Pens and inks are my passion, but I am totally of the opinion that gems are also a girl’s best friend ^_^. So when John Greco of GW Pens asked me to testdrive his new Gem Pen, available now on Kickstarter, I jumped at the chance!
There are seven color choices available when pledging:
It goes without saying that all of the pens are set with a corresponding genuine gem.
Being a lover of pink, the one that intrigued me the most was the Rose Quartz version. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use it as an eyedropper. For the purposes of this review I have tried it with the provided converter and as an ED.
If you are familiar with custom pens, you’ll feel right at home with the Gem Pen.
Disassembled:
What struck me the most about this pen is the ethereal feel of it. At first glance it is a soft pink with light pink/whiteish swirls, however as I took a closer look I saw that the ghostly clouds were actually a light shimmer throughout the body!
This is hard to capture in photos, but the effect is quite dazzling on a mostly sheer pen.
But how does it write?
The pens will be available with JoWo #6 Polished Steel or Black Oxide nibs in the following sizes:
- Extra Fine
- Fine
- Medium
- Bold
- 1.1 Italic
- 1.5 Italic
I opted for a 1.5 Italic for this review. John tunes the nibs, and I requested a smooth, juicy line which is exactly what I got. It is worth noting that I have two other pens from him, both from his Alpha Collection, and both are excellent writers.
Here is the pen setup as an ED. I like the look a lot more this way ^_^.
Size wise this pen is very similar to a few familiar faces. Here is a photo of it against a Lamy Al-Star and TWSBI 580, unposted.
I wasn’t much of a fan of the pen posted, but I’m usually not so that did not take much away for me.
A few notes about the prototype:
- The gem will align perfectly with the nib for the production, on the prototype it is slightly off.
- The cap-to-body threading of the pen will be more polished, although I can’t imagine them being more perfect! The ED fill is holding like a charm with a dab of silicone.
One of the most valuable things about this Kickstarter is the wonderful service that GW Pens provides. I can be a bit of a stickler for details, and John has always put my mind at ease and tried to accomodate all of my endless requests. If you haven’t tried a GW Pen, now is a great time. The “Rock Bottom” pledge price is $175.00 which is less than what his pens go for without the gem.
At the time of this posting the project is more than halfway funded at $3,226/$5000 pledged with 20 days to go!
It warms my heart to see more pen related Kickstarters. Hippo Noto was such a great campaign, and I hope this one is successful as well ^_^.
May 24, 2017 at 12:58 am
Reblogged this on The Back Room and commented:
If you’re not following Squishy Ink (and if that’s the case, why aren’t you following Squishy Ink?!), then you might’ve missed the recently posted review of the Rose Quartz GemPen. It’s worth a read! Huge thanks to Squishy Ink for taking the time to review the pen 🙂
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May 24, 2017 at 3:38 am
That’s a beautiful pen! I love the idea of using gemstones!
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May 25, 2017 at 9:57 am
I like review and your passion but I sincerily dislike what I see.
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