(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.)
This is the thirty-sixth Meet Your Maker article. Your correspondent is always keeping eyes open for interesting makers to meet, and it’s fitting to celebrate the completion of a third year with a story so unusual it caught me by surprise.
What if a pen maker wanted to assume a fictional identity to craft the story of their pens?? One day on Instagram, an image of a pen captured my attention.
And then there was this:
I had to know more, especially as the pens continued to appear, and the maker dubbed himself Apprentice, puzzling out clues left behind in the Maker’s abandoned workshop. Magic bells. Spinning blue lights. Flowers in clear running streams. I reached across time and space (i.e. I sent an Instagram message) to find the answers.
Google Meet opened a portal, and the Apprentice, known to me as Jesse, spoke to me from a workshop in Colorado hung with handmade guitars.
He got hooked (sorry; I’ll see myself out) on making things as a fishing-obsessed child of ten, turning fishing lures on the lathe in his father’s workshop. “I get hyperfocused on hobbies, and go really deep.” Taking up music in high school led to building custom electric guitars. “It takes about eighty hours to make a guitar and uses lots of toxic chemicals, so I reluctantly gave that up.”
A busy career in health care and behavioral science didn’t put a damper on the creative drive. Jesse did portrait sculpture (“the MESSIEST form of art you can imagine”) and painting. He grew up with journaling, reading, and creative writing, so between that and the need to take notes at meetings, a pen was often in his hand. “I wanted to make writing more special. One day I thought, ‘Are there other ways I can write besides this Bic?’” The answer, of course, was YES.
The rabbit hole, as we know, is steep and deep. “I tried the big brands. Watching ink dry was therapeutic – to watch the line appear and dry. I tried a variety of nibs.”
This past spring, he made his first pen. “Whenever I get involved in something, I try to make it.” His lifelong love of fantasy literature merged with his love of pens to create a whole world.
“I was looking at a beautiful pen and imagining a story where the major characters used writing to overcome challenges in their lives. I was using pens to overcome some neurodivergences, and I had most of the equipment already, so I ordered some blanks and made a pen. It was ok! I decided to create the things that inspire me.”
Imagining pens with a role in a fantasy world led quickly to an entire little universe called Lyravelle in which he presented his pens to the world. “Lyra, in the Golden Compass books, was a character I admired for her spontaneity and courage, and standing up to authority.” His Alethia model, as well as the name of his alternate world, pay homage to Lyra and her Alethiometer. He and his partner both have background in graphic design, which shows in the visual maturity of his photographic theme. “I went out and bought materials to create a diorama for my photos.”
In the Lyravelle story, Jesse becomes the Apprentice, a cloaked figure seen only from the back as he walks toward a mysterious building where he finds the abandoned tools and materials of a vanished Maker of pens. The idea of being masked and playing a character came somewhat naturally. “I’ve had to mask who I am and play a part. There is a work character, a social character. I’m also fascinated with masked bands – each one plays a character and creates a sense of mystery. It doesn’t matter who they are, it matters who their characters are.”
Even in the short few months he has been making pens, Jesse has fielded requests for commissions, and working on them has clarified for him that he does not want to take commissions in the future. “When you’re putting together someone else’s vision, you are a Fabricator – enjoying working with the materials. For me the enjoyable part is working out my own vision - having the idea and then getting the result – being the Artist.” Being driven by his own vision helps drown out the inner voice that many of us have, the Perfectionist. “When I’m doing the making I’m constantly self critical.”
Making blanks is not a path Jesse sees himself following. “I don’t need another hobby – I love the hunt for a pen, and for the materials others are creating, not making it all on my own. It’s fun to buy all these blanks!”
Finding a welcoming community of pen makers has relaxed the boundaries of his anonymity a little. “I’m part of a maker chat where the conversation goes on all day long. The guitar building community was the opposite – very secretive about material sources and finishing techniques. Everyone saw each other as competitors. Pen people in general are some of the kindest people. I’ve had people send me tools – ‘You’re going to need this’ – and they say just pay it forward. It’s fun to have a community with that kind of camaraderie.”
Jesse’s inspirations come from ideas and subjects that interest him. His first model, Aestarion, evokes the bells of Sabriel in the Old Kingdom books, with a cap shaped a little bit like a bell. “I don’t sit down and design a pen. I draw all day when I should be taking notes in meetings. I’ll draw a pen ten or fifteen times before going to the lathe.” The Nautilune model, which he recently shared for the first time, and refined with input from other makers, was inspired by his fascination with the sea and with cephalopods. “They’re intelligent, and also alien – I’m obsessed by the idea of intelligence outside of the human. I wanted the pen to look like it was swimming in your hand.”
His design process means that he’s not going to be a high volume maker, which complicates the process of exhibiting at shows. “I plan to do a couple of shows someday, because I’d like to connect with the community in that way. I can see the setup I’d like to make on my table.”
Jesse wants to start collecting pens from other makers. “But when you’re a maker you don’t want anyone to think you’re buying their pens for R&D! Will they inspire me more than I want them to??” He worked at first with a few resins containing floral inclusions, but quickly decided “Luke PapaJ owns floral resins, and he should own that.” His current favorite pen that he didn’t make himself is an Aurora 88 Volterra, in an acrylic made to imitate alabaster. “It’s so elegant. Every line is almost perfect. It has unexpected green glowing fragments. I love soft nibs but this nib made me fall in love with harder nibs.” It seems somewhat appropriate that the pen is part of the “secret voyage in Italy” series.
He’s in the process of writing a group of novellas developing the world of Lyravelle. “Not to give too much away – a character who has some of the same flaws I do finds the gateway to a parallel world. Pens have power in that world. Each of us has a twin there, but the ability to speak has been taken away, so pens give them their voices and their power. I grew up reading fantasy – The Old Kingdom books, Wrinkle in Time, Earthsea – I can live a completely different life in a fantasy world. What would my story be? Can pens become items of power? I want to make the art I want to see in the world.”
The Apprentice’s work can be seen on Instagram @lyravelle_pens, on his just launched website, and maybe at the Colorado pen show soon.
