A new pen and notebook from Amazon

Tags

blue myosotis, blue upon the plains of abraham, clairefontaine, fuliwen, j. herbin, lamy blue, noodler's, paradise blue, parker blue quink, straffen, valery, waterman serenity blue, x-fountain pens

Last week an Amazon package was delivered to my door, which is always exciting. I had ordered a Fuliwen pen after seeing a Youtube video, and a Valery refillable notebook which I had found when browsing notebooks.

I am unfamiliar with the Fuliwen brand. Amazon says this pen was made by a “famous company in China called Fuliwen”. I thought the barrel and hardware was very pretty, although now that I see it in person I am not a fan of the pearl bead on the clip.

The section is an interesting shape, one which I have not seen before. The material is advertised as celluloid but I would be surprised at this price point: $19 Cdn.

The medium nib is on the small side for the size of the section I feel. It is stamped Straffen, which I read are made by X-Fountain Pens. I cleaned it and tried to find a blue ink that would match the barrel.

Clockwise from top: Noodler’s Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham, Parker Blue Quink, Paradise Pen Blue, Waterman Serenity Blue, J. Herbin Blue Myosotis, and Lamy Blue. I chose Parker Blue as the best match to the barrel.

And here’s the writing sample. I chose a Clairefontaine notebook. The pen is very smooth with no skips or hard starts, and it started writing as soon as it hit the paper. I was using it in my regular journal later on that day, and it suddenly went dry. I shook it a few times and it resumed writing. But it will never be a favorite pen of mine. That pearl bead is ugly, as I mentioned before, and the pen can’t be posted, which this pen needs, due to it being super light. It just doesn’t fit well in my hand either. But I can’t fault it’s performance, other than running dry once, which was soon fixed.

I also purchased this notebook and cover, made by Valery.

It’s not leather but a very nice imitation. I really like the white stitching and the tree motif on the cover and in the charm bookmark. There is another charm on the spine of an eagle with wings unfurled. It doesn’t seem to fit in with the tree motif; kind of sinister really. But luckily it can be removed.

Here is the inside of the notebook cover. The cords could easily be loosened to release one or both of the charms if needed.

The notebook is pretty standard, lined with very thin paper. I do not know the gsm. I didn’t have high hopes for the pen test but it stood up fairly well.

I’m just realizing now I deleted the photo of the opposite page. Oh well there was no bleed through and just a touch of ghosting. And very little feathering. Safe for our fountain pens.

Overall I am happy with the pen and notebook. Taking a chance on unknown products can be fun.

Happy writing everyone.

One Night in Portland

Tags

aurora, cartier, cross, edelberg, filofax, harmonious green, j. herbin, leuchtturm, lierre sauvage, montblanc, oberon, online switch, paradise blue, paradise pen company, portland, rhodia, schmidt converter, scully, vineyard burgundy, vintage trouble, visconti, waterman, wonder ballroom

As a birthday present to ourselves David and I flew to Portland, Oregon to catch Vintage Trouble at the Wonder Ballroom last week. It was a magical 24 hours which included staying at a fabulous hotel (the Crowne Plaza Portland), grooving with the band (we got to meet them!), eating amazing food and shopping. We crammed three days into 24 hours and just one of the many highlights was visiting the Paradise Pen Company, a retailer of “high-end writing instruments offering fountain pens, leather goods and accessories.” And when they say high-end they aren’t kidding.

The Paradise Pen Company is located in Pioneer Place, alongside Kate Spade, J Crew, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors, just to name a few. Very swish. According to their website they have 15 locations across the US. We had great fun looking at the Montblanc, Aurora and Visconti offerings, as well as Cartier and Edelberg. I had never seen a Cartier and their fountain pens do not disappoint. But like their jewelry they have a considerable price tag ($1,000+). Lovely to dream and drool over though.

They had an impressive selection of notebooks and planners, such as Filofax and Rhodia. I got to fondle an Oberon journal for the first time and I’m so glad I did, because I have been considering purchasing one. Although the leather craftsmanship is breathtaking I am not a fan of the paper in their notebooks. And they don’t lie flat, which is disappointing. But at least now I know.

I was introduced to Scully notebooks and promptly fell in love. This beautiful “Old Atlas” journal has wonderful paper and lies flat as a pancake. But the price ($113) was just a little beyond my budget (especially when you consider the exchange rate these days). At least I am familiar with the product and can order one from their online site if I save my pennies.

Stephanie was very friendly and interested in our very quick trip and the reason for it. She was very touched that we took some time to visit their store in our whirlwind tour of her city. I had done some research on their site before arriving so I had an idea of what I wanted.

The pen is from ONLINE and is the Switch model. Designed for students, it has a medium fountain pen nib at one end and a stylus at the other. I thought it a wonderful metaphor for modern but elegant note-taking: casually surfing the net, finding something interesting, flipping your stylus round and writing it in your notebook with a fountain pen. And it was on sale! So I picked a green one. And amazingly Stephanie offered me a converter to go in it, a Schmidt. I did not know that brand of converter fit the ONLINE pens so that was a real bonus. I also found a Cross notebook in a size I have never seen before, so I chose one to match the pen. And finally I chose two bottles of ink: Vineyard Burgundy and Paradise Blue, made exclusively for the Paradise Pen Company.

It occurs to me now I should have purchased a bottle of green ink to match the pen but I thought two bottles were enough. I really love these two colours. I also enjoyed the label although Stephanie told me they had a new label, with some new colours just released (Vineyard Burgundy being one of them). I like the old label, shown below on the blue bottle; what do you think?

I haven’t inked up any pens with these inks yet. As for the new green ONLINE Switch I inked it up with Waterman Harmonious Green. I was thinking J. Herbin’s Lierre Sauvage would be nice too.

Here’s a writing sample on Leuchtturm paper. The slight shading in the ink comes through. The nib is a little hooked, much like my Waterman Junior, and is very smooth. The Switch is part of the Youth line and indeed, it feels very sturdy and puts down a solid line. It wrote right out of the sleeve with no skips or hard starts. It’s a fun pen to use.

I’m very happy with my purchases and will write more about the trip in my Journal Writing Wednesday post. Thank you so much Stephanie and the Paradise Pen Company for a wonderful experience. Check out their online shop and if you are in Portland include this little shop in your travels; you won’t be disappointed.

 

Monday Miscellany

Tags

bleu ocean, j. herbin, mypenneedsink, rouge hematite, stormy grey, wonderpens

Ok so I have two things from wonderpens.ca for you tonight: they are hosting a giveaway of 3 awesome bottles of J. Herbin Bleu Ocean, Stormy Grey and Rouge Hematite! Leave a comment to enter. Shipping within Canada only.

And the second thing is: Liz wrote an inspiring post on journal writing and she promises there will be more to come. I totally agree that journaling is something good for your soul and your physical well being, like water and sunlight.

Finally I felt a kinship with Bob over at mypenneedsink.com when I read his post the weight of analog. It’s true – analog does weigh more, sometimes considerably more. I tend to carry at least two notebooks plus a pencil case full of pens with me every day to work. I may not have time to use the pens or even pen the notebook. But I feel better knowing they are there. There is always the fear of losing one or the other but so far so good. Not good for the back but good for my soul. 🙂

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. 🙂

Lamy Al-Star Gift Set

Tags

goulet pens, j. herbin, lamy al-star, poussiere de lune, rhodia

When I was in Phoenix earlier this year, I placed an order with Goulet Pens which I talked about here. Inside the box were two Lamy Al-Star gift sets, in purple, for my sister and I, as presents from our father for Christmas. Tonight I inked it up and took some photos.

The super nice box it came in.

The set comes with a Lamy Al-Star in purple, with a medium nib, a Z24 converter, a package of black Lamy cartridges and a bottle of black Lamy ink. The pen itself comes with a blue cartridge. Lamy Al-Stars differ from the Lamy Safaris in that the body is made of aluminum and the section is somewhat transparent. As with other Lamy models you either enjoy the triangular section or you don’t. My sister and I actually had quite an interesting conversation about sections; she is very picky about them (as am I) and didn’t actually realize it until we tried a bunch of different ones. I would recommend trying out a Safari or an Al-Star at your local pen shop before purchasing, just to make sure you enjoy the feel of the pen.

I tend to like the ink to match the barrel colour so I chose J. Herbin’s Poussiere de Lune (Moondust Purple) for this Al-Star. And I really like the match, as seen in the above writing sample, on Rhodia paper. The pen started up almost right away, and the writing is very smooth and even. I think I enjoy writing with this one more than my Safari, but only just. Both are excellent pens.

Here’s a close-up of the beautiful body. I really love this colour. I seem to recall Brian Goulet saying this is the first time Lamy has released a purple pen but I’m not 100% sure on that. Either way this is an amazing colour and a joy to write with.

Lamy for Christmas – thank you Dad!

Lucky 14

Tags

duly noted, j. herbin, jetpens

I bought my first tin of J. Herbin ink cartridges in Aug of 2013 at Duly Noted stationery in Halifax. Since then I’ve wanted most of the 30 J. Herbin ink colours. I am 14 colours closer to that goal, thanks to my recent trip to Phoenix and my sister allowing me to place an order from JetPens using her Phoenix address. I now have 28 of the 30 colours in the collection.

I bought 13 10 ml bottles of J. Herbin ink and one ink tin from JetPens. In the picture above the bottles are sitting on their corresponding ink splash. I haven’t decided if I want the Bouton D’or; I’ve never been a fan of yellow and it looks like highlighter ink to me. The only colour I don’t have (because JetPens was out) is Diabolo Menthe.

I bought the 10 ml bottles for two reasons: they were cheaper than the tins ($4.75 as opposed to $5.50) and I’m using a syringe to fill my pens more and more so the bottled ink made more sense.

Here’s how the ink looks in my cabinet. Seriously, I should NOT be buying any ink in 2015; I have more than enough!

I also updated my ink journal, which took forever!

Rouge Opera on the left and Cacao du Bresil on the right. The Cacao du Bresil looks more grey than brown.

Vert Reseda on the left and Bleu Myosotis on the right.

And finally Cafe des Iles on the left and Poussiere de Lune on the right. Just a few examples of how I’ve recorded the 13 10 ml bottles. I will update them when I’ve inked up some pens, to show how they write.

So once I get Diabolo Menthe my J. Herbin collection will be complete (without the bright yellow one – ick!) It will feel good to complete the set. Now I just have to make sure I use them all!

Until next time, happy writing!

 

Journal Writing Wednesday: 3 pages

Tags

goulet pens, j. herbin, jay sadow, jetpens, monteverde, monteverde prima, scottsdale pen and knife, world mail panel

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

Total pages written since last JWW post (Nov 19): 3

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 702

Total pages written in 2014: 647

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze observation experiment (it’s not much of a freeze these days!) (Jan 1/14): 58

• 1 pen + 1 bottle of ink = 2 items in a gift set on Jan 14
  
• 1 bottle of KoninginneNach-Blauw from Akkerman on Feb 5
• 1 Visconti Rembrandt Calligraphy set in Red = 2 items (pen and ink bottle) from Goldspot on May 15
• 1 bottle of J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche from Goldspot on May 15
• 1 bottle of De Atramentis Heather Violet from Goldspot on May 15
• 5 pens, 4 notebooks, 3 tins of ink cartridges from Reid’s on June 14
• 1 Jinhao X450 from ebay; received on June 19
• 1 bottle of De Atramentis William Shakespeare ink from Goulet Pens; received on June 25
• 1 Winnable Leather Notebook on July 10
• 1 Wreck This Journal on Aug 2
• 2 ink samples from Private Reserve: Avacado (sic) and DC Supershow Blue from Wonderpens on Aug 31
• 2 Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, grid and lined from Wonderpens on Aug 31
• 1 Kaweco Sport Ink Roller Demonstrator from Wonderpens on Aug 31
• 1 Leaf Binder from eBay
• 1 Alphabet Journal from Suzi Q
• 1 Dragonfly Journal, 1 Wooden Fountain Pen, and 1 Zebra V-301 Fountain pen in September
• 1 Pilot Metropolitan pen from Amazon on Nov 7 to celebrate Fountain Pen Day
• 1 limited edition purple Pilot Metropolitan in Leopard and 1 Leuchtturm 17 purple Jotbook on Nov 15 at Reid’s Stationers
• 1 Monteverde Prima in green from Goulet Pens on Nov 22
• 16 (gasp!) 10 ml bottles of J. Herbin ink in assorted colours from JetPens on Nov 22
• 1 Monteverde Artista Clear Demonstrator, 1 Pilot Plumix in purple, 2 Platinum Preppies in blue and green and 1 Rhodia leather notebook from Scottsdale Pen and Knife on Nov 25

Being on holiday I’ve written only 3 pages in my journal. So I haven’t had a chance to write about my purchases of late. But I wanted to share them so I’ve included them above. The bold is a reminder to me that I need to photograph and write blog posts about those items.

Yes I’ve taken advantage of my sister’s goodwill and used her US address for two orders to Goulet Pens and JetPens. I used the proceeds from my World Mail Panel efforts to finance the Monteverde Prima in green, and I also purchased two Christmas gifts for my sister and I, from our father. So more on that after Christmas. And I’ve wanted to complete my J. Herbin collection for some time now and with free shipping and a great sale I couldn’t resist getting 16 of the mini bottles of J. Herbin ink. Now there is only one colour I don’t have: Diabolo Menthe. Exciting stuff!

And yesterday my sister and I went to Scottsdale Pen and Knife and boy did we have fun! I bought 4 fountain pens and a notebook. The owner, Jay Sadow, spent a lot of time with us, answering questions and showing us beautiful pens and pencils, and just being wonderful.

All of these new purchases will get full blog posts once I’m home. Until then happy writing!

Paperblanks Maya Blue Filigree Ink Test

Tags

blue filigree, cadence, eclat de saphir, endpaper, hero 6021, j. herbin, jinhao x450, maya blue ultra, paperblanks, plum, private reserve, silver filigree

I have to apologize for the lack of blog posts this week (Thursday and Saturday). I’ve been quite ill with a ferocious summer cold; I lost my voice on Tuesday and I really haven’t recovered it yet. Lots of coughing with very little sleeping makes for one grumpy girl. But I wanted to write something tonight and I was reading JJ’s comment to my Stamps, Boxes and Filigree Blue post of June 1 and I thought why not do a quick ink test on my Paperblanks journal. So here it is.

I started out with fountain pen ink and then tried a few others. The Hero 6021 is running out of ink and I didn’t take the time to refill before starting to write; sorry about that. But you can still make it out.

I was really impressed with all the fountain pen ink I tried. The only one that showed the slightest feathering was the J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir in the Jinhao X450 with a broad nib.

Above you can see all the other fountain pen inks I tried showed no feathering whatsoever. I think they all look amazing, with the exception of the Eclat de Saphir in the Jinhao Broad, and even then the feathering is not overwhelming. You can disregard the small blue dots; they were the result of some scribbles on the facing page which apparently I did not allow to dry before closing the journal.

I had a happy accident with the Private Reserve Plum in the Cadence pen. I couldn’t get it to write so I coaxed some extra ink out and then a big blob came out. I quickly wiped it away but the damage, as you can see, was done. Surely that will show through! Well…

Nope! This is the back of the ink test page. You can barely see a whisper of the ink that is on the other side.

And here is a close-up of the page which corresponds to the ink drop on the back. Sorry for the blurriness but as you can see there is no sign of the ink. Amazing.

So to sum up the paper in the Paperblanks journals is very friendly to fountain pen ink. I searched for info on their paper on their blog, Endpaper: The Paperblanks Blog and found this post titled Our Paper Quality. It seems in 2008 they changed their paper to a higher quality paper to improve how fountain pen ink took to it. And as you can see from my first photo above, with one exception every ink I tried took to the paper wonderfully. Rest assured your favourite pen will take to this paper too. Try them out and let me know what you think!

Some New Pens

Tags

j. herbin, jinhao x450, online, pentel, pentel esuperb, rollerball

So my total items purchased this year went from a respectable 7 to a whopping 19 in my last JWW post. I thought I would tackle the pens first.

Maybe I should have counted this as two items instead of five, but whatever. I couldn’t resist four pens for a buck! They are Pentel BK71E E Superb; I’ve never heard of them before but they write very nicely. Just regular ballpoints but incredibly smooth on Rhodia paper. The other pen is another Online pen but this one is a rollerball. In November 2013 I mentioned my J. Herbin rollerball and it has since cracked it’s casing and is a little tricky to use these days. So I was in the market for another one and my friend and I spied some beautiful pink and purple and blue ones and this is the one I picked. It also writes super smoothly but is a bit of a gusher with the ink.

Here is a writing sample with the Pentel. Pink ink for a pink pen!

And here is a writing sample with the rollerball, into which I’ve put the J. Herbin ink, Larmes de Cassis, “Tears of Blackcurrant”. It’s a beautiful colour ink and you can really see the shading in this example.

Here’s a closeup of the rollerball. Very pretty isn’t it? I’m really loving it.

The Larme de Cassis cartridges were also part of the Reid’s shopping spree, along with two other J. Herbin inks: Eclat de Saphir and Rouge Caroubier.

I do not have the Rouge Caroubier in any pen at the moment; perhaps when the Orange Indien runs out I will ink up my Visconti with this one. The Larmes Cassis as we just discussed is in the Online rollerball and I put one of the Eclat de Saphir cartridges in my Jinhao X450, which I recently picked up on ebay. I will discuss her in more detail in another post, but her barrel is what I think of as Sapphire blue so I thought the Eclat de Saphir would be the perfect colour for her. But it’s not, at least not to my eye.

This is the colour for Eclat de Saphir. But it looks more like a dark purple to me; it’s almost black. I know you can’t see the barrel colour in this shot but I compared this ink with the ink sample sheet I printed off the internet. I’m not sure which ink this most closely resembles in the J. Herbin line.

When compared to the sample sheet it doesn’t look like Eclat de Saphir; it’s closer to Bleu Nuit.

Not quite Poussiere de Lune either.

I thought maybe the Violette Pensee. But no. And then I noticed that my Bleu Nuit tin is right next to my Eclat de Saphir tin. So maybe in my excitement I mixed up the cartridges. I guess I will have to wait until this ink is used up and try again.

So that’s it for the pens and ink from my shopping spree at Reid’s. I will do another post on the notebooks I bought, as well as a post on the Jinhao, which will be added to the list of purchases on the next JWW.

Until then, happy writing.

 

The Visconti is Home

Tags

calligraphy, goldspot, j. herbin, reid's stationers, visconti, visconti rembrandt

I am happy to report a package from Goldspot arrived at the office on Friday. Inside was my Visconti nib with a newly fitted section, which had been missing in the initial shipment, which I first mentioned in this post. So I can finally give a complete review of the Visconti Rembrandt Calligraphy Set in Red.

The box in which the calligraphy set originally arrived.

The set came with an inkwell, blotting paper, the pen body, two converters and two nibs. In this picture the extra-fine nib is in the pen, while the italic nib with it’s new section is lying in its bed as it should be, nice and snug, instead of rolling around.

The booklet that came with the set not only gives instructions on filling the pen but also introduces the various types of calligraphy: Italic, Gothic, Uncial, Foundational, Rotunda and English Script. There are detailed pictures of how to produce each letter.

I think my favourite is Foundational, which is the third up from the bottom.

Makes it look easy! I wish.

A close-up of the blotting paper. Apparently it has a plastic coating to protect fingers.

The inkwell. This one is plastic; they also come in glass bottles. Beautiful shape to the bottle; very distinctive. And inadvertently I got a great closeup of the pen. Love the variation in the barrel colour, the decorated band and the iconic clip.

The pen body came wrapped in this plastic sleeve. No doubt about where it was made.

The finial.

Close-up of the detail on the band. So pretty. The other side says Rembrandt.

Sorry couldn’t resist the cap again – love it!

The nibs; italic on top, extra-fine on the bottom.

I filled the pen with the Visconti black ink and wrote this sample with the 1.5 mm nib. Very smooth on the Studio Oh! paper. A little too thick for everyday use I think. I will use it for my Christmas cards and special occasions. Now I have to find a red ink I don’t get a headache looking at. But until then…

I’ve had this J. Herbin Orange Indien since my Christmas visit to Reid’s Stationers. When I saw the orange undertones of the Rembrandt barrel I immediately thought of my only orange ink. I think it’s a good match.

Such a difference to the first nib. It is a very nice writer, with no skipping. It was a bit scratchy on the paper (Clairefontaine) but that’s to be expected with an extra-fine nib. I had to force some ink into the section to get it going but after that no problems. I think this will be more of an everyday writer for me.

I know this is the “budget” version of the Rembrandt, as the one I tried out at Reid’s Stationers had a metal section (not plastic) and a magnetized finial that could be customized. But that really doesn’t matter to me; this version brought it into the realm of possibility and I am thrilled with it. I am very grateful to my husband for buying it for me and also to the excellent folks at Goldspot for making it perfect. You can check it out yourself here, although it is no longer on sale. And if you really want to dream, take a look a the rest of the Visconti line here.