I did a little G nib comparison sheet this morning.
Tom had a meeting in Nashville earlier this week, and I tagged along. It was great to see Rachel (our daughter), my sister and her family, *AND* pay a visit to Paper and Ink Arts. PIA is a candy store for calligraphers, but it's not a traditional retail store front. Jennifer Allen, the Director of PIA, was gracious enough to let Rachel and I prowl around....oops, I mean, "Rachel and *me*" ...the grammar police will get me....(aka Tom) :)
Two things I wanted to try: the Tachikawa G nib and this palette of Fine Tec Pearl Colors.
Thanks to Heather Held's recommendation several years ago, I already have (and LOVE) the Fine Tec gold palette. The new palette also has 6 colors. The new palette's wells are smaller, but it's also less expensive.
I regularly use both the Nikko G and the Zebra G. Sometimes the Zebra G is a little too sharp for me. Although my hairlines tend to be finer with the Zebra G, they also skip more. I was very interested to see how the Tachikawa G performed for me, and I am quite happy with it. My hairlines aren't quite as fine as with the Zebra G, but I didn't have the skipping problem. I love the colors of the new palette, especially the Shining Aquamarine. As it flowed out of the pen, I was mesmerized!
Jennifer said she was going to have the Tachikawa G nibs available at both
The Summit conference and at
IAMPETH. I also have some comic nibs from Kuretake, including a G nib, that I will blog about in the future.
You can find both the Tachikawa G nib (Item: TACHG) and the Fine Tec Pearl Colors (The Item# I used for this test: FN600S, price: $17.95) at
Paper and Ink Arts website.
As usual, we had a great time in Nashville.
Our hotel was hopping due to a country music awards show to be held the next day. Tom and I had no clue who any of the people were though. :)
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Also, for those interested, my son has a new post regarding his research in the Australian rainforest:
CLICK HERE.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Go forth and flourish!!
xo
Jane
I love Pilot Parallel Pens. They come in several sizes and give wonderful, crisp lines. I like the larger sizes especially. Brenda Broadbent, owner of Paper and Ink Arts, gave a nuts and bolts demonstration of the versatility of these pens at the IAMPETH convention. 
She first had us dismantle our pens. Assuring us that it was virtually impossible to ruin them. Her main goal was to convince us that these pens are more than cartridge pens. They are easy to disassemble and clean with ammonia water or Windex. Soak the pieces in the ammonia solution, rinse and dry.
The greatest thing is that you can load your fluid directly into the barrel of the pen. You can load them with nearly any fluid....sumi, watercolor, gouache, walnut ink, etc. She was hesitant about using acrylics though. Several people in the class said they've even used bleach successfully. 
I used walnut ink. I have given step-by-step directions over on my Flickr account. You can view the tutorial here.
This is Brenda's book Parallel Pen Wizardry. I think it's a must have if you own one of these great pens. You can order it, along with the Parallel Pens, from Paper & Ink Arts here.
