Visconti Divina Medium Size Black Fountain Pen

Posting this great photo of a Visconti Divina fountain pen on behalf of one of our pen club members who has a keen interest in pens and digital photography. Many thanks to Al for the photograph & text below! (~click on photo to enlarge~)

Al writes: I have been doing photography since I retired from the workforce nine years ago and have now expanded to studio photography. I started collecting pens this year and this fall I decided that I would attempt to take photos of my pen collection. Photographing pens is a real challenge with the biggest challenge being the lighting due to the shape of pens and reflective materials used in the manufacturing of pens.

The Visconti Divina Medium Size Black Fountain Pen is modeled after Visconti’s Divine Proportion limited edition. This new collection represents a simplification in style and construction with the result being an attractive and original design. The Divina is more suitable for daily use and a pleasure to write with. The Divina Proportion is inspired by the Nautilus, or “Golden Spiral”, built according to the sequence of Fibonacci and the Golden proportion of 1618, comparing the length of the cap with the length of the pen, both opened and closed. The pen comes with Visconti’s unique Push and Pull Touch down filling system with a 14K nib.

The photo was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a Canon EF 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM lens. Edited in Photoshop CS6. The photo background is the January 2008 issue of Pen World.

More photos can be viewed at: http://alsmcphotos.smugmug.com/Other/My-Pens/26359471_XVQddh#!i=2197293852&k=Pbd4BHq These photos are available for downloading.

Feedback is always welcomed, email me at: alfo2010@gmail.com

Cheers Al Brunelle

November meeting details (last VPC meeting of 2012)

Since we do not have meetings in December (due to the holidays), our November meetup will be the last one of 2012. Here are the details:

Date: Thursday November 15, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: "Sheaffer Fountain Pens--Past & Present" (ie. vintage and modern fountain pens made by Sheaffer). As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too.

No RSVPs necessary for any meetings held at Perks pen store. We're a very friendly, casual club with no membership dues or duties. New members are always welcome! Hope to see you there!

Happy Fountain Pen Day!

Yes, the first Friday of November has been deemed "Fountain Pen Day", the very first such day dedicated to our favourite writing instrument! Here is the link to the official website with suggestions on how to celebrate the occasion: www.fountainpenday.com/

Some photos from our last meeting

Our October 18th meeting at Perks was well-attended, with 14 members (including two brand-new VPC members---James and Al) braving the wet, miserable weather to see and hear about some very nice fountain pens made in France (the topic of our meeting). Examples of pens made by companies such as Cartier, Dupont, Recife, Stypen, Jean-Pierre Lépine, Reynolds, Gold Starry as well as Parker and Waterman were seen. Many thanks to those who brought pens for our monthly theme, and to everyone who attended!

Here are a few photos snapped by Richard during our meeting (click on photos to enlarge):

(clockwise from far left: Al (in bright green jacket), Dexter, James, Glenn M, Bruce, Bob M, Julienne, Graham, Michael and David S. That's me (Maja) standing on the far right in a green t-shirt (more about that at the bottom of this blog post! ). Ralph and Mark were present, but, unfortunately, not in the photo.

A photo of me in a cool Retro 51 t-shirt, a prize I won in the Retro 51 blog crossword puzzle contest last month (thanks to Julienne for taking the photo, and to the good folks at Retro 51 for the prize!).

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday November 15th at Perks pen store on Cambie Street (usual place & time) and our theme will be "Sheaffer Fountain Pens--Past & Present". Hope you can make it!

Seattle Pen Club meeting in Bellingham, Washington--updated info

I just reconfirmed with Seattle Pen Club (SeattlePenClub.com) President George Long that their October meeting will be held at the Bellingham Public Market in Bellingham, Washington on Saturday October 20th from 10:30am to 1:00pm. There may or may not be a theme for their meeting---George hadn't come up with one as of yesterday night, and their meetings are even more casual than ours :) I would just say that if you want to bring something interesting (pen-related) to show, please do so. Their members will be bringing a variety of pens, if past meetings are anything to go by. If there is a theme/topic for that meeting, I will post it here on our blog. Alternately, you can contact the SPC via their website (see link above). The address of the Bellingham Public Market is 1530 Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham, WA, and the SPC will be meeting (as usual) in the Food Court area--just look for a bunch of tables pushed together with lots of fountain pens on them :) Update to the update: The theme for the Seattle pen club meeting on Oct. 20th is "Your Oldest Pen and Your Newest Pen". I just got the info from George today (Oct. 18) and he adds "As usual, if you don’t like the theme, bring what you want, it’s all good."

And don't forget about our own pen club meeting on Thursday October 18 at Perks pen store (usual place & time---more info in the blog post below this one). Our theme will be French Fountain Pens, so it should be interesting. Hope to see you there!

Happy Autumn! (October meeting details & more!)

~ Japanese maple (momiji) in beautiful Miyajima, Japan; photo taken November 2008 ~

Many thanks to all who attended our September meeting. It appears the cold & flu season has started up already, as evidenced by some of the emails I've received from members who were unable to attend that meeting. As an aside, there is no pressure to attend all VPC meetings---we realize that not all topics are of interest to everyone, and of course, many members have work & family commitments, etc. Oh, and the only RSVPs we require are for meetings held outside of Perks.

Now, here are the details about our upcoming meeting!

Date: Thursday October 18, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: French Fountain Pens (note: these can be French brands such as: Cartier, Dupont, Michel Perchin, Recife, Stypen, Jean-Pierre Lépine, Oldwin, Stylomine, Edacoto, Bayard, Unic, Gold Starry, Météore, Mallat & others....OR fountain pens made in France, by companies such as Waterman, Parker, et al.)

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Hope to see you there!

Seattle Pen Club -- October meeting in Bellingham, WA: The Seattle Pen Club (SPC) is planning to have their October meeting in Bellingham, WA on Saturday October 20th (pending approval by the Bellingham Public Market, the proposed venue) and Vancouver Pen Club members are warmly invited to attend. Normally, SPC meetings are held in Seattle, but a couple of times a year they have them in Bellingham to make it easier for folks in northwest WA state & the Lower Mainland to attend. The Bellingham meetings are normally held in the morning, usually from 11:00am to 2:00pm or so, but check your Inboxes for details re: exact time & place once I get them from SPC President George Long. Please check their website at SeattlePenClub.com. for more info on this active & friendly pen club.

Future VPC Topics/Themes: "Sheaffer Fountain Pens" will be our November 15th meeting theme/topic, and will include both modern & vintage Sheaffers. We don't have meetings in December due to the holiday season, but we'll be back in January 2013 with some great new topics, such as: Vintage Pencils, Calligraphy Pens, Limited & Special Editions, Demonstrator Fountain Pens and a topic that that Bruce calls "Errors of Commission" (pens which have been commissioned from a maker and sold under a house name). Many thanks to Bob Morgan for October's theme/topic of French Fountain Pens.

Flexy Nibs!

We had a good turnout for our September meeting two days ago---15 members braved the heat & humidity of a late summer's evening (well, it was warm inside the store) to see some very cool fountain pens with flexible nibs.

(first three pics courtesy of Richard, the rest taken--poorly--by myself, Maja ;)

Photo above (L to R): Charles, me, Sam & Graham chuckling as I attempt to fill my ultra-flexy Blackbird twist-filler with ink.

I brought a few pens with flex--an Eversharp Skyline, an English-made Waterman lever-filler, a Parker Vac in the Demi size, a no-name lever-filler with a three-tined music nib, the Blackbird (made by Swan) and a Noodler's Ahab. Sam brought some nice examples of Ti(Titanium)-nibbed pens with flex (or perhaps "with spring" is a more accurate description; there's also some nice 'feedback' with Ti-nibbed pens)---an OMAS Emotica, a Stipula Modello T and a Delta Titanio---and Graham brought some gold-nibbed examples, including his Pelikan M1050, and a couple of steel-nibbed flex pens by Noodler's (the Ahab & Konrad)

Photo above (L to R): Graham, Ralph & Mike M enjoying a well-attended meeting.

Photo above (L to R): Mike M, Dexter, Greg S, Bruce & Anne (in foreground), all watching intently.

Greg brought several examples of vintage fountain pens with very flexible nibs (his three Salz pens) & semi-flexible nibs (Noodler's original flex pen, Noodler's Ahab and a Conway Stewart), as well as some pens whose nibs have little to no flex to them (TWSBI 540, Pelikan M200, Pilot VP), just for comparison. Bruce brought his wonderful CONID bulk-filler with Titanium nib, a recent acquisition.

Greg talking about the pens he brought:

Writing samples of the pens Greg demo'd at the meeting (click on image to enlarge--sorry for the blurry photo!):

Charles brought a pen with an interesting nib (see photo below)-- a Visconti Rembrandt fountain pen with a very flexible 0.5mm italic nib (only available as part of the Visconti Rembrandt calligraphy set) that produced the lovely copperplate-type calligraphy shown at the top of the page:

Thanks to all who attend this meeting! Our next meeting will be on Thursday October 18, 2012 at Perks on Cambie Street (usual place & time). Theme: TBA.

September meeting details

Date: Thursday September 20, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: Flexible ("Flexy") Nibs!

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Hope to see you there!

Meetings are held monthly, on the third Thursday of each month, except December (there is no meeting in December, due to the holidays)...Please check this website for last-minute schedule changes/updates...Any questions? Contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com No RSVPs necessary for any meetings held at Perks pen store. We're a very friendly, casual club with no membership dues or duties. New members are always welcome!

Obscure Fountain Pen Brands

Many thanks to all who came to our August 16th meeting at Perks, and special thanks to May for the ink samples! Despite the heat, we had a good turnout--fifteen members, including four newcomers (Anne F, Greg H, Mike M, and Norman C). In all the excitement, I forgot to take photos, so I snapped this one at home after the meeting:

A photo of three obscure fountain pen brands, all made by J. Harris & Co., which eventually became the Majestic Pen Company (from bottom: Congress, Ambassador & Majestic fountain pens). The Majestic is a fountain pen/mechanical pencil combo. The ink is Diamine Turquoise, which I got in the Ink Swap (thanks, Charles!).

I made a list of the brands that our members brought in for our theme of "Obscure Fountain Pen Brands": Salz, Tombow, Recife, Kaweco, Wancher, CONID, Diamond Point, Celtic Pen, Centropen, Rexpen, Padrino, X-Pen, Marxton, Ottawa, Eagle, Epenco, Majestic, Congress, Ambassador, Stratford, Kolber, American, Eberhard-Faber, Arnold, Jefferson, Waterson, DuBarry, Biltwel, Empire, Ever Ready, Adria Gold, Bankers Pen, Phoenix, Remington, Rex and Superman.

~ Next meeting: Thurs September 20 at Perks! (theme/topic: "Flexible Nibs") ~

Next meeting--Thursday August 16 at Perks

We're back at Perks pen shop for our August meeting, after last month's dinner. Incidentally, this month's meetup will be VPC meeting #50 (if you include our summer dinners) of our little pen club. How time flies! Many thanks to all who have attended and participated at our meetings since our club started in December 2006.

Now, here are the details regarding our upcoming meeting....
Date: Thursday August 16, 2012
Place: Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: "Obscure Fountain Pen Brands" and our biannual Ink Swap! We're not too picky, but suffice to say, if we've done the pen brand as one of our monthly themes already, it is not an obscure brand:)

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Regarding the Ink Swap: if you have any bottled ink (or ink cartridges) that you've like to trade with your fellow VPC members, please bring them to the meeting. This is 100% voluntary, of course and no pressure to bring anything if you like all your inks!