My first fountain pen
I knew it when I saw it. My eyes didn’t need to keep looking at the display case of long, slender slots lined with black felt, holding others like it.
The millions of sparkles called my name as if they knew the fountain pen they adorned was destined to be my first. Other pens had sparkle, but nothing compared to this one.
I was at the Orlando Pen Show. I’d flown in from Texas to help my sister, Tammy, with her business table – she offers unique accessories and novelty items for pen, paper, ink, and book lovers. The rest of the pen show? Mostly fountain pens. More than you can imagine.
(I hear that question you just asked. There are such things as pen shows? Yes…many of them. The Orlando Pen Show is but one.)
Tammy’s table backed up to another exhibitor, Divine Pens Plus, owned by master pen craftsman Braxton Frankenbery. He and wife Erica were one of many exhibitors at the pen show; he had a stunning collection of hand-crafted pens alongside Erica’s island-themed jewelry, keychains, and other designs. We enjoyed getting to know each other between bursts of customers.
During a rare lull, Tammy encouraged me to look around at the other exhibitors. This wasn’t my first pen show, but at this point I was still a rollerball girl when it came to pens. I’d heard her hubby, Robert, talk about fountain pens and seen his impressive personal collection, but I hadn’t made the jump to getting my own. That was about to change.
I snaked my way through the long aisles, looking left and right, trying not to miss anything. Though a pen show is mostly fountain pens, you’ll also see ink, pen cases, paper, cleaning products, even nibmeisters (nib doctors). Making my way back to Tammy’s table brought me on the front side of Divine Pens’ display. I’d seen a bit of the pens from our chairs on the other side, but now—WOW.
Braxton is a talented pen designer and maker, and his pens showed brilliantly under the LED lights. Several had sparkle, but this one in the picture jumped out at me. (And no – the picture doesn’t do it justice!) Alongside the holographic flakes you see is a twist that really launches the sparkle factor into the stratosphere: real diamond dust! This feature is called DiamondCastTM, a patent-pending material made by McKenzie Penworks in North Carolina.
Amongst the pens, the millions of sparkles in this one marshaled all their forces and stabbed me right in the heart. Braxton fit it with the nib of my choice—broad, thankyouverymuch—and it was mine.
Then it was off to find ink. I found it at Anderillium Ink’s table. That’s a different post, but for now let me just say that “Flying Squid Blue” is the best ink color ever.
I’ve since bought two more fountain pens (different show, different maker) but this one remains my favorite—it writes everything from grocery lists to greeting cards to meeting notes. I even flew it with me to a recent copywriting conference where it was quite the sparkly star.
I haven’t seen my rollerballs in three months.
