was better for it.

Yes you could buy (and of course I did - see later); but it was the passion of the collectors showing, talking, selling and explaining their obsessions that gave the show its zing!

As you entered the show in the Malvern Town Hall, the room was a buzz with quillidyllic overtones (my word).

Guido Staltari with his Visconti's, and other Italian beauties

The passion, of course, started before even going to the Show, as Quillidealists (also my word) from all over Australia (well, I know at least two from Sydney who came along) prepared their hauls for show-and-tell on arrival. Here was mine:

From left: Delta Zen, Delta Stantuffo Mocha with Rose Gold, Visconti Homo Sapiens Crystal, Visconti Pininfarina, Montegrappa Extra 1930, Omas 556 GF, Omas Extra Lucens LE, Edison Menlo in Tibaldi Impero celluloid, Montblanc Proust WE, Montblanc Heritage 1912, Omas 360 Arco, and the appropriately themed Aurora Oceania. 

 Here both veterans and the uninitiated was presented with the wares of many stalwarts of the Melbourne Pen world including: 

• Old Post Office Pens (and their Diamine inks, Sheaffer's and Conway Stewarts),
• David Van Cuylenburg of "Pen Collectors of Melbourne", Peter Ford of AusPens.com, 
• Dr Bernard Swift and his eclectic collection, 
• Pam Sutton and her extraordinary Pencil collection, 
• Alan Marrone (who also had an antique or two),
• Mike Allen (antiques, pens, jewellery and general mayhem),
• Guido Staltari of FCI luxury pens (Visconti +), 
• the fabulous folk from the Melbourne Pen Group with their quillomania clearly on display.

and more...

Old Post Office Pens had Pens-a-plenty!

David Van Cuylenburg of "Pen Collectors of Melbourne"

Peter Ford of AusPens - looking trim, taut and terrific!

And the wares we were shown were infinitely ware-able! 

Conway Stewart may be out of business, but not here:

Pam Sutton's pencils were beautifully presented and, well, beautiful!

... and the array of other pens, papers and leather on display was just what every Quillophile (yes, another me-ism) could hope for.

Transehe Design pens [copper my favourite - top, fourth from the left - just a bit on the $$ side :( ]

And so to my purchases (*embarrassed flush).

I'm not used to seeing Omas at these shows, but maybe someone knew I was coming! This pen, based on the Omas S2001, was produced specifically for the Eni Company and includes their logo on the nib:

thank you Alan Marrone

and these two inks: 

Visconti Turquoise (because SBRE Brown keeps instagram-ing how good it is) and Diamine Red Dragon (just because)

The Show done, the Melbourne Pen Group hosted a lovely dinner at the Tower Hotel, Hawthorn where we amiably chatted and constructively de-constructed one another's pen habits and pens (with a heavy emphasis on my own humble offerings of the day):

Next year, another show! So, until next tine (or at least until Fountain Pen Day and the announcement of the winners of my Fountain Pen Day rhyming competition)

Keep writing!