* The ugly

I did a presentation last week, some of you may have seen it. Some may not have. The ones which haven’t seen it I have added it to the post main title. I was so nervous about this, I am not a public speaker. I know there were quite a few people who attended the event and they were in the uk fountain pen facebook group. The discount mentioned in the video has now ended. I will let you view it at your leisure, it’s about an hour long and shows some of my methods. Let me know what you think.

* The bad

Rant alert.

Jowo nibs, I am done. I have had enough. I have only had 10 pass through my hands however out of those 10 I have only had 1 that didn’t have any problems with it. I have had snapped feeds, twisted nibs and cracked nib unit casings. It seems that I just look at them and they break. Today was the last straw, I had bought 3 nibs to have a go at seeing whether I could actually get them to work with me. I had had 2 nibs on the shelf still in the plastic tube they were delivered in. I got them down today because I wanted to see if I could make a pen or two that utilised jowo nibs, low and behold I found [this](https://i.imgur.com/pWH5zTk.jpg) and [this](https://i.imgur.com/2HBVNC1.jpg) . Two cracked casings, I had already snapped the other one while testing threads. I am so, so, fed up with them. I don’t know whether it’s me or whether it’s some sort of quality issue as they have come from different suppliers. As a comparison, I have had probably close if not more than 100 bock nibs pass through my hands. I have had 1 problem with a feed and 1 problem with a nib that I couldn’t fix. Anyway rant over.

* The Good

I have improved my ability on making metal and resin embellishments to my pens. I had a go a long time ago and [this](https://denspens643598967.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/brass-ring-minerva.jpg) was the result that first time. The most recent ones are much better. [This](https://i.imgur.com/hRWfcgL.jpg) is my pen, well it was a prototype to see if I could get the new method to work. Then I have one that I have made for a client with 3 rings in total on it. I love the way this turned out. [Cap on](https://i.imgur.com/CMjIv25.jpg) then [cap off](https://i.imgur.com/muKbrFD.jpg), it will be fitted with a black nib. So, those have brass embellishments, I have done one with an acrylic ring but that’s not finished yet, and [this one](https://i.imgur.com/cLSoD72.jpg) has an alumilite ring.

Another cool thing. I made a Grail pen for a client. It was a Cthulhu themed pen and had a tentacle roll stop with a filled carving on the end. A lot of you would have already seen it but you can find it [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/k9gxr0/grail_pen_achieved_this_custom_baby_arrived_today/).

* Blanks

I have some Brooks Blanks. Only a limited amount but I am going to enjoy working with them. They ended up being quite expensive, as I knew they would be as they would have the added costs of customs, duty and postage to add onto the cost. They are all stunning though I turned off the outer layer of the blanks to reveal what was inside and I have to say, I love them all and I want to keep them all. Unfortunately I can’t, you have got to see them though:

[Ghost Koi 1](https://i.imgur.com/gEhP3ct.jpg)

[Ghost Koi 2](https://i.imgur.com/BQuDFox.jpg)

[Abelone](https://i.imgur.com/WIqgwDd.jpg)

[Cool Primary Manipulation](https://i.imgur.com/SglPq8Y.jpg)

[Calico Koi](https://i.imgur.com/tsHbDYI.jpg)

[Black Cherry Koi 1](https://i.imgur.com/vHnPev0.jpg)

[Black Cherry Koi 2](https://i.imgur.com/PzFIzl3.jpg)

[Water Lilly Koi 1](https://i.imgur.com/grVBJxU.jpg)

[Water Little Koi 2](https://i.imgur.com/4LeSAzr.jpg)

See, beautiful right?

As usual feel free to give suggestions for where these updates go in the comments. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones and stay safe.