New fountain pen - Opus 88 Fantasia

April 17, 2019 | 11 Comments


A few weeks ago I got a new fountain pen. It’s an Opus 88 Fantasia and I love it a lot. Such lovely colours!

It’s an eyedropper pen meaning that you fill up the body of the pen with ink (no cartridge) so that you get a lot of ink storage. This is a pocket pen but has the same ink capacity of a TWSBI eco. This pen also has a fancy shut off valve which prevents leakage especially when flying.

I filled my pen with a personal ‘light burnt sienna’ mix of De Atramentis Document ink (a mix of yellow, red and a bit of brown) and I think it’s a perfect match for the pen. I haven’t been using it much recently, so the pen has been sitting around for a week or so unused, but yesterday when I got it out again, it was flowing well.

It’s one of the more expensive fountain pens in my collection and it’s a gorgeous high quality pen. I only have a few pens over the $100 mark as I normally use the lower end fountain pens – I’m afraid of losing them when I’m out sketching. But I was impressed by the Opus 88 range – the larger pens are a little thicker with incredible storage. If you are happy to invest in a little more for a fancy fountain pen, the Opus 88 range is worth checking out.

This particular pen was a gift from Larrypost which is super nice – thankyou! Larrypost is an amazing online store in Sydney which stocks all kinds of amazing sketching supplies. They were the ones to discover De Atramentis Document ink years ago and helped develop the recent Urban Grey colour. The Larrypost gang are always super helpful and very knowledgable – I have learnt a lot from them! (Note: Although I occasionally get some samples/ free materials to test, I predominately still purchase all my own art supplies and spend way too much on new stuff – just like everyone else!)

11 Comments

  • Fiona says:

    It looks so nice! I hear you about fear of losing them _ A few weeks ago I lost my leather pencil case with prized pens and pencils, so sad. It included three gifts, two of which I can’t replace as well as a Lamy Joy and Safari, still grieving. Had hoped someone would return it to the cafe in North Sydney where I lost it and just now coming to terms with the idea of replacing them…. At least I have sketches of some from my Foundations Lesson 1!

  • Luz Guerra says:

    What a gorgeous pen—and I love the ink capacity. (I received a Pilot Custom Heritage 92 for my birthday, a piston fill that holds 1.1 ml of ink — what a difference in capacity!)

    I’d love to see more pictures of your Opus alongside other objects and/or held in your hand to get an idea of the size of the pen. Due to arthritis in my hands, I prefer smaller, lighter weight pens.

    Congratulations on this addition to your collection! I look forward to reports on how you like it for drawing and writing, and seeing more drawings of it in your posts.

  • Alan Barbour says:

    That does look like a very nice pen, and the mechanism is impressive. But it IS rather expensive. A Fountain Pen Darjeeling (usable as an eyedropper pen) starts at $15, for comparison. Very few of my vintage fountain pens are that expensive. Nice looking, though. And the ink capacity should be really impressive compared to a modern cartridge-converter pen (less so compared to a classical (which effectively means vintage) ink sac design). Maybe for a Christmas present, though…

  • Arlene Lennox says:

    I sit up and take notice when you get a new fountain pen. I got a Lamy Joy because of you and I love it, so after a bit of research I decided to order this, too. It was a little hard to find with a fine point. Got a red. Goldspot.com has them.

  • Catherine Ednie says:

    I really want this pen! I’m impressed that you mix your own ink. Wondering how you measure out the quantities to get consistent colors? I’m imagining this is a very messy process!

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Catherine – its quite simple and not that scientific – I just use a pipette to add the extra colour to one base colour. I just go by eye and test it. Less messy that filling up a pen!

  • Marianne Camps says:

    I like the design of the pen a lot. And what a nice present it is!

    i do wonder how you manage your pens with De Atramentis ink in them, since you’re not supposed to let the ink sit in them too long when not in use. You own multiple pens and some of them have a large ink capacity to boot.

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Marianne, I try to use my pens once a week but if its longer than 2 weeks between use ideally I will empty and clean the pen. I do have pens lying around with De A ink in them, but haven’t had a problem to date. I dont recommend this, but the reality isnt quite as disciplined as the theory!

  • Arlene Lennox says:

    My Fantasia came today, just in time to have 2 days to play with it before my 3-week sketching trip to Spain. It was the large ink capacity in a pen only a hair bigger than my TWSBI Mini that sold me on it as a great travel pen. I filled it with Noodler’s Lexington Gray and I’m good to go! Thanks, Liz, this was so timely!

  • Marilyn Hansen says:

    I just purchased the Opus 88 Fantasia pen from a source in the U.S. Same one that you have. Do you use permanent waterproof ink in your pen? I’m not sure what color I want to put in, but something unique!

  • Marilyn Hansen says:

    Hi Liz,
    I recently purchased the Opus 88 Fantasia just like yours and then I saw your post! Haven’t tried the pen out yet because I need to get some ink, but I wanted to know if you use permanent waterproof ink, so that you can use watercolor with the pen.

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