Anabelle's Opus

Anabelle Hiller’s journey to nib making was a process of self-discovery, one tine at a time.

- AZIZAH ASGARALI

We pen lovers are fortunate to be in a community that includes many talented, skilled people: pen makers, notebook binders, ink blenders, artists, calligraphers, and nib masters. There is a goldsmith among them. Anabelle Sophie Hiller, the nib specialist at Appelboom Pennen in the Netherlands, is not only grinding and tuning nibs, she’s making them, too. From scratch.

1 met Anabelle in 2016 at the opening of the Appelboom Laren pen shop. She was new to the fountain pen world, loved pens, antiques, and adding value to existing items, and was eager to learn everything she could. She already had many skills under her belt— an accomplished musician, polyglot, and artist. Once she decides she wants to do something, she works hard to make it happen.

There is so much more to this human, facets of a life that brought her to Opus Cineris, her goldsmithing and nib-making company. Opus Cineris is a name as beautiful as the nibs themselves. Opus, a musical composition numbered by the order in which it was published, is a fitting choice for Anabelle’s workshop considering her musical background as a conservatory-trained harpist. Cineris is Latin for ash,” which happens to be Anabelle’s initials.

The name came together as Opus Cineris. Anabelle says, I had seven years of Latin in school, which had absolutely no use for me at all ever, except figured out what ASH translates into Latin: the work of ASH Opus Cineris. And it also sounds like a Harry Potter spell.”