For the past few years, I’ve been amazed at how many new custom pen turners have surfaced. Every time I go to a pen show, there’s someone new making amazing new pens in all sorts of materials. Of course, when there are so many to choose from, it becomes harder to stand out. One pair of makers that more than drew my attention amongst the crowd are Bill and Michele from Barrel & Nib. They first caught my eye at the beginning of the year when I spotted some of their work making beautiful floral blanks. After months of admiring all their new work and ideas, I decided that it was time to contact them to have something made.

I connected with Michele that day and had a few ideas for what I wanted but nothing concrete. For the most part, I wanted something floral. Michele was very easy to work and communicate with, and we spent a few weeks exchanging ideas, but I also didn’t want to put any strict limitations on her — I wanted her work and ideas to speak for themselves — a pen that she would make. I hadn’t put any time constraints on the project and figured when it’s ready, it’s ready.

Fast forward a few months and Sarah wants a pen, too! However, she wanted something a little more specific: something autumnal, or if she dared, spooky for Halloween. I immediately went to Michele with the idea, and a few weeks later, I was looking at two pens that I could only describe as incredible.

And here they are! A white Flora and (she did dare) a Halloween! Both pens came packed in lovely sleeves made by Third Bungalow Crafts. They’re fitted with #6 JoWo nibs and feeds (I chose medium for both) and Schmidt K5 converters. I couldn’t be happier with them, but of course, we’ll take a closer look because there’s a lot to talk about!

Let’s start with the Flora; it’s the first one I commissioned so it only seems appropriate. It’s a white-on-white material with flowers cast into the blank — exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I commissioned the pen. The material is beautifully finished and full of dimension. I really appreciate the flowers cast in a more opaque material too. Her colors are always well-chosen and complement the flowers inside beautifully. There’s still a lot of depth to the material — it’s really hard to capture with still images, but the flowers inside are a sight to behold.

What really sets this pen apart for me, however, is the inclusion of the clip! Now, I’m not one who absolutely needs to have a clip on a pen, but it’s not a feature that I see on turned pens often — and perfectly complements the solid, non-floral cap. I can only describe it as elegant, but the neutral color makes it versatile too. It wasn’t hard to find plenty of inks that would pair well with it.

And functionally, it’s great! Like I mentioned earlier, these are standard #6 JoWo nibs; there isn’t additional tuning done to them, but a #6 JoWo is still an excellent, reliable nib. The pen is well-balanced and comfortable to write with; the grip might be a little short for some people with big hands, but I also have big hands and I was able to write comfortably for a few hours.

Both the cap and section threads on the Flora are insanely smooth and the cap holds a good seal, and that’s a big one for me since I don’t generally expect the seals on turned pens to last more than a day or two (if that). Sure, it might not be as strong of a seal as, say, a mass-produced Platinum, but any hand-turned pen that I can pick up a few days later that hasn’t dried out is impressive to me.

And now for Sarah’s pen! Yes! We have a Halloween pen! Look at it! It’s a beautiful black resin with different sizes of orange iridescent glitter. The inlaid finial has the same orange glitter and two small bats encased within — it’s the perfect Halloween pen we were looking for.

You might have noticed that there’s an ink window, as well. Now, I knew that there would be a window included from my talks with Michele, but a window is also something you don’t often see in custom-turned pens. We were excited to see how it would come out, but I never would have guessed that the window would be glittered. Fun ideas like this are why I went to Barrel & Nib in the first place, and they haven’t disappointed, and this is amazing.

The window works well — it was so clear when I opened the pen that I almost couldn’t see the converter inside, but of course, when it’s full of ink, it’s easily visible.

Functionally, the pen works just as well as the Flora. The threads on the cap and section are smooth and create a good seal without any kind of catching. There’s a slight flare on the end of the grip section that’s very comfortable to grip onto.

One thing to note is that because this material contains large pieces of glitter and the rod has to be cut somewhere, you might notice some steaks on the bottom of the pen that look like they might be scratches, but they’re not — it’s simply where the glitter gets cut. There’s not much of a way around it, and it’s more or less the nature of the beast. I think it’s a cool artifact of the crafting process.

That doesn’t conclude everything though, because there was something else in my package:

A turned nib holder! This was a great surprise because I had been on the hunt for a holder for my Kakimori nib, but never quite settled on one. This one’s beautiful, larger, and without question, it’s so much more comfortable than the wooden Kakimori ones I’ve been using.

Like the others, the material here is gorgeous and has this inner swirl in the center. I’m going to go ahead and call this Farum Azula. I suppose a downside to it being slightly larger is that it might not fit into some bottles with more narrow openings, but then again, the Kakimori holders aren’t much better in that regard. This is a great holder and I might have spent a little too much time having fun with it after opening it up, but what can I say, it was nice.

I’ve already said it but I couldn’t be happier with my experience commissioning these pens. If I had to ask for anything more, I would say perhaps an engraving on the nibs would be worth considering. A small thing, but it’s a shame to have such beautiful pens with no indication of who made it, but despite that, the end results are even better than I was ready for. I think I already have another idea for them to work on in the future, too.

If you like what you see, give Barrel & Nib a look! You can find them here (Instagram), or here (their website).