Ringing in the New Year...
Jan. 1st, 2012 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpOne of the side benefits of subscribing to the package of Russian channels offered by the local cable company is being able to tune into New Year shows that to me seem, for some reason, to better reflect the season than the stuff that was coming over the wire from local networks. One act that grabbed my attention was a kid—he seemed all of maybe 10 years old—doing a stand-up comedy routine for a ballroom full of adults. It was a kind of low-key comedy—of the type where each line seems to be preceded by "Why is it...?"—and the kid got some good laughs.
Being a one-man shop, tallying the official billing numbers for 2011 was a fairly straightforward task. Alas, the resulting figure is not impressive. And while it would be easy enough to blame the general economic situation, that kind of thinking doesn't serve much purpose as it fails to suggest any specific step I might take to improve the situation. The easy response would be to kick my marketing up a notch or two, as frankly, I've not done much of that this past year. That said, it was good to wake up this morning with to some work on the plate, even if it is a Sunday and (technically) a holiday. I managed to get a little ahead of myself today, and there's more than enough left for tomorrow.
* * * During my visit to Manhattan last week, I stopped by the Art Brown International Pen Shop (at 2 West 45th Street) to look around, say hi, and ask about that Boston eyedropper pen I found in an antique shop some time ago. The last time I was at the pen shop, during the 2009 ATA Conference, I found the staff at the shop to be very knowledgeable and helpful, even though I was more likely to buy a bottle of fountain pen ink than I was to buy any of the rather expensive pens they have on sale there.
Unlike fountain pens whose bodies contain cartridges or sacs for ink, eyedropper pens store ink directly in the body (called a barrel) that screws onto the feed section (the part that regulates ink flow to the nib, which does the writing). It's a simple technology, which was state-of-the-art and widely used in the 1900s. It doesn't involve plungers or levers, but pretty much does require something like an eyedropper to neatly fill the barrel with ink. Plungers and levers came later, making it easier for the casual user to fill his or her writing instrument with ink.
When I first examined the pen at the antique shop, I was a little puzzled by the lack of a gimmick for filling the thing, until I realized what kind of pen it was. I had no luck when I tried to unscrew the feed section from the barrel, but the price was modest enough, so I bought it. At home, I tried to separate the feed section from the barrel a couple of more times, but gently, as I didn't want to risk damaging the pen. My attempts were unsuccessful.
During last week's visit at the Art Brown shop, I asked for and got what turned out to be good advice on how to "unstick" the eyedropper pen. After immersing the feed section in a weak ammonia solution for about a day, I was pleasantly surprised, an hour ago, to feel the feed portion of the pen start to unscrew from the barrel, whereupon the two parts separated after several turns. A look under a magnifier shows quite a bit of dried crud on the threads of the feed section, so I'll let it and the barrel soak overnight, to loosen such stuff, after which I'll see about rinsing off the crud and putting the pen back together again.
By the way, the eyedropper style of ink supply seems to be making a comeback. A bottle of Nikita "We Will Bury You!" Red (a fountain pen ink by Noodler's) comes with a Noodler-branded eyedropper fountain pen that seems sturdy enough. There are also a number of how-to articles on the Internet (e.g., at JetPens.com) on converting pens to work in the eyedropper style.
Which reminds me... I should probably use any old pen to go write a real letter on real paper and send it via the postal service, just to keep my skills sharp.
Cheers...
Being a one-man shop, tallying the official billing numbers for 2011 was a fairly straightforward task. Alas, the resulting figure is not impressive. And while it would be easy enough to blame the general economic situation, that kind of thinking doesn't serve much purpose as it fails to suggest any specific step I might take to improve the situation. The easy response would be to kick my marketing up a notch or two, as frankly, I've not done much of that this past year. That said, it was good to wake up this morning with to some work on the plate, even if it is a Sunday and (technically) a holiday. I managed to get a little ahead of myself today, and there's more than enough left for tomorrow.
Unlike fountain pens whose bodies contain cartridges or sacs for ink, eyedropper pens store ink directly in the body (called a barrel) that screws onto the feed section (the part that regulates ink flow to the nib, which does the writing). It's a simple technology, which was state-of-the-art and widely used in the 1900s. It doesn't involve plungers or levers, but pretty much does require something like an eyedropper to neatly fill the barrel with ink. Plungers and levers came later, making it easier for the casual user to fill his or her writing instrument with ink.
When I first examined the pen at the antique shop, I was a little puzzled by the lack of a gimmick for filling the thing, until I realized what kind of pen it was. I had no luck when I tried to unscrew the feed section from the barrel, but the price was modest enough, so I bought it. At home, I tried to separate the feed section from the barrel a couple of more times, but gently, as I didn't want to risk damaging the pen. My attempts were unsuccessful.
During last week's visit at the Art Brown shop, I asked for and got what turned out to be good advice on how to "unstick" the eyedropper pen. After immersing the feed section in a weak ammonia solution for about a day, I was pleasantly surprised, an hour ago, to feel the feed portion of the pen start to unscrew from the barrel, whereupon the two parts separated after several turns. A look under a magnifier shows quite a bit of dried crud on the threads of the feed section, so I'll let it and the barrel soak overnight, to loosen such stuff, after which I'll see about rinsing off the crud and putting the pen back together again.
By the way, the eyedropper style of ink supply seems to be making a comeback. A bottle of Nikita "We Will Bury You!" Red (a fountain pen ink by Noodler's) comes with a Noodler-branded eyedropper fountain pen that seems sturdy enough. There are also a number of how-to articles on the Internet (e.g., at JetPens.com) on converting pens to work in the eyedropper style.
Which reminds me... I should probably use any old pen to go write a real letter on real paper and send it via the postal service, just to keep my skills sharp.
Cheers...
