Custom Ink Pens

Millermark Pens and demonstration at ArtWalk

James Miller began Millermark Pens after discovering wormy chestnut tobacco sticks in an 80-year-old barn in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. 

"I thought it would be such a waste not to use every piece of this precious and rare wood," he said.
He now hand-turns pens in a variety of materials and styles.

Each pen is created individually and is priced by the value of the material and the turning difficulty of each style. His pens come in a wide range of prices, providing an option for everyone. The pens use refillable ink cartridges, come with a gift box and are guaranteed against splitting.

Miller crafts his pens in a variety of sizes, and custom orders are also a possibility.

In addition to his lucky find of wormy chestnut, Miller also finds materials in the woods around his house, including dogwood, maple, cedar, honeysuckle and grapevine.

Much of the material for his corn-cob pens is grown in his own garden. He also utilizes woods from South America, deer antler from the Midwest, coffee beans, split peas, honey dippers, bird seed, bullet shells, acrylic, and a variety of other woods, such as rose bush, bacote, osage orange, sumac tree, walnut, wormy black locust, olive tree, ebony, heart pine, oak and wormy, curly and spalted maple.

Miller was raised in the Laurel Springs community of Alleghany County and now lives with his family in Boomer.

Miller will be giving a demonstration at ArtWalk for the Downtown Boone Art Crawl this Friday, Aug. 5, beginning in the late afternoon and continuing throughout the night. Stop by to see the artist at work on his early 1900s pedal lathe.

James Miller's pens are located on ArtWalk's main level. With three and a half floors and more than 300 local, regional and national artists, ArtWalk is located at 611 W. King St. (across from Mast General Store) in downtown Boone. Hours are Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, or to inquire about individual gallery booths for rent, call (828) 264-9998, e-mail artwalkboone@yahoo.com or visit www.artwalkboone.com .


Gallery Times

Gallery Times is a weekly news feature of The Mountain Times, featuring short news items submitted by local galleries.

For more information or to make a submission, contact editor Frank Ruggiero at frank@mountaintimes.com or (828) 264-6397.

Custom Fountain Pen | Anton Emdin's Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Before I start, I need to reveal to you a secret*.  I am a fountain pen lover.  Yes, that’s right.  I love using them to write and draw.  I love the ritual associated with them – the filling and cleaning and care, and I abide by the credo, “DEATH TO THE BALLPOINT”.

Ahem.

Where was I?  Oh yes, I am very lucky to have received a pen from US “Nibmeister” Greg Minuskin for my drawing pleasure.  A nibmeister is a craftsman who shapes and adjusts fountain pen nibs.  In this case, Mr. Minuskin has taken a Japanese Namiki Falcon

A little history: In the early part of last century most fountain pens sported flexible nibs, as people cared more about penmanship and had a delicate touch.  But with the advent of the ballpoint pen (grrrr) people got used to pressing down hard on the page.  So when they started bending and breaking their fountain pen nibs, pen manufacturers responded by producing hard, inflexible, and unbreakable nibs for their customers.

Today, the Japanese are one of the only countries that really take pride in the art of writing, so it is no wonder that they also produce one of the only modern flexible fountain pens, although they really are nothing like the vintage American and British pens of the 1920′s.

But onto the pen.  While it doesn’t quite have the flexibility and varied line of a vintage pen, it does have the advantage of being new.  Old pens are fragile, and I’m generally not very willing to take many of them out of the house too often.  This is not the case here, so effectively I have in my pocket a good, reliable sketching pen.

Now, I’m a mainly a  brush guy .  I don’t really enjoy drawing entire illustrations in pen only, but I have been using this one to draw small, fine details, touchups and crosshatching (see here , here , and here  and the photo at the top).  It has saved me breaking out the dip pens, and gives a great result – the only downside being that I can’t use india ink with it (india ink clogs up fountain pens – never fill yours with it). It is also easier to handle than a dip pen, as it doesn’t have the sharp edge to catch on.

So, shameless plug time:  Do get in touch with Greg should you be after any custom work on a fountain pen.  He can even supply the pen, and he’s a super-nice guy to boot.  Be sure to head to his site at  gregminuskin.