Pilot Petit1 Mini Fountain Pens

I think these little pens are just adorable! They have a fine nib, they’re portable, lightweight and I think they write really well. The only one I had a bit of an issue with was the Baby Pink, but I think it’s that the ink is so light, it just seemed to not be flowing well. That one was also a little scratchier on the paper than the others. I may have to convert that one to an eyedropper pen and see what happens.
They are available in eight gorgeous colors. I chose Baby Pink, Clear Blue, Apple Green, and Apricot Orange.

I love that the back of the nib (I’m not sure what that’s called) is clear and when the ink fills it, it matches the body of the pen. Providing, of course, that the ink actually IN the pen matches the color of the body.

They are quite compact at 4.2” when capped and only 5.2” when the cap is posted. The cap snaps on securely and I didn’t have any trouble with it falling off. They felt very comfortable in my hand and although the ink cartridges are rather small, I have written several long-winded letters and haven’t had to replace the cartridge yet.

If you click on the picture you can enlarge it to see it a bit better, but the ink colors are quite lovely!

Here is a picture of all of the colors available (The photo is from the JetPens.com website). I think they are wonderful little pens for the money and I really enjoy using them. When I convert one to an eyedropper pen I will let you know how that goes.

Pentel Prize Package

The other day Pentel sent out a tweet and asked their followers to tweet one of their favorite Pentel products to be entered into a drawing for a Pentel prize. I am a fan of Pentel, they make some wonderful pens, and since I am never one to turn down a shot at a free pen, I tweeted. And I won! I was expecting to wait a while for the package and I thought it might be one pen, maybe two at the most, but that was fine with me.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when the mail arrived today! This is what they sent:

Wow! This is a nice prize package! A set of Pentel Arts Hybrid Technica pens 0.4 - 0.6 tips, 2 Finito! X-tra fine Porous Point Tip pens (one black and one red) a Twist-Erase automatic pencil, and a cute little 1GB flash drive in the shape of a pen... and on a lanyard! Thank you, Pentel!

The Hybrid Technica pens will work well for my doodling. They skipped a bit at first, but they just needed a little breaking in and now they're fine.

 I haven't had a porous tip pen in a long time and it's good to see they have changed a bit. The tip is firmer and doesn't squish when I write with it. They aren't felt tips, they are hard plastic.

See that spring in the cap? The tip sits in an indentation and when the pen is capped, the spring compresses. That is to keep out any air, I suppose, and I don't think drying out will be a problem at all.

Nice fine tips! I like 'em.

To be honest, I took me a few minutes to figure out what this was. It's a rubbery pen shaped thing, with no discernible break in it, so I thought it might be an eraser. Nope. On closer inspection (as in, with my glasses ON), I did see a little line near the tip and when I twisted it, the end came off to reveal a flash drive. How cool is that?

Some samples written with each one. Thanks again, Pentel!

And now for something a little different…

I received this lovely card and envelope from The Modest Peacock, one of my Month of Letters correspondents, a week or so ago – isn’t it beautiful? I don’t know which I like more, the card or the envelope!

I asked her where she found this gorgeous notecard set (by Pooch & Sweetheart) and she suggested Ross (the Dress for Less place). So, I set out in search of it. Ross had a couple of other Pooch & Sweetheart sets, but not the peacock. I checked TJ Maxx, too – nada. I finally found these lovelies at HomeGoods – the label on the back of the box says Punch Studio. The peacock card and envelope do not begin to compare to the one I received, but they are still beautiful, as are the other sets. I know, I know, I have more than enough stamps, inks, paper, etc. to make my own cards, but sometimes I just want to use something different. And to be honest, my mojo takes a vacation sometimes, or I get lazy and don’t feel like making anything. Each set has 12 cards and envelopes and I paid $3.99 for each one. At 5” x 3-1/2” folded, they are smaller than the other one (it’s 5-1/2” x 4-1/4” folded), but I can always enclose separate sheets of paper if I get long winded – which I do most of the time. I figure if I’m gonna write a letter, I might as well write a long letter! Or it could be that I just don’t know when to shut up… like now, for instance.

These are a wee bit smaller than the other cards but they are adorable and I couldn’t resist. The envelopes are just plain pink, no pretty matching designs on these. They were $4.99 for 20 cards and envelopes and the label on the box says Graphique.

Just one more thing… someone on the Month of Letters forum posted a link to an online store that sells flexible/mailable (is that a word?) sealing wax and seals. I have added the  link to the right sidebar – Nostalgic Impressions. I placed a small-ish order and will report back as soon as I have tried them. Their prices are reasonable and they offer free shipping on any order over $30, which is nice. I just ordered yesterday, so I’ll let you know how long it takes to arrive.

Pilot Hi-Tec C Maica Review

As soon as I saw these on JStationery.com I knew I had to have them. I love shiny things and pens, and these are the best of both worlds. They are gorgeous!

The body is still plastic, which is what keeps them lightweight, but it has a beautiful metallic finish and that pretty M logo on it. The color coordinated cap is faceted, has the tip size printed on it, and even has a little loop that you could use for charms, or attaching a lanyard, and posts securely with a little click. I think I need to find my beading supplies! I would hate for someone to try to steal one of these from me! That would not end well, believe me.

These are the 5 colors I started with – Apricot Orange, Light Blue, Pink, Violet, and Brown (top to bottom). I have a few more on my wish list.

I didn’t find any of the colors too light for writing with, they are all perfect. They may not do as well on anything but white or beige paper, but I think most gel ink colors look best on light colored paper anyway, unless they are made for darker paper, like the Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight pens.

The 0.4mm needle tip doesn’t clog and didn’t feel the least bit scratchy on the paper, even the cheap paper pads from Michael’s. You can see the loop on the cap a little better in this photo, too.

They are a little longer than the regular Hi-Tec C but about 1/2”. The Hi-Tec C is just a shade over 5-1/4” and these measure 5-3/4” capped.

I can’t testify to the wear on the metallic finish, since I haven’t had them very long but I don’t think that will be an issue. The bar code label is printed on the barrel, which annoys me a bit, but it’s around the side and not all bothersome.

I can’t say enough good things about this pen. They are inexpensive ($2.25 at JStationery.com), very pretty, the inks colors are lovely, and they write really well.  They are available is 12 colors – Baby Pink, Blue, Blue Black, Black, Orange, Green, Red, and the ones featured here – Apricot Orange, Pink, Light Blue, Violet, and Brown. All of the colors are also available in a 0.3mm tip.

I found this photo on the JStationery.com site. It shows all of the colors and how pretty the caps are.

So pop on over there and order some for yourself – you know you want to! I am not affiliated with JStationery.com in any way, I an just a satisfied customer.

Who doesn’t love a good fountain pen?

First and foremost, I want to thank Azizah over at Gourmet Pens for linking me up. That was very kind of you and I am grateful for the referrals! Thank you, too, to all of the kind people that left comments. I love reading them! If you would like to subscribe, either via email or RSS feed, there are links on the right sidebar for that.

Fountain pen prices run from very inexpensive to seriously out of my price range. So far, I just have a couple of the very inexpensive variety, but I will admit to a slight bit of drooling over some at the other end of the pricing spectrum. Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she? Price doesn’t always dictate quality, at least not in this case.

Up for review are the Platinum Preppy, purchased from Goulet Pens, and a Cross fountain pen that I found at Staples around Christmastime. One thing that drew me to the Platinum Preppy (other than the $3.95 price tag) was the ability to turn it into an eyedropper pen. For those of you who may not understand what an eyedropper pen is (and don’t feel bad, I didn’t know either until recently), this is the definition I found on the Goulet Pens website:

Eyedropper Conversion - The process of adapting a fountain pen that has an existing filling mechanism (such as cartridge/converter, piston, or aerometric) so that the entire body of the pen can be used as an ink reservoir.

I bought 2 of them (one is never enough) from Goulet Pens and they offer to convert the pen for an additional $2.00. Not a bad deal at all, don’t you think? The color on the cap is the color of the cartridge they come with. The nibs are also color coordinated. I chose to have the blue one converted to an eyedropper pen and it did come with a blue cartridge, I just removed it for this photo. They list for $3.95 at Goulet Pens – quite affordable.

The conversion consists of a rubber 0-ring and some silicone grease on the threads to prevent ink leakage. You can see the 0-ring here and if you enlarge the photo you may be able to see the silicone grease as well. It’s there, trust me.

I also ordered ink samples, a syringe, more o-rings, and some silicone grease so I can do my own conversions in the future, or maybe even convert the purple one. With the syringe I can refill empty cartridges with different inks, too, if I don’t want to actually convert the pen.

Goulet Pens has hundreds…HUNDREDS…of ink colors, and it’s so hard to choose. I thought I’d start with these 5 and see how it goes. The inks have quite a wide price range as well. Their sample bottles start at $1.25 for a 2ml sample.

The conversion supplies are not expensive, either. All of this was less than $10.

So, after saying all of that, I must confess that I haven’t actually filled up the blue pen yet. The main reason is because I can’t decide which ink color to start with! Help me out here – what do you think I should start with?

I clicked the purple cartridge into the other pen right away and it didn’t take long for the ink to flow to the tip. It writes very smoothly, I am quite impressed! Since the pen is made from plastic, it is very lightweight and I can write for hours with it – and I have lately. The cap posts securely and that’s the way I use it. The only drawback for me is that the labels are printed on the barrel and can’t be removed, as opposed to being peel off labels. But I’ll get used to it, it’s not a deal breaker at all.

The Cross pen is a beautiful deep purple (I saw them in concert once!), which is why I found it hard to resist. When I saw the price tag of $20, resistance was futile, I caved. It came in a lovely silver box (which has apparently been recycled) with extra black cartridges. That’s another reason I bought the syringe, so I can refill these cartridges. The Cross cartridges are only available in blue and black! What?

It’s a little heavy with the cap posted, which tired out my hand pretty quickly, so I usually leave it off. It snaps on securely, though, and that’s a plus for those of you who prefer to post the cap. It is a fairly substantial pen, well made, and very pretty. I haven’t seen them in the store since then, so I guess it was just a holiday promotional item. Staples carries other Cross fountain pens, but they are more expensive.

Here is a close up of the nib. Oh, look, there’s an “M” on it – I guess it is a medium, after all. I never noticed that before, you can barely see it, but look at the bottom edge of the nib. Anyway, I like the way it writes, it’s not scratchy and it doesn’t skip at all. I may have to drain one of the cartridges and try one of those pretty ink samples in it soon. Black ink just doesn’t do anything for me.

If you would like to see a little more about the Platinum Preppy fountain pen, there is another review over at The Well Appointed Desk blog today. She also reviews the Pilot Petit 1 – and yes, I have a couple of those, too. I totally agree with her opinion on them, they are lovely little pens. Hmmm…I wonder if they can be converted to an eyedropper pen. As soon as I decide which ink to use, I will be sure to post a bit about the process and how it all turned out.