Made in Italy vs. Made in China | Glass Pen Review & Comparison

#cheap #expensive #glasspen
Thanks for watching! Please know that this video was not sponsored, all products were purchased with my own money and all opinions are my own. Please consider subscribing to get notified when I post more videos.
Time stamps:
00:22 - Story about the Italian Glass Dip Pen
02:00 - About the Dollar Tree pen , Unboxing
03:43 - Comparing the tips
05:40 - Writing comparison
08:08 - Sketching Comparison
09:25 - Final Thoughts & Conclusion
Unfortunately there are no product links that I can share in this video. Dollar Tree has a limited selection of products online so you'll have to try to find it at your local Dollar Tree if you have one nearby.
Regarding the Italian pen, if you google "Murano Glass Dip Pen" you'll find tons of them online. I bought mine at a souvenir shop.

Пікірлер: 44

  • @douseenow
    @douseenow2 жыл бұрын

    Should have used both pens with both inks for a fuller comparison. It could be the consistency of the cheaper ink caused the blot

  • @MrTangent

    @MrTangent

    Жыл бұрын

    ^ this. Using different inks kind of ruined the comparison.

  • @joannecarson5568

    @joannecarson5568

    Жыл бұрын

    100% agree!

  • @sueg2286
    @sueg2286 Жыл бұрын

    I wish you had used both inks with both pens to give a true comparison,....the pink ink may have been thinnner and not go good as the blue ink and therefore not a good test for the pens.

  • @aliceandalejandro1404
    @aliceandalejandro14043 жыл бұрын

    Ok so the Italian one is obviously better, but for the price of 1$ the Chinese one is pretty impressive!!

  • @ellaacuarela

    @ellaacuarela

    2 жыл бұрын

    Agreed!

  • @rudysterner
    @rudysterner Жыл бұрын

    I don’t know how much difference the ink made. A more relevant test would be to use the same ink for both pens.

  • @Katzenkotze85
    @Katzenkotze858 ай бұрын

    For a lot of people a CONSISTENT line is the better option... this 1 dollar Pen looks like a great starter option - and if you are not happy with the width just try to grind it - if you fail, get a new one for a dollar... i think this is great! 😅

  • @GaiasGreenGirls
    @GaiasGreenGirls9 ай бұрын

    I would DEFINITELY add the $1 pen to my collection … and all of the other colors, too. But yeah, it wouldn’t stop me from getting the pretty ones like your Italian specialty! 💚

  • @fuzzydragons
    @fuzzydragons3 жыл бұрын

    I think the Italian one, while it can be used is more like a work of art to be looked at, while the dolllar store one is mostly for being used in one way and cheap do to being mass produced. the Italian one has more character since it is a unique piece glass blown piece 😀

  • @PabloHernandez-yp1uf
    @PabloHernandez-yp1uf3 жыл бұрын

    I'm afraid your italian pen has the nib broken and it was sanded to be repaired, that's why you can write fine and thik lines. Not a big deal, the pen is perfectly usable (and beautiful), but probably when writing, you feel the pen scratching the paper, and the othre pen feels smoother.

  • @ellaacuarela

    @ellaacuarela

    2 жыл бұрын

    Interesting! I think you might be right

  • @LanaGoesArt
    @LanaGoesArt3 жыл бұрын

    This is interesting. There are similar glas artists making glas dip pens here and I have a french one, but there are so many now made in china, that look exactly the same as the more expensive ones. It's crazy. The drawings turned both out really nice! :)

  • @ellaacuarela

    @ellaacuarela

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks @LanaGoesArt !

  • @ldswan9music
    @ldswan9music Жыл бұрын

    Very interesting video. The different variations of line thickness is clever in the design. Thanks for the clear review.

  • @happyheidishow-2s268
    @happyheidishow-2s2682 ай бұрын

    I ordered a set from Amazon and am thoroughly impressed with them.

  • @judichristopher4604
    @judichristopher46043 жыл бұрын

    There is definitely a difference. I just bought a glass pen from Italy and have a few from China The Italian one is very thin... but beautiful.

  • @laurabartoletti6412
    @laurabartoletti6412 Жыл бұрын

    The handcrafted blown pens are works of art, so beautiful. Glad to know glass pens are crafted in Italy 🇮🇹 😁🇺🇸 I am curious about this writing/ artistic medium, it's really cool.! Thanks for the critique. 🖋🖌🖍😉

  • @chrisem79
    @chrisem79 Жыл бұрын

    It would be interesting to take a piece of fine sandpaper to file an angled tip on the dollar store pen to achieve variable line widths.

  • @mindylafler3456
    @mindylafler3456 Жыл бұрын

    Morano is where their beads are made as well. There is a long history of glass working in Murano. I am a beader...not an artist. Though, a dip pen looks like it might be enjoyable to use.

  • @silkeschumann7261
    @silkeschumann7261 Жыл бұрын

    2:00 From a purely functional standpoint, no, there is no difference provided the grooving is the same. There are glass dip pens with different grooving. But from an emotional standpoint -- and I, for one, take my emotions with my rational seriously -- from an emotional standpoint, the one dollar cheapo glass dip pen doesn't have a leg to stand on. Every time you look at the beauty of the Murano glass dip pen you are taken back to the exotic romantic journal to a foreign country, where they speak a different language, where everything is different, the old houses, the fashion, the food, you're in wonderland with all those new impressions, your imagination is in overdrive. The Murano glass dip pen wins in every respect, when it comes to the emotional attachment, and ART is driven by emotions and imagination a great deal. Just my humble opinion on the subject, before I continue to watch this video. FYI the performance of a glass dip pen can be improved with a sanding paper. The French Herbin glass dip pens come with a little patch of sanding paper for that reason. ;)

  • @VlogAllAboutIt
    @VlogAllAboutIt2 жыл бұрын

    You can sand the dollar tree one to taper the nib so it won't be so flat if that helps. I also wonder if you can put a casing of some sort over the dollar tree one as well to give it some girth.

  • @ellaacuarela

    @ellaacuarela

    2 жыл бұрын

    Good idea!

  • @barbaraarmann5698
    @barbaraarmann56982 жыл бұрын

    The different tips are designed for different textured papers. That's probably why the cheaper pen didn't work well on your medium.

  • @FlutePlayer777
    @FlutePlayer7772 жыл бұрын

    It comes in three colors!!! I recently got blue and green!

  • @artistaftab1111
    @artistaftab1111 Жыл бұрын

    Interesting video!

  • @gaerekxenos
    @gaerekxenos Жыл бұрын

    There are more in-depth test/comparisons that could be done between the two, but then you would need to do a lot more research, or even sacrifice a pen. For example, glass quality/composition and maybe durability. The relevance would be in how easily the tips break or wear down -- for example, ceramics with lower firing temperatures tend to be weaker and break more easily, and lower quality glazes will get scratched a lot more easily -- you will see this often when you habitually stir a drink in a ceramic mug with a metal spoon where cheaper cups start developing some metallic loops at the bottom when better quality cups do not develop visible lines despite years of usage

  • @ekozoidmajiker6186
    @ekozoidmajiker618611 ай бұрын

    it'll take my entire life savings to order. something genuine from Italy & I'm from a poor country from Southeast Asia 😭

  • @XuanC
    @XuanC Жыл бұрын

    As a Chinese I want to say... China does produce some really good products, but if you choose to buy the cheaper ones of course the quality won’t be that good. It’s the same with goods in any other country, higher price for higher quality. I think the prices and the making techniques are comparable, but where they were made is just not. Sorry I know that Chinese goods don't have a good reputation and probably nobody is going to agree with me, but this is how I felt everytime I saw people comparing the quality of cheap Chinese goods to things made in somewhere else.

  • @MrElpastor
    @MrElpastor2 жыл бұрын

    Hola, recientemente compré una pluma de vidrio de AliExpress, por un precio de unos 9 dólares incluidas 4 tintas de color verde, roja, azul y violeta, en un estuche muy llamativo. Se parece un poco en la punta a la que tienes de 1USD pero tiene el agarre como la de 30USD, sinceramente dependiendo de la inclinación hace líneas gruesas o delgadas y por tan poco valor creo que es más que suficiente. La italiana muy hermosa para coleccionar, la de 1USD definitivamente para el día a día. Saludos desde Colombia.

  • @markup6394
    @markup63945 ай бұрын

    I bought a glass pen from Murano, too... sadly, it doesnt work. No matter which ink. I guess the tip is somehow broken or not made properly to begin with, but it doesnt give off any ink whatsoever :(

  • @playthinksfuncreations1777
    @playthinksfuncreations177711 ай бұрын

    I use the Chinese glass pen-- and it's AWESOME!!

  • @nikkia9506
    @nikkia95063 жыл бұрын

    It looks like you might need to re-upload. It keeps cutting out and buffering. Had to keep jumping backwards and forwards to try to watch. I'll look forward to watching it, because I've been considering a glass pen.

  • @milee336
    @milee336 Жыл бұрын

    Where do i buy made in italy?

  • @susanmerila4958
    @susanmerila4958 Жыл бұрын

    I think you could bevel and shape that nib with very fine grit sandpaper.

  • @timetraveller2300
    @timetraveller23002 жыл бұрын

    it sounds like the chinese cant produce a designer glass pen?seriously these pens in no way represent anything from these two countries.

  • @ellaacuarela

    @ellaacuarela

    2 жыл бұрын

    Your comment got me thinking... maybe I should've called this video "Dollar Store vs. Murano Glass Pen Review". That was the intention behind the video as most things sold at the dollar store are made in China.

  • @Seefood73

    @Seefood73

    Жыл бұрын

    It's a problematic comparison. the $1-3 Chinese pens (I have a few) are inconsistent because they are cheap. you can buy 10 and they will all be functional but only one or two will feel really nice. then when you look at the Murano glass pens you will see the artists really know their glass workmanship but they are often inconvenient to write with unless you start grinding the tip yourself. a non-symetric tip is a problem, not a feature. They are made for beuty more than for actual writing. I spent 20 minutes at a shop in Amalfi picking one that was less pretty than I wished but that could also write well. the reason you want them round and symetric is that in each angle a different ink channel feeds the tip and you want the channels to dispense ink evenly so you twirl the pen slowly when you write, and with an uneven pen it will give you uneven lines at best, or flipping between scratchy and smooth feedback at worst. In between the two there are $20 pens from Jacques Herbin and others that are supposed to be excellently tipped (never tried one yet) and then way above, in the $100-$600 range, you will find some Japanese works of art that are also excellent writers/drawers, including italic tips that were actually designed for it (look up Hanabi Glass and Glass Studio TooS on Instagram for examples).

  • @readthetype
    @readthetype Жыл бұрын

    Somewhere out there this really cool super-nerd has a video where he shows the points under a microscope, so you can really see the imperfections. Some are pretty much you just dragging broken glass across your crazy expensive paper, shredding and ruining the surface in the process. Very sadface.

  • @AP12BG
    @AP12BG10 ай бұрын

    Look Chinese invented ink, I don’t see anything wrong with the Chinese glass, Chinese art is ancient, Italians followed.

  • @hollyhernandez5796
    @hollyhernandez57966 ай бұрын

    Of course you got a blob of ink, you held the pen straight up, you don’t do that. Blob was human error not the pen.

  • @fusadiluna
    @fusadiluna3 жыл бұрын

    It doesn't work

  • @PsychLab_HK
    @PsychLab_HK10 ай бұрын

    I wish people could think about things that happened behind the door when they purchase Chinese products. Extremely low wage of workers; slavery to ethnic minorities ; government’s brutality towards its own people.

  • @playthinksfuncreations1777
    @playthinksfuncreations177711 ай бұрын

    Japan is better then both!