Nakaya
Nakaya Portable Cigar Lotus Maki-e Kuro-tamenuri
Nakaya Portable Cigar Lotus Maki-e Kuro-tamenuri
Maki-e, literally ""sprinkled powder,"" is a general term for the process by which figurative or abstract designs are created by sprinkling pigment or metallic powder onto the surface of Urushi lacquer while it is still wet. There are many varieties of Maki-e, such as Tame-sukashi, Raden, and Chinkin.
The Nakaya Portable Cigar Lotus Flower Kuro-tamenuri fountain pen is available with solid gold 14k single-tone nib in your choice of tipping size.
The double slit Music nib is available at an added premium, as are plated nibs in Pink Gold, Rhodium, Ruthenium, or Two-Tone.
Though it appears identical to a standard Portable Cigar Kuro-tamenuri fountain pen on the surface, under the cap of the Nakaya Portable Cigar Lotus Flower Kuro-tamenuri fountain pen a hand painted lotus flower floats on a sprinkle of gold. The multiple applications of red lacquer, dark urushi lacquer, solid gold flakes, and pigmented and raised colored lacquer make this visual treasure come alive when it comes out of the dark.
The Portable Cigar Lotus Flower is a full-sized pen that will fit comfortably in most hands.
Nakaya pens can be filled with bottled fountain pen ink using the provided converter and can also use Platinum brand ink cartridges. Hand-painted Maki-e converters are also available.
The lotus flower is painted on the gripping section in painstaking Taka-Maki-e technique. Sprinkles of gold powder add to the luxurious depiction.
You can see the underlayers of reddish lacquer peeking through where the cap and barrel meet, and this color will only become more vibrant with time. Because of the many layers, wear only makes this pen more precious.
The urushi tradition is historic and profound in Japan, where lacquer ware has adorned utilitarian objects for centuries. This technique, though painstaking, gives this fountain pen its deep lustrous sheen. The process of collecting the urushi and applying many layers of lacquer to this fountain pen takes at least three months to complete.
14k nibs are well-suited to customizations including Stub, Cursive Italic, and Left Oblique, as well as the modification for added flex.
Decorative rice paper, a simple solid softwood shipping box decorated with Japanese Kanji script, and a fabric pen ""kimono"" are all included with this pen, making it a lovely presentation item. Sensible and elegant packaging has long been a hallmark of the Nakaya Brand.
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Customization Guide
Stub
 
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Above is the same size nib after a regrind to Stub. A regrind to Stub is often a good place to start for your first customization. Â A Stub nib provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes while writing, and is less position-sensitive on the paper than the crisper and slightly more demanding cursive italic.
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Cursive Italic
 
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More demanding, but also providing crisper edges and more line-width variation, is the very popular customization to Cursive Italic. This also provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes, but is also more position-sensitive in terms of how the pen is held and requires more skill on the part of the user. This is a common customization for artists and calligraphers, but is still smooth enough to make for a good everyday writer.
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Formal Italic
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Formal Italic is an even crisper and more demanding customization than either cursive italic or left oblique, and is usually utilized for calligraphy and by the most experienced users. This provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes, with even crisper corners and edges than a cursive italic - this is an extremely position-sensitive customization.
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Left Oblique
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 Commonly used for signatures and correspondence, the Left Oblique customization provides broad diagonal strokes and narrow cross-strokes, and like a cursive italic, is more position-sensitive and demanding than a stub. The whole pen must be rotated to the left in order to write smoothly, without skipping. The "Left" in Left Oblique refers to the cut of the nib itself, and does not refer to the handedness of the writer. |
Architect's Point (Also for Arabic and Hebraic writing)
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A more exotic regrind is that to Architect’s Point. Named after the style of writing used by Frank Lloyd Wright, this regrind is the opposite of cursive italic, and provides for broad cross-strokes and narrow down-strokes. This also tends to be a particularly useful customization for those practicing Arabic or Hebraic calligraphy. |
Spencerian
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Perhaps our most popular customization, but also one of the most advanced, the Mottishaw Spencerian Customization has gained special attention from being featured in a customer's YouTube video which has now received over twelve million views! The Spencerian starts from a semi-soft 14k nib and adds additional flex and a regrind to needlepoint to create a specialized writing point used for copperplate calligraphy. For more details, visit our special Spencerian page.. |