One of the best things about pen shows is discovering a new-to-me creator. At the California Pen Show, I was able to walk around a bit on Sunday and stumbled across Rubato Pen Studio.
Her handcrafted mini pens were displayed on vintage cake stands like the candy-colored confections they are. Some of the pens featured charms on rings on the cap ends, others featured botanical embedded in the resin. There were pastel colors and glitter as well as shimmery tones.
She uses Schmidt nibs specifically because it allows the nibs to be interchangeable with a dip nib (specifically a Zebra G or similar). There is even mention on her web site that a brush pen unit can fit into the grip but I am a little vague about which specific model fits.
Her prices for these pens, made entirely by the creator — from the resins to the finished pens, was incredibly reasonable too. Like so much so I basically said, “Here, take my money!”
Each pen purchased at the show came in a cute little neoprene case (she let customers pick their own color so I picked lime green, of course!). Inside, she included some extra o-rings to eyedropper the pen, an empty cartridge and a full cartridge plus a syringe to fill cartridges. Since the pen is very small, a full sized converter will not fit but I think a Kaweco mini converter might fit. I will probably end up eyedropper filling mine after the cartridge I used is empty.
The pen I ended up purchasing has a shimmery pink grip section, a barrel that looks like strawberry ice cream melted into the base and a sprinkles cap. With the pink pompom on top like a cherry, the whole pen reminds me of a strawberry ice cream sundae. Or a birthday cupcake. It just made me so happy the moment I saw it.
The cap is a golden translucent material with gold shimmer and the big metallic sprinkles embedded in the resin. It looks like magic in a pen.
The barrel section, shown above shows the same translucent golden shimmer but is layered towards the end with an array of pinky opaque colors.
The end of the barrel is threaded to accommodate the cap to make the pen a similar length to a Kaweco Sport but the Rubato Pen is a little shorter.
By the time I met up with friends for dinner on Sunday night, we discovered that all four of us had purchased a Rubato Pen independently of one another and wanted to show them off (we had all pocketed our little cases to do show-and-tell at dinner and had a good giggle when we all showed off Rubato Pen Studio pens!)
While I know Schmidt nibs aren’t everyone’s favorite, I think the reasoning behind Rubato choosing the Schmidt nib unit is a solid one. If you are someone who likes to play around with eye dropper mini pens or dip nibs and like a good sparkly pen, I highly recommend Rubato Pen Studio. It sounds like she will have a table at the SF Pen Show in August and hopefully, she will be restocking her online shop soon.
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I just had a quick look at the website, and I feel my one-word reaction is, “adorable”. I’m mostly not a fan of Benu’s styles, but I certainly get their attraction in a fountain pen world where difference is a hard nut to crack. These Rubato pens remind me of Benu, but here my subjectivity is enamoured. That is to say, “I want one!”.
I had the same comparison to Benu when I read the post! I long thought that Benus were lovely designs but just didn’t fit my style. Now I have two Benus, having found one that is relatively understated and a second that appealed to me from their Talisman line. Rubato seems to have a similar position for me where, even though none of their current designs need to be in my hands, they are nonetheless unique and wonderful and I get the appeal. I’ll have to keep my eyes out for future iterations.