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Thomas

@atemlicht

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penthusiast, pianist, pet owner
London-based nib grinder, DM for enquiries

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🌈🌦️ THE COMPLETE IROSHIZUKU REFERENCE 🎨✒️

All 40 colours, swabbed using a Kakimori brass nib, on White Egret 80gsm (image 1) and old-production white Tomoe River 52gsm (image 2). I had way too much fun while re-organising my ink shelf and putting bottles into 3D-printed mini racks for greater storage density. (Also, I was lucky enough to snag a new 50ml bottle of Tsukushi off Taobao, so I don't have to be too stingy with the remaining half of this one 15ml I bought years ago.)

✨ beside the name means the ink is from the Tokyo Limited Edition, and 🖤 means it's from the 100th anniversary series. 💭 means the ink has been discontinued and is no longer in production.

Outer ring, from 12 o'clock:
(12) Fukagawa-nezu ✨, Tsukushi 💭, Hotaru-bi, To-ro, Daikokuten 🖤,
(3) Bishamonten 🖤, Hana-ikada, Kosumosu 💭, Yama-budo, Murasaki-shikibu,
(6) Ajisai, Tsuyu-kusa 💭, Kon-peki, Ama-iro, Ebisu 🖤,
(9) Shimbashi-iro ✨, Sui-gyoku, Fukurokuju 🖤, Chiku-rin, Fuyu-syogun.

Inner ring, from 12 o'clock:
(12) Kiri-same 💭, Yama-guri, Ina-ho 💭, Fuyu-gaki, Yu-yake,
(3) Momiji, Benzaiten 🖤, Tsutsuji 💭, Syun-gyo, Edo-murasaki ✨,
(6) Jurojin 🖤, Asa-gao, Shin-kai, Tsuki-yo, Rikka,
(9) Ku-jaku, Syo-ro, Shin-ryoku, Hoteison 🖤, Take-sumi.

That's a solid range of colours, and these inks are the ones I reach for most often. Yama-budo is my favourite ink and I'm already halfway through my second 50ml bottle! Pilot should make a proper red though, and I'm still mourning the loss of Ina-ho, which is a colour that few makers seem interested in. Anyway. If anyone wants to sell me the 15ml collection of the 100th anniversary inks, send me a DM...

#colourwheel #iroshizuku #inkswatch #fountainpens #pilot by @atemlicht

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6 months ago

CONCERT ANNOUNCEMENT:
I'll be playing all fourteen of my favourite composer's piano sonatas in a single sitting on the 14th November 2026, the day after his 75th death anniversary. Born in Russia, he eventually settled in London, teaching & writing music until dying in Golders Green in 1951.

It's just me, all day, 14 piano sonatas with no breaks. Maybe I'll drink water.

It's a very relaxed event: you can come in and out of the main piano space, have tea in the kitchen, walk around while I play to take in the amazing view of King's Cross, and leave and return as you wish. It's not ticketed, but there'll be a collection.

As usual with Clock Tower events, it's a guest list – comment or message me and I'll put you down!

Inks used: Maruzen Athena Hatobanezu and Troublemaker Milky Ocean (diluted 1:1 with water).

#nikolaimedtner #medtner #marathon by @atemlicht

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3

7 hours ago

And with my home show, my 4th year of doing pen shows is over! 21 by my count, in 5 countries. I've learnt so much and can't wait for more as I keep working on my skills. Lots of love to my friends Jose and Anabelle for inspiring and encouraging me through the years ♥️ inky hands forever!

Loot post to follow. Meanwhile, after today's long day of piano playing (with stained hands!) I am going to bed!!

#fountainpens #nibwork #londonpenshow by @atemlicht

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4

5 days ago

Poem by Eugenio Montale (written sometime between 1974–77!), translation by William Arrowsmith. It's remarkably modern, no? We still have the same concerns today.

I modelled this pen myself, in Blender, which I'm still not very good at. It's a nonagon with a twist, and the facets line up with just a bit of sanding, which I did plan for. It makes me a bit nervous to screw things in too tightly, but the threads are holding up really nicely. On another pen, I've painted some epoxy over the whole pen and threads for added strength, so I'll be testing that as well.

The Pilot size 10 <SFM> was too broad for me so I toned it down a little and stuck it in a Jowo ebonite setup. Very fun to use and I gave the body to my mother after fitting a PenBBS steel nib in it and tuning that to something she liked. She won't be too precious about throwing the pen around, which I encourage – it's really nice that she still enjoys writing.

The filament reminded me of some of Sailor's shading inks so I dug out my bottle of Pentonote's Yonomori Sakura – an octagonal bottle that comes in a hexagonal box for some reason. It's a perfect match for the sticker on the cap, though the ink itself is darker: the italic was done at a faster speed than the print, which thus appears bluer. The paper, which I bought at @thinkshop.sg before the Singapore pen show, is Fuji Rokka washi paper, in a really nice ivory A4.

#fountainpens
#calligraphy
#eugeniomontale
#pentonote
#washipaper by @atemlicht

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13 days ago

Complete poem on slide 2.

A West German M600 given some beautiful raden treatment by @tadaima.pen, fit with a rare Swan Calligraphy nib from a Mabie Todd whose body was cracked. It's easily in my top ten nibs, I didn't have to do anything to it beyond the initial work of getting to sit on the Pelikan feed. Look at how crisp that italic is!

Featuring a poem by Cyril Wong, from "tilting our plates to catch the light". That last line is so intriguing.

Kobe no. 68 ink, Maiko West Pearl Blue (sometimes Nishimaiko), made by Sailor. Written on old Tomoe River paper.

#fountainpens #pelikan #raden #mabietodd #calligraphy by @atemlicht

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4

a month ago

🔊 SOUND ON 🔊

The start of a jazzy new composition, cooked up from a tune I thought of while waiting for my stuff at the baggage carousel in Heathrow airport. A few days later I sat at the piano and fiddled about with some fun left-hand harmonies, then wrote the music out after sufficiently memorising what I wanted to put down on the page. It's an inversion of my normal method of composing away from the piano, then sitting down and learning what I wrote.

Featuring a small stub grind on the Pilot exclusive for Maruzen's 140th anniversary, called 神戶花火 or Kobe Fireworks. Inked with Lupine Meadow from @oblationpapers and written out on @fabermusicpublishing manuscript paper, which, while it isn't the greatest, will still tolerate ink pens reasonably well.

#fountainpens #music #kapustin #pilot #maruzen by @atemlicht

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a month ago

I wasn't planning to do much shopping at the SF Pen Show but my partner saw this amazing M600 at @entropyink's table, borrowed it to bring to my table in the nib workers' alley (an act of targeted harassment!!), and then I succumbed of course. The nib was an old specimen, kind of italic-ish, and the raden work by @huyhoangdao was simply too beautiful to pass up.

I inked it with a sample of Birmingham Pen Co's Waterfront Dusk (thanks @oldladywcamera!) which is normally a deep reddish-purple, but as I went slowly when writing this it looks basically black.

Before heading to Millbrae for the show, I'd spent a fun two hours combing City Lights with my partner and (among other books) snagged Peter France's wonderful translations of Osip Mandelstam. This poem is from the Voronezh Notebooks (Воронежские тетради), and I might have produced my best Italic this year for this page.

#fountainpens #calligraphy #poetry #raden #mandelstam by @atemlicht

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a month ago

And that's a wrap! The 4th Singapore International Pen Show is only my 20th show since I embarked on the circuit in 2023 – I still consider myself a bit of a newbie – but this was so cosy and had such friendly vibes, it genuinely kept me going after a gruelling SF show and 16-hour flight. It was good to see old friends again, and make new ones in a building that didn't exist when I last lived here.

Inky hands, L to R: Tsubasa, me, Matthew, Anabelle, and Tommy Zheng of 斷血流 from Taiwan. I had a fantastic time. Can't wait to be back!

#fountainpens #nibwork #penshow #singaporepenshow by @atemlicht

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a month ago

I find myself returning again and again to Rilke. Spending the last week mired in grief and feeling listless, I've been trying to find things to do to take my mind away from the yawning absence at home. And so this little poem, in Foundational, which I always say I'm rusty in but never really practise enough to get better at... maybe it's time to do some focused work.

Meanwhile, Rilke in French casts a very different light than his great German works. It's softer and less stark; not exactly more pastoral, but more "innig". The poems are smaller. Less existential, more rooted in an appreciation for the natural beauty he was surrounded by in Valais. Written at the end of his life, "in a borrowed tongue", there's something almost careful about these words.

from Vergers (1924–5), translated by A. Poulin, Jr.

33.
The sublime is a departure.
Instead of following, something
in us starts going its own way
and getting used to heavens.

Isn't art's extreme encounter
the tenderest farewell?
And music: that last glance
that we ourselves throw back at us!

Omas 150625, ground to a small stub, inked with Maruzen Athena Hatobanezu. Written on Original Crown Mill pure cotton paper.

#fountainpens
#calligraphy #omas150625 #rilke #poetry by @atemlicht

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2 months ago

After a lovely summer at @glyndebourne I'm really excited to be returning for the autumn season as Second Bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro and covering the role of Frankie for the world premiere of Spark. I’ll also be performing in their Beethoven 9 performances and the Christmas concerts.

Bit of Werther in the Organ Room at Glyndebourne from a surprisingly stress free recording session alongside some lovely pals ❤️ #postthataria

Recording 🎥 : Mark Bautista @filipinotenore
Piano 🎹 : Thomas Ang @atemlicht taken in Glyndebourne Opera House by @atemlicht

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2 months ago

Commission work: a sweet E. E. Cummings poem, coincidentally one of my favourites. Italian paper, slightly smaller than A4. Written using a prototype nib by @stringsandpedals, a VP-sized Harmonic made in silver and ground to a small stub. The ink is Birmingham Pen Co's Heron, which is a nice teal with pretty decent flow (I was initially worried that it would be dry).

#fountainpens #calligraphy #eecumings #poetry #italic by @atemlicht

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2 months ago

Commission work: fragment of Hiromi's recording of Beethoven's Pathétique, meant for a wedding anniversary.

Pilot Custom Kaede with FA nib ground to an italic tip, inked with Robert Oster Blood Moon (gift from @wargamingoverlord). 300gsm cold-pressed paper by Saunders Waterford.

#fountainpens #manuscript #pilot #nibgrind #calligraphy by @atemlicht

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2

2 months ago