Butterfly glitter

I loved these stickers that came on the back of an envelope, and I actually managed to photograph them so that you can see the glitter and metallic gold in them.

I would've written sooner...

I've been out of town all day. Sorry for the late post.

I love this vintage checklist, that came in from a correspondent a week or two ago. He then wrote me an excellent letter a few days later. Thought I'd share the amusing fun... and it should be noted that my guess is that when this paper was printed, "computer" was, if not a novelty, much less commonplace than now! I'm thinking this came from the early to mid 80s.

More from Red Tango

Here is my snazzy box of goodness from Red Tango, aka Tangoland.com. You may remember me blogging about the delightful Red Tango set from Dark Horse stationery (see horse and green owl), but I recently discovered that the artist, Cynthia Petrovic, has her own site where she sells more good stuff. That coolio site recently had a free shipping sale, so I bought another Red Tango stationery set PLUS some cool postcards, cards and stickers. (The stickers, unfortunately, only come in the more expensive large size. I wish she had smaller stickers I could put on letters. Cynthia, are you reading this? :-) I love her style, especially her cats (which feature prominently in the cards and postcards).

Even the box it came in was cute:

Using sealing wax: a step-by-step photo tutorial

One of my wonderful fountain-pen correspondents sent me this 2-part letter, both envelopes sealed with sealing wax and a different seal. He warned me in an email that a letter was coming in 2 parts, and I'm glad he did, because of course part 1 arrived the day after part 2.



In his marvelous letter, he gave a detailed explanation of using sealing wax, along wit all these wonderful photos documenting the whole process. I have still never used sealing wax myself, but I took photos of his photos just so I could share them with you all. They're marvelous photos, and I'm not sure if my photos of the photos are doing them justice.

Step 1: lamp and melting spoon


Step 2: cutting the wax stick


Here I'll note that he said in his letter he was initially loathe to try J. Herbin sealing wax because it was exponentially more expensive than the other brands, but he went on to explain exactly why it's exponentially better in quality, too.

Step 3: melting the wax in the spoon


Step 4: melted wax in spoon


Step 5: stirring with a match


Step 6: the wax before the seal


Step 7: Voila!


My meta-fancy was tickled that I got a photo of my letter, in my letter. This is probably a big part of why it came in 2 parts/2 envelopes... though it was nice and fat!

Thanks so much to the wonderful guy who sent these photos. I'll keep him anonymous unless he asks to share.

Isn't all his fancy equipment COOL?? (Yes, I'm very, very tempted...)

2 V-mail inks in pens, plus my new fountain pen!

Here are those photos of my two V-mail inks in pens. For those of you who are reading this who AREN'T pen geeks, these are the fruits of my Sunday excursion to the New England Pen Show in Boston, my first-ever pen show. It was ever so much fun. If you're not a pen-and-ink geek, then this post may not mean a whole lot to you. More letter stuff coming later, I promise - but I gotta share the pen-and-ink goodness with my fellow fountain pen nut readers.

I learned recently from the The Fountain Pen Network (FPN) forums that Boston Brahmin Black is indeed part of the V-Mail series. (For more background, see my Noodler's inks from the New England Pen Show post.) So the two inks shown at the top of the page, Midway Blue and Boston Brahmin Black, are both in that series. Oh, and you gotta view this one large to appreciate it.

Both the Midway Blue and Boston Brahmin Black are shown in Autopoint Big Cat pens, which I got as part of Richard Binder's nib-smoothing kit. I haven't even played with the smoothing kit itself yet, because these German "student pens" are already pretty nice and smooth.

Have I mentioned I am in love with Midway Blue? I am in love with Midway Blue. Excellent shading. Great, bright color. Dries really quickly. Hooray!

But I must also show you my new baby. I splurged (a calculated splurge, as I'd been considering this for month) on a Pelikan M200 with a custom Binder-ized nib (for those who aren't pen geeks yet have read this far, Richard Binder is a famous "nibmeister," or master of fountain pen nibs, known for his fine work and specialty nibs) of the XXXF Needlepoint variety. I tested one at his table and knew it was for me. This puppy is SUPERFINE, baby! For those of you that get letters from me, you already know of my penchant for reeeeeeallly fine nibs (and fine = thin, the opposite of a broad nib). I've never written with anything this fine before. You can see it in the photo at top with the Noodler's Squeteague. I am in love with my new pen.

Here's a bit of pen porn, a close-up of that needlepoint nib:



Oohhhh yeah. You can view this one large if you want to, too. Mmmmm.

Coming soon, back to letter-writing goodness - I'll have another really long, photo-filled post featuring the work of one of my intrepid correspondents, who did a photo documentary of every step of the wax seal process.

Happy writing! Go write a letter!

Anysoldier.com

I can't believe I've forgotten to mention this until now.

A lot of people who write to me ask about resources for more folks to whom they can write. While it is NOT a pen pal service at all, if you're looking to write a letter that might make a real difference, I highly recommend Anysoldier.com. It is a direct way to get requests and addresses from real U.S. Military service personnel stationed overseas.

In a nutshell, it's no longer legal to address a letter to "any soldier," for security reasons. The soldiers (marines, airmen, sailors, etc) who participate in the Any Soldier program consent to serve as a contact for their unit or company (I don't know military terminology, so forgive me if I mangle some of it). The contact solider provides updates on the address - they're almost always at a base or an FPO or something like that - and these addresses do change frequently so you want to make sure that if you request an address, you use it immediately. There is little or no registration involved, you just do a search on their site and then request the address. Someone is sure to correct me if there is more of a registration process - I've been doing it for a while now so it's easy for me and I forget.

Some of the text on the site is geared to packages, and various companies request specific items, but I do a search for "letter" to see what I come up with. As they say on their own FAQ section:

"There is not one thing on this site, or anywhere, that requires you to send stuff. Letters are THE MOST requested thing by these Soldiers. So, all you need do is send a normal letter in a normal envelope with a normal stamp.
Good ideas: If you want, put your email address in your letter, many Soldiers can and prefer to reply that way. What to write? Too easy: like you are talking to a friend, because that is what that Soldier is going to be real quick. It is also VERY helpful if you leave your full return address as part of your letter, envelopes tend to get trashed quickly.

If your letter is for a Soldier other then the contact you address it to, PLEASE start your letter "Dear Soldier" not "Dear SGT Smith" as on the address. The contact passes the mail out to folks around him or her and when that servicemember opens the letter it will feel better without the contact's name on it."

Don't expect anyone to write back. I've written an awful lot of letters to soldiers, and you do it just because you want to write a letter and make someone's day. Just tell them you appreciate their service to our country. Honestly it may end up being a whole lot more meaningful to the recipient than if you write one of your pen pals anyway. So, if you're looking for an outlet, just to send something, then consider Anysoldier.com while you're considering cruising Sendsomething.net.

I should also note that while most soldiers don't write back, quite a few of them do. With two or three I continued a correspondence for a while. For those that did write back, they were so sweet and grateful. And for those of us that are living comfortably stateside, it's really interesting and important to hear about keeping sand out of your tent in 110-degree heat. Or other such details I learned in these letters. Whatever your position on the war - and I'll say here that in most cases I'm a pacifist, but that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for the work our military service personnel do - it has nothing to do with a letter to a soldier, far away from home, thanking them for their work and dedication.

I don't think I'm being terribly articulate in this post - and hey, it's pretty darn late at night right now - but I'm not trying to make the point how great you'll feel when you write to a solider. It's thinking about how maybe you'll really brighten their day.

Oh, and all of these military addresses and FPOs, although they may be located in Iraq and Afghanistan, only require one 44-cent first class stamp. And if the soldiers write you back, it's free for them. Cool.

Update: I just requested an address and wrote a letter. You don't need a password or anything, you just have to give your name and address and agree to the TOS. So I updated this post with photos of what I just wrote. The Wonder Woman fold and mail from Chronicle Books is shown folded at the top, and here is most of what I wrote to an anonymous marine (I did blur out a little bit of personal info in there, you gotta keep a few secrets, y'know?). Sorry the photo is a lot more grainy than my usual fare - but I don't usually take photos of letters at night.




View larger

Noodler's inks from the New England Pen Show

As promised to many friends on The Fountain Pen Network (FPN), here are photos of all the Noodler's inks I tried out at the New England Pen Show in Boston this past Sunday. Inks were all tested in the provided Platinum Preppy brush pens, already filled with the inks. All are, of course, Noodler's inks.



PART 1 (View large for close-up)
Emperor's Purple (Kung te-cheng)
Purple
La Reine Mauve
Periwinkle
Concord Bream
Borealis Black
Mandalay Maroon (V-Mail series)



PART 2 (View large for close-up)
Baystate Blue
Dark Matter
Beaver
Midway Blue
North African Violet (V-Mail series)
Luxury Blue



PART 3 (View large for close-up)
All of these are from the V-Mail series:
GI Green
Midway Blue
Operation Overland Orange
Rabaoul Red
Midway Blue (I tested this one a lot, and ended up buying it. More photos of this ink in a pen coming shortly.)

Check out the cool orange tint on the edges of GI Green! That color is way too light for me, but the green-to-orange effect is pretty groovy. If you like it as much as I do, check out this ink review on the Fountain Pen Network. It REALLY shows off this ink.

The whole New England Pen show was a blast, but the Noodler's table was among the most giddy kind of fun. I really appreciate the savvy FPN members who gave me the excellent advice of bringing my own ink journal and getting samples of as many Noodler's inks as I could in there. I didn't try a lot of colors just because I'm not inclined to like them. I did try to get all the V-Mail series, just for fun, even though I'm not likely to buy an orange ink.

For my blog readers who are only into the letter part and this fountain pen and ink talk is making your eyes glaze over, sorry about that. But I gotta geek out here, because fountain pens and fountain pen inks are among my favorite parts of letter-writing.

Before I close, a little more on this special brand-new V-mail series of ink.

I spoke with Nathan Tardif, the maker of Noodler's ink, about these brand-new inks. First he was talking with someone else about them, so I listened in. Then I joked, "have you tested V-mail ink on a V-mail?" And he then said no, the inks were only 48 hours old, and showed me his printed sheet of info.

Apparently the V-mail series are prototypes, produced as a test batch for the NE Pen Show. He may start making more based on how folks react to these.

I believe he called them "vintage-style" inks, and said they are made from the same reverse-engineered dyes that he obtained for Boston Brahmin Black (the NE Pen show limited edition ink, that folks who attended the show got for free. I posted photos of the snazzy bottle in my blog post yesterday). He explained something I don't quite understand, having to do with mimicking vintage inks made by a pen company in the midwest (ummm.... Iowa? Ohio? I can't remember and I'm sure someone will dress me down because it's obvious who they're mimicking but I have no idea) that he can't name by name because they still exist.

ANYWAY. These new inks are "water-resistant," Nathan says, although they smeared when I smudged with saliva (my non-scientific test).

I bought Midway Blue, which is a very bright, very saturated light blue - a color almost like turquoise, that I never would have thought I'd like, except I saw it in person and loved it. Like I said, more photos of this ink actually in a pen (where, in my humble opinion, it looks much better than in a brush/highlighter pen) coming soon.

Other colors were GI Green (looked surprisingly light and minty to me), Operation Overland Orange, Rabaoul Red, Mandalay Maroon, North African Violet. There was a brown I didn't even try so I didn't write down the name.

The fact that a brand-new series of Noodler's ink would be making its debut at the NE Pen show was a total surprise!

Boston Brahmin Black ink bottle

I spent my Sunday at my first pen show: The New England Pen Show in Boston. It was a great time and well worth the drive. The first 200 attendees got this ink for FREE with their admission: Noodler's Boston Brahmin Black, the 2009 New England Pen Show exclusive color.



I will post ink scans SOON (later today or tomorrow, I promise!) - I took photos of this ink along with a whole bunch of other Noodler's inks that I got to test at the show - but here's the bottle for a teaser.