seranna-ma

[seranna-ma]

are you or a loved one expecting to use a fountain pen for the first time this holiday season? you need this information.

fountain pens are making a comeback, with good reason. fountain pens require virtually no pressure to write, and many people used to ballpoint, gel, or rollerball pens will actually damage a fountain pen on their first use because of how much pressure they are accustomed to using. on the flip side, many people with joint pain will find that they can only write without pain when using a fountain pen.

fountain pens are customizable, reusable, ergonomic, comfortable, and utilize fantastical fountain pen inks containing shading, sheening, and shimmer.

using a fountain pen correctly for the first time just elicits that ever elusive and emphatic "oh." you will, with likelihood, understand why people use fountain pens just by using one yourself. it cannot be put into words.

but before you learn how to use a fountain pen, you need to learn how NOT to use a fountain pen.

here are my top 3 tips for how not to use a fountain pen.

first, what makes a fountain pen. a fountain pen is defined as a pen with an internal resivoir that feeds ink through a feed and to a nib. they do not require dipping.

the internals of the end of a fountain pen look like this. fountain pens are a lot of different parts. although this diagram shows a pen using a converter, most first time fountain pen users will use a cartridge, which is a pressurized pouch of ink.

the slit in the metal nib forms two tines, and the end of which is tipping. ink flows from the converter (or cartridge or other filling system) down the feed and through the slit in the nib, down to the tip.

since fountain pens are a bunch of very closely fitted different parts, they take specialized, thin, water-based ink.

which leads me to the first major thing to not do with a fountain pen.

#1: do not use anything other than 'fountain pen ink' in a fountain pen

so let me tell you a little story here. I got into dip pens before I got into fountain pens. years and years ago. I found out that a converter allows you to use bottled ink with a fountain pen, and I already had some decent ink I was using with my dip nibs. I bought a converter, a fountain pen, and then did one of the worst possible things you can do to a fountain pen: I loaded it with dip ink. if I remember right, it was some kind of india or sumi ink.

the pen no longer wrote, and I could not even replace the alleged easily replaceable parts. what happened?

ink is more than just liquid and color, it involves complicated chemical formulas. dip pens can be dipped in just about anything and then write to some degree, but fountain pens can only safely be used with ink designed specifically for fountain pens. dip ink is usually thicker and can clog the slits in the fountain pen's feed, preventing the ink from reaching the tip of the nib. but diluting dip ink is not good enough. the chemicals in dip inks can melt or rust the internals of a fountain pen. this damage is often irreparable without paying a specialist a lot of money to restore the pen, which can cost more than just buying a new fountain pen. in my case, the internals of my fountain pen melted slightly and got glued together.

unfortunately, many sellers on websites like amazon, etsy, ebay, aliexpress, and more will claim that their ink is fountain pen ink, when in reality it will destroy your fountain pen.

until you are used to which types of inks are safe for fountain pens, use a dedicated and reliable stationery website like jetpens, gouletpens, or cultpens to tell you which inks are designed for fountain pens. jetpens in particular will also tell you which cartridges and converters are compatible with the fountain pens they sell, which is essential, because many fountain pen cartridges and converters are proprietary and only fit certain pens.

when in doubt, just buy compatible cartridges.

#2 do not expect the fountain pen to flex

calligraphy videos are really popular right now. many of them involve fountain pens and dip pens using flexible lines to create gorgeous cursive. in reality, most modern fountain pens do not flex, and trying to make them flex can break them.

this is a dip nib. if you try to do this to a fountain pen nib, you will damage it. this is what NOT to do to a fountain pen nib.

there are two main materials used for making fountain pen nibs: steel and gold. steel is harder and stiffer, gold is softer and generally more bouncy or flexible. vintage gold fountain pens gained a reputation for writing like "wet noodles" and creating fantastic line variations. they are very desired for calligraphy. but vintage flex fountain pens start at hundreds of dollars each. and virtually no modern fountain pen with any degree of flex will skip on the chance to advertise themselves as flex pens. anything not blatantly advertised as a flex pen should never be flexed.

and honestly? your first fountain pen should not be a flex pen.

fountain pen nibs, as mentioned above, are metal pieces with a slit to form two tines. where the tines meet together is where the ink is dispensed. since most modern fountain pen nibs are NOT designed to flex, trying to use them like flexible dip nibs or even just using the fountain pen at the wrong angle can cause the nibs to splay and not be able to go back together without some skilled repair. there are fountain pens worth thousands of dollars with shining gold nibs that will promptly get fucked up if you try to flex them.

in my opinion, your first fountain pen nib should be steel. gold nibs are softer and way more easily damaged, while steel nibs are firmer, can be just as smooth in writing, and are a lot friendlier to beginners. not to mention, a lot more difficult to damage. the smoothness on paper is mostly determined by the grinding of the tip of the nib, not by the material the nib is made out of. there are plenty of steel nibs that write smoother than gold nibs, and they are a hell of a lot cheaper, too. a slight impact to a gold nib can cause them to bend to the point they cannot write, but a steel nib has a greater chance of surviving a drop.

fountain pens require very little pressure to write. you want to write with as little pressure as possible, without separating the tines (for the majority of pens).

flex pens are also not the only way to do calligraphy with a fountain pen. since flex pens required varied pressure, flex calligraphy is way more likely to cause joint pain and hand strain than doing italic calligraphy, which uses angle-based line variation at a steady pressure. there are a ton of fountain pens out there that come in italic nibs that are great for this type of calligraphy. a cheap way to try out italic fountain pen calligraphy is by grabbing some pilot parallel pens, which come in up to 6mm nibs, and are sold in many retail stores.

for a more practical daily use fountain pen that comes in both rounded and italic, grab a pilot metropolitan in medium (rounded) or cursive medium (italic).

and if you do still want to try out flex nibs, fountain pen revolution makes affordable steel ultra flex nibs that work better than most modern gold nibs.

#3: do not expect any paper to work / DO NOT USE MOLESKINE

with this post now apparently at over 75,000 notes, I am one of the most prolific moleskine haters in the world. and with good reason, I know a thing or two about fountain pen paper. moleskine is garbage. there is nothing it does that other paper companies do not do better and/or cheaper, aside from maybe the brands that agree to collaborate with them. they have some notebooks with hello kitty, pokemon, james bond stuff on the cover among other things.

if you roll into any fountain pen community and say you are trying to use moleskine with a fountain pen, you will get laughed at and/or pitied. yes, even though moleskine literally sells kaweco fountain pens on its website. kaweco is not exactly known for being ethical.

as I mentioned before, fountain pen ink is thin and water-based. most ball-tipped pens have thicker ink made up of completely different chemicals. ballpoint ink is made of oil and alcohol, gel ink is made of a thick water-based ink, rollerballs often use ink that is almost as thin as fountain pen ink. basically, most writing utensils use thicker ink than fountain pens. which means, paper that works well with any other writing utensil might still work very badly with fountain pen ink. most paper sold in united states stores, as an example, will probably not work well with fountain pen ink. even if it is an expensive notebook. trust me on this.

there is no way to tell whether or not a paper will work with fountain pen ink without trying it first. do not rub paper to try and guess if it will work well with your desired ink, rubbing paper just damages the paper. there are tissue thin papers that work better with fountain pen ink than heavy art papers, there are rough papers that work better than smooth papers, there are ugly papers that work better than pretty papers, there are cheap papers that work better with fountain pen ink than expensive paper.

fountain pen ink looks best when it dries slowly rather than absorbing into the fibers of the paper. and since fountain pen ink is so thin, it can often cause feathering (fuzzy spreading of lines) and bleeding (going through the page). if your lines look fuzzy or if they go through the page, it is almost definitely a problem of the paper you are using, and not the problem of the pen or the ink.

some examples of showthrough, bleedthrough, and feathering from a jetpens article on fountain pen paper. while showthrough is not necessarily a problem depending on how you want to use the paper, if you have high bleedthrough or high feathering, you are definitely going to want different paper.

fountain pen lines should look crisp. paper that can handle most fountain pen inks is considered "fountain pen friendly paper". the best way to find fountain pen friendly paper is to look up reviews of paper online. there are a lot of fountain pen enthusiasts who test out fountain pen inks on different types of paper.

one of the reasons I really like jetpens is they test fountain pen ink on all their paper, and show the results. as far as stationery stores go, jetpens has the most testing of their products that I have ever seen. the information and testing from jetpens can be used no matter where you wind up buying stationery supplies.

if you are getting a fountain pen, or if you are gifting a fountain pen, expect to need fountain pen friendly paper to go with it. ink problems are usually actually paper problems.

I recommend products like midori md, maruman mnemosyne, rhodia, clairfontaine. if you want the best possible color for fountain pen inks, check out tomoe river paper and cosmo air light/snow, but they feel very different from typical types of paper.

do not ever get moleskine.

with these 3 tips, you are way less likely to flub your fountain pen. happy inking!

ko-fi

[seranna-ma]

I thought this was less common that I believed, but it's apparently a thing so: If you have been raised or chosen to consume media only in English, and think your native language(s) aren't as good, it's never too late to change that attitude. Listen and sing to music in your language, do it proudly, from the heart. Read books from your country. Watch movies and series from where you are from. Write posts in your language, don't be afraid of showing off your dialect. And try to learn about media from other countries that aren't the US. You will find something enjoyable, promise.

English has many great things about it, and like it or not, it has taken the place of a global lingua franca -indeed I'm writing this post in English so I can reach a larger audience, in a way- but we should not let it replace global culture. So many languages are endangered, and so are their cultures. Don't lose a part of yourself just because English is "cooler". Don't subscribe to a monodiet of English-speaking media, don't let the world be a monoculture. Don't let artists from your place in life, who don't have the global reach of Hollywood or Silicon Valley, be unheard. Speak your language. Con orgullo, chamigo, con acento y todo.

[seranna-ma]

Ok this is too cute he’s so fucking small

[seranna-ma]

[seranna-ma]

“I want to give people social and financial empowerment, so eventually people who want to come out won’t be affected. They will have their own social security system. It won’t make a difference if they are disinherited.” His name is Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.

[seranna-ma]

I’ve never done a blackout day before, but since I heard this blackout is focusing a bit more on business I got a little motivated. I don’t know of any other black people who do what I do, armour making is a pretty white field. But I’ve loved medieval history and fantasy since I was a kid, so why not do what I want right?

I never intended to start Warclad as a business, it was supposed to be a self financing hobby, but it was there when I needed work and put food on my table when I was hungry. I started it from nothing and I want to see it grow. If you love Knights and warriors and romping around in hand crafted leather (and soon to be metal) gear, please give my shop a look at Warclad or on Etsy. And please consider following my business Tumblr.

[seranna-ma]

ok legend….

[seranna-ma]

Why does criticizing shitty opinions somehow mean that you “can’t handle different opinions than your own” and you’re “attacking free speech”? like criticism /is/ free speech, it’s the exercise of it what the fuck is the deal with that?

[seranna-ma]

ASIAN AMERICAN LGBTQ VISIBILITY

“In August 2015, a homophobic San Gabriel Valley Chinese church announced a march to protest marriage equality. This was met by a huge counter protest led by API Equality-LA, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA, and other LGBT rights affirming groups. While the counterprotest was successful, one realizes the disconnect between queer APIs from the SGV and a community that may not completely understand who we are. This documentary and project seeks to share the unique stories of LGBTQIA+ Asian Pacific Islanders from the San Gabriel Valley and greater 626 area code.”

WATCH THE INTERVIEWS HERE: https://vimeo.com/album/3789841/video/154809108

[seranna-ma]

Six of Swords

Upright: Regretful but necessary transition, rite of passage

Reversed: Cannot move on, carrying baggage

For Mani and Mara Cousland, the sisters who both have trouble with this sometimes. 

Mara, belonging to @gayspacefucker

#cousland #art tag #they break me heart

[seranna-ma]

pt 1. Okay, but your fishing apostate thing makes me so happy? Because my disaster mage child, Ashleigh Hawke, learned to fish with a spear, and now she only uses a staff that has a blade-point. So she can use that argument to carry said staff. When questioned, she will go on a long tirade ala this; “It’s an ancient Ferelden trick which you marchers can’t possibly understand! Why Queen Moira taught this technique to Maric, and our spearfishing has become a symbol of our independence!"

pt. 2 In the end, after demonstrating the way to fish with a spear, the Templars just give up. But in order to keep the story, now the Hawke family is doomed to eat fish every single day. And Templars will nod suspiciously, asking if she is going fishing. And she is. Always going fishing. But first she needs to buy things. Safety first, fish are tough fights. Gamlen grumbles about the diet, but it slashes the grocery budget in half or more, and it keeps everyone in the family healthy.

Amazing.I mean carrying it around wouldn’t be that surprising– even if she didn’t fish with it that day the point can be made the catching was just bad that day.

I love this though because I just have this mental image of Maric thigh deep in a cold ass river trying to spear a trout while Loghain is just “This doesn’t seem the best use of your time.”“I know what i’m doing.”“I really, really doubt that.”Then he just ends up taking up a bow, shooting a fish, and cleaning it for their dinner because Maric managed to get exactly 1 small trout and that would feed maybe a fox. 

Also I’m imagining Hawke taking a sharp left turn when seeing a Templar patrol on the Wounded Coast for some Maker unknown reason and the rest of the crew is like “what the literal void are you doing” and she’s just whispers really intensely: “I am fishing, if you would help lunch will happen faster” with a v ‘go along with this’ face.

Ok i just love this so much ok. 

[seranna-ma]

I find it almost funny that Alistair’s entire goal in Origins, aside from ending the Blight is killing his father’s best friend, to avenge the death of his mother’s best friend.

#who gave you the rIGHT

[seranna-ma]

Confession:  I know a lot of people say that humans aren’t inherently boring compared to fantasy races, and I agree - humans aren’t INHERENTLY boring, but the way dragon age does the human PCs is pretty boring to me. So far, every single human pc has been a noble, even the mages. Instead of playing as another noble, I want to play as a Chasind or Avarr, or even just a random commoner.

#tru!!!!

[seranna-ma]

dear sweet 17 yr old devon surana in the frostbite engine

i DO have an au where he becomes inquisitor, but obviously he would be a lot older than pictured here. with, like, stubble, and long hair, and a ridiculous feathery apostate outfit. in that au he hightailed it from kinloch hold during uldred’s rebellion, lived in the woods as one of those random wilderness blood mages for 10 years, then turned up to the conclave out of curiosity

he spent maybe a total of a few hours as an agent of the inquisition before stealing a bunch of confidential information, joining the mage rebellion at redcliffe, and just closing rifts in the name of the mage rebellion instead

#what a beautiful child

[seranna-ma]

“It is the innocent folk of fereldan who matter. I would lay down my life and the life of any mage to protect them”

no fuck yOU greagoir i see you leaving innocent mages out of the “innocent folk of fereldan” set

#danyriel blogging

[seranna-ma]

dany hearing, that greagoir has sent for th e right of annulment like 

#danyriel blogging

[seranna-ma]

greagoir is being so mean to dany, :’(

HE GOT HER HOPES UP BY SAYING THAT HE WAS GLAD SHE WASNT DEAD 

#danyriel blogging