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Hi all, Taylor here. I am a 29-year-old fountain pen newbie, stationery junkie, 3D modeler/VR engineer and artist. I have always loved pens, hand-writing, paper planning, journaling, and so on, but for some reason never had a fountain pen until very recently. Didn't have one at all until my birthday in June, when I was gifted a blue LAMY Al-Star. I used it for about 4 months, LOVED it, and then it got destroyed due to my cluelessness...Now I've ordered a new Al-Star (in Graphite) and have my eye on a TWSBI 580ALR as my next one. I'm a newbie but I really enjoy the whole fountain pen experience. I think it actually benefits the battle to keep hand-writing (and handwriting/cursive) alive, because it allows the nerdier among us to really get technical and tinker and customize our writing experience. I'm a 3D modeler/VR engineer in my day job, so go figure, of course I love the technical side of it. I'm hoping to just learn and nerd out here. -Taylor

Hello, everyone! My name is Keith and, while I have been writing for many years, I have never given much thought to the quality of the pen, pencil, or paper that I've used. This has recently changed since I am preparing to begin working on copywork that I intend to pass down to my children as an heirloom; the Bible, both old and new testament, written in my hand (ESV translation). I just bought a ream of Crane's Crest 20lb. 100% cotton paper, but I am still trying figure out what pen to use. I have used (and am quite comfortable with) my Sakura Pigma Micron (005) pens for writing in my study Bible's. Unless I find something of better quality that does not have a tendency to bleed through the page, I plan on using these for my copy work. That being said, I have always been interested in fountain pens, but my experience with them has not been very good. Every one I have ever used has had a tendency to stop writing at the most inopportune times. I am also planning on either binding the finished product myself or having it professionally done, so I welcome advice in that area as well. Thank you all in advance for your time and thoughts!

For anyone interested in coming to the next meeting of the Roanoke Pen Club, we are holding our next meeting on Saturday, April 8 at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke, VA. on the second floor of the mall at noon. There are chairs and tables on the second floor if you want to bring your lunch to the meeting. That is where we'll spread out our pens and inks and hold our meeting. For your GPS: 4420-A Electric Rd Roanoke, VA 24018 Hope we will have a good turnout, we usually have a lot of vintage and modern fountain pens, discussions of pens and pen repair, and a lot of pens inked up to try out. Needless to say, the inked pens will have many different inks for you to try out. These meetings are very informal, just for pen lovers to interface and share information. Here is a web site for the club: http://cosmoglasswor...anoke-pen-club/ You can sign up for club emails and can contact Chad Trent from that site for further information. The Roanoke Pen Club has a Google Group which you can join: https://groups.googl...oanoke-pen-club Or, you can PM me and I'll get back to you quickly. Hope to see you on Saturday, April 8, 2017. Tom Johnson PS There are many places to eat around Tanglewood Mall, including an Applebee's at the mall entrance as well as a number of restaurants up and down Electric Road; Rancho Viejo, a nice Mexican restaurant. A great upscale international restaurant is Montano's, very close to the mall. They open at 10:00 AM, I'll be at Montano's about 10:30 for lunch. http://www.montanos.net/

Hello! I'm a novice calligrapher from Norfolk, Virginia. I used to practice calligraphy as a kid (from age 12-14), and recently decided to get back into it. I'm now 32 years old. I've been practicing on and off for about a month, using Pilot Parallels, standard Pilot Parallel ink cartridges, and working with just the basic Gothic exemplar from the Parallel Pen packaging, though I also have a variety of calligraphy textbooks I'm working through. Here is a sample of my work: http://puu.sh/fdCip/6c1a732b8c.png At the same time, I've become interested in fountain pens. Learning to use them was dead easy after getting used to writing with calligraphy pens. You can see my standard LAMY Safari there in the picture, and I very recently acquired a Pilot Vanishing Point Fermo as well. I have a bottle of Iroshizuku Shin-Kai and Iroshizuku Ina-Ho so far, lots of Doane, Leuchtturm, and Rhodia paper and journals, cleaning supplies... I'm going nuts over here. I look forward to reading about people's work and experiences in the world of lettering, fine pens, fine inks, and fine papers, and sharing my own as I continue to improve over the next months and years.

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knew of any pen shops in Virginia? Preferably around the Christiansburg/Blacksburg area. I enjoy shopping online, but I think it would be really great to actually be able to see some pens and maybe sample them prior to purchasing them. Thanks, youNibs