If you’re particular about your writing utensil and love a smooth, gorgeous pen, these may be right up your alley.
Creator of the sleek, innovative, and incredibly aesthetic dip pens, Neacol Miller of Tiefling Glass and Bling Squared Cute Glass, has been gathering knowledge and experience in the glass sculpting industry for 15 years, which has contributed to her successful creations.
Each piece is hand-sculpted borosilicate glass, and they’ve each been properly annealed and tested for durability and writing excellence.
In an interview with Victoria Buzz, she shared that it was her friends that really pushed her to come up with the design for the pen, as many of them are pen collectors and admire her other works.
And although she’s grown confident in her glassworking skillset and was happy to accept the challenge, she knew that with anything related to glass, obstacles are inevitable.
Not only because learning something new takes patience and plenty of error, but also because there’s a surprising amount of secrecy revolving around glasswork.
“A lot of glass technique is very gatekept,” Miller confessed.
Adding that the secrecy stems from the history and legend of Murano, an Italian island that’s famous for its exquisite glasswork and the lengths they went to keep their precious techniques to themselves—including allegedly imprisoning the artists on the island.
“Based entirely on that tradition, glasswork has been very secretive until recently. The internet has broken those barriers down, but there are still some artists that don’t share. So, some techniques can be very hard to learn unless there’s someone to teach you,” she said.
“Living and growing up with glassers on Salt Spring Island, there’s not a lot of options for that. When I first started learning glass, I took a basic bead-making class, and after, besides the odd class, I’ve been self-taught.”
The difficulties she faced when trying to learn how to make the pen was no exception. She couldn’t find anyone to teach her, but managed to find a great junior artist online whose videos helped her connect the missing pieces.
“There’s a last step, or cold-working process for the nibs that I couldn’t figure out…I was able to get it from this artist online. Since then, I’ve been trying to make them and remake them.”
“It’s been a lot of trial and error. My new pens will now write for a minute and a half [before you dip again]…which is really good. My first pens could only get a few words out.”
Miller admires the dip pen for swatching ink, trying out new fancy inks, and giving people that meditative excuse to slow down their thoughts and really admire the movement that goes into writing as well as the words that emerge.
“They really slow you down, you have to be really present with what you’re writing and mindful when you’re working with them…it really brings you into the moment.”
“The nib feels really good on the page too, the sound is so satisfying.”
Each dip pen’s finished look is unique and presents a different array of colour as it reacts to the heat and is manipulated by her skilled hands.
When we asked if Miller adheres to the gated culture of glasswork, she laughed and said no.
“I’m really open. I’m hoping that by sharing the information, I can enable other people to make their own art…I like encouraging others to use their artistic voice.”
“When you have secrets, you always have to worry about them. If you’re open…it’s less stressful and it takes the weight off.”
She mentioned that she will be teaching classes in Vancouver at the Terminal City Glass Co-op in March and in April at the Glass Craft and Bead Expo in Las Vegas.
Additionally, she’s on TikTok and is hoping to start lessons on Salt Spring Island in May as a way to continue to open up the art of glasswork to others that wish to learn and make it their own.
Her work goes beyond the art of dip pens as well, and you can find her soft glass work here—which includes pendants, little figures, and more. Dates for classes as well as other announcements can be found there.
Occasionally, her work pops up at local markets in and around Victoria too, so keep an eye out!
