Fountain Pen Made In India : Constellations88

Part-IV 

Fellow FPManiacs, I am back with fourth writeup/interview/insight into the FP industry in India as part of promoting and creating awareness about Made In India initiatives by entrepreneurs. In this case its a Woman-preneur, Narishakti, thats leading the charge. An interesting journey indeed.

 

 

Nisha aur sitarey, How a Passion transformed into a Brand : Constellations88

 

Story of Nisha ..is the story of a young Entrepreneur who dreamt big, planned well, approached logically and took risk. Balanced her role as Mother, housewife, daughter and a family person. Had unflinching support of her husband, understanding of her family. And Constellations88 emerged as Quasar on the horizon of Fountain Pen India.

  "Nisha"  (or Night ) is considered to be both calming and full of mystery.  Dark yet serene; full of hope and despair. A classical example of  oxymoron.
Constellations ..well.. we all know what it is!!! Ha Ha

Today we are going to read about the journey of a Woman-preneur into the cosmic world of fountain pens with her Faithful Vazir and companion , source of inspiration, none other than Vishal Singhi.

For you all here I present... Nisha Singhi.

How and when did you really think about a brand or even this setup?

Nisha Singhi (NS): My husband Vishal Singhi is crazy about fountain pens and his passion over the years made me realize what an FP means to a crazy person like him. Way back in 2013, we saw very beautiful hand painted fountain pen, which was way above our budget. But seeing his interest in it, I decided to gift him a hand painted fountain pen with Goddess Saraswati on it. Now main issue was how and where to get the pen painted, that too not a normal mural but Goddess Saraswati?  So, I picked up fistful of plain black fountain pens from his collection which he wasn't  using much anyways and  started to look for the  artists who could paint on FP. Honestly, I didn't know at that time that how difficult it is? There were so many factors to consider to hand paint an FP. It had been a great learning.  The correct base coat, the paint medium, time it takes to dry each coat of paint, with multiple layers, protective lacquer coating etc etc.. and foremost The Artist, who can do it. It took 7 pens ( guinea-pigs basically 😋) and  14 months later, I had  first hand painted pen ready which I gifted to Vishal. This journey was pretty educating as well as it gave me courage to develop an idea of our own brand of fountain pens, duly hand painted, at a pricing which will not burn a hole in pocket. There was a gap in this segment at that point of time.

When did you launch Constellations88?

NS. Our website www.constellations88.com was launched on 19 December 2015.

That was really a Blind Leap of faith, to get into pen making without having any prior knowledge or experience in pen making?

NS. We didn't have any previous experience or idea about how to go into manufacturing Pens. Only thing we had was, Vishal’s Passion for fountain pens (He is crazy about his pens😊), a decade plus as FP collector combined with our research for couple of years about understanding the market, various price segments, the existing gaps and requirements of FP Lovers. Passion was our biggest strength and motivation too.

You have to dive deep to explore the ocean.

 What is so special about your hand-painted pens?

NS. We offer a variety of hand-painted fountain pens, some of our pens are painted using acrylic paints, some arepeinted with oil paints, some colour lacquered and some were painted using gold foils and gold dust too. All these pens undergo a proprietary base coating that makes the pen come up in a really nice getup. Once the pen is completely hand painted, each pen is coated with a protective glossy crystal lacquer to ensure the longevity of painted figures besides ensuring  the lustrous shine.

 That sounds interesting. How much time does it take to make a pen?

NS. End to end, the entire process takes about 10 to 15 weeks depending upon the design, we have had some custom painting take about 20 weeks too.

 So you make custom paintings on the pens ?

NS. Yes. We have painted pens on bespoke designs that include Hindu dieties like Shree Ganesha, Devi Saraswati, Hanumanji, Bhagwan Shiva. We have made portraits of Balasaheb Thackrey, Mohammed Ali, Twin babies, Hema Malini ji. We  also undertook theme based painted FPs like science themes,  nature as theme, animals etc.

 

Hand Painted Pens

 

 So is Constellations88 just about only hand-painted FPs or there's more to offer?

NS : We started our journey in December 2015 with hand painted fountain pens (we were the first company in India to offer quality hand-painted pens). Our pens have been painted by multiple artists. Besides these, we have expanded our pen base to include material like resin, acrylic, celluloid, and even in-house blanks to make FP  We offer pocket sized pens as well as large sized FPs. Currently, we are offering pens as CC and piston mechanisms to fill the inks, but we do have plans to include other filling mechanism also.

What about your regular line models ?

NS. We started regular line products with limited edition Bromine and Sulfur fountain pens (all sold out). These were made using high quality resin fitted with bock nibs and threaded convertors. They were limited to 88 pieces each and had a silver medallion on the finial. These FPs were priced at around USD 100. The pens were not regular shapes but designed inhouse in not so commonly found shapes, you may refer elements series, plasma, lyra, crux or magnum.  All of our models don’t reflect imitation to any popular models

I am sure you have ventured into accessorizing the FPs too.

NS: We do have some pen cases and accessories  like pen sleeves and cases for 1,2,3 pens, some soft cloth pouches for 5 and 7 pens, pen boxes for 10 pens and folders for 24 and 48 pens. We strictly follow the policy of  NOT using real leather and hence all our products use materials that don't come from animals.

Pouches and Boxes

Pouches

Quatrras

Maharaj Box

12/24/48 Pen Folder

What is your USP ?

NS:  High quality and prompt after sales service is our USP for our regular line products. All Constellations88 products come with 2 year warranty against any manufacturing defects and all issues other than that which may arise over time comes under service warranty.

The gold plating on our products  comes with 3 year warranty as we use top quality PVD to ensure the plating doesn’t wear off even after daily use for three years. 

The techniques and sharpness in our paintings are world class and can give competitions to major players in this segment.

 Constellations88 is rather an unusual and interesting name for a brand that makes writing instruments ?

NS: This venture started with a gift for my husband. I had to think of something that I could dedicate to my husband. His life moves around two things, besides his family of-course, fountain pens and astronomy . Thus came the idea of the name Constellations; and since we have 88 known constellations till date, we named our brand as Constellations88. The names of our collections are derived for various cosmic terms, related to astronomy like Elements, Plasma, Lyra, Crux, Orion, Quarks and our latest offering Galaxy and  Star-ship. Constellations88 Galaxy model are made of Edelharz resin and come in 2 colours blue, and green with clear and coloured demonstrator barrels in blue and green. These can be used as eye dropper too but comes with convertor.

Galaxy Green

Galaxy Blue

Plasma

Plasma

Lyra

Lyra

Elements

Elements

Crux

Crux

Quarks

 What is your customer base ?

NS: Our customer base is spread across the globe, US, UK, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and EU to name few. For hand painted pens, our customers are primarily Indians, staying abroad, however they are equally sought after by others too. The bespoke hand painted fountain pens are our USP as now we have array of artist who cater for variety of art work requirements. For regular line up of pens, we are glad to have evenly spread customer base with high positive feedback.

What are your future Plans?

NS: Will like to keep quiet on this for now, but yes we have something interesting lined up for 2021.

Any interesting incident or stories you want to share?

NS:  Well it happened at the most appropriate moment. pretty interesting and also gave us a lesson for life. We were going to a family function and worst nightmare of a FPlover came true, the FP cap came off, leaving a big spot on Vishal's shirt. It was too late to go, change and comeback. He messaged a few of his friends asking for a quick fix idea to cover ink stain; upon which pet came a reply “Wear it with pride, you are a fountain pen user”. That is the true passion of a fountain pen lover and FPL community, they are crazy.

Your message to FP community?

NS: We understand your love for fountain pens, we respect your passion and we strive to assist you all in the journey. We believe ours is a community where writing is passion and inked fingers AND POCKETS are  a matter of pride. We are so glad to be  well received by this community and will strive to work towards creating  quality fine writing instruments. We would be glad to hear from you with suggestions and recommendations if you may have, please feel free to write to us at support@constellations88.com

 

 #2020, #aatmnirbhar, #BeVocalForLocal, #FPCommunity, #FPManiac , #HANDPAINTED,  #MadeInIndia, #FPClubIndia,swadeshi, #IndianFP, #Constellations88, #Constellations, #Galaxy, #Quarks, #Crux, #Elements, #Plasma, #Lyra,

Dislaimer : 

• All views expressed in this post are of the owner of brand.
• The copyright of all pictures and images is of brand owner
• The details on website of product owner are subject to change as per per requirements of owners of brands
• This is just  suggestive post and I donot endorse any product.
• The author cannot be responsible legally or otherwise, for Any loss or damage or injury by use of any product.
• Respective Brand owners and manufacturers have their copyright of their brands and warranty on products.
• Respective Brands and owners are responsible for promotion of their products and maintaining information and catalogues. 
• Kindly keep yourself updated with latest offers and models

Pst COVID-19 is still here and we have to live with it..However it been blessing in disguise too for FP enthusiasts

 Hello Fellow FP enthusiasts,

Covid 19 has actually played havoc and it's affected one and all. However some of us found it a blessing in disguise with resorting to multiple orders of FP (since there was no outing and diehard FP fans fingers were itching for more 😊) especially in areas where the Postal and Couriers services were restored.

Couple of Groupbuys like #ASA pens, #Ranga pens and #Acriv had a successful subscription to the extent that ASA(Subramanyam Anna) has to resort to FB to declare that they are oversubscribed and they are finding it hard to meet the demands of customers and that they are working overtime to meet the demands of #Orion model (exclusively made by #Click pens for ASA).

Similarly ACRIV came out with unique aeries of #titanium pens, Titanium nibs with name inscribed/etched onto it, Different colour schemes for nibs-with matching acrylics(recycled) or nail paints. :)

So its not been all that disappointing and Though its not all win-win situation but its indeed heartening to know that more and more people are discovering #FP #MadeInIndia.

Another brand that's worth mentioning here is Hyderabad based #Woodex pens who have been noticed for their affordable #Ebonite pens and which has turned out to be a hit with FP community

Its been a long time that I have posted something here on specific brands. Please standby for something  more in this series pretty soon.

Till then #Happy #Hunting #keep_safe_distance #FightCOVID #WearMask

  #FPManiac #FountainPenClubIndia #FPClub

Fountain Pen Made in India : Click Pens

Part-II

( Hi all Fountain pen lovers and FP enthusiasts, this chat cum question answer session with Harsh Gagwani is next in the series of exploring Indian Pen Manufacturers and turners. Hopefully, numerous posts are lined up in this series that I initiated as part of self learning, that would lead into the insight of Indian Fountain pen manufacturers, who are primarily family owned small scale industries or working from home/garage type workshops, skillfully designing and turning masterpieces with their trademarks.)

Feel free to give your views and also what you expect to be included in future posts 

CLICK PENS : Proudly Made in India 

...this is the tag line adopted by Harsh Gagwani, the owner of Unique Pen Industries that produces vast range of Click brand of fountain pens, besides being OEM for many national and international brands. Here we go...

Tell us about different products of your Brand CLICK.

Harsh Gagwani (HG): We have quite a good range of fountain pens in every segment and different materials such as CAB/acrylic turning/ebonite turning. I would be  covering our  Major and Popular models. They are:

Aristocrat: It is an Entry level fountain pen with 3 in 1 ink filling mechanism.This pen is available in 8 colours. The nib size that it takes is 35 mm nibs. We provide a plunger type converter and 2 large ink cartridges with each pen in this category.

Falcon: The Falcon series is again a 3 in 1 ink filling mechanism pen, that takes 35 mm nib and we provide one piston type converter and 2 large ink cartridges with each pen. This series of pens have many options and are subdivided into 

• Falcon Ebonite: At present we have ebonite blanks in four different color, that are turned into attractive pens.
• Falcon Carbon Black AG /AS: Black ebonite is available with either antique gold or silver plated trims.
• Falcon Acrylic: It comes in a total of eight attractive acrylic colours.
• Falcon Premium Acrylic: Its available in three attractive premium acrylic colours

Century: The century series also has a 3 in 1 ink filling mechanism and will take a 5 number nib and comes with piston type converter and 2 large ink cartridges. The series is sub divided into 

• Century Ebonite: There are four different ebonite blanks being used for this series.
• Century Carbon Black AG: These pens are of matte black finish with antique gold-plated trims
• Century Acrylic: This model comes in total of eight attractive acrylic colours.

All the 3 models mentioned above, have 4 nib options  as fine, medium, broad and flex. 

What are the various  processes involved in manufacturing and arriving at final product?
HG :       In case of acrylic pens, the process starts with Acrylic sheets which we turn then them into rods and caps and barrel of the particular size, depending upon the models we are manufacturing. For ebonite, the blanks ie rods are available and we then cut them into different sections of a pen.  Nibs are made from SS sheets. There after the tip or Point is welded for better experience slitted, embossed and then polished. 

How did it all start? What was the idea behind Unique Pen Industries? When did Pen Arts became the Unique Pen industries that it is now? 
HG :    The journey into fountain pens industry was started by my grandfather Mr. Gokuldas Gagwani in the 1950`s where he used to work with a known pen manufacturer, with time we put on our own manufacturing Unit in Indore in the late 70`s.  Seeing the requirement of high quality pens at affordable price, CLICK was born with moto to provide value for money pens.  From time to time new products were developed along with various filling mechanisms. Today we are having more than 70 models with different  filling mechanism such as eye dropper, piston, cartridge/converter, aeromatic etc. We are using different material for manufacturing such as CAB, Acrylic, ABS, Ebonite, Acrylic Turning Celluloid etc. Thus we are catering for  wide range of consumer base. 

How did the name Unique and Click got their identity? Was it just a click moment?

HG :     The Pen Arts was a retail shop during those time under Bhaiya Industries where we were partners. Before Unique Pen we were manufacturing and retailing pen in partnership with Bhaiya family in Indore from 1965-78. After certain time we decided to start our own unit in the name "Unique Pen Industries".  Since Unique was very well associated with the uniqueness of the product which we wanted to manufacture hence name Unique was taken. Well, the Click name was inspired from the word " photo click " and "idea clicked " hence click as brand name was born.  😊

What are the quality control (QC) measures you ensure in production of Click pens?

HG :   Since we are having more than 4 decades of experience into manufacturing, our QC process is designed based on past experiences. The quality control starts from the first stage itself i.e at design stage itself, wherein size, dimension, wall thickness, material life etc. are taken into account, besides periodically maintaining machinery for more tolerance against failures. In production, QC process takes care of proper dimension sheet for different components at time of moulding/turning. Thereafter visual checking and dimensional checking is carried out before assembly and final QC checks after the assembly take place. Alignment, polishing etc for nibs is carried out for ensuring best writing experiences for a proud owners of our products.

All the components are again re polished and then assembled before packing and despatch of orders placed. The attached images of process would be giving some rough ideas about this process (please the images below in picture gallery). 

The manufacturing process is quite tedious and is very labour intensive. The process of fountain pen manufacturing is a minute process and requires precision. The women employees generally have an very good eye to minute detailing hence they are our preferred employees for the assembly and polishing works, whereas heavy work handled by males employed there.

"We give meticulous emphasis on fine workmanship and quality."

More over as part of Women Empowerment drive, we give priority to women in recruiting and training for various stages of pen manufacturing and finishing process.

What is your customer base? 

HG : We cater to a wide variety of customers starting from art lovers, calligraphers and artisans with flex nib pens, calligraphy sets and students with economy range pens. Professional and FP Enthusiast love our unique acrylic and ebonite turned pens. We reach out to our customer both Pan-India and internationally through resellers and eCommerce sites. We have OEM works for Indian and International brands also. We also manufacture ballpens, rollerpens, giftsets for corporate gifts. Entire range of products can be explored on our website www.clickpens.in.

What are your future plans?

HG:        In immediate future, we will be increasing our range in acrylic/ebonite turning segment. We also plan to launch a piston(filler) pen in the above materials besides increasing the visibility of our brand CLICK. 

Your message to FP community.

HG :       Indian pens are at par with any international brand as far as quality and writing experience is concerned. The Indian FP community are our brand ambassador, they can help us in promoting Indian manufacturers to the world stage. We also provide Value For Money Pens. 

*(Full form of
CAB : Cellulose Acetate Butryl (it is made from wood abstract) ,

 ABS : Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene )

Picture Gallery

• Different Models

Click Aristocrat Gold

Click Aristocrat White

• Down the Memory Lane

  

  Harsh Gagwani : This is our family starting from right my father ( Shree Manoj Gagwani)  , 2nd from right aunt (Usha Gagwani ji),  3 rd aunt (Asha Ashar ji)  4th grandmother (Pushpa Gagwani ji)  5 th is my grandfather (Shree Gokuldas Gagwani ji) 6th aunt(Varsha Sampat ji), 7th  uncle (Prakash Gagwani ii).

  
  

  

  My uncle along with customer

• From the workshop Floor: #Clickpens, #WomenEmpowerment

Workshop Floor

• Components of FP

Thank you Harsh for this beautiful and insightful session. I wish you a great success in future endeavors.

Harsh Gagwani can be contacted at address and phone number given below.

Unique Pen Industries

Manufacturers & Distributors: Fountain Pens, Ball Pens, Roller Pens & Gift Sets.

1/7A Mittal Compound

Shivaji Nagar,

Near Vishranti Chouraha,

Indore,INDIA

www.uniquepen.in

Ph:-+91-731-2971771

#FPManiac, #Happyhunting, #harsh, #Clickpens, #WomenEmpowerment, #Aristocrat, #ClickFalcon, #ClickEbonite #ClickCentury, #EbonitPens, #Acrylic #Premium #Century  #IndianFP #FountainPens #Made_in_India #MadeInIndia #Made #in #India #Indore #MP #MadhyaPradesh  #Finess #swadeshi, #Vocal4local, #aatmnirbhar, #bharat

Dislaimer : 

• All views expressed in this post are of the owner of brand.
• The copyright of all pictures and images is of brand owner
• The details on website of product owner are subject to change as per per requirements of owners of brands
• In no uncertain terms I claim this as final or exhaustive list. there are many I would have missed out but these are some that I own and use their pens.
• This is just  suggestive post and I donot endorse any product.
• The author cannot be responsible legally or otherwise, for Any loss or damage or injury by use of any product.
• Respective Brand owners and manufacturers have their copyright of their brands and warranty on products.
• Respective Brands and owners are responsible for promotion of their products and maintianing information and catalogues. 
• Kindly keep yourself updated with latest offers and models.