(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
My love for Gelly Roll gel pens is well documented. One of my only downsides to these, the millennial gateway drug to Pen Addict bliss, is that they are not at all fidgety. The result being that I used to fidget with the cap-clips, bending, twisting, breaking them off. My high school pen case was full of busted-clip Gellies.
But these ones? THEY CLICK. Clicky gel pens! All the fun of the smooth Gelly Roll writing experience, plus the fun of a fidgety click mechanism.
The Sakura Metal Effects pens have the classic Gelly Roll plastic body, with the classic silver branding written on the side. It's a cloudy, see-though plastic that allows you to see the level of ink inside the pen, so you know when you're running low. The caps are rounded plastic domes in the color of the ink inside, so you can always easily tell what color you're reaching for. The clips are made of the same plastic as the cap and also have a rounded oval shape. The clips are quite shallow. They aren't separated from the cap at all, so they don't really work. Which is why I never felt too guilty about snapping them off.
The whole cap is the click mechanism, so when you press down on the cap, the spring-loaded tip deploys at the bottom end. It's a smooth click--satisfying, but not too clunky.
These pens were built for a good time, not a long time. They aren't particularly durable, the ink runs out very quickly, and while there are refills that technically fit the pen's body, they aren't the Gelly Roll refills, so why on earth would you do that.
Because it's the ink that makes these fun, when it comes down to it.
Sakura Gelly Roll gel ink is known for its smooth, saturated quality. They aren't great for fine line writing. They have a standard .8mm tip, and the gel ink flows like a firehose. Which makes it perfect for showing off wild ink qualities--the other thing they're known for. This particular set is metallic, but you can also get glitter and other effects. The metallics work on black paper as well, though they're delightfully shiny on white paper. Photographing the metallic effect is tricky, so you'll have to take my word for it that the shine is pronounced and super fun. The ink is also archival quality, fade-proof, and acid-free, so these are perfect for scrapbooking or artwork.
This six-color set costs $14.50 at JetPens, and you can also get them in 3-color or 10-color sets, or as individual pens. Individual pens run at about $2.92. I would probably say that's a little on the pricey side, if I wasn't blinded by nostalgia and glitter.
As it is, I'm taking meeting notes like it's 1999.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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