are you or a loved one expecting to use a fountain pen for the first time this holiday season? you need this information.
fountain pens are making a comeback, with good reason. fountain pens require virtually no pressure to write, and many people used to ballpoint, gel, or rollerball pens will actually damage a fountain pen on their first use because of how much pressure they are accustomed to using. on the flip side, many people with joint pain will find that they can only write without pain when using a fountain pen.
fountain pens are customizable, reusable, ergonomic, comfortable, and utilize fantastical fountain pen inks containing shading, sheening, and shimmer.
using a fountain pen correctly for the first time just elicits that ever elusive and emphatic "oh." you will, with likelihood, understand why people use fountain pens just by using one yourself. it cannot be put into words.
but before you learn how to use a fountain pen, you need to learn how NOT to use a fountain pen.
here are my top 3 tips for how not to use a fountain pen.
first, what makes a fountain pen. a fountain pen is defined as a pen with an internal resivoir that feeds ink through a feed and to a nib. they do not require dipping.
the internals of the end of a fountain pen look like this. fountain pens are a lot of different parts. although this diagram shows a pen using a converter, most first time fountain pen users will use a cartridge, which is a pressurized pouch of ink.
the slit in the metal nib forms two tines, and the end of which is tipping. ink flows from the converter (or cartridge or other filling system) down the feed and through the slit in the nib, down to the tip.
since fountain pens are a bunch of very closely fitted different parts, they take specialized, thin, water-based ink.
which leads me to the first major thing to not do with a fountain pen.
#1: do not use anything other than 'fountain pen ink' in a fountain pen
so let me tell you a little story here. I got into dip pens before I got into fountain pens. years and years ago. I found out that a converter allows you to use bottled ink with a fountain pen, and I already had some decent ink I was using with my dip nibs. I bought a converter, a fountain pen, and then did one of the worst possible things you can do to a fountain pen: I loaded it with dip ink. if I remember right, it was some kind of india or sumi ink.
the pen no longer wrote, and I could not even replace the alleged easily replaceable parts. what happened?
ink is more than just liquid and color, it involves complicated chemical formulas. dip pens can be dipped in just about anything and then write to some degree, but fountain pens can only safely be used with ink designed specifically for fountain pens. dip ink is usually thicker and can clog the slits in the fountain pen's feed, preventing the ink from reaching the tip of the nib. but diluting dip ink is not good enough. the chemicals in dip inks can melt or rust the internals of a fountain pen. this damage is often irreparable without paying a specialist a lot of money to restore the pen, which can cost more than just buying a new fountain pen. in my case, the internals of my fountain pen melted slightly and got glued together.
unfortunately, many sellers on websites like amazon, etsy, ebay, aliexpress, and more will claim that their ink is fountain pen ink, when in reality it will destroy your fountain pen.
until you are used to which types of inks are safe for fountain pens, use a dedicated and reliable stationery website like jetpens, gouletpens, or cultpens to tell you which inks are designed for fountain pens. jetpens in particular will also tell you which cartridges and converters are compatible with the fountain pens they sell, which is essential, because many fountain pen cartridges and converters are proprietary and only fit certain pens.
when in doubt, just buy compatible cartridges.
#2 do not expect the fountain pen to flex
calligraphy videos are really popular right now. many of them involve fountain pens and dip pens using flexible lines to create gorgeous cursive. in reality, most modern fountain pens do not flex, and trying to make them flex can break them.
this is a dip nib. if you try to do this to a fountain pen nib, you will damage it. this is what NOT to do to a fountain pen nib.
there are two main materials used for making fountain pen nibs: steel and gold. steel is harder and stiffer, gold is softer and generally more bouncy or flexible. vintage gold fountain pens gained a reputation for writing like "wet noodles" and creating fantastic line variations. they are very desired for calligraphy. but vintage flex fountain pens start at hundreds of dollars each. and virtually no modern fountain pen with any degree of flex will skip on the chance to advertise themselves as flex pens. anything not blatantly advertised as a flex pen should never be flexed.
and honestly? your first fountain pen should not be a flex pen.
fountain pen nibs, as mentioned above, are metal pieces with a slit to form two tines. where the tines meet together is where the ink is dispensed. since most modern fountain pen nibs are NOT designed to flex, trying to use them like flexible dip nibs or even just using the fountain pen at the wrong angle can cause the nibs to splay and not be able to go back together without some skilled repair. there are fountain pens worth thousands of dollars with shining gold nibs that will promptly get fucked up if you try to flex them.
in my opinion, your first fountain pen nib should be steel. gold nibs are softer and way more easily damaged, while steel nibs are firmer, can be just as smooth in writing, and are a lot friendlier to beginners. not to mention, a lot more difficult to damage. the smoothness on paper is mostly determined by the grinding of the tip of the nib, not by the material the nib is made out of. there are plenty of steel nibs that write smoother than gold nibs, and they are a hell of a lot cheaper, too. a slight impact to a gold nib can cause them to bend to the point they cannot write, but a steel nib has a greater chance of surviving a drop.
fountain pens require very little pressure to write. you want to write with as little pressure as possible, without separating the tines (for the majority of pens).
flex pens are also not the only way to do calligraphy with a fountain pen. since flex pens required varied pressure, flex calligraphy is way more likely to cause joint pain and hand strain than doing italic calligraphy, which uses angle-based line variation at a steady pressure. there are a ton of fountain pens out there that come in italic nibs that are great for this type of calligraphy. a cheap way to try out italic fountain pen calligraphy is by grabbing some pilot parallel pens, which come in up to 6mm nibs, and are sold in many retail stores.
for a more practical daily use fountain pen that comes in both rounded and italic, grab a pilot metropolitan in medium (rounded) or cursive medium (italic).
and if you do still want to try out flex nibs, fountain pen revolution makes affordable steel ultra flex nibs that work better than most modern gold nibs.
#3: do not expect any paper to work / DO NOT USE MOLESKINE
with this post now apparently at over 75,000 notes, I am one of the most prolific moleskine haters in the world. and with good reason, I know a thing or two about fountain pen paper. moleskine is garbage. there is nothing it does that other paper companies do not do better and/or cheaper, aside from maybe the brands that agree to collaborate with them. they have some notebooks with hello kitty, pokemon, james bond stuff on the cover among other things.
if you roll into any fountain pen community and say you are trying to use moleskine with a fountain pen, you will get laughed at and/or pitied. yes, even though moleskine literally sells kaweco fountain pens on its website. kaweco is not exactly known for being ethical.
as I mentioned before, fountain pen ink is thin and water-based. most ball-tipped pens have thicker ink made up of completely different chemicals. ballpoint ink is made of oil and alcohol, gel ink is made of a thick water-based ink, rollerballs often use ink that is almost as thin as fountain pen ink. basically, most writing utensils use thicker ink than fountain pens. which means, paper that works well with any other writing utensil might still work very badly with fountain pen ink. most paper sold in united states stores, as an example, will probably not work well with fountain pen ink. even if it is an expensive notebook. trust me on this.
there is no way to tell whether or not a paper will work with fountain pen ink without trying it first. do not rub paper to try and guess if it will work well with your desired ink, rubbing paper just damages the paper. there are tissue thin papers that work better with fountain pen ink than heavy art papers, there are rough papers that work better than smooth papers, there are ugly papers that work better than pretty papers, there are cheap papers that work better with fountain pen ink than expensive paper.
fountain pen ink looks best when it dries slowly rather than absorbing into the fibers of the paper. and since fountain pen ink is so thin, it can often cause feathering (fuzzy spreading of lines) and bleeding (going through the page). if your lines look fuzzy or if they go through the page, it is almost definitely a problem of the paper you are using, and not the problem of the pen or the ink.
some examples of showthrough, bleedthrough, and feathering from a jetpens article on fountain pen paper. while showthrough is not necessarily a problem depending on how you want to use the paper, if you have high bleedthrough or high feathering, you are definitely going to want different paper.
fountain pen lines should look crisp. paper that can handle most fountain pen inks is considered "fountain pen friendly paper". the best way to find fountain pen friendly paper is to look up reviews of paper online. there are a lot of fountain pen enthusiasts who test out fountain pen inks on different types of paper.
one of the reasons I really like jetpens is they test fountain pen ink on all their paper, and show the results. as far as stationery stores go, jetpens has the most testing of their products that I have ever seen. the information and testing from jetpens can be used no matter where you wind up buying stationery supplies.
if you are getting a fountain pen, or if you are gifting a fountain pen, expect to need fountain pen friendly paper to go with it. ink problems are usually actually paper problems.
I recommend products like midori md, maruman mnemosyne, rhodia, clairfontaine. if you want the best possible color for fountain pen inks, check out tomoe river paper and cosmo air light/snow, but they feel very different from typical types of paper.
do not ever get moleskine.
with these 3 tips, you are way less likely to flub your fountain pen. happy inking!
This is an editing porfolio and commissions guide for a freelance editor.
Hello all! Just a reminder that editing commissions are open, and this time I have a carrd!! All information about my commissions can be found inside, so please click the link and check it out!
As always, I reserve the right to refuse any commission I am personally uncomfortable with. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me either via dms or the email found inside my carrd!
Long time no see! Iâve been bouncing around fanbases for a while now, but I have still been writing whenever I can, and Iâve decided to open commissions for some extra income now that Iâve permanently moved out of my abusive home and am trying to support myself.Â
THREE (3) SLOTS AVAILABLE
PRICES:
$15 flat fee for 250-1000 wordsÂ
$5 per additional 500 words
(Example: 3000 words = $35)
I am good with managing the length of a fic and adjusting the pacing as necessary, so if you only want a short 1000 word blurb I can keep it within 1000 (within reason, obvs a super plot-heavy blurb wouldnât fly).Â
WILL NOT write:
incest
pedophilia
NSFW
message me if you have any questions
WILL write:
Pretty much everything else (within reason)*
BNHA
Genshin Impact
HTTYD
MP100
Ask For Fandom**
OC content***
* I reserve the right to turn down any commission I find uncomfortable or that toes the line of my will-not-write conditions.
** Within reason, I can pick up a piece of media that Iâm unfamiliar with and try my spin on it, but depending on how much research Iâll need to do beforehand I might have to add an additional fee of $5-$15 (and I will explicitly state how much extra it will cost before the project is underway). This is only really for plot-heavy stuff, though. If itâs just a simple character-focused one-shot, the price will not be changed. Thisâll all be very case by case, especially if any AUs are involved so Iâll just have to see how this goes. Iâm definitely down to give it a try and Iâll be up front about it if I donât think I can make it worth the price.Â
(For example: I am very unfamiliar with Kingdom Hearts despite seeing it all over the place, but there are enough playthroughs on YouTube that I could get a good grasp of the characters enough to confidently write a character-focused one-shot/short story. However I know the plot of Kingdom Hearts is absolutely bonkers so anything AU/plot-focused set in that universe is going to be a Doozy, and Iâll have to heavily consider whether or not Iâm capable of it without being intimately familiar with the source material.)
*** If the OC has a detailed character/personality description, a reference sheet, etc., I would love to write for them! If for whatever reason I donât think I can do them justice, Iâll be upfront about it, but so long as I have enough information on the character (specifically their personality/how they relate to others) that shouldnât be a problem.
SPECIALTIES:
familial/platonic relationships
whump
action sequences/fights
short and character-focused
hurt/comfort (with or without angst/happy ending)
character dynamics/interaction
CONDITIONS:Â
If the commissioner would like the finished work to be shared publicly, it will be posted anonymously to AO3. If the commissioner does NOT want the finished work to be shared publicly, then it will be sent to the commissioner privately.
Again, I reserve the right to refuse any commission.Â
I am currently only accepting payments through Venmo.Â
There will be no âholdingâ slots. First come first served.
If you would like to take a slot or have any questions/concerns/etc., please direct everything to [email protected] (I know itâs a mouthful but thatâs basically my brand now lol.) If youâve read this far, thank you! Take care <3
whats up ive finally made an actual commission sheet!!! wow!! I am currently open to taking some as well, dm me if youâre interested or have any questions! ;w;
As someone who knows nothing about DND beyond Critical Role, I just want to thank @eeveecat1248â for being flat out invaluable through this entire process.
(I took a lot of inspiration from @tamberellaâs incredible artworks for Spiderman into the Spiderverse, I just thought it was a really neat idea! Do check them out if you havenât already)
Homebrew for all the half-human combinations possible with the races found in the playerâs handbook! I had a lot of fun making these, though they took a while. Have fun playing!
This was made for D&D 5e and feedback is much appreciated!
So Iâm absolutely enamoured with Jonâs Moving Castle, an incredible (in progress) fic by @iceeckos12 and the minute I read that Gerry was Calcifer, I went completely feral and had to draw it. I did this partially on a car drive with no wifi so I didnât check if was completely accurate, but this was what he looks like in my head and I hope you like it!Â
Maybe Iâll draw more for this fic at some point, but first I had to do the best boy.
Iâll be honest, this is almost COMPLETELY useless to actually writing this story, but the thing is that itâs a lot of fun so I did it anyway. Thank you @eeveecat1248â whoâs been enabling me helping me with everything related to actual knowledge of how DnD works, of which I have virtually none. Iâm only including race, alignment, and stats, but not class because some things work better as a surprise.
(Quick note: these are their stats and alignments when they first appear in the story; leveling up and alignment shifts can and will happen.)
In the wake of Mag171 Iâve seen a few posts asking things along the line of âDoes Jon even want to stop the apocalypse at this point?â Itâs kind of caught me off guard, because I havenât been reading Jonâs behavior that way at all. Like if Jon and Martin came upon a cosmic Ctrl-Z option at any point on their trek through the apocalyptic nightmare wasteland, there is no doubt in my mind that Jon would slam that button with every available extremity.
The problem is that there isnât one. The problem is that there isnât anything.
Given my own emotional reaction to the current global situation, with all the new disasters and crimes against human rights that come to light every day, I canât read Jonâs behavior as anything but compassion fatigue. He cares and he feels helpless! Heâs burned out! And he doesnât have any of the options or resources available to alleviate that burnout. At least we in the real world can join movements and circulate donation links and participate in fundraisers and otherwise take actions that feel like positive contributions. At least, failing everything else, we can unplug and distract ourselves just to keep from running ourselves into the ground.
Thereâs no equivalent option available for Jon. He canât stop the Fears from taking what they want. He canât lessen their victimsâ suffering. Hell, he canât even do the equivalent of unplugging, because the Eye feeds him a constant stream of horrible knowledge that he canât turn off. So heâs being forcefed all this pain and terror, and he has no way to stop it, and no way to make it better for anyone except himself and Martin, and even thatâs dubious.
Add to that the fact that he helped cause it and is benefiting from it without his consent, and you have a recipe for despair. But losing hope of oneâs ability to fix things isnât the same as not wanting to fix them at all, and I feel like people forget that sometimes.
Jon still cares. He wouldnât be reacting this way if he didnât still care. He wouldnât be Jon if he didnât still care. But the options currently available to him donât give him anything but the shallow short-term relief of ending people who have hurt him in the past, and sometimes tricking yourself into feeling like youâre accomplishing something is the only way to stave off despair. (Of course, Jon knows heâs not actually accomplishing anything, so he probably doesnât even have that.)
I have no doubt that later episodes and revelations will give him something. Something he can do that has a more concrete chance of changing things. What that something is, the nature of the change, and how Jon and Martin will react to the new choices before them are entirely different questions. Personally, I find them far more interesting than the question of whether Jon killing the Avatar of the Week means heâs falling to the dark side.
Me: Okay, now just because DnD is the inspiration for this AU doesnât mean I have to go completely wild, like itâs totally fine if I just make everyone humanâ
the plotbunny that lives in my brain, downing a shot: what if sashaâs a tiefling
The problem with using DnD as an inspiration for a fantasy AU is that outlining takes exponentially longer when you keep going off the rails to make stats and character sheets for everybody instead of just writing the damn thing.
