pretty Sailor brush pen

been a while since i last posted in this blog. life has been busy and well, there's Facebook to get in the way of blogging. recently though, i've been thinking if i can revive ye olde blog if only because i've been bitten by a new bug... calligraphy!

but that's another story. for now, i just want to make a review about this pretty little thing called the Sailor Yubi Maki-e brush pen. i was attracted to it because calligraphy guru Fozzy Dayrit-Castro, used it and posted her lettering with it at the Fountain Pen Network-Philippines FB page. i think anything she uses, i start to drool over. you can't blame me though. head on over to her blog and see for yourself why.

long story short, i head on over to the Shangri-La Mall branch of Scribe, the local distributor of Sailor pens. The Maki-e brush pen is available in 3 designs at Scribe but i think there are 4 designs and 3 colors. Mine is the one with the iris flowers and dragonflies. i really wanted the one with the peonies and butterflies also but i can afford only one. it retails for Php1,795.00 (about US$39.-) not exactly cheap for a brush pen but not really too expensive either considering the quality. below are the photos.

this is the packaging which is kind of nice, even for a relatively inexpensive pen--a black carton sleeve with gold stamping and a black plastic flip-top box. my only complaint is that the box does not have a snap lock. you would need the carton sleeve to keep it closed.

the box is shallow but it has a suede (or velveteen?) lining. it comes with one black ink cartridge. you can use it with a Sailor converter but you have to buy that separately.

i think the ones that present best are the black resin pens over the red and white ones because the black background shows off the maki-e designs better.

the Iris flower design from one angle...

 and another angle... (note the really pretty glittery iris flowers)

and another angle. the irises here have interference colors, which means it changes color (blue to violet) depending on how the light hits it.

here is how the brush point looks. it's so good!... very responsive and snappy and well, pointy. i think the very tip is one, just one hair thick! it holds up very well to writing though. but i always gingerly close the cap for fear i'd ruin that nice tip.

i did not use the black ink cartridge yet. i wanted to try it first as an eyedropper pen. that way, it holds more ink. the barrel can fit almost 3ml of ink although i did not fill it that much. i applied silicone grease to the threads and waited for the brush to saturate with it. that takes a while. i didn't exactly time how long but it took about 15 minutes because i loaded it before dinner and when i came back after, it still wasn't loaded up. i had to dip the brush in the ink to charge it and then the flow inside eventually caught up.

below are some writing samples. please excuse the mess. i tried to do it justice but i think it will take more practice before i can really do that. the ink i used is Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses.

i like that gold cap band very much because it has the characteristic Sailor lettering and makes the pen look more expensive than it really is.

so, is it worth the buy?... for the pretty good looks and the snappy brush and point... yes, oh yes!