A Prelude of Good Things to Come

In preparation of my upcoming ink and notebook reviews, I started cleaning several of my pens last night. More pens were cleaned this morning and all six of them will be filled with fresh inks in the days to come.

Cleaned pens left overnight to dry.

Set on left is the disassembled Parker Rialto that used to be filled with Caran d'Ache Saffron, and soon to be inked with Diamine Burnt Sienna. I love this pen and its medium nib and the fact that its nib section can be taken apart: nib and feed can pulled out of the nib section and rinsed thoroughly with water. No long soaking time or flushing of stubborn ink stuck in the feed and underside of the nib.

The middle set has the parts of the Colibri pen, my first pen with a two-toned nib that writes like heaven. Very smooth, and used to be filled with Aurora Blue, and soon will get a transfusion of Diamine Turquoise. It didn't take long to flush out old ink from its nib section.

Last set on right belongs to Mary-Ann, the Retro 51 Scripmaster II Series pen that I just adore, love, and cherish. Who wouldn't? It was filled only with Waterman South Sea Blue since I got it in April, and now will be inked with J. Herbin Orange Indien.

Of course my ink reviews will include my dabbling into calligraphy, and there is something new that I shall use for that aside from my Schneider Creativ and Lamy Joy pens - an old set of Manuscript calligraphy pens that I got from a thrift store for PhP50 a year ago. The pen was in a blister pack with 2 nibs and a converter, but I only got to use the converter later on. I was disappointed at the nibs when I used them because they were scratchy and hard starting. But I wasn't into calligraphy then. I saw the pen in my office drawer today and tried to do some calligraphy strokes. I was so surprised at how the 2.3 nib wrote. Not smooth, in fact the nib tip is so sharp it can cut through my skin. But the letters I wrote with it were so beautifully impressive! Now I have three sets of calligraphy pens. :) But wait! I also have a Brause set with six nibs! Six! I'll get on them as soon as I finish my final exams on the 19th. After that, it's purely paper, ink, and pen bliss for me. :)

And Now... Meet Mary Ann

And now, meet Mary Ann. Stunning, isn’t she?

Mary Ann belongs to Retro 51's Scriptmaster II series, and she's the third in my stash of white fountain pens. I got her from her previous owner last April but only got to ink her early this month. She's made of solid bars of cellulose acetate, and her articulated clip and rings are coated with platinum. Whoa.

Retro 51's logo on the cap's ring.

She is 5.5 inches long of flawless beauty, 5 inches uncapped, and extends to 6.5 inches when posted. Her Medium steel nib writes very smooth and very wet, the exact two things I always look for in a fountain pen.

And she is with other fountain pens on top of my blue flannel pen wrap. Peeking out on her left is my black Pilot 78G, and on her right, sharing a slot are the pens from India: Camlin and Chelpark.

And so her name is Mary Ann. She's got brothers and sisters, too. In fact, she's got a sister named Clementine, and I know I should have gotten that, but orange pens are not my thing now. Later, maybe. But for now, you rock my world, Mary Ann! *Winks.*