Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga
Blame it on impresario Joseph Uy who “pen-abled” me in March 2015 after the successful recital and masterclass of opera great Nelly Miricioiu. I started working with that beginner’s Sheaffer from Joseph and have since moved on to other brands and ink colors, my favorite being various shades of blue or purple. Yes, the fountain pen experience is like falling into the deepest rabbit hole and never wanting to come back or return to using disposable ballpoint pens.
Samples of the Kasama, touted as the first modern Filipino fountain pens
A newbie visitor at last weekend’s Manila Pen Show 2023, I moved from room to room of the Holiday Inn’s fifth floor in Makati, my appetite for fine writing instruments and accessories whetted to the max. I realized that I had changed my bags and left my ATM card at home, or was that my subconscious reining me in from committing expenditures in an extravagant way? Reliable Joseph handed me P2k to spend, an IOU I will be paying for with proceeds from my article writing.
I rationalized that I did need some ink cartridges, a notebook, a bottle of ink—that was it! By the time I left on the afternoon of the first Pen Show day, March 18, I was P3k-plus poorer and just had enough for the cab ride home.
That was peanuts compared to the conversations of money lending I overheard at the Nibmeisters’ work room. (A nibmeister is defined by Google as “someone who can improve or reform a nib. It is an honored tradition and the nibmeisters are like the alchemists of the pen world; they can take a nib that isn’t functioning properly, or isn’t to your liking and turn it into gold (not literally, unless it is gold, but you get the picture.) A young woman in a smart attire asked her companion, “Do you have 6,500 pesos in cash with you? I need the amount badly!”
In 2018, the Fountain Pen Network in the Philippines had only 720 people attending its show, but this year, 2,318 came
Yup, it’s like an addict’s fix once you are pen-abled. Joseph recalled how in 2018, the Fountain Pen Network in the Philippines had only 720 people attending its show, but this year, 2,318 came, bought most likely and went home happy. He said the demographics that he saw from the registration table where he was assigned showed that visitors and would-be buyers were a democratic range—old, young, professionals, bums, well-off and living on borderline poverty. As I said, it’s a fix, an addiction that one must constantly feed.
Pen guru and fictionist-essayist Jose “Butch” Dalisay eloquently wrote in his recent Facebook status: “Every collection begins as most love affairs do—with fleeting glimpses of the loved one, then seemingly chance encounters, then long chats over coffee before the steep and blissful freefall into a dizzying madness.”
He continued, “For a moment, happiness and contentment reign. And then sadly follow the inevitable regrets, the disaffections, the ‘It’s not you, it’s me’s,’ the parting with the old object of desire and its replacement by a new flame.”
A vintage pen is an old guy lucky enough to find a new home
He described himself “an old guy who likes old things, because they offer physical proof of life after death. We die, but our words—and the wording—go on. A vintage pen is an old guy lucky enough to find a new home. I’m happy to give him a shower and a warm bed, and all the ink he wants to drink.”
I couldn’t have said it better. That Saturday afternoon, which I could have spent in a more practical endeavor like packing my luggage for another return trip to Baguio, I went to Singapore meister Sunny Koh’s workshop on Nibs from a Nib Worker’s Perspective. Some terms were technical and above my comprehension like the springiness of certain types of pen.
But my most important takeaway was this: “What’s important is what you write on paper, not what is used to write it with. I say yes to writing something lasting on a page, not (focusing on) the pen.”
The animated Mad Scientist Workshop facilitator Leigh Reyes with various writing tools
I stayed for the Leigh (Reyes) and Dan (Hoizner) Mad Scientist show where the former, an advertising executive by day, said it was best to take the attitude of treating pens not as precious objects. “If you’re too careful, you end up being dishonest, pretending to be what you’re not, pretending to be an expert, but in reality you just wanna play.”
Shimmering green ink with the words superimposed: “ Pack some winter clothes.”
And play we workshoppers did, even with a bleaching agent like Zonrox with which we made our own marker pen. We mixed shimmering ink and wrote words to live by on top of the dried inky background. Leigh encouraged us, exclaiming, “We have to be messy to be creative!”
We experimented with various writing tools, from a lettering pen from the 1800s to syringes. By having fun with mixing materials, you can arrive at such splendid colors like teal or a light blush.
At the close of the workshop, we had released the child in us, our hands were inky and we took with us Leigh’s message: “You can change what you write with, what you write on, what you put in.”
The hour was not enough. I craved more playfulness not unlike what our golden retriever Satchi has done to some of my pens—bitten them with pronounced teeth marks and broken two or three, all in the spirit of fun. Of course, she had to be disciplined, but she seems to intuit that my pens are precious to me, which was why she targeted them to get my attention.
Lorraine Castaneda leading a calligraphy workshop
When I took down Leigh’s surname, she complimented my handwriting, saying, “You have a lovely, cursive ‘R’.” It was the appropriate cue to segue to the next workshop on Fountain Penmanship for Kids of All Ages under calligraphy enthusiast Lorraine Marie Castañeda.
Genuine leather pen cases
What was nice about these pen events was how generous the facilitators were, giving away ink samples, sheets of paper or, even in Lorraine’s case, a fountain pen and a gold chocolate coin to each participant.
In her lecture, she gave the steps to beautiful writing:
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Fall in love with your tools. Get to know every pen, every nib you encounter. Learn how far you can push them, what their “sweet spots” are and how they work with different inks and paper.
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Write with awareness. Know why you’re writing every time you pick up a pen. Make every stroke with intention deliberately.
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Master the basics and develop consistency. Keep angles and spacing consistent.
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Be confident and believe in yourself. Control your hand, and you can control any tool you have at hand.
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Write what matters. When you write things that matter to you, things you believe in, things you love, it comes forth in every stroke.
And that’s where the real writing, not the purchase and possession of a pen alone, begins.
Young collector Ralph shows off set of pens he is letting go for Php42k. “I need the money,” he simply says.
