Meet Your Maker: Jason Miller, Jason Neil Penworks

(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.)

Jason Miller made his first pen as a teenager with equipment set up on the tailgate of a truck. His grandfather, an industrial technology teacher, learned to make kit pens and decided to bring all his equipment at Christmas and teach his grandchildren. They loved it so much that he went out and bought them all the required stuff as Christmas presents, and they started making kit pens in the living room.

The brothers played around with pens off and on for years and then moved on. However, after graduating from architecture school and taking a high pressure job, Miller remembered the tools and retrieved them from his parents’ garage, looking for something therapeutic to relieve stress. When he started sharing pictures of his pens on Instagram, people wanted to buy them. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a thing??’” When he set up as a business in 2016, he honored his grandfather, Neil Tucker, in his company name as well as the name of his flagship model, the Tucker.

Fountain pens came into his repertoire after about a year, when he began seeking out better kits, and that was when his business really took off; his first customer was located in Hong Kong. He began to find kit pens limiting – “There is a framework you have to work within, in terms of shape and size, so mixing it up with the wood is all you can do.” To add variety to his kit pens he did some wood inlay and layering. Then he came across a set of YouTube videos by Bob Blandford, who had started dabbling in kitless pens and produced a video outlining all the tools they require. Already having the major equipment, adding the tools for kitless pens was not a crazy investment, although his wife was skeptical – “Why is he doing this??” But once he got started, “there was no going back. I gave all my kit pen tools to a friend.”

Miller first tried to diversify his pens by buying a wider selection of blanks at the wood store. He quickly found that he hated working with acrylic, which can be brittle. Then he spotted some square resin blanks at Exotic Blanks and that was more to his liking, so he began following the work of more makers and took note of where they got their materials.

Instagram also led to another of Miller’s endeavors, the As The Pen Turns podcast, when he hit it off with Brad Owens of Mythic Pens. After sharing their work and the work of other makers, they did a joint livestream giveaway, and due to Brad’s radio-friendly voice they received several comments that they ought to do a podcast. After thinking about it for awhile, they jumped in. “We figured we’d maybe have enough to talk about for like ten episodes, but we’re almost fifty episodes in, and by now everyone should know we have ZERO issues talking for extended periods!”

For a number of years, Miller swore he would never make his own blanks. “I hate picking colors at work for clients’ buildings, but it turns out I love doing it with materials.” When Jonathon Brooks joined the podcast as a cohost, he felt able to ask him lots of questions, and his interest grew until he took the plunge. His inspiration for his blanks comes from nature – one particularly striking recipe was based on a colorful photograph of a luna moth. “I don’t like to be arbitrary in my colors, but to be inspired by things in nature.”

Miller is continuing to seek new horizons in his work. “I’m confident with kitless pens, what’s next? When I get the bug to experiment, what can I create?” He considered metal work – clips, finials, bands – but the cost of entry to that craft was relatively high. So he decided to narrow his focus to the Tucker model (as well as the Tucker 48, an eyedroppered variation on the theme), letting his five or six other models go to work on making the Tucker the best crafted pen it can be. “Many people say they follow the lead of the material when they make pens, my focus is on the technical accuracy.” Visiting pen shows for the first time, he felt pressed to find ways to make his work unique. This pressure has led him in a couple of new directions.

“I picked out the pens I’ve made that I really liked, and noticed that many of them are using multiple segments of colors.” Having both his own blanks and a bin of blanks he’s gotten from other makers lets him mix and match and see what colors he has that go together well. He also has a new blank recipe, called Damascus, that simulates the color and texture of forged steel, and is using that as a background for pops and spots of solid color, as well as experimenting with subtle variations in the recipe to achieve different effects.

Miller enjoys being challenged by the work of other makers in the community who are pushing the limits of pens in one direction or another. “I want to keep it interesting for myself. I’m trying to get back to the origin of this – it’s a side business, but I want to get back to the creativity and the fun of doing it.”

Part of the fun is pushing his own skills. “I’m an architect – how complicated can I make it?? Making intricate things that meet my standards for aesthetic quality, following something like that to completion, inspires me.”

What’s a favorite pen that you didn’t make yourself? There are a few. “My favorite is a Pilot Custom 823 with a custom architect grind by John Mottishaw. I use it at work all the time. Also I have five Pilot Metropolitans inked with different colors that I take to work every day to color code my work notes.”

Like many other makers, Miller draws satisfaction from the place of what he does in a larger context. “You start with nothing, put ingredients into a pot, take them out, and from that inanimate object create art that someone else can use to create art. It contributes to the community that keeps handwriting alive. It has an infinite life.”

Jason Miller’s work can be seen on Instagram, his website Jason Neil Penworks, and maybe a pen show or two in the future.

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Meet Your Maker: Renée Meeks, Scriptorium Pens

(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.)

A thousand years ago, almost the only writing done in western Europe was done in the scriptoria housed at monasteries and religious communities. Nowadays, when we have access to more ways of recording words than ever before, it’s easy to forget that the ability to write was once not only rare, but in some places forbidden for some people.

When Renée Meeks needed a name for her pen making business, based in her home in Jackson, Mississippi, she drew upon things she was fascinated by – “literature, medieval calligraphy, forms of writing. The scriptorium was where the writing was done. They made their own pens and ink.”

When Meeks retired from teaching English in 2012, she received a retirement gift from her brother: a mini lathe. He knew she liked making things, and encouraged her to give it a try. Having always loved pens – “I always wanted to use my mother’s Lady Sheaffer and she wouldn’t let me … I have it now.” – making pens was the thing she instantly wanted to do. She watched Youtube videos and followed International Pen Maker’s Forum tutorials, and “I ordered too many materials!” Another retired English teacher helped her learn the craft, and she soon posted some pens on the makers’ forum on the Fountain Pen Network. They took off, and within a year she was receiving four or five orders a month, and added a metal lathe to her shop setup.

In 2013, Pendleton Brown, of Pendleton’s Pens in Georgia, asked her for some pens to sell in his shop on commission, and said she needed a website and a company name, and Scriptorium Pens was born. The names of her numerous models are almost all forms of writing and types of writers.

Having so many models necessitates keeping good records, and Meeks has a large looseleaf binder in her shop with the specifications and diagrams of all of them. About a third of them are based on specific designs customers requested, that she chose to continue making. She has both standard traditional shapes, and shapes that are subtly modified to make them original.

One striking and unique aspect of her work is the variety of clip and roll stop designs that are available, and she works with a metal artist who will cast whatever she asks for. “I like roll stops better than clips, they add a little flair without taking up the whole cap.” Constructing a pen order on her site is like choosing what to eat at a well-stocked buffet, and the fact that Mark Bacas tunes all Scriptorium nibs before they go out is the perfect dessert.

Meeks draws inspiration from the ever-growing range of available materials, and she herself contributes to that variety. If she sees colors on websites, in photographs, on the endpapers of old books, or around her in the world, she thinks, “That would make a nice pen,” and will often ask Bob Dupras or Jonathon Brooks to create a material based on the source of inspiration. With the ability to see her inspirations made into materials by premier artists, Meeks is not tempted to make her own. Beyond the simple issue of time, “I’d end up with alumilite in my hair!”

There have not been any pen shows on Meeks’ schedule, because it has been very difficult to build up a stash of stock pens. “I don’t work as fast as some, so I have to work every day.” However, after ten years of not attending shows, she plans to be at the Dallas pen show in September, and will spend the summer stocking up to fill her table.

Meeks’ favorite pen that she did not make is an Edison Huron from approximately 2010, which is a shape similar to the Glenmont and was her first custom maker pen. She also enjoys her celluloid Delta Dolce Vita with a big nib, but she has listed it for sale on her Instagram to raise some money to add some dogs to her life. She has two Australian shepherds who are fourteen and aging out of guard dog duty, so she would like to bring home a German shepherd or two. A committed pet lover, she bought a bigger desk a few years ago so that there would be room for her to work in addition to accommodating all three of her cats.

In her limited free time, Meeks loves to read. Work in the shop has pre-empted other activities like gardening, but while working she listens to podcasts about history or pens, as well as some ambient soundscape apps that promote focus.

The freedom of being a penmaker is her favorite aspect of her life, the independence of being able to plan her time to suit herself. “When you’re teaching, you get up before dawn and are going, going, going all day.” All the time in the shop presents no problem. “Penmaking is a delight. I never get bored, every pen is a little different.”

Renée Meeks’ work can be seen at @scriptoriumpens on Instagram, her website ScriptoriumPens.com, and at the Dallas Pen Show. A 2022 profile in Pen World magazine can be read here.

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Meet Your Maker – Brad Owens, Mythic Pens

(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.)

You don’t need to talk to Brad Owens for long to find out how seriously he takes the humble pen, and the idea of making one. “You can take something inanimate and, with some skill and attention to detail, turn it into something that created society as we know it.” Even as a teenager he liked having good pens and good paper, although he hadn’t heard of fountain pens.

A classically trained trumpeter who set out to be a music educator, Owens experienced burnout in that field and ended up with his current demanding day job as a teacher in the legal field. “I talk for a living.” Pen making serves as his stress relief. It began when he looked around for a side business and tried woodworking, and found he had a talent for it; but selling pieces was very difficult unless they were commissioned. At about the same time, he heard of fountain pens and found Brian Goulet’s videos on YouTube. His interest was piqued, and he bought a couple of inexpensive introductory pens from Goulet Pens.

Soon after that, Owens heard of pen shows, and found out there was one in Atlanta, not far from his home. He and his wife attended, and wandered into the room where the independent makers were concentrated, ending up at Jonathon Brooks’ Carolina Pen Company table. He bought a pen from Jonathon, the first time he’d seen kitless pens, and ultimately contacted him to ask for help getting started making them. Jonathon said, “Come on up to the house and I’ll show you.” After a day or two, Owens had made a usable pen, and was smitten. A Kickstarter helped him get over the cost of entry into the craft. He sold his first pen in December 2019 – “Not the best time to start a pen business! There were few shows in 2020, and pen makers weren’t getting to the customers. It was the customers who were the ones getting the word out.”

When it came time to have company and model names, Owens thought first of gods and goddesses because of his love of mythology. A number of other makers had already gone that route, so he chose to name his early models after ancient Greek writers. “Creativity in mythology is almost like pen making – there is a mysterious feel you have to get, and it can’t be taught, you have to learn it yourself.”

Owens has slowly been evolving the diversity of his models. The Prime was first, just a straight shape, and the natural progression was to start making some more tapered silhouettes. The vintage lizard-skin cellulose acetate inspired his recently premiered Vintage Series (VS) pens, paying homage to classic fountain pen styles. These models are likely to mix contemporary handmade resins with the hard-to-find lizard skin, and have traditional style clips. The cellulose acetate is not heat-tolerant, and will begin to smell like vinegar if it gets too hot, so extra care is needed in drilling and polishing to avoid wasting it. Even with his increased interest in mixing materials, there is no temptation to make his own – “if someone has already said it so well, why try to say it again?” – but his wife is beginning to express some interest in the art.

Inspiration for Owens is an internal feedback loop. “Inspiration leads to inspiration. I continue to try to get to a level of satisfaction with what I’m making –to finish a thing and feel like it is really good, and be satisfied with it.” Of course, “There’s only so much you can do with a piece of plastic,” so there need to be small ways your “signature” is on what you make. Personally, he doesn’t like square edges, so over time his pens have evolved to have more small bevels and rounded corners.

When asked about a favorite pen he didn’t make, Owens holds up a large tray of maker pens. “I have a lot of favorite pens I didn’t make.” Standouts in his mind, for craftsmanship and detail, are those made by Eric Sands and Ryan Krusac, as well as the urushi work of Jonathon Brooks. “When I see something better than what I did, it inspires me to do better. I like my maker pens better than my Montblanc 149 because I know what goes into them.”

Owens’ other pen endeavor, the penmaking podcast As The Pen Turns, has been going on since fall of 2020 and is up to forty episodes as of this writing. Through Instagram chats with Jason Miller (they still have not met in person), the idea evolved until they just decided to jump in. “It came out of a desire to inspire the community of pen makers. Information about making pens should be available to anyone who wants to try it out. We wanted an outlet to talk about our pen making.” The first few episodes talked through the pen maker’s toolkit, and they interview a maker (of pens, blanks, or related supplies) every other episode. After a year, they were joined as hosts by Jonathon Brooks. They are closing in on a thousand downloads per episode, and are clearly the world’s most popular (maybe only?) pen making podcast.

The podcast website boasts an extensive directory of links to pen makers, material makers, and nib grinders. A community has bloomed around the podcast, through the annual “Super Most Awesome Pen of the Year (SMAPOTY)” and “Blankety-Blank” awards, voted on by the makers themselves, as well as a secret-santa pen exchange. A number of makers have found inspiration and encouragement in the podcast and related activities. “If I help another pen maker out, it helps me out.”

Despite all the hours working alone in the shop, Owens doesn’t think small when talking about what he does. “I want to think I’m contributing to something bigger than me. Preserving the written word is very important. The next great writer could get one of our pens and write something amazing.”

Brad Owens’ work can be seen at the Atlanta Pen Show, as well as at MythicPens.com and @MythicPens on Instagram.