It Ain't Easy Being Green

It's been a long time since my last post, it's been a real struggle for me the past few years. Even a week on vacation a month ago still left me with no time or energy to write a post. But I did have a chance to get to the Honolulu Pen Shop and visit Corinne, it too had been a while. I bought a new pen and ink combo, a Pilot Prera and a bottle of Iroshizuku Chiku-rin.

I saw a picture of what I thought was that pen/ink combo in an issue of Pen World International Magazine, and I just had to have it even though my friend John from Pilot Pens had given me a gray Prera before.

I've kinda been on a green kick recently and the clear pen with green ink really caught my attention! After I would look at the magazine again and see that is was not a Prera but a Pilot Heritage 92 clear or "demonstrator" fountain pen. Well the green trim on the Prera makes it even better!

I seem to have come full circle (the original title I had for this post). I think this pen is the first non flexible nib fountain pen I've purchased in years. My very first "good" fountain pen was a Jade Green Cross Townsend with a broad nib ( nib made by Pelikan). When I purchased the Cross it was also the very first time I went to the Honolulu Pen Shop when they were located on Beretania Street. Prior to that I was using a Mont Blanc "rip off" I bought at a trade show, and some disposable fountain pens. I didn't even know it was a fake Mont Blanc because I'd never of Mont Blanc before. Sadly I don't have the Cross anymore, I probably traded it in for another pen. So much for being sentimental.

What my "thing" was back then was wrtiting letters. I wrote a lot of letters. I wrote letters for my church at the time. I wrote letters to friends. I wrote letters to my fiancé who eventually became wife. My wife told me that I write really good letters. Fellow church members would tell me that the letters I wrote had touched them. And even though I was not into fancy script or calligraphy, recipients would still comment on my handwriting even though I wasn't really trying to "write nice," just wanted to say something meaningful.

And then I was introduced to the world of flexible nibs when Earl the late owner of Honolulu Pen Shop introduced me to a vintage Waterman 92. He told me I can write "Spencerian" style though I eventually learned that is something different. But I knew what he meant. I then bought and read a book on Copperplate Calligraphy, sat down with the pen and book and WOW...my life was changed!

From then on my focus with writing was on lettering or forming letters, and not composition of my letters. Of course my fountain pen purchases were all flexible nib fountain pens and I eventually also got into oblique holders and dip nibs. That is a subject for another post. But when I wrote letters in a nice "hand" using the flex pens or dip pen, I focused on forming letters but lost track of composing meaningful correspondence. I could write blah blah blah and make it look nice, but it would almost be meaningless and not heartfelt in my opinion.

So with this pen I am returning to the art of the handwritten letter!

I don't know that I will post any letter here. Often what I write may not be something to show publicly although there may be exceptions. But when I think of green I can't get the song It Ain't Easy Being Green sung by Kermit the Frog out of my head.

So...

Ahh you don't want to see the entire page of lyrics do you? It ain't that pretty!

I will probably carry this Prera around since I think it's cool to show non-fountain pen people what the insides of a fountain pen looks like.

Mahalo nui to all who read and follow my meager blog. I really do appreciate the nice comments I get and it does give me the inspiration to keep it going.


                             More posts and also videos to follow soon!

Aloha...