Lotus Author Purple Nebula Fountain Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Want to know what my favorite thing is about custom fountain pens? Absolutely the unique colors of the materials that these artists create. There's so much variety and bold representation that can fit any preference or whim. Just when you think you've seen every color combo or mixture, you see a new material that makes you take a second look. Before you know it, you're sitting down to discuss your nib preferences so they can adjust the nib for you after buying the pen.

I'd never heard of Lotus Pens prior to setting eyes on this custom Author model. The pen is made by Lotus Pens in India, and the fit and finish are top notch. In this case, though, the material was poured by Teri Morris at Peyton Street Pens in Santa Cruz, California. It's made of Alumilite resin, and this particular creation is dubbed "Purple Nebula." Put the word nebula in anything, and I'm already ready to buy.

The pen looks sleek and dark at first glance in normal lighting, but if you put it under direct light or close to a lamp, it really comes alive. There are rich purples, blues, and light grays with just a hint of shimmery reflective material to make it look like it's moving under the surface. The silver trim is the perfect complement to the cool tones used in the material. I haven't gotten tired of rotating this pen under the light to see how all the colors shift and change from different angles. There's an illusion of depth that is mesmerizing to me.

So, to recap the material used in this pen: It's beautiful, and I love it.

What about the rest of the pen? This is my first encounter with both Peyton Street Pens (where the resin rod was created) and Lotus Pens (the shop that turned and assembled the pen). There's always a chance that a new experience could prove to be negative, but that's happily not the case here. Everything about the fit, finish, and performance of this pen are top notch. It's sleek, feels solid, and has tight tolerances between all the mated parts.

The clip is a minimal profile with a slight taper down to the tip, which is actually a rolling wheel that makes clipping this pen to stuff easier.

There's zero branding on this pen — not even on the nib (which is a stainless steel JoWo #6). There's no fancy scroll work on the nib, and you have to look really hard to find the nib size indicator on the right shoulder.

And speaking of the nib, that reminds me that this pen isn't only a collaborative effort between two parties, but three! The nib on this unit has been modified by Nivardo Sanchez into a buttery smooth architect shape. Since this nib started as a standard broad, there's a delicious amount of line variation between up and down strokes. The downstrokes are similar in width to a 0.38mm or 0.5mm gel pen, while the lateral strokes are what you'd expect from a broad nib (somewhere between 1 to 1.2mm line width). Despite the drastic difference in line width, the writing experience is incredibly smooth. Tuning nibs to this kind of shape can sometimes lead to scratchy edges. The lines are normally exceptionally crisp in this case, but writing isn't as enjoyable (for me, anyway). This nib hits the balance dead center and provides crisp, confident line edges with plenty of width variation while also remaining glassy smooth. Bravo.

The pen comes with a standard Schmidt cartridge converter, but you could also use standard cartridges. The product information advises against using this pen as an eyedropper, and I have no intention of trying it out.

I'm a huge fan of this pen and especially the material. I can happily recommend it to anyone, but the only bad news here is related to the supply. There were only 11 of these beauties made, so they won't last long at all! Especially considering the price. The model I have is listed at $175, which includes an extra $25 charge for the custom nib grind. All I can say is, if you like how it looks and have the money to spare, just buy it. You have plenty of nib options to fit your writing style. If you opt for a standard nib size, the pen rings up to a cool $150. Along with the pen, it also comes in a super soft kimono and a decorative wooden box that can double as general storage for small items.

Can't wait to see more of the materials and pens that come from Peyton Street Pens and Lotus!

(Peyton Street Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Kaweco Student Fountain Pen - 30’s Blues Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

When I discovered this pen in a recent shipment from the Bossman, I had thoughts. One of which was “Surely, this pen has been reviewed before” and yes, yes, it has been - by Susan, Jeff and Sarah. I deliberately didn’t read their reviews so I wouldn’t be biased, but it’s not that often that several of us are reviewing the same model, so definitely check them out to get our respective thoughts on this pen.

The other thought I had was that I once owned a Kaweco Student and sold it because it was one of the very few pens that I had a tough time writing with because the grip section felt slippery and skinny. Would I want to put myself through writing with this pen just to do a review? Not really, but I did it anyway, cuz #science, I love you all and I’m a glutton for punishment so why not? Read on to see if my thoughts on it have changed.

The Kaweco Student Fountain Pen that I am reviewing is called 30’s Blues. Kaweco used musical decade/genres to name the different colorways, like 20’s Jazz, 50’s Rock, 60’s Swing, 70’s Soul and this one, 30’s Blues. To my knowledge, they have not released anything for the 40’s and I can’t wait to see what they would do for the 80’s and 90’s but I digress.

All of the pens in this series have an ivory-colored barrel with a solid color cap and gold-colored clip, trim, grip and nib. Aside from this series, the Kaweco Student could be found in solid colors like Black, Vintage Blue, Red, etc. as well as a demonstrator. It is a cartridge/converter pen but did not come with a converter. I chose to syringe fill an empty cartridge with Colorverse Project 004 Dirty Red, which is a great match to the cap and has average flow. This pen has a fine nib so I was curious to see how it performed, as the writing experience for some of the Kawecos can be hit and miss.

Kaweco Student 30’s Blues…but with a red cap.

I was pleasantly surprised that, after setting it nib down for a bit to let the ink flow from the cartridge, the pen wrote nicely. It wasn’t scratchy or dry (nor wet), and it actually had a nice almost-Japanese fine width to it with just a hint of tooth/feedback. It wrote beautifully out of the box, no cleaning or rinsing or anything. Yay!

Taken from the Kaweco Student Fountain Pen webpage which explains how it got its name.

Here’s how it compares to some other nib widths for other currently inked pens.

I wrote with the pen about half a dozen times over the course of the past month and it has worked without issues on all of them, except once when the ink was “stuck” to the bottom of the cartridge and the pen worked after a couple quick taps to the cart. I’ve done everything from quick to-do items to longer writing sessions and each time, the pen wrote flawlessly and it was a pleasurable writing experience. The grip that caused me to sell my own Student pen several years back doesn’t seem to be bothering me at all this time around. I wasn’t gripping the pen any tighter (or looser) than I usually do. I can’t explain why it worked for me this time around. I will say that the grip still feels a bit thinner to me, but it might be the slight concave shape of the grip that makes it feel so thin. The grip looks metal but feels both metallic and plasticky at the same time - hard to explain so you will either have to try one or take my word for it. And it is also a fingerprint magnet.

Left to Right: Kaweco Sport, Pilot Prera, Sailor Lecoule, Esterbrook JR, Pilot Kakuno, Kaweco Student, Sailor Compass, Kaweco Perkeo, Platinum Procyon, Faber-Castell Grip, TWSBI Eco, Lamy Safari.

I’m glad I gave this pen a second chance because I really liked the Kaweco Student this time around. It is a classy looking acrylic pen that has a slight bit of heft thanks to the metal grip section, is available in a variety of colors, and writes like any of the Kaweco Sport nibs (which means your mileage may vary, especially with the EFs). I do like that the nib units are screwed in (as opposed to glued in for many of the Sport models), so you can swap in different nib sizes. The price of the Kaweco Student typically ranges from $60-70 though you can sometimes find the solid options for ~$52. ~$50-60 feels like a good price for this pen, but I think $70 is a bit much. You can find this one at JetPens for $60 which I think is reasonable.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Aurora 88 Unica Nera Fountain Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

First of all, I want to thank everyone who weighed in this past fall to help decide what pen I would use for NaNoWriMo this year. May I just say that you all have excellent taste. The Aurora 88 Unica Nera was perfect in every way. I also want to thank Kenro Industries for letting me borrow this exquisite pen even after they were warned that I was going to put it through the wringer. And I want to thank Brad for helping organize this fun exercise. He doesn't even (visibly) flinch when I say, "Hey, I have this wild idea..."

I normally have at least five pens in rotation, often as many as a dozen, so switching to just one pen for a month was a challenge! But with such a nice pen, it was also a pleasure. I did miss my other pens, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with the Aurora.

The Aurora 88 Unica Nera is made from a matte finish black resin with shiny black accents and a black-coated gold nib. There is a smokey-clear acrylic ink window at the base of the grip section. It has a piston-fill system that holds a substantial amount of ink. The cap screws on, and it does post, though that might scratch the finish over time. The clip is very firm--I have to manually lift it to get it to slide over paper or a pen case. It's definitely not going to slide off easily.

The pen feels very substantial and strong. It weighs almost 20g and nothing about it feels light or cheap, though it also isn't heavy. It really feels like the luxury pen that it is. The piston and cap all thread very smoothly and all the joins are precise and seamless.

I confess, I was a little nervous about the nib. In the past, black-coated nibs that I've tried have felt too dry, or like they have a grippy texture that doesn't flow smoothly across the page. I had no such issue with this pen. The nib is smooth and perfectly tuned. This nib is an EF, though I noticed some subtle italic-ness to it. It definitely has a sweet spot where this effect is highlighted, but it writes well regardless of writing angle or speed. I did notice that the pen had some trouble keeping up with ink supply when I was writing very quickly for very long periods of time, but that's to be expected. If the pen needs a little break after speed-writing 2k words, I probably do, too.

Overall, this pen is elegant, luxurious, and a fantastic writer. It survived my NaNoWriMo adventure across 3 states, 4 airports, 3 hotels, 6 libraries, and 2 road trips. It stayed perfectly safe in my Musubi pen case and never leaked once. The only thing that makes me sad is that the adventure is over! Alas, at $585, it's outside my price range. I won't say it's not worth that price, though (as much as any pen is worth the price we Pen Addicts will pay for the right pen). An Aurora is definitely in my future, though, when the right time comes.

(Kenro Industries provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!