Of Pens, Writing, Photography And Drawing, Of Bassano And Montegrappa

[fpupulin]

In the story that I am posting in this forum, I present the report of a trip I made to Bassano del Grappa last summer, when I took the opportunity to visit the Montegrappa headquarters.

 

 

 

The idea of ​​this report came to me during the short days of the trip, but as you can see it took more than seven months to complete it. The works do not always originate like Minerva from the head of Zeus, already mature complete with armor, but sometimes instead they grow little by little, changing and defining themselves along the way. As I hope you will be able to observe, this intervention mixes pens - of course -, writing and calligraphy, photography and drawing. It took some material time to make - during free time - all these components, and it was necessary to find a fil rouge, a guiding motif to put them all together.

The idea for the final composition, the excuse, the occasion, was given to me by a notebook by Moleskine which I was unaware of, but which I saw on sale in a bookstore here in Costa Rica: a large horizontal album with black pages, of solid smooth cardboard, more or less in A4 format. Initially, the album was supposed to be just a classic photo album with their captions. Then it became a kind of illustrated story, and the story was written in cursive handwriting. The overall result, with that black album, with the photographs and sketches, and that cursive text written in white, finally seemed to me sufficiently "romantic" to suggest the title of the work: "A romantic journey to Bassano del Grappa and to Montegrappa".

Writing in white was not easy. I did not find any instrument that wrote with a nice full white and at the same time a very fine line. To have a nice white, I had to settle for a juicy medium, almost broad line. The pigment is vaguely chalky, and I soon realized at my own expense that even when dry it stains the adjoining sheet when closing the notebook. This forced me to photograph the pages, two by two, as they were written, before gluing tracing paper separators to the album and thus being able to turn the page without staining the underlying ones.

In order not to have to rebuild the "set" every time, repositioning the album again in the same position and with the same magnification, the tripod remained mounted in position for almost two months, with the legs resting on one side of the table, while the work took shape. In the last photograph of this post you can see the shooting set.

Photographed with natural light on different days and at different times, the set required to "calibrate the white" frequently to have the same (or almost) color of light in all the photographs.

Now that this work, which has occupied my hours of freedom for months, is finally finished and I can introduce it to my pen friends, on the one hand I am happy to be able to move on to some other theme, but on the other I know I will miss this laborious way of keeping alive the memory of an unforgettable journey.

Here goes a shot of the set:

For those of you who may be interested in reading the story without interruptions by the "voiceover narrator", I made a PDF file of just the album pages, that can be dowloaded here:

A romantic journey to Bassano del Grappa_7.8MB

[ArchiMark]

WOW!!!!!

 

What a wonderful trip and beautifully done story.

 

Thank you so much for sharing it with everyone.

 

I can't imagine how many hours you must have put into it, but think it the results are worth it.

 

Mark

[jmccarty3]

Franco--

 

Thank you so much for this magnificent production! I remain in awe of your phenomenal talents, pens, and cameras.

 

Jay

[gmax]

A beautiful project - thank you for sharing

[dms525]

Your travelogue, sketches and photos are all wonderful, Franco! Thank you so much for sharing this. Now, I really want to go there myself. <sigh>

 

David

[kats17]

Excellent post!

[como]

Dear fpupulin,

 

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful fruit of your trip. What an accomplishment! It's wonderful to see, through your presentation, that this hobby/passion can take on such depth and dimension, and bring endless joy if we follow our hearts and imagination.

 

Kind regards,

 

como

[Richard F]

Beautifully written and presented. Thank you, Franco.

[KingsCountyWriter]

Beautiful writing, images and production! I love it combination of analog and digital photographs and writing.

[Arcadian]

That's spectacular! Very inspiring!

 

Question: Which ink did you use? And were there any complications with flushing it from the pen after use?

 

 

- P.

[RubenDh]

Thank you for sharing your art, once again.

[Calabria]

Pretty amazing stuff for FPN

[offbase]

I loves me some Montegrappa!!

[fpupulin]

That's spectacular! Very inspiring!

 

Question: Which ink did you use? And were there any complications with flushing it from the pen after use?

 

 

- P.

Dear all, thanks so much for your words. But let me start my answers from here, from the technical thing.

 

Arcadian, the white lettering is made with a gel marker (two types, to be precise) with pigment ink. I used a Mitsubishi Signo Uni-ball, which indicates to contain a "UM-153 White" tint, and a Pentel Pigment Gel White with a 1mm tip and a "K230-WO" tint (admittedly the names of the colors are not particularly allusive ...).

The pens indicate respectively that they have "broad" and "medium" tips, but in practice they produce a line of equal thickness. The tint of the Uni-ball is denser, that of the Pentel more fluid and sometimes a little bland.

I would have preferred pens with a thinner tip, but the few that I managed to find had a too light tint, which could not be opaque enough on the black of the paper. My favorite pen with a white tint is a "Choose" Pilot, with a 0.7 mm tip, which is much more precise to handle. Unfortunately, in the one I had, the ink dried up and I was unable to find a replacement.

I am not aware of white pigmented tints for the fountain pen, but in any case I would use them with the utmost caution. Pigments are suspended particles which tend to occlude the conductor and are difficult to remove by washing. In particular, I suppose that the white tint, in order to be opaque, must have particularly concentrated pigments.

[fpupulin]

WOW!!!!!

 

What a wonderful trip and beautifully done story.

 

Thank you so much for sharing it with everyone.

 

I can't imagine how many hours you must have put into it, but think it the results are worth it.

 

Mark

Thank you, ArchiMark! You are right: this has been one of the more time-consuming calligraphic works I have ever done... But I really enjoyed the mix of so many different “techniques”!

[fpupulin]

Franco--

 

Thank you so much for this magnificent production! I remain in awe of your phenomenal talents, pens, and cameras.

 

Jay

Jay: you made me used to look for your replies to my posts! I really enjoy your kind words! Thank you.

[fpupulin]

A beautiful project - thank you for sharing

Excellent post!

Beautifully written and presented. Thank you, Franco.

Pretty amazing stuff for FPN

Thank you, my dear pen pals gmax, kats17, RichardF, and Calabria, for your generous comments! The kinds words of support that I receive from the members of this forum are certainly part of the pleasure of this beautiful passion.

[fpupulin]

Your travelogue, sketches and photos are all wonderful, Franco! Thank you so much for sharing this. Now, I really want to go there myself.

 

David

Dear David, not the best moment to schedule a trip to Italy, but... There will be a new sunny morning in the near future! Would you have a chance to visit Bassano and the Montegrappa, you would not be disappointed. Anything is special, including the food and the great Prosecco sparkling wine!

[fpupulin]

Dear fpupulin,

 

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful fruit of your trip. What an accomplishment! It's wonderful to see, through your presentation, that this hobby/passion can take on such depth and dimension, and bring endless joy if we follow our hearts and imagination.

 

Kind regards,

 

como

Dear Como: this is exactly the reason for which I like our hobby. Pens are objects, but they do have a secret life... they push people to express themselves, and this is the greatest of the gifts! I have spent hours at seeing the unbelievable things that people can do with their pens. They are an endless source of inspiration...

[fpupulin]

Beautiful writing, images and production! I love it combination of analog and digital photographs and writing.

 

Yes, it was very interesting also to me! The mix just remembered me that the “medium” is often nothing more than an excuse. The true thing is expression.