The TWSBI ECO-T is my favorite of the TWSBI models, and the recently released Saffron model is another fantastic color added to the lineup. I have one to give away this week, with a Fine steel nib, and the winner is:
Congrats Jim! I’ve sent you an email to collect your shipping address.
(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!.)
Some of you may know that my FP journey started with the Pilot Metropolitan, Platinum Preppies (yes, all 7 of them cuz I couldn’t pick a color) and Lamy Safari – all arriving on May 31, 2017. But did you know I’ve been a pen fan long before that? Yup, it’s true! Ever since I was a kid, I loved the Sanrio store (I was a My Melody and Little Twin Stars girl), as well as any office supply store, or heck, even the stationery aisle at the grocery or local drug store! In fact, I once got in deep trouble for stealing coins out of my older brother’s piggy bank just so I could buy pens and pretty paper at the Sanrio store - I didn’t do that again!
At some point in middle school, I got a Sheaffer calligraphy kit, which I used until it eventually ran out of ink (so you just popped in a different color cartridge) or until it just stopped writing altogether. They weren’t nearly as exciting as the cute Sanrio pens that I used to get, and they didn’t write as well either! So that was the end of fountain pens for me (or so I thought, ha!), but not the end of my love for pens and paper!
All throughout college, I loved buying notebooks that had my school logo and in lots of different colors. And at my various jobs, I would always raid the supply closet looking for the best pens and the sticky notes in all the different sizes. At some point after college, I stumbled across a Levenger catalog. Oh my gosh! A catalog of pens and papers and binders and desk accessories!! I was in heaven! Of course I was shocked at how much pens cost, but this was like discovering a Victoria’s Secret catalog but for pen and stationery geeks like me! I don’t remember any of the other pens in the catalog because I was only fixated on one pen.
It was a ballpoint.
Gasp!!! Yeah, that’s right. Not a fountain pen, not even a gel pen or rollerball. And no, it wasn’t a Bic Cristal! I fell in love with the Rotring Newton! Something about the faceted metal barrel and the little red ring (did you know that “Rot ring” means “red ring” in German?) just hit all the buttons! And I remember that it took me months to be comfortable spending $30 on a pen. Shocking, I know! I loved the pen once I got it but I was afraid to use it at work because it was so expensive so it stayed at home where I would only use it occasionally. I’ve lost and found it many times over the course of several moves and was so relieved to have found it again while cleaning the garage recently.
Rotring Newton with Private Reserve Parker-style refill in Purple on Hobonichi Weeks, 52 gsm Tomoe River paper.
I have long since replaced the original refill but now that I’ve found it again, I keep it within arm’s reach at my desk. It makes me happy knowing that this has survived so many moves and drops on the floor, and I can still click this pen to my heart’s content. This pen will always have a special place in my heart as being the pen that started it all.
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(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)
Pierre Miller says, “I wanted to make things I couldn’t buy.” The word Desiderata means “desired things,” and in this case the first desired thing was: a writing instrument that used a commonly available dip nib, had an ink reservoir, and offered a pleasant purchase experience.
“I bought lots of flex pens that didn’t work the way I really wanted. The vintage ones that did, were not replaceable in case of any damage or failure. Dip nib holders with reservoirs didn’t quite give me what I was looking for.” What’s a writer to do?
“I started thinking, if I could solve this problem to my satisfaction, others might like the result too.”
Miller was working as a chemist at the time and teaching piano, and one of his students was a tool and die maker who taught him how to use lathes and other machine tools. He began with a pen turned from wood, with a feed he machined from ebonite, and then began to iterate to improve the design. The iterating began in late 2012, and it was 2014 before he had a product he felt he could sell to another person.
A few years into his penmaking career, a friend suggested adapting the nib housings he makes to be compatible with other industry standard nib housings. So in addition to accepting a collar for a Zebra-G flex nib, his pens also are set up for screw-in Jowo nib housings. Study with Richard Binder trained him to properly tune those nibs.
Miller wanted an ink reservoir larger than a cartridge or converter to cope with the amount of ink that flex writing lays down. Therefore, he tried designing lots of filling systems that didn’t entirely pan out in practice, on the way to the pump and screw piston fillers he uses now. Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of his past hobbies was building scale models of spacecraft. Nowadays, “the workshop of my childhood dreams” and his young family take up all his time.
In addition to wood, he also uses ebonite, acrylic, cellulose acetate, galalith, and titanium in his shop. Despite making every part of his pens himself, making the materials themselves is not a step Miller plans to take. “There are so many other people who have a better eye for color, there’s no need for me to do that.”
His most complex pen is his Chiaroscuro model, a small diameter fountain pen with twelve curved, contoured facets. “I chose this model to solve a problem that often happens with dark, patterned ebonite: you can’t see the pattern. I went with the facets to bring out the pattern. They were contoured because I like a challenge: the hand finishing process is laborious, but there’s nothing like it.” The first run of the Chiaroscuro included a 0.4mm italic nib ground in-house.
People who make things cite all kinds of inspiration when asked about what they do. For Miller, even beyond his problem-solving approach to his craft, inspiration is everywhere. “I’m so impressed by the world around me I don’t need to go looking farther for inspiration.” At the same time, the search for something he couldn’t find was the spur to his creativity. “The reason my pens exist is that I was after a very specific sort of writing instrument. I wanted to make pens that no market force has driven into existence.” The rewards of the work come directly from those who use the pens. “What I like best about making pens is when people tell me they appreciate the work I do.”
What’s a favorite pen you didn’t make yourself? “The Parker 51.” Why? “That’s the best fountain pen ever made, and I’m a perfectionist!” To him, the Parker 51 offered a host of design choices focused on achieving a good user experience, along with a bauhaus design and a hooded nib that was unique at the time it was made. “It is affordable, durable, reliable, and doesn’t call attention to itself.”
That could almost be an advertising slogan for Desiderata Pens.
When looking to the future, Miller sees himself “alternating between perfecting what I already do, and going to new places.” He is particularly drawn to working with interesting mechanisms that are no longer in production in pens today, and continuing to pursue excellence in his shop. “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Pierre Miller’s work can be seen on Instagram, on his website, and at pen shows in St Louis, Washington DC, San Francisco, Ohio, and Chicago (his home show), and sometimes Baltimore, Boston, and Los Angeles.
An in-depth profile of Miller from a slightly different angle appears on the website Third Factor.
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!
