Simon Webb: Handcrafted Pens

20 October 2015

Simon Webb Artisan Pens

Penning a new business story

Those of us of a certain age, that remember scratchy nib pens and inkwells in desks and then the later cartridge pens, could be forgiven for thinking that the Biro and indeed the text message and e-mail had rendered fountain pens obsolete. But not a bit of it.

Recent years have seen a resurgence in their use as this article on the BBC website demonstrates. And along the way the humble fountain pen has gone beyond splodgy, messy function to become a luxury item & a stylish accessory. Along with cufflinks** and designer handbags for ladies of course.

So, rather than heeding the words of Paul Simon who said, “you want to be a writer, don’t know where or when?

Find a quiet place, use a humble pen”

You can instead scribble away with a stylish hand-turned writing implement from the workshop of Simon Webb. Oneupmanship with your penmanship?

In the aforementioned BBC article Sharon Hughes, a buyer for John Lewis commented: “people relish returning to solid, traditional objects to make sense of a difficult and complex world.”

And a solid, traditional and beautifully made object is exactly what you get with a Simon Webb pen. What’s more, no two are exactly the same. It’s not many of us that can afford a Montblanc or a silver Parker Pen. So owning one of Simon’s pens is absolutely the very next best thing.

Indeed, as the company website says: ” Of course pens and pencils are, first and foremost, functional items. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful too. The writing instruments we produce are a perfect marriage of form and function.”

Pens with history

But beyond being carefully crafted things of beauty, some of Simon’s pens, such as his Lydiard Pens, have unusual back stories. Available via Swindon’s Lydiard House, the eponymous pens available there are crafted from a 300 year old walnut tree destroyed in the 2013 winter storms.

Alternatively you can be the proud owner of a pen made from the mulberry tree in the garden of the Richard Jefferies’ Museum in Swindon. What finer and more appropriate thing can there be than to write with a pen made from the tree that was written about by Swindon’s famous son and writer, Richard Jefferies?

Of course, owning one of these pens is unlikely to improve your handwriting and it might not make the muse anymore compliant. But at least you can scrawl and scribe and suffer writer’s block clutching in your hand a sensuous yet functional object. And one with a bit of history attached to boot. Simon even sells Diamine ink to go with the pens. Handy or what?

Contact Simon

You can email Simon at sales@simon-webb.co.uk or go old school and pick up the phone and call him on: 07834 375628. And, given the ‘old school’ nature of the products – that’s somewhat appropriate.

Bespoke pens

Simon also takes orders for bespoke pens – hence should you happen to have a piece of wood that carries a special meaning to you there’s an excellent chance it can be turned into a very personal and beautiful writing instrument.

Time to dig out the blotting paper and the airmail writing pad methinks?

To find out more visit the website: http://www.simon-webb.co.uk/index.html

**Simon also turns his hand to cufflinks.

bog-oak-and-kauri cufflinks — Bog-oak-and-kauri

cufflinks amboyna-in-gold-silver — Amboyna wood cufflinks

Read a brief history of cufflinks here: https://swindonian.me/2016/11/09/a-brief-cufflink-history/

From motherboard to lathe

After many years working in information technology Simon, an engineer at heart, gave up coding and turned to crafting. That said, Simon keeps a finger in the IT pie as curator and director of Swindon’s Museum of Computing.

Born and raised in Wiltshire, Simon comes from a family of craftsmen. His grandfather was a sign writer in Swindon’s famous GWR railway works and his father was also a talented craftsman who taught Simon much of what he knows.