#3 of 52: Flickr, Handwriting and Lost Letters

Tags

canada post, flickr, goulet pens, kyo maclear, lamy 2000, national handwriting day, wonder pens

Hello there. Sorry this is late; after uploading last week’s post I got a message saying no more posts until I freed up some space. Hopefully this one will upload.

I am making headway on the space issue, and thanks are due for that to Paul Godden, who commented on last week’s post and pointed me in the direction of Flickr. I’m now hosting my photos there and linking to them from here. Genius! And they have a LOT of space at Flickr. Thanks again Paul. The photos are slowly being moved.

I wanted to write today because it is National Handwriting Day! Today we celebrate the practice of handwriting with a pen or pencil, on John Hancock’s birthday. And on the 41st anniversary it looks like the US congress is supporting their efforts. Let’s hope this signals a shift in thinking in regards to bringing back the teaching of cursive in schools. Goulet Pens is giving away a Lamy 2000 gift set to celebrate. Fun stuff!

More along the handwriting vein: a review of Kyo Maclear’s book The Letter Opener by Liz over at the Wonder Pens blog. My local library does not have a copy but I have flagged it on Goodreads as one I want to read. It is 1989 and Naiko is working in the Undeliverable Mail Office, looking through the contents of letters and parcels for clues as to the address to which the items belong. When her friend and coworker vanishes Naiko tries to piece together what might have happened. There actually is such an office at Canada Post; I was contacted by them many years ago when a box of personal items was undeliverable. When opened there were quite a few letters bearing my name and address. They belonged to a dear friend of mine. When they phoned I was deeply touched he had kept them and equally sorry I could not help them find him, as we had lost touch many years before. I offered to take the items off their hands and do further research but they, rightly, rejected that idea. The box was not mine to claim. I hope somehow the box found its way back to him, along with my letters.

I hope you wrote something by hand today, and that you enjoyed the pen, the paper and the fluid joy of it. I know I did.

Monday Miscellany

Tags

edison pen company, goulet pens, jack seliger, miguelrius, notebook stories, randsinrepose.com, the pen and inkwell, the story's story, william hannah, writing instruments daily

Wow. I just watched The Pen and Inkwell’s review of a William Hannah notebook – what beautiful notebooks! I quickly went to the website, subscribed to the newsletter and had a look round. The notebooks are a tiny bit expensive – £95 – but they are stunning. You can choose from a multitude of colours, and paper, and you can even choose the colour of the ink on the paper! And the paper is held in place with discs, much like the ARC notebooks. Beautiful!

I think I may be very late to the party here, but I’ve just discovered Writing Instruments Daily, a “daily publication dedicated to Pens, Paper, Ink and related paraphernalia” published by the Edison Pen Company. What a gem! Today’s issue features, among other great posts, articles about handwriting shared by Goulet Pens and a review of the Miguelrius Boarding Notebook by Notebook Stories. I have subscribed. Have you?

And finally Jack Seliger wrote a very funny and touching post on why he prefers notebooks to anything electronic in this post from 2013 on his site, The Story’s Story. A notebook has never interrupted him with an ad, shown him nude photos, or accidentally deleted anything (except for the occasional plunge in the bath). And the linked article, Sweet Decay, is great too. I especially liked the argument that notebooks don’t waste your time, and that a surviving notebook is a sexy notebook.

Have a great week everyone. Remember to journal. 🙂

Monday Miscellany

Tags

goulet pens, incowrimo 2016, inkycauldron.wordpress.com, journal talk, nathan ohren, susan borkin, write4life

Today is the start of InCoWriMo 2016! As ever I will be participating, starting by tackling my substantial Reply To pile from 2015. Apologies to any pen pals who have been waiting on me; I promise to get to the bottom of the pile this month. Or at least try. Goulet Pens has a wonderful post on this letter writing extravaganza, complete with a link to a list of awesome people to write to. If you want to write to me use the Contact Me button and I will give you my address, and I promise to write back. Eventually!

I listened to a great podcast on write4life.us this week; Nathan interviewed Susan Borkin for an episode of Journal Talk, about her life, influences and new book, The Healing Power of Writing: A Therapist’s Guide to Using Journaling With Clients. What an inspiration! And if you listen to the end there is a bonus for Journal Talk listeners. Well worth listening to! As Susan says, you can’t teach it if you haven’t done the work.

And finally inky cauldron takes us on a tour of her adorable pencil case. Enjoy!

Monday Miscellany

Tags

goulet pens, moleskine, notebook toolbelt, pen heaven

I subscribe to the Moleskine newsletter and I thought the new Notebook Toolbelt was a neat addition for them. At $55 US I don’t know how popular it will be but it looks cool.

I just love the pictures of notes in this article on the Pen Heaven blog. Good ideas on how to improve your notes and have fun at the same time. When I go to a talk or conference I do try to summarize but I am one of those who try to get every word down. So something I have to work on.

And finally Madigan at Goulet Pens wrote this excellent article, 7 Reasons to Gift a Fountain Pen. You could just print this off and leave it in a conspicuous place so Santa Claus can’t miss it! Enjoy.

Until next post, happy writing!

 

Nanami Box and Tea at the Biltmore

Tags

arizona biltmore hotel, compendium inc., goulet pens, high tea, hold-on clever pen loop, jetpens, nanami paper, phoenix, seven seas standard, seven seas writer, super clip bookmarks, write now journal

A few weeks before I travelled to Phoenix to spend time with my sister, I took advantage of her US address and placed an order with Nanami Paper. You might remember that before my trip last year I placed orders with Goulet Pens and JetPens. It’s always nice to avoid paying shipping costs to Canada.

I wanted to buy another Seven Seas Writer like the one I wrote about in May of this year, but of course they were sold out. They are so popular and they are specially made for Nanami in Japan so they go out of stock quickly. I like the Writer because it is lined but it occurred to me that I could get a Seven Seas Standard A5 journal and use my writing mat and achieve the same end. And woohoo the Standard was in stock.

I also ordered another Hold On pen loop, this time in green; I actually ordered two and gave one to my sister. The silvery clippy things are the Super Clip Bookmarks, and come in packs of 10 for $4.25 US. The Standard is exactly the same as the Writer, which I’ve already reviewed (see link above). But I wanted to see if I could use the writing mat to simulate lines. It’s not easily seen in this photo, but in real life it’s very easy to see and write on the lines of the mat.

If the lines aren’t dark enough for you, you can always make your own insert with a Sharpie or similar dark inked marker. I am happy with the Standard; it’s a good substitute when the Writer is out of stock. And as I write this I’ve just checked Nanamipaper.com and both the Writer and the Standard are currently out of stock. The Standard will be restocked in Feb/Mar 2016 and the Writer in early Dec 2015. Get your orders in fast and early.

That was the only package I had delivered to my sister’s place. And during my stay I only bought one notebook: a Write Now journal from Compendium Inc. My sister and I went for High Tea at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel and while perusing the gift shop I found this pretty notebook.

My first thought on reading the cover was – Why yes, I’m doing just that! It’s a beautiful notebook with quotes about the sea.

***

It was an inexpensive notebook and the paper isn’t great, but I fell in love with the cover and the quotes. And that is as good a reason as any to buy a notebook!

What an amazing hotel. It is a breathtaking “jewel in the desert” with a rich and varied history. The High Tea was one of the best tea experiences to date. I brought my pens along (of course) so they could enjoy the adventure too. 🙂

Jinhao 159 and X450

Tags

bleu pervenche, goulet pens, jinhao 159, jinhao x450, serenity blue

I’ve been hearing lots of good things about the Jinhao 159, from folks talking on Youtube and the FP Geeks forum, to Brian Goulet’s video about this inexpensive Chinese pen. Goulet Pens offers them in Black, Orange and Yellow, for $12.50. I had previously purchased a Jinhao X450 on ebay in June of last year, and it was ok. So I bought this 159 for around $5 including shipping on ebay. It took a long time to arrive – nearly 6 weeks – and I was beginning to lose hope. I really enjoy using this pen, although not for long periods, which I will discuss later. And in doing the research for this blog post I realized I didn’t do an actual review of the Jinhao X450 so I will compare the two pens in this post.

Here is the 159. Of course one is put in mind of a Montblanc 159 and it is definitely an homage to that iconic pen. It’s not an exact knockoff though as it has Jinhao on the silver band on the cap, and no white star on the top of the cap. I have never held a Montblanc so I have no idea if it’s close in the feel or not but it certainly looks like one.

The pen takes international cartridges (short and long) and comes with a converter. I always prefer the performance I get out of a pen using a converter and this pen is no exception.

The pen weighs 50 grams and believe me you can feel it. It’s an extremely big pen and I would not recommend it for long writing sessions. My hand got tired after writing for about five minutes. But I love the look of it and the weight of it, to be honest. When posted the pen feels perfectly balanced. The nib is smooth and the flow is super wet. I put J. Herbin’s Bleu Pervenche in it and it’s a gorgeous combination.

Here’s a closeup of the nib. It says Jinhao but also 18K. Brian Goulet explains in his video that the nibs are all stamped 18K but only some of them are gold plated (the two tone ones). The nibs on the 159 are stainless steel.

Here’s a writing sample. A great writer but I found after just one page my thumbnail was digging into my index finger. It just wasn’t super comfortable. This made me think of my X450 and I wondered how the writing experience compared.

In June 2014 I bought the Jinhao X450 on ebay. I can’t remember how much I paid but currently these pens are available on ebay for just over $5. And I think it’s good value for the money, for both the X450 and the 159.

The pen is a rich royal blue with gold coloured accents. And the nib is a beautiful two-tone. I don’t see 18K anywhere so it may not be gold plated. It’s lovely to look at and great to write with. This pen is much smaller in girth than the 159 and notice the grooves on the indented section. Those grooves really enhance the writing experience for me.

When I first got this pen I put a J. Herbin Eclat Sapphir cartridge in it and I wasn’t pleased with the results at all. Perhaps the cartridge was old or something but the pen skipped and went dry almost immediately. For this post I put a standard converter with Waterman’s Serenity Blue in it and the writing experience has been the exact opposite: great flow with smooth writing. A good writer indeed.

I wanted to show you the caps and bands because the pens don’t even look like they come from the same manufacturer. The X450’s band has a written Jinhao while the 159 is printed. The clips are not the same size, nor do they have the same design. The 159 sports a chariot driven by two men brandishing a whip while the X450 has three simple dots. The X450 has a snap cap and the 159 is a screw top. Interesting pens that’s for sure.

And finally a size comparison. From left: Pilot Metropolitan, Jinhao X450, Cadence, Jinhao 159, Monteverde Prima in Purple Swirl, Lamy Al-Star and Visconti Rembrandt. The 159 is the biggest and heaviest pen I own. Thank goodness it’s fun to write with.

Please let me know your thoughts on the Jinhao 159 or the X450, or even just the brand in particular. At these price points it’s fun to experiment. 🙂

 

Monteverde Prima in Tiger Eye

Tags

de atramentis, fpgeeks forum, goulet pens, j. herbin, monteverde prima, tiger eye, vert pre, william shakespeare, zhivago

Sorry for the lateness in my posting of late; I’ve been having technical difficulties with my laptop. All seems to be working at the moment, so let’s talk about Monteverde Prima in Tiger Eye.

I have been wanting this one to complement my three other Monteverde Primas: Green Swirl, Purple Swirl and Turquoise Swirl. I started collecting these in December 2013 and I would wholeheartedly recommend them. Good writers with smooth lines, no skipping or hard starts, as long as you use the converter that comes with the pen. More on that later.

I saw an ad on FP Geeks posted by Zhivago for this beauty. The advertised price was less than half of what I would pay for a new one. He was wonderful to work with, and actually refunded some of my shipping cost because the postage was less than he had thought. It arrived within a couple of weeks and I am thrilled with it.

I have seen many different examples of the Tiger Eye finish. This is a wonderful blend of orange and brown. It has a fine nib, which is different from the two medium and 1.1 stub nibs of my other Primas.

Here’s a close-up of the nib.

I have it inked with De Atramentis William Shakespeare.

And here are all four! I think they look stunning together.

I find it interesting that the Purple has a white line, the Turquoise has white with a bit of black shading, and the green and Tiger Eye have black.

Here’s a writing sample. This fine nib is super smooth and a pleasure to write with. The line is not dramatically different from the mediums, in contrast with the 1.1 stub. The stub really stands out. According to Goulet Pens website there is a broad nib available, which I may purchase at a later date, as all of the nibs are interchangeable.

While doing this review I was having trouble getting the Green to write. I know I just said what wonderful writers they are, so bear with me. I had switched from Private Reserve Avacado (sic) to a Faber Castell cartridge in Moss Green. No matter what I did I couldn’t get the darn thing to write. So I tossed the cartridge and filled the converter with J. Herbin Vert Pre. My first time using that ink and wow what a colour. Great match for the barrel too. And the pen wrote perfectly, first try. All of my other Primas have converters in them right now too. So that’s why I think this particular model prefers a converter to a cartridge. Just my experience; yours may differ.

My Prima family! Love them all; my collection is complete. (There is another Prima available, simply called Black Swirl, but is not to my taste. I intensely dislike yellow.)

Thank you so much Zhivago, I am so very pleased with the Tiger Eye. 🙂

Purple Ink, Black Pen

Tags

amazon, aubergine, de atramentis, ebay, goulet pens, jetpens, pentel slicci multipen, pilot coleto multipen, tokyo pen shop

So as promised, here is my post on my new Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multipen. And my new bottle of ink arrived this week so I will talk about that too.

I have been a Coleto pen lover for some time. The earliest post tagged with “Pilot Coleto Multipen” is from Sept 2013. And the love continues because I’m still using these pens, almost every day.

The Pilot Coleto Multipens are available in a number of styles. I prefer the “standard body” which can hold 3, 4 or 5 ink refills. For a really great explanation of the different body types available watch The Tokyo Pen Shop’s excellent video here. The bodies and refills are available at Tokyo Pen Shop, Amazon, JetPens and ebay. There may be others but ebay is still the cheapest option for me. I buy from a seller in Japan and I look forward to her beautiful packaging almost as much as I do the pens and refills.

The 5-barrel Coletos are available in 5 colours: Silver, Pink, Black, Blue and White. I have 3 so far: Silver, Black and Blue. I do plan on adding the Pink and White when the budget allows. With shipping and exchange the cost of each 5-barrel with 5 refills is around $20.

There are 17 refills available, in a range of colours and tip sizes. Two of the refills include a mechanical pencil and a stylus. The tip sizes come in 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. I find the 0.3 very scratchy, but the 0.4 and 0.5 are just right. My 5-barrel Coletos all have the 0.5 tip size refills. Each refill shows the tip size on the side of the coloured fin at the top of the pen.

The writing experience with these pens is wonderful. They are very smooth writers and the ink is very bright.

I selected the ink colours for this new black Coleto to match the colours I use in my World Mail Panel notebook. Previously I had been using 2 Slicci pens, because they are only available in a 3-barrel version, and I use 5 colours in that particular notebook. You can see in the photo below how bright the Coleto inks are compared to the Slicci inks (the top two entries were written with Slicci pens; the next two with the black Coleto).

I have watched a number of YouTube videos and read many reviews where people complain about the life of the refills, that they run out very quickly. I have not found that to be the case with mine. I do not use them at work, nor do I use them to journal. But I do use them for my planner and my World Mail Panel notebook as I mentioned. I have not had to replace a refill yet. I highly recommend these pens if you are looking for a multipen with lots of options.

And now on to my new bottle of ink. I loved the Mystery Ink game on FP Geeks so much I had to buy a bottle once the name was revealed. So I hopped on to the Goulet site and ordered a bottle of De Atramentis Aubergine. If you want a more detailed ink review see the Mystery Ink link above.

It arrived as always floating in a sea of bubble wrap, and I enjoyed the wee tootsie pop as my afternoon snack. Then I added the new member of the family to my ink journal, complete with purple swab.

So there you have it folks, a couple of my recent purchases. They won’t be the last! 🙂

Journal Writing Wednesday: 14 pages

Tags

de atramentis, goulet pens, monteverde prima, nanami paper, phasha, pilot coleto multipen, tomoe river, waterman

What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Leather Journal, Winnable Executive Journal and the Believe In Yourself journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Apr 15): 14

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 921

Total pages written in 2015: 181

Monthly Pen: Monteverde Prima in Purple Swirl

Next monthly pen will be announced on April 29

Purchases:

My new Coleto arrived this week and I will review it this Sunday. I am still waiting on another ebay pen, as well as the Goulet ink mentioned last week. And today I ordered a bunch of stuff from Nanami Paper; they finally have their Tomoe River paper notebooks back in stock. Stay tuned.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• I am still using my Purple Prima and the miracle I hoped for has happened: I’m in love with it again. I’m taking it to work everyday and using it as much as possible. I’ve run through the MI6 (De Atramentis Aubergine) ink and now I’m onto Waterman Purple. I used it to write a thank-you note for a co-worker and he admired my handwriting and the beautiful ink colour. 🙂
• I’m getting over a cold (again) and the recovery for my leg is taking forever. With colds comes coughing and sneezing, and it feels like for each cough/sneeze I’ve earned a week of excruciating leg pain. I’m waking up in the middle of the night again, but it’s not so bad that I have to actually get up, which is a plus. One day at a time.
• I spent a few hours working on my Letter Journal; I’m slowly filling up the Phasha journal and I love the look of it! I wrote in my journal how happy it makes me to revisit old letters.

Until next week, happy writing!

Monteverde Poquito

Tags

canadian waterman junior, filofax, finsbury, goldspot, goulet pens, monteverde, poquito, reid's stationers, visconti rembrandt

I realized today I have not reviewed my Monteverde Poquito fountain pen, which I bought for my personal Finsbury Filofax from Reid’s Stationers in December 2014.

Here you can see the Poquito in the Finsbury pen loop, and it is an incredibly tight fit. So hard to find pens that fit that pen loop. But I wanted to have a fountain pen for my planner so I purchased the smallest fountain pen I have yet to see in person. It did not come with a box although the reviews on YouTube show a very nice green Monteverde box.

Poquito in Spanish means “a little bit” and this pen is super small. It measures 11 cm (4.4″) capped, and a respectable 12.6 cm (5″) posted. It is too small for a Monteverde converter, although a couple of the videos I watched mentioned smaller converters that could fit it. It comes with a standard international cartridge; mine came with black. If you want to use bottled ink you can use a syringe to fill the empty cartridge.

I found the ink was VERY slow to dry and made a mess of my fingers and my journal. And yes I realize now I spelled it “Paquito” at the beginning of the journal entry, and also in my Waterman Junior post.

I originally bought this pen to use in my Finsbury but the paper is not meant for fountain pen ink; there was tremendous showthrough and the long drying time meant messy pages. But I do use the pen; it is a good smooth writer and very comfortable in the hand despite its small size.

Here is the pen in action on a Filofax page.

Definite showthrough.

Here’s a closeup of the pen. I chose the silver, but it comes in turquoise, pink and steel grey. The turquoise and pink are metallic. I chose the silver to match the rings in my Finsbury.

The section has a bit of a step down and the nib is standard iridium, made in Germany. I think the Goulet Pens video said it was a #5. Currently this model is sold out on the Goulet Pens website.

I was given these Monteverde cartridges when I purchased my Visconti Rembrandt from Goldspot, so they will come in handy when the black cartridge that came with the Poquito runs out. But it will accept any short international cartridge.

And here is that picture I used in my Waterman Junior post, comparing pens. From left: Monteverde Poquito, Waterman Junior, Monteverde Crystal Artista, Pilot Metropolitan, Cadence, Lamy Al-Star.

Overall I would recommend the Poquito for a small everyday carry pen. It is very comfortable in the hand and writes well. I’m not a big fan of the long drying time of the ink but that could be the paper I was using for my tests as well. Let me know in the comments if anyone has had any experience with this pen, good or bad.