The Work/Play Limited Edition is the latest release from notebook maker Baron Fig. Featuring a dot grid page on the left side and blank page on the right, this black hardcover notebook is made to capture every bit of your daily life. This edition won't be around for long so head over now and check it out.
My thanks to Baron Fig for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.
(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
The Bexley Phoenix collection includes four colors: black with a clear barrel, red with a clear barrel, blue velvet with a blue translucent barrel, and cappuccino with a bronze translucent barrel. The caps on these pens are marbled acrylic, and the piston knobs are black, except for the cappuccino's which is caramel.
Goldspot Pens kindly loaned the Bexley Phoenix in Velvet Blue for review. The retail price for this pen is $219.00, but it is currently on sale at Goldspot for $164.95. The pen is 5.3 inches capped, 5.125 inches uncapped, and 6.45 inches posted.
The nib is a two-tone, custom-engraved, stainless steel nib that comes in fine, medium or broad. The nib on the loaner pen from Goldspot is a fine.
And the nib is the best part of this pen. It is large and writes smoothly. It's a very firm nib (no flex or bounce). But it isn't scratchy nor does it exhibit hard starts.
The marbled blue cap with a black top section is elegant, and the steel accents complement the silver swirls in the marbled acrylic.
The clip is unadorned except for a small "B" stamped at the top and the ring is plain. The clip is flexible enough to attach to a pad of paper or a shirt pocket.
Unfortunately, the pen's design begins to fall apart once you remove the cap. The grip portion of the barrel and the piston are black. The mid-section of the barrel is translucent blue, allowing you to keep track of your ink level. This unusual combination of a marbled acrylic cap with a demonstrator barrel doesn't work well. When I look at the pen, I think "someone put the wrong cap on this pen."
Then there's a section I can't quite describe. It's opaque, and it looks like a wad of wet Kleenex was stuffed into the barrel.
I have no idea why the pen was designed with this element which, frankly, I think is ugly. Had the designers simply used the marbled acrylic or translucent blue, the pen would be more attractive. Maybe they were trying to hide the piston mechanism. But this strange opaque white section ruins the appearance of the pen, especially since it isn't uniform but mottled.
In the photographs, it looks like this section is textured on the inside, but you can't see that with the naked eye. It may be a trick of the light or an aberration the camera picked up.
In addition, two holes, which I assume are necessary, mar the appearance of the barrel.
Appearance isn't the only problem with this pen. The piston does not turn smoothly at all. You can feel the piston bump along as you turn it–gallumpf, gallumpf. It's quite disconcerting. I don't know if the barrel is misshaped or if the piston is not perfectly round. I've owned Pelikans with hard-turning pistons (something easily fixed with a little silicone grease), but I've never felt a piston "gallumpf." Maybe this is simply how Bexley pistons turn. If so, I don't like their pistons.
Whatever causes the Bexley piston to stutter doesn't seem to affect the seal. However, I discovered that the pen won't fill unless you have the entire nib submerged plus a little of the grip. Since the nib is so large, you'll need to have deep, full ink bottles or figure out a way to angle bottle so the nib is completely submerged. That's what I did to fill the Bexley with Diamine Denim.
My son demonstrates the tip fill
I am not impressed with the Bexley Phoenix fountain pen. Although it is a smooth writer, the design of the pen is disappointing, and the piston mechanism, at least on the loaner pen, is bumpy. I've not tried other Bexley models, but I would not recommend this one.
Pros
Cons
(This is a guest post by Nick Folz. You can find more of Nick and his work on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.)
Okay listen, I'm a black and white sort of fella. No no no, I like grey as much as the next person and life is so rarely as simple as the bright clear white and the rich dark black, but when I'm doodling I prefer the starkest of contrasts. Good ol' B & W.
That said, comfort zones are made to be stepped away from. Markers are decidedly outside of mine. Sure, as an awkward youth I burnt through many a flimsy yellow cardboard box of brightly toned cylinders, and had fun while doing so, transforming white sheets into worlds where the grass really was green and the sky always a brilliant blue. I think I was probably in high school when I abandoned colors in general in my drawings. Too much work! The thing was done and now I have to risk ruining it by coloring? No thanks. I have talked to many people who feel the same way about inking, which I have always found relaxing and a general refinement of the previous version, but I digress. Let’s get down to the business at hand - Copic Markers Doodle Pack in Brown. A fine way to test the swirling waters of color.
Here is the (my) thing about colors: when given all of the choices in the world, it is crippling. It can be overwhelming trying to choose the right color when there are limitless options. It is much easier and even more effective to limit a pallet and work within constraints. That is what piqued my interest in these packs. You are giving various tones of a single color group and a variety of tools as well. Let’s do a quick breakdown of the four items:
• Copic Ciao Marker - E31 Brick Beige: dual edge (one chisel, one brush) perfect for large area toning. A light (but not too light) brown.
• Copic Ciao Marker - E35 Chamois: dual edge (one chisel, one brush) perfect for large area toning. A dark (but not too dark) brown
• Copic atyou Spica Glitter Pen - Chocolate: Lays down a decent sized deep dark brown.
• Copic Multiliner Pen - 0.3 mm Brown: Lays down a super fine deep dark brown.
For an analogy, let’s say you are painting a room: Your Ciao Markers are your rollers, Spica is your edge brush and the Multiliner is your tiny-detail-single-hair brush. They work wonderfully in concert with one another, each doing a job the other couldn't do and making the whole better.
To be honest I totally forgot how to use markers and started to do line work with one of the Ciao markers. Rookie move. Markers bleed like my nose in allergy season, what was meant to be a fine line wound up a broad stroke and I sat agape watching the pigment do it slow march outward. Oops. I shrugged it off, finished lining it with the marker and relined it with the Spica. Went back with the Ciaos to fill and then finished it up the details with the Multiliner. Suffice to say it was like riding a bike and before long I was grinning like that awkward child I once was (I am now an awkward adult, thank you very much).
One of my favorite aspects is the layering effect of the Ciaos. You might have only two colors but you can overlap the color for slightly darker shades of each, adding nuance to the shading. The Spica was my main outliner, the flow was solid and clean. Yes, it is a glitter ink pen but I hadn't noticed HOW glittery till the next day in better light. Glitter ink is, admittedly, not my bag, but it has a very nice look to it! The Multiliner worked well, but I am not wild about the tips on these types of pens. The super fine point is made of what feels like felt and they crush too easy for me, but tip works perfect for details and the shade is close to the Spica, so they work well together.
All in all I would highly recommend the Doodle packs to anyone interested in trying either expanding their marker knowledge or color palette. They are extraordinarily fun to use and will add some variety to an otherwise drab sketchbook. They can be purchased at JetPens and are available in a variety of color spectrums (I have my eye on the turquoise next). Cheers.
(Disclaimer: This product was provided for me free of cost but I am not otherwise being compensated for this review. The opinions contained are my own.)
