So Many Sailors... Part Five!

Yes, Sailor pen lovers! Your two favorite things are back again this year for the month of September:  Sailor North America’s spectacular “Don’t Miss The Boat” Sales Event, and my recurring blog series, "So Many Sailors! Navigating the Colorful Waters of Sailor Pens." I started this saga way back in March, 2022, because I wanted to feature some of the older releases you may have missed over the past few years, and I always love adding a new chapter.  Taking photos of pretty Sailors and writing about what makes each one special and unique is so much fun, the only downside is that I get tempted by my own article and end up penabling myself. But, at 40% off, at least I get a great deal if that happens!  Prices will go back to normal on October 1st, so, if you've been eyeing a Sailor, now is the perfect opportunity to take the plunge.  Hopefully I can help you choose!

 

Six More Sailors

For this installment of the saga, I decided to feature (top to bottom):  Violet Jellyfish, Sailor's Pen of the Year 2023 (Golden Olive), Sound of Rain Autumn Drizzle, Seasonal Festival Kiku, Manyo #2 Moss, and Bleu Ciel. I'll talk about why I love these six pens individually below, but first I just wanted to show you how pretty they are together in my pen tray in the late afternoon sunlight. Many pens can look very different depending on the lighting they are in, and I was astonished when I first saw a couple of these in bright sun. Violet Jellyfish, Golden Olive, and Kiku all actually have various degrees of sparkle, depending on lighting, but I'll talk more about that later!

 

Model Summary, Sale List, and Warning

It's been a year since my last "So Many Sailors...!" episode, so you might want to refresh your memory with a quick review of my Sailor Model Summary. If you're already a Sailor collector, you probably know, so feel free to skip this part, but to summarize Sailor's most popular models as simply as possible:

• 1911 Standard (1911S): mid-size torpedo-shaped pens with 14K nibs.
• 1911 Large (1911L): full-size torpedo shaped pens with 21K nibs.
• 1911 King of Pen: largest size torpedo shaped pens with extra large 21K nibs.
• Professional Gear Slim Mini:  small flat ended pocket pens with 14K nibs.
• Professional Gear Slim: small flat ended pens with 14K nibs.
• Professional Gear (Pro Gear Standard): slightly longer and thicker flat-ended pens with 21K nibs.
• Professional Gear King of Pens: largest size flat ended pens, with extra large 21K nibs.

In addition to the body shape/size choices, you will also have a lot of nib choices with a Sailor. Not all pens come with every nib option, but the potential nibs are:  Extra Fine, Fine, Medium Fine, Medium, Broad, Zoom, and Music. (The majestic King of Pens models are only available in Medium and Broad.)

For a very in-depth discussion of Sailor models and nibs, refer back to my article on Getting to Know Sailor Nibs from July, 2023.  In that article, I compared the Professional Gear Slim Mini, Pro Gear Slim, Pro Gear Standard, Pro Gear King of Pens, 1911S, 1911L, 1911 King of Pens, and all possible sixteen nib sizes.

Just be aware, we have very limited remaining stock of some of these discontinued designs, and can't order any more from Sailor, so, even though the pen may have originally come in a wider variety of nib choices, we may only have one or two left.  If you see one you love that's still available, act quickly!  Things move very fast during the month of September.

Below are lists of all the "Don't Miss the Boat" sale models that we still have right now.  It's a lot of pens! I've put the ones that are new to the sale towards the top of each section.

1911 Standard and 1911 Large pens:

- Sea Nettle Jellyfish 1911S
- Fried Egg Jellyfish 1911S
- Violet Jellyfish 1911S - featured in this article
- Freshwater Jellyfish 1911S
- Pen of the Year 2023 (Golden Olive):  1911S and 1911L - featured in this article
- 4 A.M.: 1911L - featured in Part One
- Key Lime: 1911S and 1911L - featured in Part Two
- Loch Ness Monster: 1911S and 1911L - featured in Part One
- Royal Tangerine: 1911S and 1911L - featured in Part Three
- Stormy Sea: 1911L - featured in Part Four
- Trinity: 1911S and 1911L - featured in Part Four

Professional Gear Slim Mini pens:

- Glycine Violet Professional Gear Slim Mini Rencontre #2  
- Vert Sapin Professional Gear Slim Mini Rencontre #2
- Pistache Professional Gear Slim Mini Rencontre #2
- Gris Fer Professional Gear Slim Mini Rencontre #2
- Bordeaux Ponce Professional Gear Slim Mini Rencontre #1 
- Bleu Ciel Professional Gear Slim Mini Rencontre #1 - featured in this article

Professional Gear Slim pens:

- Seasonal Festival Seri Professional Gear Slim (set with ink, or single)
- Seasonal Festival Momo Professional Gear Slim (single)
- Seasonal Festival Koi Professional Gear Slim (set with ink, or single)
- Seasonal Festival Sasa Professional Gear Slim (set with ink, or single)
- Seasonal Festival Kiku Professional Gear Slim (set with ink, or single) - featured in this article

- Spring Rain Sound of Rain Professional Gear Slim
- Summer Rain Sound of Rain Professional Gear Slim    
- Autumn Drizzle Sound of Rain Professional Gear Slim - featured in this article
- Winter Rain Sound of Rain Professional Gear Slim

- Manyo #2 Grass Professional Gear Slim set with ink
- Manyo #2 Rabbit Ear Iris Professional Gear Slim set with ink
- Manyo #2 Violet Professional Gear Slim set with ink
- Manyo #2 Wisteria Professional Gear Slim set with ink
- Manyo #2 Moss Professional Gear Slim set with ink - featured in this article
- Manyo #1Dianthus Professional Gear Slim set with ink

- Metallic Blue Professional Gear Slim
- Metallic Purple Professional Gear Slim - featured in Part Four
- Transparent Orange Professional Gear Slim
- Transparent Pink Professional Gear Slim
- Transparent Green Professional Gear Slim

Professional Gear Standard Size pens:

- Bora Bora Waters Professional Gear - featured in Part Two. This is our store exclusive!
- Gin Cocktail Series (2022 edition) Professional Gear five-pen set
- Blue Train Gin Cocktail Professional Gear
- Blue Margarita Cocktail Cantina Professional Gear

Professional Gear Multiple Size Variation pens:

- Follow the Mermaid Professional Gear: slim and standard
- Moonlight Over the Ocean Professional Gear:  standard
- Pillow Book Spring Sky Professional Gear: slim, standard, and King of Pen
- Pen of the Year 2022 (Soda Pop Blue) Professional Gear:  slim and standard - featured in Part Four
- Fire Professional Gear: standard and King of Pen - featured in Part Three
- Pillow Book - Autumn Sky Professional Gear: slim and standard - featured in Part Two
- Storm Over The Ocean Professional Gear: standard and King of Pen - featured in Part Four
- Sunset Over the Ocean Professional Gear: slim and standard - featured in Part One
- Too Hot Habanero Professional Gear: slim and standard - featured in Part Two

Whew!  Please note that as the month goes on, many of these will sell out, so some items on the lists will become invalid.

 

Violet Jellyfish

Sailor's beautiful Jellyfish 1911S Special Edition collection was new in 2023, and features five different translucent sea jelly-inspired pens:  Sea Nettle, Fried Egg, Violet, Freshwater, and OhWan.  OhWan sold out quickly, but we still have some left in the remaining colors, all of which are gorgeous jewel tones with metashine, a dust-fine shimmer within the resin barrel that catches the light. The metashine is particularly beautiful in bright sunlight, and when I brought the Violet Jellyfish outside to look at it by the Patuxent River, I couldn't stop staring at the unusual way the pen shimmered as I held it in my hand over the glimmering water! The constantly changing twinkles are impossible to fully convey in a photograph, but the pen really does remind me of watching bioluminescent sea creatures glittering in the ocean water.

Sea jellies are one of my favorite creatures, so these 1911S pens definitely captured my imagination when we got them in the store. Their smoothly curved shape is perfectly suited to express the body of a sea jelly, and the shiny cap ring on this model reflects back light with a dazzling and simple elegance. 

I love watching the real cnidarian's delicate and changeable ethereal pulsating bodies as they move through the water, and they are especially mesmerizing and calming to observe up close, with their fascinating translucence and captivating fluidity.  I remember what delight and wonder it always brought me to hold my hand behind jellies as they swam free through the ocean water, gracefully pulsing and glistening, sometimes see-through and nearly invisible if not for my hand serving as a background in the clear water. I somehow felt linked to both the animal and the ocean itself, as if the jelly existed in an in-between place, where a solid creature like me could bridge a connection to the transparent and fluid water.

Sailor's Jellyfish 1911S brings together the fluidity of ink and of our writing and drawing imagination as its beautiful body bridges our hand to the page.  I think Sailor's Louisiana state ink matches the Violet Jellyfish perfectly and I got messy with it, letting my hand relax and float freely.

I love the unusual warm shade of red-leaning violet chosen for this pen, and the way the cap can appear lit from within.  So beautiful!  As a purple lover, I can't stop thinking about the Violet Jellyfish, although every pen in the series is beautiful and will call out to different people. 

The Jellyfish series has two different trim pairings, depending on color.  Japanese Sea Nettle and Fried Egg Jellyfish feature gold trim and 14K gold nibs, while Violet Jellyfish, Freshwater Jellyfish, and OhWan Jellyfish have silver trim and 14K gold nibs with silver rhodium plating.  All five pens come with a choice of fine, medium fine, or medium nibs.

 

Golden Olive

Am I starting to lose my squeamishness about demonstrator pens?  Maybe!  When I selected the six pens for this article, the warm translucent green of Sailor's 2023 Pen of the Year stood out to me as especially appealing. I bought home the larger size, but the pen is available in both 1911S and 1911L. It's a shade of green that's hard to define.  I wouldn't call it olive, but what does it remind me of?  Maybe mint tea, or certain leaves when the sun shines through them and gives them a translucence and warmth I always love to see. The pen is a relaxing color that makes me think of nature, of warm afternoons reading books outside with the filtered sunlight shining down on me through trees.

When Golden Olive was released in March, 2023, Sailor invited us to, "Celebrate the return of spring with the Sailor 1911 Pen of the Year 2023 – Golden Olive. Longer days full of courage and hope are quietly replacing the dreary, dark days of winter, while whispers of summer lay just ahead."  Yes!  That is exactly the feeling this pen, and the month of March, evokes for me.

This material of Golden Olive features gold luster suspended throughout the green resin, resulting in what Sailor describes as an "attractive, velvety gleam." Yes!  There is something velvety about the look, like the way the inviting pile of velvet fabric catches the light and reflects back a gentle sheen that makes you want to rub your hand over the surface. It soothes both your sense of sight and touch with its softness.

The 1911 body style of this pen is simple and classic, and the yellow gold accents bring even more warmth to the look. The shiny gold-plated cap ring features special "2023" engraving to remind you of a year you may want to hold onto. What memories do you associate with 2023? Meeting someone who became special to you? Welcoming a new family member? A graduation, job, new adventure, or other life transition that is important to you?  Maybe it's something only you know about.  You may have made a discovery about yourself that you haven't shared with others yet, but 2023 revealed it to you. 

Golden Olive is a North American exclusive, and is available in extra fine, fine, medium fine, medium, and broad. I loved the beautiful 21K medium nib on the 1911L I tried, with a pleasing amount of feedback to keep me grounded, and a nice smooth flow of ink.  

  

Autumn Drizzle

This time of year, in September, we begin to transition from the warm sunny green of spring and summer to the shorter days and cooler weather of fall. Sailor's intriguing "The Sound of Rain" Professional Gear Slim series "evokes the peace and grace of rain with the gentle matte colors" of all four seasons, but I found myself most drawn to the Autumn Drizzle colorway, a soft mauve with trim in a subdued gold shade that is strikingly different from the bright yellow gold of the Golden Olive 1911.

  

Kiku

Kiku, a soft coral colored Professional Gear Slim, is part of Sailor's Seasonal Festival series, which was designed in honor of Japan's five traditional celebrations that take place each year. I love the color of this pen, and it always catches my eye when I look into our Sailor case.

The five pens in the series are available both in elegant limited edition sets with a matching ink bottle from the Sailor Shikiori line, and also as individual pens in standard hinged blue Sailor boxes.  They all have gold trim, very subtle shimmer, and a 14K gold nib in fine, medium-fine, or medium. The Kiku set is paried with Kinmokusei ink, a beautiful orange that's one of my favorites from Sailor!

Since it's almost September 9th right now, it's appropriate that I chose Kiku for this article!  The Choyo no Sekku (Chrysanthemum Festival) is celebrated at a time when chrysanthemums bloom. These flowers were said to bring longevity, so the festival was also called Kiku (chrysanthemum) no Sekku.