This is the second time I've seen a video of this technique and this explanation is so clear! It does use more fabric than English paper piecing (EPP) but you end up with a double sided hexagon so don't have to source fabric for the backing.
I'm doing EPP at the moment but I have a hole punch to make the papers and just use leaflets and junk mail, so it doesn't feel wasteful. I don't think it's difficult either- in the video she mentions it's not for beginners, but I don't have that much experience with hand sewing or EPP and I've been finding it pretty easy so YMMV
I saw this video yesterday and was seized with the need to try it out immediately. Lookit my cute lil' hexagon baby!!
Here is what the backside looks like. OP notes this takes more fabric than paper piecing, but that excess fabric makes it already triple-layered. Besides not needing backing fabric, I don't think you'd need batting for this quilt at all. It's already thick and soft just from folding all that fabric into a hexagon.
Hexagon quilt tutorial video by tiktok user camelscrafts. Method:
Each hexagon begins as a 6" circle. camelscrafts does this by creating a paper template using a compass. According to the video, a 6" circle will create a hexagon that is 2.5 inches tall.
These hexagons are hand-sewn. Thread the needle.
With the fabric right side facing, find the center of the circle by folding it in half right sides together, then folding it in half again (wrong sides are facing). The top of the triangle shape is the center of the fabric circle.
Make a small stitch into the center of the fabric. The wrong side is still facing.
Unfold the circle. There will be a small stitch in the center.
Now the hexagon is created by folding the circle into itself: Take the needle to one of the edges of the fabric (it doesn't matter which one). Pull the needle through and pull the thread tight. This will fold down the fabric and create an edge of the hexagon. Crease the fold with your finger.
This fold has two corners, one at the top and one at the bottom. Put the needle into one of the corners and pull the thread taut. This will create another fold.
Continue this going around the circle until all of it is folded down, creating the hexagon. camelscrafts notes that the last corner pulled in may be a little bit "wonky" (no precise point in the corner) if the corners were not done precisely. However, that corner is pulled into the back, so is not visible from the front.
The hexagon is now formed. Sew around the folds in the middle of the circle to hold the folds in place. Tie off and cut the thread.
Attach hexagons to each other along the sides. With right sides together, whip stitch the sides together.
alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.
we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)
please rb for larger sample size!
Question 1/3
What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?
"he needs an excuse to get a break from work and he would look so beautiful pregnant. 🫃🏼 bonus points if its a B.O.W baby."
"Give me that handsome man. Will take him as a young man or as a grey fox in the newest game . Give him an excuse to retire his knees hurt. He would have a lil girl and name her something cute."
"Everything I have ever learned about this man is from friends who like putting him in situations so I thought I’d do my part."
"Top 3 most breedable men in the franchise without a doubt. His emo phase during Vendetta needs to be studied bc I fear he was either in postpartum depression or on his cycle."
Leon propaganda from last season
[Dean]
"He killed Hitler, he deserves it."
"He's so breedable, and he'd love it so much."
"He’d be hotter and that's enough."
"THE OG OMEGA!"
"He’s called himself Sam's mother, he said he’s nesting, he’s great with kids. He is The Omega, out of all of his sex scenes he has never been on top, he gets disproportionately flustered when men flirt with him as opposed to women. He deserves to be pregnant and eat pie and relax for once damn it."
"Look at his face and you simply cannot deny that man needs to be pregnant. He’s The Omega tm."
I don't know if it's just me being in small fandoms, but fandom as a whole feels...really lonely as of late. People have split themselves up so much that they don't discuss things the way they did before, they just kind of post their stuff and leave and half their audience "consumes" it like "content". There's no comments, barely kudos, the only places fans talk with each other anymore are on private discord servers that no one ever finds out about...I don't know, I'm a bit of an old and I feel like I'm screaming out into the void for no reason at this point. Sure, "somebody" will like my stuff, but will I ever get to know about it?
I think about this kind of thing a lot, anon, and I think my generation (Gen X/xillennial) kind of did folks dirty a bit.
In our defense, we didn't know we were.
I'm an educator by profession, as well as on this hobby blog, and so I spend a lot of time thinking about how people learn things. A lot of learning is social, and a lot of it happens when parents teach their children.
When I was growing up, pre-internet, my parents taught me how to talk to other adults in our community, how to play with other children, how to order food in a restaurant, how to call a business and ask a question. They literally walked me through how to do all of that stuff and more because those were daily skills in the world at that time.
We've spent the last 20+ years talking about how kids today are "digital natives" - but have we spent enough time teaching kids how to keep a conversation going when you're not in the same room as the other person? How to leave a comment on a post by a person you don't know? How to show your appreciation to a content creator? What a content creator even is and how that differs from a fan creator?
I know there are a lot of jokes out there about different things that would kill a Victorian child, but I think what would actually be difficult for them would be the lack of rules and instructions that kids today receive from the adults in their lives.
I don't have kids myself, so maybe this is all just bullshit and I'm talking directly out of my ass. But a LOT of the time when I notice someone doing something 'wrong' it's because no one ever told them how to do it right.
I kind of suspect that might be part of what's happening in fandom these days. Combine the above with the fact that fandom got inundated with new members in 2020 during quarantine and lock downs, and it's not surprising to me that a large percentage of the people in fandom today don't approach things the way that we used to before.
i don't fault them for it. When fandom was smaller and the internet was new, we used to take the time to bring people in. But now, it feels like 'everyone knows XYZ' so why does it need to be taught? And with how fast things move, it's more rare for newcomers to lurk for a while before they dive into everything.
This is a very long answer to a problem that probably just needed a listening ear, but I hope what you take away from this is an understanding that you're not the only one who feels the difference. I see this same experience shared in the notes on my posts all the time.
There is no easy fix for the situation and it certainly won't be fast to change, but maybe if we mentor a bit more when we have the spoons to, we can shift the culture a bit? One fan at a time?
If you managed to get all the way to the end of this, do yourself a favour and leave a comment on a fic or reblog a post with some chatty tags. DM somemeone or tag them or send them an ask just to let them know you see them and you think they're cool.
Even if nothing happens as a result, you tried. And maybe you just made someone's day. 💗
Demographically, I have a fair amount in common with @ao3commentoftheday with the exception that I am a parent.
And my oldest child has entered online fandom.
Thankfully, my child and I don’t share fandoms (we both prefer it that way), but we did sit down to discuss how to maintain privacy and safety while also being friendly in online interactions. I taught my child about fandom red flags and green flags, from my experiences, and my child has since asked for my advice in terms of my child’s own fandom experiences and how to handle issues and concerns.
All that being said, I was surprised and confused when my child informed me that my child had not been leaving kudos or comments on AO3. Keep in mind, this child would read longfics for days, tell me how great the author’s writing captured the characters, etc.
“Why didn’t you kudos or comment if the fic was so good?” I asked.
While my child explained lack of ability to comment due to fic restrictions (my child has expressed not yet feeling ready to have an AO3 account even though my child is old enough and my husband and I would be fine with it), my child said kudos didn’t matter: “Who cares about one kudos?”
“The author cares. And, if the author for some reason doesn’t care, I know you care about doing the right thing. I think expressing appreciation for other people’s fanwork is the right thing to do. What do you think?”
My child went back and kudosed all stories read to that point.
But I’m just one parent. And it’s absolutely not the job of fandom to parent children. There’s an idea that the way we behave in real life is divorced from the way we behave online. There’s some merit to that in the form of maintaining privacy and boundaries online that might be different in person. When we’re talking about basic manners, though? Golden rule stuff? That’s what’s become lacking, and I hope it improves.
i do think that a lot of this is just the result of a lack of lurk moar attitude in fandom/the internet in general.
when i was a tween who first found fandom in the late 90s/early 2000s, people didn't explicitly teach me how to interact with fandom. i lurked for a solid year before i signed up for my own account on the forum i'd found. (i can still remember how the adrenaline coursed through me as i signed up for my own account--i felt tingy and more than a little ill!)
by that time, i had a very good sense of social norms there. i still made a few mistakes, and the more established members smacked me down in a matter-of-fact but not unkind way. but i'd learned by watching. hell, by the time i started actively participating, i knew all the inside jokes!
as op mentioned, i don't think that people lurk anymore, and my theory is that the rise of social media/web 2.0 created a different approach to web communities.
today, every site is presumed to be for every person. the entire point of the really big social media sites is that everyone is on them. (this is one of the things i hate about them btw because it results in context collapse. i do not want to talk to my third-grade teacher, my favorite cousin, complete strangers, and my fandom friends in the same voice, but that's another issue).
whereas in web 1.0, the internet was riddled with niche sites/communities. you had to go out and find your place (and sometimes it took a while!). once you found it, you were invested in becoming a part of that specific community, so you did the research (lurking) to find out how people interacted, what all the unspoken norms were. by the time you picked your handle and made your account, you just knew stuff.
i'm sure this was not true of everyone, but it was true of far more people at the time. people looked before they leapt.
there are many, many reasons that i think that fandom has suffered from the web 2.0 environment. the fact that creators/writers/actors and fans are all on the same sites using the same tags for general publicity and for fannish nonsense is a huge problem. the way that sites are so big that people feel that their contributions (as with kudos above) don't matter is a direct result of the way social media undermines community and makes everything a performance of whatever your late-capitalist brand is. the fast pace of those sites makes people think that interacting with older posts is a bad idea. the lack of filters of the kind that we had on livejournal where you could determine who saw what or even just the way that forums often made you join before you could see content created walls within which communities could grow (think frost and walls making good neighbors).
i know we can't go back to the assumptions that operated before social media. we have to explore other options. i love when people make psas here telling people about fandom norms and history! i think it's the best thing! and maybe at this point that is the only way to handle it.
tumblr and ao3 are very weird sites in that they straddle the web 1.0 and web 2.0 kinds of internet.
from web 1.0 they get the lack of algorithms, the way you have to make choices about what you see, chronological arrangements, and (on ao3) lack of ads, etc. tumblr has a slightly slower pace than most social media; ao3 has a much slower one.
from web 2.0, though, you get scale, centralization (which is both ao3's greatest strength and greatest weakness), and the fact that it takes little effort to locate these sites--anyone, no matter their level of investment in fandom, can just stumble on them.
so you end up having a lot of people who are not actually fannishly inclined (aren't invested in a gift economy, don't really understand that fandom is supposed to be fun, don't really get the creative urge etc.) interacting with people who are fannishly inclined, and it causes some really problems. especially with younger people whose experience of the internet is as a venue to signify and perform certain kinds of morality/coolness/trendiness that are at odds with what fandom has always been about. basically: you have a bunch of normies clashing with a bunch of nerds. (obviously the normie/nerd divide is a spectrum and not a binary, so i'm overstating, but still.)
when you have people who are coming to fandom from different angles--some people who are coming to it as a provider of content just like all other media in their lives, especially elsewhere online; some people who are coming to it as a participatory hobby wherein we build community around shared affection for [thing]--there's going to be lots of clashes and weirdness.
i kind of think that fans need to go back to create set-apart spaces for fandom to happen. note that i am NOT talking about gatekeeping. everyone who treats others with respect would be welcome. but just having fenced-off areas that are explicitly for certain kinds of fandom interactions. where we can basically have our party away from the normies, but other nerds who are younger or just getting in touch with their nerdiness can find us.
i'm not sure how we'd go about doing it. but i think smaller, more intimate internet spaces are really necessary for fandom to be enjoyable. for fandom to be fandom tbh.
they are sexually mature at ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OLD.
their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.
longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years
toxic flesh
has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.
lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion
largest genome of any shark
eats everything including moose and polar bears
ma'am you are delightfully strange and I'm privileged to share a planet with you
Okay the summary posted in this image does NOT do the WILDNESS of this occurrence justice so I will give some more detail.
All right, so straw boater and Panama hats became trendy in the U.S. in the late 19th century, but it was considered “bad form” for men in cities to wear them. It later became more “acceptable” for men to wear these specific hats ONLY during summer. By the early 20th century, there was like an unwritten “rule” that they had to stop wearing straw hats and start wearing felt or other types of hats on September 15. This is already kind of weirdly specific, but, y’know, etiquette rules surrounding attire are known to BE weirdly specific, so fine. But here’s where it gets full on wacky.
According to Wikipedia, it became a Thing in North American cities for teens to literally accost any man wearing a straw hat on or after September 15, knock his hat off, and stomp on it to destroy it. It was also “socially acceptable” for stockbrokers (i.e. grown-ass adults) to destroy each other’s straw hats, but NOT acceptable for any other adult strangers to do it to each other. It became so much of a tradition that newspapers would print warnings close to the date reminding people to switch hats. Basically men wearing straw hats after the designated date would at minimum risk ridicule, but might also have their head smacked and their property destroyed by Youths. And this “hat bashing” was apparently fine and dandy from both legal and social perspectives so long as it happened after September 15.
BUT THEN.
On September 13, 1922, a group of teens in New York City decided to begin their shenanigans two days early, and knocked off and stomped the hats of some factory workers. When they moved on, and tried this with a group of dock workers, however, the “more innocuous stomping” turned into a “brawl” because these men weren’t having any of this nonsense and fought back. More people were pulled into the fighting, which eventually blocked traffic on a nearby bridge and had to be broken up by police.
But that was not the end of it! It seems that events “escalated” and continued into the following day! On the evening of September 14, “teenagers prowled the streets wielding large sticks, sometimes with a nail driven through the top, looking for pedestrians wearing straw hats and beating those who resisted.” THIS IS A REAL THING THAT HAPPENED. Men wearing straw hats still within the completely arbitrary acceptability period were getting beaten up by roving gangs of children with clubs. Several people were hospitalized. According to one man who had his hat stolen on Amsterdam Avenue, there were upwards of 1,000 kids there stealing and destroying boaters and Panamas. Police eventually started making arrests (some teens even attacked cops and stomped their hats).
Most of the youths who got arrested were punished with fines, but at least one kid was sentenced to three days in jail by the circumstantially-hilariously-named Magistrate Peter A. Hatting. Some boys younger than fifteen had their parents called in and were “spanked ignominiously” at a police station at a cop’s order.
Anyway the Hat Stomping Tradition continued for a few more years and in 1924 a guy got straight up murdered for wearing a straw hat past September 15. But then straw boater hats fell out of fashion especially after the Great Depression hit, Panama straw hats got even more popular so it was less acceptable to hate on them, and the whole thing died out.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 grabs you by the shoulders and goes LISTEN TO ME THE ARTS ARE IN DANGER AND THE ONLY WAY OUT IS ALL OF US BANDING TOGETHER THERE CAN BE NO IN-FIGHTING, OUR TRUE ENEMY ARE THE AI BROS IN ATHLEISURE and I think this is very brave of them, and I can see why this is the only sequel Meryl Streep ever agreed to
On the small soggy wet archipelago that makes up the modern day united kingdom, sunny days are a rare phenomenon. As such, the peoples of england cherish each and every one, even going so far as to write songs about them in their local music. With sunlight in such high demand, to block it deliberately is nigh unthinkable, hence their cultural confusion at the invention of the parasol.
So if you read the article, (1) you'll see the reporter is Japanese, and (2) the article isn't even about the sun.
Across much of the world, umbrellas are simply used to shield people from the rain or to shade them from the sun. And while visitors to Japan may see many locals using them for these purposes, parasols also serve a far more powerful role in Japanese culture: they're spiritual vessels.
According to Tatsuo Danjyo, Professor Emeritus of humanities at Beppu University in Japan's Ōita prefecture, Japanese tradition holds that certain objects – including umbrellas – can serve as yorishiro (an object that attracts gods or spirits).
This belief is deeply rooted in history. Umbrellas first appeared in Japan between the 9th and 11th Centuries, but instead of shielding people from the weather, they served as symbols of spiritual or political power. Early umbrellas, such as the long-handled sashikake-gasa, were reserved for religious and political figures and were held by attendants over the elite.
I vividly remember this happening a few years back, when a Tumblr user posted a screenshot of a published journal article about why Indian food tastes particularly good. "White people spend all this time and money trying to work out why someone else has better food than them to discover the answer is 'spices'," they sneered
And I remember someone tracked down the actual article and discovered that (a) the authors were Indian, and (b) the answer was actually a super cool exploration of how Indian cookery uses spices to create contrasting flavours, unlike almost every other cuisine, which tries to pair similar/harmonising flavours.
Something something when your desire to dunk on white/British people makes you erase the work and cultural discussions of POC
ok this was originally gonna be a tagdump but the last comment made me think. this socially interests me enough to ramble a little.
it intrigues me how some people are so focused on calling out racism that they inadvertently circle back into having a white-centric mindset, just instead of glorification, it's demonization to the point of not reading what's being said or even who said it. i wonder if it's related to journalism speak and how people assume based on the writing style or think that the news site,,, indicates the journalist's whiteness? i don't know.
there's something about the fact this happened enough times that two instances are noted in this post, two journalists of specific cultures making articles explaining an aspect of their culture, but something about the wording or the site it's hosted on or SOMETHING made people immediately assume a white person wrote it out of ignorance or hate. it makes me wonder how many other articles detailing real history or culture were ignored because the author was assumed white.
it confuses me more when it's white people saying these things. if you cared so much about the potential racism of what's being said/written, wouldn't you want to know exactly what it is they're saying so that you can think critically about the author's intent, motivation, and background in relation to the article? or to at the very least see who the author is if you plan to form an opinion on their work?
on the other hand i can kind of understand it from the standpoint of "white people historically appropriate cultures they get their hands on and colonize the shit out of things" so it's not like i blame people of colour for being on-guard about the idea of white people writing about "why does this culture do this?" or "why is this culture's food/invention/status so good?", but if you don't know who wrote what you're criticizing you might, as the last reblog said, erase the work and cultural discussion of journalists of colour aiming to share their experiences and history.
people of all cultures live everywhere, just because it's an american or british news site doesn't immediately mean the authors are all white colonizers who want to appropriate or make fun of the culture they're writing about. don't get me wrong i'm white myself and not very scholarly-educated, so who knows, i could be way off the mark, so sorry if i spoke out of turn, but it interests me enough to talk about what causes people to jump at things like this without thinking twice.
New to fountain pens? Long-time enthusiast? No matter, you’re probably sick of hearing about the Lamy Safari and the Pilot Metropolitan (or Pilot MR in certain markets) and their respective merits as beginner fountain pens. It feels like every other day someone asks for suggestions for their first fountain pen, and inevitably the recommendations for either of those two come flooding in.
It’s not without reason. I’m guilty too—the Lamy Safari is still one of my favourite pens of all time (and I will still recommend it), and the Metropolitan is just about the safest bet you can make on a fountain pen when you’re just getting started.
That being said, there are a ton of other pens out there, and I feel like newbies sometimes miss out on pens they might like better. So, to help further our collective horizons, here are 22 OTHER fountain pens for absolute beginners. With links!
All under $30.
1. Pilot Varsity ($3.30 or $21.25 for assorted 7-pack)
Afraid of commitment? Looking to dip your toes before diving in? No problem--just try out a disposable fountain pen! For a pen designed to be disposable, the Pilot Varsity writes pretty well and comes in 7 fun colours. Just mind the paper you're using--it can bleed through pretty easily, as it is one-size nib only (and that size is medium).
2. Platinum Preppy ($6.00)
Not quite as "disposable" as the Pilot Varsity, the Preppy has a few advantages: multiple nib sizes (though they're all pretty fine), a wide assortment of colours, and can even take a (proprietary) converter if you so choose. They do crack pretty easily, especially at the cap and grip section, but they're still a solid choice for a fountain pen newbie.
3. Jinhao 993 Shark ($3.95)
Not only are these pens adorable and affordable, their (hooded!) nib is exceptionally good considering the low price, though medium is the only nib size you'll get. Don't feel too bad though, because this pen comes with a converter included! I honestly have zero complaints about this pen, it's an awesome, quirky buy.
4. Jinhao x450 ($9.90) & x750 ($9.99)
Now these look like fountain pens. Pull one of these out at a meeting and you'll definitely get a couple of questions (or perhaps encounter a pen friend out in the wild!). Metal construction, medium (& somewhat gushy nibs), and a converter included? Sign me up! They might be a little heavier than what you're used to, but otherwise make for a great starter pen.
5. Paili 013 Vacuum Filler ($9.95)
Pro: a vacuum filler pen for under $10?? Yep. Forget those cartridges and unleash the power of bottled ink with this surprisingly reliable fountain pen!
Con: If you're a newbie, you're likely unfamiliar with this filling mechanism, so it might be a little daunting. But I promise there's no mystery, and YouTube is your friend!
6. Platinum Prefounte ($11.00)
Another Platinum, this time a little dressed up but still fun! The Prefounte comes in both fine and medium nibs and takes either proprietary Platinum cartridges or converters (sold separately, unfortunately). This pen is also pretty forgiving if you end up forgetting it in your drawer: Platinum's Slip & Seal mechanism can keep the ink from drying for quite a while (allegedly, up to a year). Keep in mind, Platinum pens tend to have a little bit more feedback (read: scratchy feel on paper), so if you don't like the feel of writing with pencil, for instance, maybe opt for a medium nib.
7. Luoshi Labyrinth ($12.95)
If you want something striking and unique, this Luoshi might be right up your alley. The Labyrinth is an all-metal pen with a surprisingly smooth medium-fine nib. It might be a little too weighty for those not accustomed to hefty metal pens, and some people have complained that the cut out labyrinth design adds some discomfort to lengthy writing sessions, so keep that in mind!
8. Pilot Kakuno ($13.50)
If you've heard good things about the nib on the Pilot Metropolitan but wanted something cheaper/quirkier, boy have I got good news for you! Marketed for children in Japan, the Kakuno has the same nib unit as the Metro, making for a superb writing experience at a considerably lower price point. They come in a ton of colors and take proprietary Pilot cartridges or converters. Nibs of different sizes come engraved with different smiley faces for extra fun.
9. HongDian Black Forest Series ($16.95)
This pen is just cool. Matte, all metal finish? Check. Cool colours? Check. Converter included? Check. Matching colour nib? Check (on a couple of them, at least). Though this pen is metal, it is pretty slim and comes with a textured grip, making for a pretty comfortable writing experience (unless, of course, you don't like slim pens!)
10. Kaweco Perkeo ($17.00)
I call this pen Kaweco's Kakuno, because... well, just look at it. Then go back up to #8 and see that I am right. Regardless, this pen is a solid choice for a beginner, with different nib options (all pretty smooth) and a great assortment of colours. It also has a triangular grip, which will help you hold the pen in the correct position--though some people find it uncomfortable, so keep that in mind!
11. Platinum Plaisir ($17.60)
Pros: Aluminum body, several colours to choose from, different nib options (fine & medium), and Platinum's magical sealing cap to prevent your ink from drying.
Cons: Converter (proprietary) sold separately. Boo.
12. TWSBI GO ($18.99)
This little pen (the most affordable TWSBI iirc) has quite a few things going for it. It comes in several colours and has a bunch of different nib sizes (from extra fine all the way to a 1.1mm stub). The filing mechanism (a simple spring loaded piston) is very practical and easy to use, though it may be a little unfamiliar to most beginners and will require bottled ink (so go ahead and add to cart while you're at it!).
13. ONLINE Slope ($19.00) & Switch Plus ($20.50)
Smooth writers with ergonomic grips (i.e., triangular) to keep you in position when writing. Both the Slope and Switch Plus are made of plastic with stainless steel nibs that come in both medium and fine and write pretty smoothly. They're a great choice for a beginner, but maybe skip these two if you're not a fan of the triangular grip or if you like heavier pens.
14. Delike Mojiang Pocket Pen ($19.95)
If you'd like to give pocket pens a try, maybe start with the Mojiang. This little pen is all-metal, which gives it a nice heft despite its small size. It only comes in fine, but writes more like a medium. Though it takes standard international converters and cartridges, watch the size--some converters might be too long to fit! Furthermore, smaller pens usually mean smaller ink capacity, so if you're writing in long sessions you may have to refill more frequently.
15. Moonman M2 Eyedropper ($21.95)
If you want a large ink capacity and want to see it slosh around your pen as you write... well, look no further! Though this pen can take cartridges and converters, it was designed as an eye dropper pen, meaning you fill the body of the pen itself with the ink of your choice with... you guessed it, an eyedropper (included!).
16. Wancai Mini ($21.25)
Same as the above, just. Teeny tiny!
17. Diplomat Magnum ($23.20)
Despite its lofty name, the Diplomat Magnum is pretty slim, not to mention super light. It has a nifty little ink window so you can keep an eye on your ink level and comes Diplomat's soft touch stainless steel nib (in sizes extra-fine to medium) for a super smooth writing experience. This is another pen with a (less pronounced) triangle grip, and comes with a converter included.
18. Pilot Explorer ($23.60)
Pilot at it again with the superb nibs. Like the Kakuno and the Metropolitan, the Explorer also features a frankly incredible stainless steel nib (in both fine and medium). It comes in several colours and Pilot even deigned to include a converter with this one (though it's a squeeze converter that 1. might be a little unfamiliar to some and 2. kind of sucks in general, so maybe stick to the Pilot cartridges with this one).
19. Faber-Castell Grip ($24.00)
This pen is literally designed to be a beginner fountain pen, but it still looks pretty sleek, imo. It does feel a little plasticky/cheap, but that Faber-Castell nib writes super smoothly. It only comes in fine, though it writes more like a medium. No converter included with this one (boo-hoo).
20. Kaweco Sport ($25.00)
Another German pen, and another pocket pen! I love Kaweco nibs (from EF to medium, though you can buy other Kaweco nibs separately), and the Kaweco Sport is a great introduction to pocket pens. They come in a ton of colours and are pretty reliable, though they only take short international cartridges (and a short converter, which, you guessed it, is sold separately). There are several colour and material variations, but the classic has a plastic body and stainless steel nib. Maybe skip if slim writing utensils are not comfortable!
21. Pelikan Twist ($26.00)
OK, this pen may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I had to add it. It's super funky and the nib (medium) is pretty good. All in all, it's a pretty nifty way to try out a Pelikan, and if you're into the design (and the triangular grip) it can be a fun and reliable daily writer. Converter sold separately (askjdbaklsdjb)
22. TWSBI Swipe ($26.99)
This pen may not look like it goes over the top, but let me tell you, it does. The TWSBI Swipe boasts no less than four different ways of filling it. You can use your regular cartridge. You can use the (included!!) traditional converter. You can then swap that converter out for a piston converter (also included! what?!), and if you're not happy, you can just eyedropper the whole dang pen. It might be a little too much, too soon for complete newbies, but the learning curve is not very steep, and it's a great way to try out all of these methods on a single pen. Like the TWSBI GO, nibs (stainless steel) go from an extra-fine all the way up to a 1.1mm stub.
Any fancy fountain pen peeps here? What are your favorite pretty ink brands? I need like all the glorious purples and greens and shimmery stuff, give it to meeeeeeeeee!
HELLOOOOO yes i am fountain pen people!! And I am happy to talk your ear off about fountain pens and inks :D
For shimmer inks, Diamine is really well known for well-behaved shimmers. I have a bunch of theirs, they’re always rarely clog and are generally well priced and a great all-around option.
I am also really enjoying Wearingeul Inks! They have a lot of pretty shimmers (with great names XD) I’ve used their “The Great Sage Heaven’s Equal” for a while now with no problems.
Robert Oster is another brand with, in my experience, good shimmers.
Sailor doesn’t have a lot of shimmers, but they have a lot of gorgeous, very well-behaved inks. Their dual-shading inks are definitely worth checking out. (I am at the moment kinda preferring dual shading to shimmer, partially because they’re easier to clean out of pens and less likely to clog.)
Troublemaker Inks can be hard to find but they have some GORGEOUS inks, both intense colors and cool dual-shading. They make my favorite muddy green - Hanging Rice.
If you want to check out in-depth ink reviews, Mountain of Ink is hard to beat. A lot of people do ink reviews but I appreciate MoI’s consistent review format and the sheer number of reviews she’s done. That said, you will definitely end up with a terrifyingly long shopping list, which brings me to my next point…
Vanness Pens has the best selection of inks in the US. They’re my go-to for inks! It’s pretty much always worth it to buy a sample before committing to a whole bottle.
Vanness Pen Shop Supplying writing instruments, fountain pen inks, stationery, education, custom engraving, and unique gifts since 1938. Thi
Also good: JetPens, Yoseka Stationery, Enigma Stationery. (Avoid Goulet Pens, they turned out to be super fundamentalist Christian and one of the pastors of the church the owners helped found compared LGBTQ people to murderers.)
(Also avoid Noodler’s inks, the owner is racist, antisemitic, anti-vaxx, and his inks sometimes damage pens.)
Inks I Have Issues With (Aside from the Aforementioned Noodler’s):
De Atramentis copper shimmers: so pretty. Sooooo prone to clogging 🫠 they’re utterly gorgeous but they’re also the only inks I have used which instantly clogged my TWSBI pens. They’re very pretty in dip pens but don’t waste your money on them for fountain pens, imo.
Ferris Wheel Press has gorgeous packaging but they’re also kinda notorious for being dry inks. A lot of people feel they’re more about the packaging than the actual product (influencer brand ugh.) Also they’ve used AI, their pens are repackaged Fuliwen pens that they charge too much for, and they are doing a Harry Potter collab -_-
And now if you’ll excuse me I opened up Vanness to get the link and now I need to go peruse the fall collection of Midori stationery - my greatest weakness XD
absolutely get yourself the little test vials of ink which are extremely useful for testing out colours without spending huge amounts of money - and also get different papers! Different inks behave differently on Rhodia / Clairefountain / Leuchtturm / Midori / Tomoe River. I like getting small notepads for inks testing and shopping lists. Avoid Moleskin, they suck.
get yourself a cartridge converter and this syringe-like instrument for easy loading and cleaning:
my current favourite inks are J.Herbin Turquoise de Perse, Diamine Racing Green, Barock 1920 Sepia and KWZ Sheen Machine
(Also I didn't know that about Ferris Wheel press, what a bummer!)
Also I'm going to lovingly tag @owlspinningyarns for more insights!
