Interview with Shu-Jen of Taccia Pens

Last week, we had the pleasure of interviewing Shu-Jen Lin of Taccia Pens about her latest pen creation, The Palatial Pearl Collection. Using mother of pearl and abalone with deep, colored resins, Shu-Jen was able to create her, in my humble opinion, best mother-of-pearl pen series to date.

Goldspot: To give our readers some background information on you and Taccia pens, please briefly explain how you started Taccia and your goals for designing pens.

Shu-Jen: I founded TACCIA on my core belief that pens should be affordable, stylish, and well-built. I believe pens are the perfect accessory –fun to collect, display, and wear, and an intimate form of communication often lost in this internet age. Inspired by many cultures, including traditional and modern American, Asian, and European styles, I strive to develop and produce pens that cater to both males and females, young and old, for all occasions – casual and formal. A pen, like a watch or a car, can help define a person’s style. TACCIA currently carries several colorful and attractive lines, and we will be releasing many more in the future.

GS: Taccia is one of the few pen manufacturers that still use mother of pearl and abalone in manufacturing pens. Why do you believe that is so?

SJ: At TACCIA we are always trying to come up with innovative new ways to apply beautiful materials on our pens. Our tradition with Mother of Pearl dates back several years and collections—all of which have been very popular and successful with pen aficionados and as a fine luxury accessory. This experience with mother of pearl and abalone gives us an formidable technical and artistic background to design and produce great-looking pearl pens. We believe the Palatial Pearl is our most beautiful pearl pen yet.


GS: Would you be able to explain how mother of pearl is technically used in the pen-making process?

SJ: Strips of mother of pearl and abalone are hand-cut and hand-inlaid onto a precision-cut barrel. Each piece needs to be cut to precise, exact standards to ensure a perfect fit and seal.

GS: What was your inspiration behind the Palatial Pearl? How did you come to decide the pairing of the color resin cap with the barrel?

SJ: In 2009 and 2010, we launched 3 Limited Edition lines that have gone on to build TACCIA's name and help us push forward a streamlined design and a solid technical build. The Palatial Pearl is a culmination of the experience and style TACCIA has become known for both from our Limited Editions and from our pearl pens.
With the Celestial Pearl Collection, we began experimenting with colored resin to be paired with pearl. The results and feedback were very positive all-around, so we chose to continue that concept with the Palatial Pearl.

GS: The previous mother of pearl pens (Pantheon, Celestial) have been gargantuan, but the Palatial seems a bit thinner and not as "clunky" to hold. Was this a choice made based on user feedback?

SJ: From the beginning, we designed the Palatial Pearl to have a more modern and sleek look. Many of our pens vary in size and girth, and, like many others, we ourselves saw the need to move towards a more compact design.

GS: Are the new bi-color steel nibs (with Taccia Logo) going to be standard on all the higher-end model Taccia pens?

SJ: We are currently discussing this standard. For the time being the Palatial Pearl will ship with two-tone steel nibs.

GS: Any thoughts on the next pearl line or any other upcoming series that Taccia is working on?

SJ: For now we are just working hard to produce and promote the Palatial Pearl. We have a couple new collections that are currently in the prototype phase that should be introduced very soon!

Big thanks to Shu-Jen for giving us the time during a busy move to answer our interview questions. You may browse our entire selection of Taccia Pens or behold the beauty of the Palatial Pearl for yourself.

Review : Taccia Merit Fountain Pen

Bold, bright colors and chrome (or gold)-pressed appointments accent Taccia's newest release, the Merit Collection. Although this pen has an overall body shape that is pleasing to the eye and comfortable to hold, the first distinct feature you will notice is the transparent ink window. Following the recent upward trend in transparency in pen design (i.e. Monteverde Mega fountain, Pelikan M205 Blue Demo, Aurora Optima Demo), the Merit offers the writer a glimpse into the converter (or cartridge) to view the ink level. The collection is offered in a matching rollerball as well. There is also an ink window on the rollerball model as well, which is pretty useless considering the rollerball cartridge is opaque. I tried out the Onyx Black fountain pen in medium point. The large nib is German stainless steel with iridium point. I filled the converter with Noodler's Bulletproof Black and gave it a test run on some Levenger Circa paper. Initial impressions : plastic, but done well. The body is made from polished resin through and through. No brass body to the pen or cap. The ample girth and polished trims really save this pen from looking, or feeling cheap. The light weight is actually a positive in my book, as it is more comfortable to write with for long periods of time. The nib flows very wet without scratching or any intermittent flow issues. Even with Bulletproof Black, which tends to not flow so generously through my Pelikan M215 Fine Point, the lines are very smooth and rich. The Medium is great for signatures and faster handwriting styles. The nib quality is on par with some of the best steel nibs that are out there. A few pet peeves I have about the pen are cap-related issues. One : the cap posts very loosely on the back of the pen. This is a make or break for many fountain pen people out there, including me. Also, the cap does not screw back on to the business end of the pen very smoothly. I usually have to try once or twice to get the threads aligned properly. The major selling point of the Merit collection is the price. At a retail value of $95 for the fountain pen and $80 for the rollerball, the Merit is a great value and can be compared to pens that are twice as expensive. When you order them from Goldspot Pens, every finish goes for $75.95 Fountain / $63.95 Rollerball. Summary:

• Writing Quality : Large, German-made, Stainless Steel nib (available in fine, medium or broad) writes wet and flows nicely. Top pick amongst other Stainless Steel FP's (grade A-)
• Aesthetic Quality : Simplistic, but nice choice of vibrant-colored resins. (grade B)
• Utility : Fountain pen Ink window lets you know when to fill up before the ink runs out. However, the cap does not post tightly on the back and the screw threads to close the pen are not very smooth. (grade B)
• Price : At $95 retail (on sale for $75.95 at Goldspot.com), this is a very affordable value for a pen that can easily be considered in the same tier as a Parker Sonnet, Waterman Perspective or an Aurora Ipsilon. (grade A-)

Final Grade : B+ We can give a lot of "merit" to the price of this line, given the current economic climate, but I will choose to give credit to the high-quality nib and the usefulness of the ink window.

Taccia Nightlife Review

This is our first foray into doing reviews for our pens, so be kind and feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

Last autumn, the California-based pen company Taccia released the Nightlife collection, which is inspired by the bright lights of some of the world's most exciting cities. The aptly-named finishes are : NYC Blue, Vegas Sage, Paris Lilca and Golden Gate Copper. The first striking feature of this pen is the glittering barrel. One of the astounding specs of the pen is that it is layered with sixty coats of sparkling lacquer, a process that takes twenty days to complete. The painstaking effort is certainly rewarded with a gorgeous finish.

The size and heft are fairly significant, as is the sa

me with most Taccia full-sized writing instruments. 

The presentation is very sleek. The pen arrives in a navy blue

leatherette box with Taccia stamped in gold on the top. The insides, instead of the usual white plush interior most manufacturers use, is a black, ruffled, satin-like fabric. The use of black in the box and the design of the pen amplify the color of the lacquered guilloche barrel.

The Nightlife fountain pen is sold with a stainless steel, iridium-tipped nib in medium point (standard) but is also available in fine or broad sizes (special request, no extra charge) in stainless steel or 18ct solid gold (additional $140 cost). For the purposes of this review, I chose to test the standard stainless steel nib. 

I loaded the pen with some Levenger Blue Bahama ink via the converter that is included with  the Nightlife pen. I know some people will disagree with me, but my natural inclination is to post the cap while writing. The cap screws on to the back of the pen and one of my aesthetic points that I look for is if the cap screws on so that the clip runs parallel with the nib point. It certainly does in this case (refer to picture on right). However, when the cap is screwed on, this pen is a behemoth to hold in my averaged-sized mitts. This pen is by far much more comfortable to write with the cap unposted. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I let it slide.

As far as the nib and the writing experience, the medium width offers a wet and generous amount of ink flow on your standard notebook paper or copier paper. I don't have any of the nicer papers to use here (*wink *wink) but our company is going to be looking into distributing some notebooks and paper in the future. The nib is a tiny bit scratchy, but offers good stroke coverage and doesn't have any issues starting or skipping.

We will be grading based upon four criteria : Writing Quality, Aesthetic Quality, Utility and Price.

And here it goes:

• Writing Quality : Medium Stainless Steel nib flows nicely, but is a bit scratchy. Pen is bit too large and back heavy with the cap posted. (grade B - )
• Aesthetic Quality : The lacquered guilloche barrel is definitely a dazzling sight. The black and silver combination with the lustrous lacquer is elegant, sleek and unisex. (grade A )
• Utility : Cap posts perfectly with the screw threads. Clips on to shirt pockets very nicely. Weight and girth may be an issue for portability and fitting into said shirt pocket.  (grade B+ )
• Price : A bit pricey for a stainless steel nib, but you know you will be paying for all the time it took to apply the sixty coats of lacquer. In my honest opinion, if you love the look of it, it is worth it. (grade B )

Final Grade : B+

Overall, the Taccia Nightlife is a beauty to stare at, but not quite the daily writer that I could imagine scribbling dozens of pages of notes with. My hand was already tired after writing the review. Maybe I need to get a squeeze ball or something.