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I debated myself if I should just post to some of the existing threads like "What's your most recent addition to the flock?" or "to maki-e or not to maki-e... that's the question" or to start a new thread. After some thoughts, I decided to start a new thread on this pen as I felt I should do justice to the pen by starting a new thread. I have seen more wonderful Pelikan maki-e pieces but they were out of my reach. The Pelikan Koi Maki-e, although not cheap, was a relatively more affordable buy. I must confess that I am a maki-e fan. The Pelikan Koi Maki-e piece was made with togidashi taka-maki-e techniques. There was no doubt significant level of complexity in the maki-e techniques employed for the piece. Two of the three koi easily stood out on the pen. They were graceful, well-drawn and featured raised surfaces with scale details. The 3rd koi plunged into the water with splashes of water droplets. Surrounding the three koi were lotus flowers, leaves and pond ripples. When scrutinised, you could see each of the subjects were well executed and nice to feel. The background got a bit busy with all the pond ripples and leaves. Maybe the artist was trying to fill up all the spaces. Value for money for pen buyer? I realised one minor disadvantage of using a Pelikan M1000 pen body for maki-e was that the two gold bands on the pen cap disrupted the overall art work. The pens from Namiki and Nakaya provided an uninterrupted canvas for the maki-e artists to create an uninterrupted art work. This was a really minor issue for Pelikan because the overall art work of the Pelikan Koi Maki-e was still a beauty to behold. Hope you enjoy the photos. #1: Overview of pen #2: Closer view of the two koi. Gold dust applied throughout the whole pen. #3: 3rd Koi diving into the water. The Koi does not have the raised finishing like the other two koi but there is drawing details of the fish scale. The splashes of water are raised surface. Nicely executed. #4: Red lotus with raised finishing and nice golden lotus leaf. #5: White lotus on pen barrel and pond ripple at the end of the barrel.