The last week I've used nearly a whole ink cartridge on invitations... and we're talking Parker here, not those poxy little ones.
Is it sad that I matched the fountain pen ink to the colour of the printed ink on the invitations? Luckily for me, I found the almost the exact shade *grin* and it even comes in ink cartridges. Just as well, because when I bought a bottle (how cool, a bottle of ink) for some reason I didn't buy a pump, which is like a normal ink cartridge except that you refill it from the bottle...
The pump neatly eliminates the dangers of dipping a pen's nib directly into ink, which are (1) blots when you write after each dip, and (2) the fading trail as your nib runs out of ink.
Neither of which look very attractive on posh wedding invitations.
(ok, we're not talking posh as in gilded, but between the texture of the paper, the colour of the ink, the style of the font and the layout of the text, they really do look nice!)
When I realised the extent of my pump-less stupidity, a mere hour before my first mammoth invitation-writing session with my mother-in-law-to-be, it was almost too late because my local stationery doesn't stock ink pumps and I didn't have time to head back to ABC in Valletta. But the local guys did manage, after some rummaging around, to locate a packet of the cartridges I asked for, so all's well.
I spent a happy, messy five minutes by the bathroom sink switching my fountain pen over from my customary black ink to this one, a procedure that was happily reminiscent of my childhood. Many times in secondary school, my long-suffering best friend would give me one of her ink cartridges when mine ran out, but she used Reynolds and I used Parker, so they weren't compatible with my pen. But I can say, with the wisdom that comes from experience, that an empty Strepsils capsule makes an excellent temporary inkwell.
Now I have another four cartridges of the new ink (plus a whole bottleful) with which to work on my new signature.
I'm working on variations of writing only the consonants, but it still looks rather fjakk...
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