14 departments 22 64 8 10 14 22 27 32 64 68 70 72 27 view rainbow, rainbow, rainbow date mark your calendars now new pens and accessories show St. Louis and Colorado news cursive, Intellectus, Ex Libris, roosters nibs collectible pens of the ’80s and ’90s deskology Kaweco long pens network classified advertising source brand contact information how to… …make an ink swab 32 72
view Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow* BY NICKY PESSAROFF Driving on I-10 with my family, we raced along the outer edge of a heavy monsoon. To the west, a scorching bright sun; to our right, charcoal gray clouds pendulous with rain. As the highway curved around mountainous terrain, we drove in and out of downpours. We entered an open valley, verdant greenery and umber soil all around us. To our right, truly suddenly, was a rainbow, and then another one—two full prismatic arches. They say you can’t get to the end of the rainbow, which is true. You’ll never actually get that stupid leprechaun’s Lucky Charms®. But I could see where the rainbows ended, just to our east, bleeding into the grassy field. They stayed with us, those rainbows, until we headed into the next mountainous pass and another deluge. Creating ink is an attempt at bottling the purity of color. Perhaps that’s why the names of ink colors are so fanciful. Perhaps you would have called the gray of the clouds I saw “charcoal” or “smoke.” I call that color “ominous gray dappled with sun-speckled yellow that portends a rainbow,” which works well enough for my artistic purposes, I suppose. What you call the color isn’t as important as what the color inspires. If this issue has a thesis, it is that inspiration comes in Technicolor. AP Limited Editions, Colorverse Inks, Benu <strong>Pen</strong>s, Kanilea <strong>Pen</strong> Co., Graf von Faber-Castell, Point Plume—nearly every brand shown in this issue has remarked on the inspiration they find in the colors of the natural world. In addition, each one of these brands admits just how difficult a task it is to capture a landscape, a scene, a color. The look of effortless creativity requires years of practice and exceptional discipline. You’re going to get drenched in the rain before you capture that rainbow. So as you look through the vibrant accessories on the following pages, consider the amount of effort it took to create those objects. As you note that Pelikan has won “<strong>Pen</strong> of the Year” honors in the PW Readers’ Choice Awards for the second year in a row, consider all the R&D that went into such a feat. As you note that Kanilea just won back-to-back “Best Artisan <strong>Pen</strong>” awards, consider that Hugh and Karol Scher work on Kanilea on evenings and weekends, after their day jobs. As you note that, once again, Retro 51 took top honors in “Best Non-Fountain <strong>Pen</strong>” and Sailor won in “Best Writing Experience,” consider the decades of work it took for those companies to get to this pinnacle. And as you look at the pens of other winners like Laban, Armando Simoni Club, Pilot, Ryan Krusac Studios, Franklin- Christoph, Graf von Faber-Castell, and Point Plume, remember and appreciate the work that goes into creating such masterpieces. It’s easy enough to be inspired; it’s a lot harder to do something about it. *Title inspird by Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Fish.” Send your letters to editor@penworld.com.
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