pen 134: sakura gelly roll

today's pen, the sakura gelly roll, is one of those pens that i had seen here and there on the internet, but had never come across in all of my pen hunting years, not that i was really actively looking for one, but when i went to michael's arts and craft store, and randomly looking at their stamp supplies, i happened upon this pen in an unexpected section.
for whatever reason, they didn't stock these with the rest of the pens, but among the scrap-booking materials instead.

anyway, i bought one.

the gelly roll is a plastic bodied, ball tip gel pen. the pen's ink is dark, with no value range, dries on the slower side and can be kind of messy. the pen has some skipping and stuttering issues, and while it has a good bite, it often just indents the paper. the metal tip is pretty sharp as well, so tearing through the paper can be a problem, especially if you are heavy handed. this pen is probably not the best choice for writing, especially if you are left handed, and there are other gel pens on the market that dry faster and minimize smearing.

having had a few weeks to mess around with this pen, i have come to the conclusion that while this pen has some fine points, overall it is not a pen that i plan on purchasing again.

pricing:
michaels (retail): approx $2-$3 (single pen)
blick.com: $1.25+s/h (single pen)

websites:
www.sakuraofamerica.com
www.sakuraofamerica.com (full product line)
www.dickblick.com

what they say:

sakura:

Select Gelly Roll, the gel ink pen that was invented to make writing and self expression effortless. The creamy ink and incredible array of colors provide plenty of favorite "flavors" for letting your thoughts flow onto paper.

Handwriting is as unique as a fingerprint. Sign your name, doodle, express your artful self, or celebrate the thrills and document the spills of your life. Leave a mark that will last a lifetime.

Sakura Color Products invented and patented gel ink and the pen casing used to create Gelly Roll pens. The first of its kind, these Gelly Roll pens created the gel ink pen category within the writing instrument industry. The Gelly Roll pen collection has grown to provide a wide variety of colors to support the company’s motto: Power to Express™.

The Gelly Roll Fine and Medium Point gel ink pens feature:

• Fine is 0.3 mm line / 0.6mm ball, Medium is 0.4mm line / 0.8 mm ball
• Ice Cream Smooth™ in a roller ball
• Archival quality ink – chemically stable, waterproof, and fade resistant
• No smears, feathers, or bleed-through on most papers
• Black, blue, royal blue, purple, and burgundy ink colors are excellent for writing checks due to the gel ink’s resistance to fraudulent washings

blick:

Gelly Roll, the gel ink pen invented to make writing and self-expressioneffortless, has ink that is Ice Cream Smooth — and an array of favorite "flavors" for letting your thoughts flow onto paper. Choose a finer line (0.3 mm) in classic colors, or a medium line (0.4 mm) in metallic colors that add a bit of sparkle. Every Gelly Roll pen contains archival-quality ink that is chemically stable, waterproof, and fade-resistant. What's more, the ink won't smear, feather, or bleed through most paper. Black, Blue, Royal Blue, and Purple Gelly Rolls contain fraud-resistant ink that is ideal for writing checks. Handwriting is as unique as a fingerprint. Sign your name, doodle, express your artful self, or celebrate the thrills and document the spills of your life. Leave a mark that will last a lifetime with Gelly Roll. Set of 10 Metallic Colors — Two Metallic Gold pens and one each of Metallic Purple, Metallic Copper, Metallic Red, Metallic Silver, Metallic Pink, Metallic Green, Metallic Blue, and Metallic Emerald. Note — Use this color chart as an approximation of the real color. If exact color matching is necessary, use actual samples of the materials.

pen 100: sakura microperm

welcome to the 100th post here at a pen a day.

as i steadily got closer to this post i started to think about whether or not i ought to do something special for this momentous occasion...  if nothing else, what pen should i choose? all these questions running through my mind and what it comes down to is this.

i finally settled on a pen, drew it, drew with it, and before i came home tonight i stopped at a local art/craft supply store, michael's.

one of the reasons was that i am currently carving/etching woodcuts for stamps and prints and i wanted to look at the tools they had for carving wood and linoleum, or rubber, whatever. while i was looking for these i was in the stamp section, a section that i have never had any reason to visit before and discovered that they had pens stocked there as well... pens... in the stamp section... sigh.

and these are pens that i have heard of, but never seen... sigh.

so yeah, a scouting mission turned into a procurement  run and here i am, last minute, drawing with something that i seem to do less and less these days and that is, a new and unfamiliar pen.

allow me to introduce the sakura microperm. my first thought when i bout this pen was that it looked like another pen that sakura makes, the micron.the initial physical differences are minor, it is a dark gray pen with english and japanese writing on the barrel. this particular pen is .5mm, the only size that i saw, and when i looked at the tip, i noted that it was another plastic tipped pen. when i got home and started using it i was immediately disappointed.

unlike the micron, this pen does have a slight odor, reminiscent of prismacolor markers which im guessing means it is alcohol based ink, while this is not really a bad thing, it does dry quickly, it does mean that you should wait until you're twenty-one to lick it... (hahahaha i'm funny)

this pen puts a lot more ink onto the paper a lot faster than the micro which led to bleed, out and through. alas, a waste of money and such a crappy way to do 100...

and then i really started using it. i noticed that the tip is a lot more durable than the more fragile micron, more like a staedtler pen, and that when i was drawing using quicker strokes that the bleed was considerably reduced. in fact, the more i used it the more i found myself liking it, surprising myself with this pen's ability for detail, even considering that this is a .5 mm tip and that there are smaller tipped version of this pen available. the other side of this was that even with its ability to detail, the  heavier flow of ink would make this pen a good choice for inking those smaller black spaces that the micron would be ill suited.

the price was $2.79 off the shelf in a retail setting, and individual pens are going for around the same on amazon.com. i even found a few 3 pen sets there as well ranging between $4-$7 making these pens rather inexpensive for the type of pen they are. i think i can safely say that as soon as a sell the next painting, i will be investing in a set of these pens. i stand by my claim that this pen is worth a try, and if you get one and disagree, send it to me and i will exchange it for an original drawing using that pen. 

website:

www.sakuraofamerica.com

what they say:

Every facet of fine line detailing and permanence is incorporated into this pen to execute writing in micro-spaces or on unusual and challenging surfaces.

Microperm is used to make precise long-lasting marks on test tubes, circuit boards, diamonds, cellophane, wood and glass, plastic, metal, or wherever there is a need for waterproof ink that will write on non-porous surfaces. Diamond cutters can use Microperm to make minute markings on rough diamonds to insure exact cuts.
Microperm features:

• Chemically stable, and waterproof
• Low odor and fulfills non-toxicity requirements
• Permanent adherence to most surfaces
• A fine line nib with a protected tip that will not split
• Writes on diamonds, glass, wood, cellophane, plastic and glossy sheets, CDs, photographic and x-ray film, paper and metal
• Alcohol based cleaners will remove ink from non-porous surfaces

Microperm Pen is available:

• Black Ink.
• Point 01: 0.25 mm
• Point 03: 0.35 mm
• Point 05: 0.45 mm

pen 78: sakura pigma callipen

today's pen, the sakura pigma callipen, should have an asterisks next to it for two reasons: a: it isn't strictly a chisel tipped pen although it it does have a square-ish plastic tip, and b: this pen is apparently no longer in production.

i can't remember when i purchased this pen, it may have been back in those early art school days. this pen was produced by the same company that makes the holy micron pen that are universally loved. when i started doing a little research (read: i googled it.) i discovered that this particular pen does not seem to be in production any longer, although it seems that there are a few places online that you can still order from. sakura has since replaced that model with the pigma calligrapher, a pen that i have yet to use, because of this there really isn't any official company description that i can find for the discontinued pen.

the callipen that i have for this review is a plastic tipped 1.8mm calligraphy pen, and in this case, black. the tip is very rigid and durable, and i remember that back when i would use this for outlining or filling art, had a great flow, supersaturated black ink that made life so much easier as opposed to using the fine-tipped pens that i was using at the time, the fact that i was able to use it today and have a reasonability amount of ink flow is kind of impressive consider its age and the usage i have gotten out of it, no mistakes here, it is/was a workhorse of a pen. having never really pursued the fine art of calligraphy, i cant really say how effective it was in that field, but for the price of around $2-$5 (estimated) i feel like i more than got my money's worth. the question, would i buy another? my answer is probably not, i have since found better pens that perform better for around the same price, some of those being pens that simply did not exist when i bought this. i would be open to checking out their new line of calligraphy pens, if only because i like the quality of pen that sakura has produced for as long as i can remember using the micron.

since this pen is no longer in production there is no actual page for them on the sakura website, but there are pages for all the rest of their fine product line.

website:
www.sakuraofamerica.com