Another Hobby or a Corollary to My Writing Passion

 So, what's new in my life?

As indicated by the titles of this post, I have another Writing Related Hobby/Passion and it is:  Fountain Pens.

Fountain Pens, Inks, and watching Vlogs and Podcasts about Fountain Pens... this subject has started filling a lot of my time (which is already pretty full with all the other hobbies filling my retirement days).

The next several paragraphs may well be way too much detail. I tend to provide the ol' TMI. So, warning served.

How it began:

This past summer, due to slow recovery from having had a broken patella in March 2021 & spending over a month in bed wearing an immobilizing leg brace but later slowly getting mobility back through Physical Therapy; reinjuring the same leg in January 2022 after nearly full muscle recovery; and then injuring that leg again in April 2023... ...in June of 2024 (this year) the same leg just collapsed under me as I stepped down out of the door to enjoy a lovely summer day doing some computer work at our outside table. Result: a broken bone in the center of the foot on that leg & a broken toe on the other foot and 2 months with no weight-bearing activity while being in an Air Cast. So. More atrophying leg muscles.

While bedridden again, I began watching the Goulet Pen Company Pencasts on YouTube about - you guessed it - Fountain Pens. Gouletpens.com Watching & listening to Brian Goulet talk about the many, many, MANY Fountain Pen manufacturing companies, some established in the 19th century, some only just established in this the 21st century; and some of the thousands and THOUSANDS of fountain pens; the histories and methods of making all these fountain pens; and actually seeing the variety of styles of fountain pens with the amazing craftsmanship involved in making them... I got hooked.

Having taken many classes in Art over the years of my youth, I was introduced t0 (what I now know as) Dip Pens and Calligraphy Pens. And I fell in love. I found out that my father had a few dip pens and a bottle of some awesome brown or sepia ink. So, being intrigued, I used one of his pens and created a huge wall hanging of one of my other favorite things, a poem. The poem was "How Do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. With that lovely brown ink. Of course!

Skip forward to 2019 when one of my co-workers at the Exeter Community Library began a Letter Writing Society. A once-a-month gathering of people who celebrated the art of letter writing and sending out "Happy Mail" as it is now called, since letter writing seems to be dying due to texting and other tech-related communication. Besides making it possible to get connected with a Pen Pal from the Exeter Library in Devon, England (WOW!), she would periodically engage special guests to come in and discuss ways to make letter writing even more fun including embellishing the envelopes with artwork. 

One type of artwork for embellishing was to use a variety of colored inkpads and rubber stamps to dress up an envelope. Another was to use a dip pen and create vines and/or flowers, etc. with colorful inks, and even learn calligraphic styles to write the address. 

So, in 2020, I bought my first glass dip pen. 

A beautiful, swirling, pale green and clear glass dip pen with the name of "Peace".

I retired from my job in Libraryland at the end of December 2021. But I didn't retire from my lifelong love of writing. I had joined an Online club of letter-writers and was sending out letters and cards (handwritten in most cases) to other like-minded people around the world. I embellished the envelopes in many ways, including drawing vines and flowers and using fancy pseudo-calligraphy for the addresses with my dip pen.

But Brian Goulet and his buddy Drew Brown on those weekly Pencasts made me want something more than one Dip Pen named Peace.

The next step... 

And so, while laid up after breaking bones in my feet, while bingeing on Goulet Pencasts, I did it. I bought THREE Fountain Pens. I also bought TWO whole bottles of ink. And I bought 6 sample sized tubes of a variety of red hued ink.

The pens weren't that expensive. The beautiful black metal with gold & silver sparkles pen from Jinhao called Shimmering Sands, was only $9.95 and the crimson red resin demonstrator Platinum Prefounte (pronounced "pree - fawn - tay") was only $11. The most expensive one was the awesome purple metal Pilot Metropolitan RetroPop which was still inexpensive at about $25 considering many fountain pens cost between $100 and $500 and, of course, the really, really expensive (what are called) "Grail Pens" which can be $500 to $5,000.

My Quest continues because I asked for my next level fountain as my big Christmas gift for this year. Of course, Goulet Pens ran a big Black Friday sales event. And satisfyingly, there was more than one special, just-under-$100, pen that I really liked. In fact, I had to choose between three pens. Awesomely, my husband said pick any one of those three pens. 

I chose the Monteverde Regatta Sport with an Omni Flex nib. 

It is a beautiful white and blue pen with silver fittings, a magnetic closing mechanism, and even though it isn't a true "demonstrator" pen, you can see into the barrel in a couple places because the blue areas aren't solid. There are a few clear spots so the pen can "demonstrate" the level of ink inside. What is really, REALLY cool is that because of the randomness of the patches in the blues sections, each pen is unique. 

My next task -

Finding the perfect blue ink to fill my lovely Monteverde Regatta Sport will be a process. I have begun but, in a very limited way. When I ordered the pen, I also ordered two samples of dark blue ink, though I don't think I want to go "dark". I'm thinking a royal or turquoise or somewhere in between. Maybe a Cerulean blue?  So lots of research is on my to do list. 

You may be wondering why so much planning and sampling. Once a color is selected, one tends to buy a whole bottle of it. Generally, a bottle will hold either 30 ml or 50 ml of ink depending on the maker of the ink. For instance, my purple Wearingeul Great Gatsby is in a 30 ml bottle and my brown Diamine Cocoa Shimmer is in a 50 ml bottle. When I fill my pens they hold a tiny amount of ink in comparison, the Pilot Metropolitan has a small converter that can only hold up to .85 ml and the Jinhao X750 has a different style converter that can hold up to 1.05 ml. These bottles of ink whether 30 or 50 ml contain a whole lot of ink and will last a long time, for many refills of my pens. And one thing that is so nice about fountain pens is that you can change the color of your inks as much as you like. Of course, you need to clean out the ink residue so it doesn't make a weird color out of the new ink you are filling your pen with.

Retired But Working (?)

 I am happy to announce that I have begun a new chapter in my life. A very apropos designation for my opening months of Retirement. 

Chapter One: get Medicare and Social Security on track, plus continue with my regular volunteer "jobs". 

Volunteering as a musician in the Boyertown Alumni Marching Unit and Concert Ensemble and volunteering for that group as co-Music Librarian and as Patron Committee Chair (well, I AM the Patron Committee - it's just me, myself, & I in that committee). These few items have taken up the majority of my life during the first quarter of the year. Chapter One is essentially complete.

Chapter Two: begin to do the things I haven't really had time to do while working more than full time at a public library. 

These include writing (poetry, prose, letters, & my blog, etc.), photography, and painting. So far, I have been collecting and collating my poetry, prose, and photos into a book. Yes, I am finally working on a volume of my Words & Art. I have amazed myself when looking through my various notebooks and computer files to choose which works I will include - there are so many!

I will try to post some sample pages here in my Blog, but it depends on what file formats are allowed. Some of the photos, poems, and prose have previously been published in this very Blog. Most of the prose has definitely come from here, but I have changed or edited them a bit over time, this way they are more up to date or have had corrections made.

Eventually, I hope to have this book published. 

Chapter Three will involve working on my painting. 

I hope to have some of my art available for sale later this year. I also hope to have some of my work entered in Juried Art Shows. 

I have ambitions. 

I think these ambitions are another form of - WORK!

Sample Pages from bk WordArt by mARTa

Please click the above link to get an idea of the book I am working on. There are seven sample pages posted on my LinkedIn page. I would appreciate it if anyone or someone would let me know what they think.

And so, Onward into this new Lifestyle!

My Visual Art: Nature Inspires Me

Much of my writing is based on the beautiful world around me, as you may have read in the poetry on some of my previous posts.         My Word Art. 

Another aspect of my "art" is photography and now painting. I have already shared some of my snapshots here. Also I have included some of my best photos as illustrations for some of my writing here on this blog.

Recently, I had some of my photos transferred to Canvas. I gave some as Christmas presents the last couple years and have actually sold a few! I have been encouraged by friends and family to display them together in one place. 

In lieu of an Art Gallery, I will start displaying my work here on my Blog. I will begin by posting a few of my Photo Canvas Art here and a few of my Paintings as well. But going forward I will create another tab on this Blog and post my Art there. All are available for purchase.          Please email me if you are interested...                        mjwpoet@yahoo.com or mjwwriter@gmail.com

The first six are Photos on Canvas and have Gallery edges so no frames needed. They are 16X20".

The bottom with me showing it is "Birches Before Autumn Field" which I finished painting in June 2020. It is 20"X24". 

I painted all the side edges even though it is only 5/8" thick. Most people would frame it, but I currently have it hanging on my wall as is and I like it that way, very 'clean' looking.

The painting is in the Impasto style so it is very heavily textured. See an edge-on image of the painting at the right.

A Meditative Challenge, Accepted & the Result- A Poem: The Blue Houses

 

Sramana Mitra is publishing a series on LinkedIn called Colors

to explore a topic that she cares deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. 

"I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it." 

She requested - urged - LinkedIn members to write what came to us as we viewed her paintings, to write what came to us based on our feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, what thoughts it triggered, in the dialog area. She was interested to see what stimulation these pieces yielded. On this day – Les Maisons Bleues, Umaria

 

 

 Les Maisons Bleues, Umaria | Sramana Mitra, 2020 

Watercolor, Pastel, Brush Pen | 6 x 9, On Paper

 

The Blue Houses

 

No longer true blue. 

A bluer than blue sky 

bleaches walls from blue to aquamarine 

to dried waterless blue shadows 

on pasty blue-ish whitewash. 

Blue houses shaded by sun-brightened thatch. 

Where are all the children? 

Inside, in the cool blue shade. 

Too hot a sun to stay out and play catch. 

Where are all the women and the men? 

At the river for water or wash, 

and in the fields working their scorched patch.   

-mARTa weller 7/29/2020

My thoughts on the painting are mostly presented in the above poem, however, I also took a leap and imagined that the country where these houses were situated was a hot country. A country where the languages spoken might include French. And even though I never took French in school, I figured Bleue was Blue and most of us know that maison means house. I also imagined Umaria was a place name - which sounded foreign to me - an American. After I wrote the poem I looked up the name Umaria and found it was a district of Madhya Pradesh and is the district headquarters of Shahdol Division in India. I felt pretty good about my thinking processes! I also was pleased with the poem I ended up writing on a relatively spur of the moment!  

 

Book Review: "Picard: The Last Best Hope" by Una McCormack

 

This was an excellent book and a must read for anyone who watched the first season of "Picard" the TV series on Netflix. You may ask why - and I will explain.... The TV series started off with Picard retired and living on his family's vineyard in France. But it never goes into the reasons for his retirement. In fact he doesn't seem to be happy as a retired Admiral.

This book by Una McCormack starts with Jean Luc Picard on a boring day relaxing on the vineyard thinking back to how on earth he ended up in this boring situation. Therefore it begins before the TV series events and goes back to the events prior to his retirement. You learn much more about the situation with the Romulans and the work at the Daystrom Institute.

If you have not seen the TV series, it doesn't matter, this is a stand alone and has NO SPOILERS about the TV show. In fact, I almost wish I had not seen the TV series before reading this book!
I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys SCI FI and knows anything about the world of Star Trek.

Book Review: Villette by Charlotte Bronte

I may be a little presumptuous in saying I am reviewing this classic work by this classic author, but I only just this August read - actually listened to the Audio Book - Villette on my drive to & from work.  

The reader did an excellent job. However, I will need to reread it in print form because so much of the dialog is in French & unfortunately I barely know any French! I took Spanish in school. So now I will need to read it with my computer by my side to translate many of the passages. But the book was excellent. 

 

I really enjoyed it and found myself talking to Miss Lucy Snow as I drove because she was taking too long to figure something out or she needed to get a hold of herself and work on her confidence. She kept putting herself down. 

 

Of all the Bronte sisters's work, my favorite is still Jane Eyre but Villette is right up there. It really presents an understandable image of the plight of a young woman of this period (mid-1800's) who, having lost family, is now in straightened circumstances.

Back Finally with another BOOK REVIEW

After a LONG Long Time Away...

I am finally posting again and I will try to do better. I'm not promising a "regular" posting but I hope "periodically" will work out.

Of all the books I have been reading over these intervening years, I have to say I have been most excited about a series by an author a co-worker and I discovered this past summer. I love mysteries and I love historical novels so you can figure I would really be excited to find a book series that incorporates BOTH! That describes Ann Swinfen's series "The OXFORD MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES".

Sadly, I learned that my newest, favorite-est author passed away this summer, just as I discovered her books. Happily, she has written quite a few books - more than one series - and the series are all historical novels!

The book in the image at right - "The Bookseller's Tale" - is the first in the Oxford Medieval Mystery series. After I have read all those (there are six and I have read four) I will begin the other historical novel series she wrote - "The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez" of which there are nine. The image above are from the Ann Swinfen website where you can find all kinds of information about her and her books. http://annswinfen.com/

I highly recommend the Oxford series to anyone interested in the period of time just after the Black Plague ends in Britain. Ann Swinfen explores, in a continuing storyline, the different aspects of life in a Medieval village from a Bookseller to a Merchant to a Huntsman, etc. and also all classes from rich to poor, businessman to cleric, and she even throws in a few spies and political intrigues. 

If anyone else has read any of Ann Swinfen's books, I would love to hear your thoughts. And if anyone has had the opportunity to read books written along a similar vein by other authors, I would love to read your recommendations!