I’ve been reading posts from this forum for a while and it’s time to say hi!

I have fallen in love with fountain pens. It has been a reunion of some sort. A few years ago, when I was a little girl living in a country far, far away, I used a dip pen and a fountain pen to do my homework. I still have the inkwell I used as a child and it is now sitting on my desk.

I’ve been thinking of buying a fountain pen for a while, and a few months ago finally bought a True Writer from Levenger. Loved it! Then the others came, Laban Mento (3) , Libelle (3), Taccia Continental Royal Purple (1), Romet (1), True Writer (5 counting the original one), and I’m waiting for a Monteverde Riviera, a Libelle Vortex, a Lamy Safari and a Lamy Al-star.

Each pen has its own personality, but they are all beautiful. I enjoy using them, and do so almost on a daily basis. Now I’ve been buying ink in various colors and from different brands. It’s a pleasure to write with these pens!

Thank you for creating and maintaining this fantastic forum,

Gigi

Hello Gigi and welcome to FPN. Glad to have you here with us.

cheers

Hi Gigi,

welcome to FPN from the Netherlands!
Are there any good FP shops in Miami? I'll be there again during November. I Love the climate there in that period (compared to Holland).
Rob

Welcome to FPN!

Hi Gigi,

Welcome. I'm just up the road a bit in the Fort Lauderdale area. Did you go to the Miami Pen show?

-Bruce

Hi there and happy to meet you.
You sort of took the words right out of my mouth. Yes, each and every FP is an individual. Inks too, which are of course less expensive. Reason enough for anybody to get dozens of them.
BTW, was your first ink Florid blue?

Mike

Welcome Gigi.

Thank you! I really don't know about fountain pen shops. Levenger is the only store where I've bought a fountain pen from in person. The store is in Boca Raton. Very nice place, with lots of good stuff from paper to leather folios and they also have their own fountain pens. I've been a customer for many years. Other than that I can't say.

Right now is raining. We had stormy weather for most of July and it seems August is not going to be any different. But we usually have a lovely weather during the winter months. Gigi

Hello neighbor! Can you believe I found out about the Pen show the week after it took place? I was so disappointed! Don't remember where I read about that show. But I got very excited when I saw it was going to take place at the Biltmore Hotel (one of my favorite buildings) and then I read the dates...well, I'll go to the next one.
Gigi

Hello Mike:

Yes, I agree, inks have their own individuality too. I've been buying various inks and all of them are interesting in one way or another. I guess they also look different depending on the paper you use. I've been using only white paper. And BTW, no, I haven't bought Florida Blue yet. Who's ink is that? The inks I have are from Pelikan, Levenger, Private Reserve, Lamy, Diamine, and J. Herbin. Haven't count them yet but there are more than 20 bottles, and then about 6 or 8 boxes of cartriges. I like bottled ink better. All of my pens have converters, and the ones that didn't come with one I bought one separately. Gigi

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I'm enjoying your posts and learning from them too. The more I read from this forum the more I like it!
Gigi

Welcome to FPN!!

I was afraid that may have been the case. I was all set to go, but ended up working a wedding, so I made some money instead of spending it


-Bruce

Well, good for you. Now you made some money to buy yourself a few more pens!
Gigi

Gigi- The Florida Blue is my favourite ink,and it is made by Waterman.
welcome to FPN,and I hope you checkout all the different sub-forums, plenty of great info.
BTW,when I was a kid growing up in India, I attended Catholic School, and we started learning penmanship using fountain pens in the 5th grade.
Welcome to the crazy world of fountain pens. You know we are all enablers here, dont you?

Oh yes! I've been reading posts here and there and this addiction is contagious! You read all those great reviews about these wonderful pens and inks and suddenly you want one too .

Do they still teach children to use fountain pens in India? I believe it is great when young children learn to enjoy writing by hand, particularly in today's world that we depend so much on computers. And I do love computers too, particularly Macs, but writing by hand is a pleasure.

I have to check Florida Blue and see if I like it. It would be great if one could mix up cartridges when we buy a package so we could try different colors. But well, since as far as I know we have to buy a bottle or a whole package of cartridges, I will not try it right now because I just bought so many bottles of ink I believe I'll have enough for the next 10 years or so! And all that happened after I started to read ink reviews in this forum. So many pretty colors, so little time! Gigi

Gigi- the Pear Tree Pen Company ( no affiliation) has an ink sampler program. You pay a nominal amount andhe ships you the inks you want to try out in small vials. That way, you can actually see and try out the inks you want,and if you dont like it, you are not stuck with an ink that you did not like.

Pear Tree Pen Company

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I've been wishing for this so much! What a great idea so we can try various inks. I'm going there right now to order some samples. Thank you again, you made my day! Gigi

Hello and welcome to the FPN, from the "Water-Winter Wonderland" state of Michigan.

Perry and Ronnie, thank you for the welcome. This is one of the best forums I've ever participated in. There is a sense of community and I do feel at home here!
Gigi

Better late than never....

Hi Gigi--

I was word-searching "miami" to see if there are a lot of us (fountain pen folk) down here & found your post. You got here before I did, but I'll say welcome anyhow!

Nothing like jumping in with both feet!

HAHHAAHA yeah, although I already have enough pens to last me several lifetimes. Next show, I need to get a couple of my favorites fixed. A pair of old Duofolds.

A forced job change hasn't helped either. Had to take a 13k cut, but now I'm 1/2 a company

-Bruce

Hi Gigi and welcome to FPN from New York City! I also have a few of the Levenger pens. They are having a sale right now and giving away ink that matches the demonstrators. Many of the ink colors are not being made any more so I will have to mix my own colors when the ink runs out. That's always fun because I can make my own signature colors! I bought a pink and also a blue demonstrator from them.

Most of my students have never seen a fountain pen. The students from India are very familiar with them and tell me that they used them in India in elementary school.

Glad to have you here and hope you really enjoy spending money because that's exactly what happens here to most of us!

Hello! Welcome.