Work Journals

Tags

golder associates ltd., journal, notebooks, pens

I work for Golder Associates Ltd. We are a “global, employee-owned organisation providing independent consulting, design and construction services in our specialist areas of earth, environment and energy.” My current role is a Technical Editor for a dedicated client team. I’ve been with them for five years. In those five years I’ve received five journals and today I wanted to share them with you.

I have received five journals in total: two of the large leather refillable journal on the right, one of the brown journal, and two of the small green journal.

Inside the leather refillable. I use this at work all the time, so it has my business cards in the pocket and one of my pens.

This is the pen that came with the journal. Notice it has the same sewn detail as the pen. I like the look of the pen but it does not stay released when I try to write with it. I turn the barrel until the pen appears but then when I start to write the point goes back into the pen. Most annoying. But that’s a ballpoint for you!

The paper is pretty thin but it ‘s not bad.

So the journal is made by Hampton, and it’s nice of them to list where to find the refills.

Sorry for the blurriness; on my phone it looked fine. This journal I received this year. I love the color, and the fact that you can stick a pen in the binding.

A close-up of the pen that came with the journal.

And this is where the pen lives in the binding. Just like my Cross Journal.

Nice ruled pages with brown lines – and they are perforated which is a nice detail. I wish it was refillable though.

Pocket in the back.

Back cover. Another one made in China, by Spector and Co.

This is the small green journal. Love the color but not crazy about the journal itself.

It doesn’t lie flat at all. Very disappointing.

Genuine Leather and again made in China.

So there you have it. Golder is very good to give out these journals and other gifts; I really do appreciate them. It’s nice to be thanked for your efforts.

Cadence Pens

Tags

cadence, fountain pen, j. herbin, pens, things engraved

So this past Christmas I found some beautiful fountain pens at a store called Things Engraved. They are also affiliated with Sears Personalized Gifts, Personally Yours, Creations Personelles and Centre de la Gravure. I bought three for myself and two for Christmas gifts.

I fell in love with this pen as soon as I held it in my hand. It has a nice weight but is not too heavy. I like my caps posted and these post securely. The cap is a snap cap, and closes with a satisfyingly loud click. They have never skipped and always start right away. There is a black band around the base of the cap and it reads “Cadence”.

I love them. But I can’t really find any information about them on the internet. At least, not about the fountain pens specifically. Cadence seems to make a lot of different pens, mostly ballpoints, in metal and plastic. The Things Engraved website lists four or five Cadence pens, but none of them are these fountain pens. I’ve tried the Personally Yours website as well with the same result.

This is the box they came in from Things Engraved.

The open box with the warranty info. The warranty info says Cadence Writing Instruments – Lifetime Mechanical Warranty. If I have a problem I should bring it in to the nearest Things Engraved store, or any store mentioned above. Standard really, but there was no card to fill out and send in.

The pens themselves are quite nice looking, I think. Burnished gold metal with silver or chrome accents, and that black band around the middle.

Here they are uncapped. I apologize for the glare; this was the best I could get, and as close as I could get without blurriness. The nibs have a curled line around the edge, say Iridium Point Germany and seem to have a daisy pattern around the centre hole.

Here are the feeds. I do not know what the numbers refer to, but from left to right the nibs are labelled 1, 3 and 4. There does not seem to be a number 2 available. No 4 seems to be a slightly finer nib, as you will see in the writing sample later.

These pens are engravable, which I did for the Christmas presents, and also one for myself.

Here is the writing sample in my Rhodia notebook. I think No 4 gives a slightly finer line and it definitely feels scratchier on the paper. No one at the store could tell me the nib size of any of the pens.

I keep these pens in a vinyl pen roll I purchased on ebay.

It’s hard to make out but the writing on the pen roll says “twilight”. Yes I think this is a movie tie-in item. I’m not a fan of the Twilight movies but I liked the pen roll.

Here is the pen roll open. The roll is also advertised to keep makeup brushes in, so that could explain the different widths of the slots.

I just like that it keeps my pens from scratching each other.

I googled “Cadence writing instruments” and found multiple listings for their ballpoint pens. When I googled “Cadence fountain pen” I found one entry on the Fountain Pen Network forum from 2011. And that’s about it. I would love to know more about these pens, if there is anything more to be discovered.

See your Fist

Tags

books, handwriting, jack kerouac, journal, pens

I have written out excerpts from books I love for many years now. I have a couple of notebooks full of them. When I am struck by the beauty of a sentence I have to write it down so I can better remember it, and through practice recognize the same thing in my own words, if I should be so lucky.

I was reminded of this practice when I read this post by Marisa at The Unwritten Word. Not only can you savour great writing, you can also use your favorite pens and ink, and fill up your journal with inspiration.

The greats will teach us to be better writers by example. We just have to listen.

InCoWriMo 2014: Final Update

Tags

handwriting, incowrimo, letters, paper, pens, stationery, writing

InCoWriMo 2014 ended yesterday. I must say I had a terrific time. I sent 30 letters to folks participating in InCoWriMo and 4 letters to friends in the last 28 days. I received 27 from Canada, United States and Australia. Here are some highlights:

This picture does not do her handwriting justice, but the envelope underneath is from Sherry, who practices calligraphy. Such a beautiful rendering of the name of my blog! I envy her skill. And a gorgeous envelope from Carla on top; there was a beautiful card inside too.

Wax seals were popular. Here are three from Adrianna, Lesley and Mark that made it relatively unscathed through the mail sorting machines.

Lovely card from Ashli. Love birds and glitter!

Dean sent me this wonderful card and thoughtfully put his letter inside on separate paper so in theory I could use this card to send back to him or to someone else. But it’s so great I think it’s going straight into my journal. I also love the quote he sent. I sent journal cards with fountain pen quotes to my correspondents.

Just received this breathtaking envelope from Carl on Friday. Love!

And this was a fun idea from Rob: he sent me 3 tabletopics idea cards with his letter. He also sent me some extra sheets of Tomoe River Paper, which I’m now in love with because quite a few of my letters were penned on this paper. It takes fountain pen ink beautifully, is super thin like tissue paper and is not too expensive. Wonderpens in Toronto also carries it.

I’ve had so much fun and everyone has made me feel so welcome. I’m sure most if not all of these folks will continue writing throughout the year, as I intend to do. I have to say a huge thank you to the Fountain Pen Geeks Forum for introducing me to such a great bunch of pen and paper enthusiasts.

Now I have to go write some letters….

Journal Writing Wednesday: 32 pages

Tags

alan bradley, fountain pen, fountain pen geeks, journaling expo 2014, parker urban, pens, writing

Journal I’m currently using: Navy Blue Cross Journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Jan 8): 32

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 109

Total pages written in 2014: 54

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze: 2 on Jan 14    (Sigh. Almost made it 2 weeks. But I am not giving up the experiment. Setbacks were expected. Read more below.)

Topics covered:

• Grumpy ramblings through a very bad cold
• The delights of the Fountain Pen Geeks website
• Thoughts on The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bow by Alan Bradley
• Notes taken during Journaling Expo 2014 (about 28 of the 32 pages)

Ok so it is confession time. Kinda sorta. We were given Amazon gift cards for Christmas. Both my husband and I have been very sick over the past two weeks and last night we decided to have some fun and go shopping on Amazon. I tried EXTREMELY hard not to spend my portion of the gift cards on notebooks or pens or ink. I succeeded in choosing four items that fit the bill but I couldn’t resist this Parker fountain pen set (I recorded it as two purchases above because the set comes with a pen and ink).

The pen is a Parker Urban and the reviews I’ve seen on Amazon and youtube are favorable. The set is an excellent value pack when you take into consideration the individual cost of the parts. So yes this is the first setback, I’m sure there will be more this year, but I want to continue the experiment. I am committed to buying less this year so we’ll see how it all unfolds. What will be the next thing that I cannot resist? Stay tuned!

Until next week, happy writing.

MonteVerde Prima and More Ink!

Tags

fountain pen, graf von faber-castell, j. herbin, lamy, monteverde, pens, private reserve, reid's stationers

I received a gift certificate for my favorite local stationers, Reid’s Stationers. I had a wonderful two hours looking at everything, weighing my options. The staff is outstanding; Maureen inked up quite a few pens for me to try before deciding on a final one. And we had a great discussion about inks. I would love a part time job there but I fear bankruptcy would be the inevitable result.

I’ve read and seen so much about the beautiful Visconti line of fountain pens; and Maureen let me try a Visconti Rembrandt in blue with a medium nib. Beautiful pen and exquisite writing experience. Very smooth, no stops, great flow. But it was a little more than I wanted to spend, even though this particular line is the entrance point for the brand. The Visconti I fell in love with, the limited edition pen created for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, was definitely more than I would ever be able to spend on a pen. But what a beautiful pen it is. Even better when you are holding it in your hand. I didn’t have it inked up for me as I didn’t want my heart broken entirely.

I wanted to introduce some colour to my fountain pen collection, but not use up my entire gift certificate as I wanted to buy some ink as well. So Maureen introduced me to the MonteVerde Prima. And I fell in love with the Turquoise Swirl. Nice chrome touches, lightweight, super smooth writer with great flow.

I felt very swank walking out of the store with this bag!

The box.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures but the pen is translucent so when you hold it up to the light it glows. I’m totally in love with this pen; I think it’s beautiful, writes like a dream and retails in Canada for around $60. I do realize that is still quite a bit to spend on a pen but as it was a gift I indulged myself. The Visconti Rembrandt cost almost 3 times as much. The MonteVerde pens come with cartridges and a converter; the Viscontis do not come with any cartridges and you can purchase a converter for about $10. Both pens take standard international cartridges.

The base of the box can be removed to reveal a compartment for storing cartridges and the converter (when I took the picture the converter was still in the pen). I did not use the cartridges that came with the pen; I put in a Bleu Pervenche cartridge from J. Herbin as the turquoise colour is an exact match to the barrel.

All of my goodies: Rose Cyclamen and Orange Indien J. Herbin cartridges sitting on the MonteVerde box; Hazelnut Brown and Stone Grey cartridges from Graf von Faber-Castell in the cream boxes; Violet and Turquoise cartridges from Lamy; and Plum cartridges from Private Reserve.

Wonderful day and I didn’t feel one bit guilty because I was spending someone else’s money. And I still have a balance on the gift certificate!! I will be sure to keep you posted as to where that goes, in the new year.

Happy writing.

In Search of the Perfect Pen Holder

Tags

diy, pen holder, pens

These quiver pen holders are beautiful; my local pen shop has them but they are super pricey. So I went on the hunt for some diy options. I liked the diy pen holder I made for my Raydori but I have a fountain pen I want to protect so I’m looking more for a holder than a loop.

http://dealseekingmom.com/easy-no-sew-pencil-holder-and-notebook-cover/

This is kinda cool. No sewing and very colourful. I just might try this.

http://www.smallfriendly.com/small-friendly/2011/08/no-sew-colored-pencil-roll.html

This is truly no-sew. Love the wool felt she used.

http://pm-betweenthelines.blogspot.fr/2012/11/no-sew-leather-pencil-case-diy.html

This is edgy and cool. I do have elastic left over from the Fauxdori project but no leather. I might have some stiff fabric instead….

So now I’m on the hunt for stuff that might work in one of these projects. Whatever I make I will publish photos. And if any of you have created a neat pen holder, please share!

Pen Update

Tags

fountain pen, j. herbin, manuscript, online, pens, writing

In honour of Fountain Pen Day just passed, I thought I would do a post on my pen collection. By my count I have done over 40 posts under the category of My Journal Collection, but only 3 under My Pen Collection. So this is long overdue.

Over the summer I purchased a J. Herbin Rollerball with a clear case. It was around $10 and I love it. Truth be told, I fell in love with the J. Herbin ink tins first, and fell in love with the pen later, probably due in large part to having something to use the inks in!

I have used the Lie de The ink and the Terre de Feu ink in it so far. Slight difference in the shade of brown between the two inks. It writes beautifully and you can get yourself one from Goulet Pens.

The pen takes any short international cartridge but I prefer the J. Herbin inks it was designed for.

An overview of the inks available from J. Herbin. I want to collect all 30! Each colour is also available in a bottle.

My collection. Only 25 to go!

My local stationer’s display of J. Herbin tins. This store also sold me my second fountain pen: the ONLINE College City Colors fountain pen in black, with a medium nib. It sold for $13.

The store display for the German company ONLINE. It comes in lots of great colour combinations and they even have a special edition for lefties.

I didn’t think I would like a medium nib (my Lamy has a fine nib) but I quite like it. The pen is unbelievably light (made of plastic after all) and a real joy to use. They take all international cartridges.

I tried to get a good close-up of the nib but there are too many shadows. You can just see the hint of blue from the ink it is loaded with (Bleu Pervenche for J. Herbin).

The Online College City Colors collection is available through Goldspot Luxury Gifts.

And finally I picked up this Beginner’s Calligraphy Pen set from Manuscript at my local Michael’s, for about $14. I’m delighted with it – I think it writes beautifully.

It also takes international cartridges but comes with a converter so I can put bottled ink in it. Fantastic features for such a low price point. The ink did take a bit of coaxing to flow and it is slow to start each time I start a new writing session. But other than that a really great pen. And I can purchase other calligraphy nibs from their UK website for about $5 each plus shipping.

Manuscript also has this neat service where if you are left-handed you can ship the nibs that came in the package to them, along with the cost of return postage, and they will ship the corresponding left-handed nibs to you. Awesome company.

And finally some writing samples. It’s crazy how the black ink of the Manuscript pen jumps off the page.

Hope you enjoyed this pen tour as much as I did. 🙂

Happy Fountain Pen Day

Tags

fountain pen, fountain pen day, handwriting, letters, pens, writing

 

See also http://www.fountainpenday.org/

The Writing Equipment Society

Tags

fountain pen, handwriting, pens, writing, writing equipment society

I watched the youtube video put out by the Writing Equipment Society and was interested to know more. Their website is a treasure trove of information pertaining to WES events, their Journal, membership information and quite a staggering list of ephemera available to members. They even have a course on fountain pen repair. Membership is estimated around 500, 150 of which are located “overseas”.

Founded in 1980, their mission is

…to promote ownership, conservation, study and use of writing equipment – to record knowledge and share it with others.

If only my budget stretched to this membership as well as the LWA this year. But the LWA was only $5 for a lifetime membership; membership in WES is 35 GBP per year. Really cool organization!