I was so honored to receive an Aurora Optima Fine Flex LE as a gift in New York from the fine folks at Fountain Pen Hospital. It is a beautiful candy apple red which looks lovely with my favorite make-up from Bésame (no, I am not getting kickbacks for endorsing them. I just really like…
There are not a lot of new, entry-level pens appearing on the market so its always worth taking a good look. The Faber-Castell Grip 2011 ($20) is definitely a contender. Especially in light of recent price increase on the Pilot Metropolitan (now MSRP $29.99, street price $23.99), there is definitely room for a new entry-level…
The second release from the new, improved relaunch of Esterbrook is the Phaeton 300R (MSRP $85, street price $68). While the Estie was designed to be a modern fountain pen that could also use the original Esterbrook screw-in nib units, the Phaeton is a retro-styled fountain pen with a semi-hooded nib reminiscent of mid-century pen…
Review by Tina Koyama I’ve seen a few brush pens in my day, and most with bristles have the same average-size tip. Pentel’s Ultra Fine Artist Brush Sign Pen ($3.65) is a rare exception. (I chose black to test, but it comes in 12 colors.) On the outside, it has a basic plastic body typical…
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early edition of the Spoke Pen (starting at $65 — 5 days left), a collaborative project recently launched on Kickstarter between Brian Conti of Spoke Design and Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict. Y’all have heard of Brad, right? Of course you have. Probably have…
It will probably come as a surprise to discover that, up until recently, I did not own any model of Lamy 2000. While I own many different models of Lamy fountain pens, including the Lamy Scala with a gold nib, I don’t own any of Lamy’s rollerball or ballpoint pens. So, I decided to break…
Review by Tina Koyama I’ve been aware of Maruman sketchbooks for a while, but I hadn’t tried one, mainly because most formats are too large for my sketching lifestyle. The Zuan series, however, includes a postcard size (about 4-by-6 inches) that seems ideal for urban and travel sketching, so I picked up a pad (50…
