Look at that: absolute chaos has descended on Fountain Pen Follies.
And. So. Much. Green.
It’s probably obvious just looking at that: these last two months have been insanely busy in real life, leaving no time for writing with pens. At the same time, I’ve been inundated with pens and ink. I’ve got a bunch of new inks, including some nice samples, and also a few new pens, to try out. Then I wanted to ink up testers for my Pelikan Hub. Then there’s the new Sailor 1911L in Key Lime. Everything has piled up. I’ve got close to 30 pens there, crammed in like commuters on an L train at rush hour.
That Sailor 1911L in Key Lime is the pen I notice most in that crowd. In the first photo, it’s the green pen near the top right corner. What makes that photo unusual is something that you might not notice: there was sun outside. See how nice and gleaming the Sailor looks in the sun?
Here’s an extreme closeup.
Pizzazz.
In the sun, the pearlized material of the Key Lime really comes through. On the one I’m using, there are wavy shimmers, for a moire effect.
Here’s another shot, in which you can see the very subtle shimmers on the pen body:
Still in the sun, the Key Lime there is between the Pelikan Stockholm and the Lamy Al-Star Charged Green. That’s closer to what the Key Lime usually looks like. But it’s a smidge yellower in real life, which just doesn’t come through in photos.
I want to do a post on the many looks of the Key Lime, because it’s such a cool color, but also so different, and so hard to get a fix on. It’s fascinating.
What you can’t see is that inside all those pens is a lot of green ink. Too much green ink. I feel like I should be decorating for Christmas. Except, of course, it is only October. And in October we celebrate the biggest holiday season of all. The start of NHL hockey.
I’m sure we all feel “too much” at times. Right now, those crammed pen cups are nagging me, like a pile of laundry you haven’t folded for a week. So this Peek at the Pen Cup was the “no mas” edition. I’m going to spend some time cleaning out the pens I can do without, and getting back on track with the others.
Fountain Pen Follies 
[…] A Peek at the Pen Cup: Mean, Green, Certainly Not Lean – Fountain Pen Follies […]
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Thanks for NHL reminder. Someone was looking for Duck teal ink and my NHL OCD made me try to match every teams ink. I’ll make a chart. I think there’s even an ink now to match the Dallas Stars short lived mustard yellow third jersey. Then I can do the AHL and CHL and … and …and
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Awesome! I do this with my Lamy Safaris, but not so much my ink: https://fountainpenfollies.com/2017/10/05/lamy-safari-your-team-a-totally-made-up-thing-that-i-do-as-an-adult/
I’d love to see what you come up with. Bonus: The original Mighty Duck Teal could now work as San Jose Shark Teal (and don’t at me, because they will always be the Mighty Ducks to me).
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Beautiful pens. I’ve never seen that Pelikan Stockholm; what model is that? I love the mix of blues and greens on that one. I’m just not into green enough to buy the Pelikan Olivine M200. I’m usually partial to teals; turquoise, aqua, teal, etc. If you looked at my pen cup, you’d see an overabundance of those colors. So I can certainly understand loading up your pen cup with your favorite color (I’m assuming green is your favorite color?). I have TONS of teal inks, too! BTW: I’ve probably got about 30 pens currently inked. But I’m retired, so I use them all. I do lots of writing, to say the least, and I rotate them all. So it doesn’t stress me out (much).
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Ah, the Stockholm is one of Pelikan’s M620 Cities pens. Blue and yellow are my favorite colors, but not really yellow pens. 😊 I do like many green inks, though how that happened I don’t really know. But it started with J. Herbin Vert Empire…. 😁
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That many pens inked all at once stresses me out. 😧 I’m weird though and 5 pens inked at once stresses me out. haha
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No, I was really stressed out by that, too. 😊 I’m usually pretty mellow about stuff like this, but this was a reminder how much pen stuff I’d had to put on the back burner. But I’ve since spent time cleaning out a bunch of pens, and organizing what I have to do, so I feel more on-track again. 😊
If I didn’t have this blog, I’m sure I’d only keep two or three pens inked up.
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Five is kind of the magic number for me, when I have multiples inked. It about covers the different nib sizes I’d want, and the accent/emphasis colors to have too. I think I can go up to 7-8 but more than that I’d really not know what to do with them. Maybe I just need more ink 😉
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I got it down to six pens (two for an ongoing ink review), which is more my style, when my friend sent me four new ones to try out. Curses, foiled again!
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I do love the look of that Key Lime pen. The large one at that? You have definitely got it going on now.
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Oh I’m not keeping this, just reviewing it. ☺️ Like the Professional Gear Ocean, the Key Lime arrived at exactly the wrong time. Which is okay! I have already found some amazing pens this year. 😊
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The Key Lime is a real eye-catcher. Now that we have seen the ‘before’ pic, I will await the ‘after’ version when the pen cup is all calm and serene, perhaps with a lone Sailor. We also await the arrival of the M600 Vibrant Orange, to balance all that green 😁
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I’m down to under 20 pens now! Still not calm and serene, but not quite so awful. 😊
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Well done 👏. I should attempt this same exercise this evening as my pen cup occupancy is currently around the 25 mark. And it’s the London Pen Show this Sunday!
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The first thing I thought when I peeked inside your pen cup was wow look at all of those birds. :-))
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Not any more! I cleaned out a lot of pens, and I’m down to a more normal assortment: two Pelikans, two Sailors, two Brooks, a few others and then a handful of Lamys. Phew. The Lamys are winning again, and order is restored. 👍
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