#7 of 53: Change, Lamy Pens and Mothers

Tags

2017 special edition, from the pen cup, lamy, lamy al-star, pacific, the pen habit, wonder pens

Did you miss me?

You can thank my sister for this post. I have been feeling dramatically uninspired of late, hence the radio silence. And then my sister sent me a lovely email, which included a link to one of my blog posts from 4 years ago, about her trip to Iceland. And somehow it’s inspired me.

There’s alot of change afoot in the stationery/fountain pen world. Wonderpens have closed one shop and opened another; I so love their blog I felt I was saying goodbye too, even though I’ve never set foot in any of their stores to date. Matt Armstrong of The Pen Habit on YouTube has ended his run as fountain pen/ink reviewer extraordinaire. Believe me, I can relate. I seriously considered shutting this whole thing down. Even Mary at From the Pen Cup took a long breather between posts. I’ve set myself the challenge of 53 posts this year, which may or may not happen. And I’ve decided to be at peace with that.

So inspired by my sister I’m going to review the Lamy Al-Star Pacific 2017 Limited Edition fountain pen she gave me for my birthday last year.

It’s my third Lamy; I’ve written about the Safari and my other Al-Star previously. The Safari was one of my first purchases after starting the blog, back in 2012. And the Al-Star was a Christmas present in 2014. This Lamy Al-Star is a gorgeous turquoise blue, called the Pacific, for the colour resembles tropical seas.

I also received a bottle of Lamy Turquoise. It was released with the special edition pen but as far as I can tell it’s the same colour as the old Lamy Turquoise. Either way it’s a glorious colour.

The nib is fine and very smooth. Since last September I’ve had it inked up with the Lamy Turquoise, and it always starts writing the instant the cap comes off, with no skipping or hard starts. The cap posts securely although I would advise caution with posting, as my purple Al-Star is showing signs of wear on the barrel.

The distinctive triangular section, unique to Lamy, creates a strong grip for long writing sessions.

The Al-Star usually retails for just under $40 US. The 2017 special edition is no longer available on Goulet Pens; indeed it has been replaced by the 2018 special edition in Vibrant Pink. I’m told the Al-Star Blue Green is very close in tone to the Pacific. But I did manage to find two on offer on Amazon as used. I highly recommend the Lamy Al-Star, for beginners and pros alike. These special editions are a fun way to expand your Lamy collection – such colours!

And finally today (in North America) is the day we honour our mothers. Today marks my 18th Mother’s Day without mine. I wish I could say it gets easier. But some years are better than others. I have a wonderful mother-in-law who receives our well wishes via video call. And now that I’m back in Nova Scotia I can visit my grandmother’s grave, and honour her memory along with her daughter’s.

Happy Mother’s Day.

 

 

#5 of 53 File Index Sneak Peek and A Carousel of Ink

Tags

diamine, diamine 150 anniversary, index, wonder pens

I’ve been thinking for some time about changing the way I record the details of my pens and inks, as discussed in this post. I love having lots of room to write about each pen or ink, but inevitably I found the binder too large and heavy to be practical and portable. So I’ve made the move to index cards.

I’ve made a list of all the pens I have, as well as a list of all the inks. I’ve noted down the colour of pen, the size of bottle, where each was purchased and when. Then each pen and each ink has it’s own index card under the corresponding letter (J for Jinhao and D for Diamine). It’s compact and alphabetical. It’s still a work in progress as I haven’t found a proper file drawer for it; I would love to purchase a real library file drawer (with the steel rod and everything!!) but my budget doesn’t allow it at this time. I plan on doing a full post on it when it is finished.

But in working on transferring the contents of the binder to the cards I have found gaps in my inventory, and one such obvious gap is a set of inks I bought after the binder was set up but still packed away: 8 of the Diamine 150 Anniversary Inks. To mark the 150th anniversary of its brand, Diamine released 16 40 ml bottles in a unique triangular shape that, when arranged, form a beautiful carousel of ink.

There are 16 colours in the anniversary line:

1. Burgundy Royale
2. Carnival
3. Blood Orange
4. Golden Honey
5. Safari
6. Tropical Green
7. Dark Forest
8. Blue Velvet
9. Tudor Blue
10. Lilac Night
11. Regency Blue
12. Purple Dream
13. Terracotta
14. Espresso
15. Silver Fox
16. 1864 Blue Black

I have eight of these, and I actually didn’t realize there were eight more until I did the research for this post. I bought the set from WonderPens.ca and they gave me a deal because I bought a set of eight. Now that I know there are eight more, I might ask them if they would offer me the deal again! When I have a few pennies to spare maybe. You can buy them on the Wonderpens site for $15 each.

The labels are very distinctive, with the swirly 150 and the vintage feel. And the inks themselves, as with all Diamine inks, are bright and eye catching.

Here is the Blue Velvet. The blue handwriting in the photo above is from my journal, made with a Jinhao 992 pen inked with Blue Velvet.

Here is Carnival, which is more of a true red than what is coming through in the photo.

Here the red writing is in Carnival.

Here is the 1864 Blue Black above with a writing sample below.

 

Above is the Safari green, with a writing sample below.

The next four inks.

Here is the Tropical Green with a writing sample below. Love this green.

Here is the Regency Blue followed by a writing sample. I like all three but this is my favourite of the blue inks in this set.

Here is the Silver Fox with a writing sample following. This is my least favourite of this set. I have never come across a grey ink that I like; they all seem to be too light. You can barely read this one.

And finally here is the Terracotta, with the writing sample following.

That’s it for the Diamine 150 inks, or at least half of them.

I also came across a few more new inks that need to be reviewed but this post is certainly long enough so I won’t inflict them on you. Yet.

Happy journaling.

 

#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.

Journal Writing Wednesday: 5 pages

Tags

blue upon the plains of abraham, franklin christoph, good earth, model 20 translucent bronze, noodler's ahab, noodler's ink, raven black, wonder pens, world mail panel

What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, the Seven Seas Writer, and the Franklin Christoph Notebook.

Total pages written since this post (Mar 23): 5

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1587

Total pages written in 2016: 144

So tonight I chose a pen to be my go-to pen for April. The ONLINE pen from last month was a bit of a disappointment. So the pen for April is my Noodler’s Ahab in King Philip Purple! I first wrote about it in this post and then again in this post after turning it into a bit of a “frankenpen”. Picture to come soon.

I will announce the pen for May on April 27.

This past Sunday I announced the winner of the Pharaoh Notes Giveaway. Heba15 you have until this coming Sunday to contact me! More giveaways to come so stay tuned.

I cashed in some World Mail Panel points and bought myself two Noodler’s inks from Wonder Pens: Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham and Raven Black. I bought my sister some Raven Black for Christmas and have been lusting after it ever since. Both of them are Canadian exclusives. Review coming soon.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

• Work has been busier and less frustrating this week, so that’s wonderful. I’ve also been busy at home and I find my journal writing suffers for it. Maybe this weekend I will take myself on a tea-date to Good Earth and write in my journal. Fingers crossed.
• I’ve been watching videos about the Franklin Christoph Model 20 Translucent Bronze fountain pen, available exclusively at Wonder Pens in Toronto. I’ve been wanting a Franklin Christoph pen for a while and this would be a good choice, as it makes for an amazing looking eyedropper pen, which I’ve been wanting to try. Must save my pennies.

Happy writing!

 

Monday Miscellany

Tags

dave mcginn, david caolo, globe and mail, josh giesbrecht, theatlantic.com, unclutterer.com, wonder pens

I enjoyed this article by David Caolo on unclutterer.com about his struggle to keep a journal. I was so moved by his plight that I actually commented, which I don’t often do. I really hope he finds his voice in his journal because he so desperately wants to. But just like coffee, it’s not for everyone.

Pure gold from an eight-year-old: “When you’re older, if your writing is sloppy for something really important – like if you’re playing Major League Baseball and you’re writing your contract – and you don’t know how to write, people might not understand what you’re writing.” So true! Excellent article in the Globe and Mail by Dave McGinn about the value of cursive writing, and Liz from Wonder Pens is quoted.

And finally tonight this excellent article from theatlantic.com by Josh Giesbrecht on How the Ballpoint Killed Cursive. In his history of the much maligned ballpoint I found an unexpected love song for the fountain pen. And something I had never considered: ballpoints can cause hand strain and pain, while fountain pens can relieve it. The notion that this could be the reason for the movement away from cursive is very interesting to me. And I love the quote: Fountain pens want to connect letters. Ballpoint pens need to be convinced to write.

Until next post, happy writing!

Monday Miscellany

Tags

clark danger, the pen pixie, tiny ray of sunshine, wonder pens

Many thanks to The Pen Pixie for introducing me to Tiny Ray of Sunshine’s post on Weekly Layouts for your Bullet Journal. They can also be used for a DIY planner, and I was just totally blown away by the variation of the layouts. Some great ideas here. It’s so much fun to draw your own layouts.

Clark Danger posted a very interesting video about his 2015 journal. He shares some insights into what it means to be human and how to be your best self. I love the page he shares from his journal with short quotes, numbers and phrases that mean something to him.

And finally a little bit of Christmas magic. I just love this post by Liz at Wonder Pens, talking about their family Christmas, taking a break, getting some sleep and watching their young son ride around on his pedal-less tricycle. Great photos and really great writing. Liz makes you feel like you are sitting around the tree with them!

Until next post, happy writing!

 

Moving Into My Hobonichi Techo – Finally

Tags

hobonichi techo, moleskine pocket planner, pilot coleto multipen, tomoe river, wonder pens

Cast your mind back to Oct. 4 of this year when I wrote this post about my 2016 planner, the Hobonichi Techo. This week I could finally move into it! I wanted to show you the cover I bought for it, and also talk about my initial impressions.

I ordered the cover from Wonder Pens, which is where I purchased the planner too. I love blue and green so this cover was perfect. I don’t know for sure what the material is but it feels like nylon. Very soft to the touch and durable feeling. I’m using the double pen loop to put one pen through, so it acts as a closure for the book as well. Currently I am using my 5 barrel Pilot Coleto in blue, with 0.5 mm refills. I always have a fountain pen with me and it takes fountain pen ink beautifully as well.

The inside cover has lots of slots for cards, post-its or page flags. I will probably put a couple of paperclips in here too.

And here is the back cover, with two secretarial pockets. The Techo fits perfectly and it is still slim when closed.

Here is the back cover, with another long pocket. The cover comes with two bookmarks attached, one ending in a square piece of vinyl (not sure on the material but it feels like vinyl) and the other in a triangular piece of vinyl. You can use them however you like but I guess they are to mark your place in the monthly calendar and the daily calendar.

I’m really enjoying the monthly calendar on two pages. I felt I didn’t have enough room in the Moleskine Pocket Planner but there is more than enough in the Techo. And I love the grid; I actually find myself color coding certain things (appointments and birthdays) because it’s just so convenient to colour in the square.

David and I have ongoing chiropractic and massage appointments and I’ve assigned colours to them to save space. This way I can easily see that on the 12th we have appointments from 10 to 12.

And of course, the paper. The Tomoe River paper was the big selling feature of this planner for me, and it does not disappoint. There is a whole year in this thing, of monthly pages and daily pages, and it really does not feel thick at all. It’s very portable and comfortable to use. I find myself writing down all kinds of different action items because I have the space. It’s true what they say: if you have the space your ideas will grow to fill it. For the remainder of December I have half a page per day and the pages are filling up fast (I know there are more Christmas to-dos than in other months, but still) and I cannot wait until January when I will have a whole page per day. I don’t think I will have trouble filling up the pages but we shall see.

This picture shows the months in a shortened form, perfect for important dates throughout the year. It’s like a year at a glance but spans eight pages. There is some show through but nothing major.

I’ve only been using this planner for 5 days but I find myself going back to it often throughout the day, to write down things that pop into my head, especially with the preparations for Christmas. I took it to the grocery store with me today and had it open to today’s to-do list. Very convenient and a joy to use. And that’s why so many people are using these planners. I hope to use this for all of 2016 and I will keep you posted on how it all works out. 🙂

Hobonichi Techo 2016

Tags

hobonichi techo, moleskine, seven seas writer, wonder pens

Sometimes it’s hard not to jump on a bandwagon. I recently purchased a Hobonichi Techo 2016 in the A6 size, English version. If you search for Hobonichi on YouTube hundreds of videos will be returned. Currently the A6 English version, with a cover, is around $400 Canadian on ebay. I have been interested in these planners for about a year now, wanting to try them because the paper is Tomoe River, the same paper as in the Seven Seas Writer. So when Wonder Pens announced on their blog that they would be carrying the Techos I signed up for the email notification without really thinking about it. It was only asking to be notified; I wasn’t committed to buying one. And when I got the email announcement I did pause at the price: $43 Canadian. I went to the Hobonichi website just to see if ordering direct would be cheaper – no. Shipping to Canada was $66! I think I must have done the Yen to Canadian dollar conversion wrong, judging on the swarms of people who are buying them States side, but even if I did get the math wrong these babies are expensive. So Wonder Pens’ price of $43 plus $8 shipping was a comparative bargain.

And it is a lovely book.

The Japanese characters on the cover stand for te and cho, hence the name. According to the marketing materials: “A techo in Japan is used for more than scheduling an agenda. It is also used as a sketchbook, a diary and for other jottings that together tend to chronicle its owner’s daily life.” These planners are the brainchild of Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shimbun, a very important person at Nintendo, apparently. And they have seemingly taken the planner/journalling community by storm.

The back of the plastic package shows the day per page layout, with the time grid, the dinner icon, the quote and the mini calendar.

The book is sewn so lays flat. The beginning of the book has these monthly pages, with four months to a spread. Good for noting down important dates that occur each year, like birthdays and anniversaries.

Each month also has a two-page spread, and this is the reason (besides the lovely paper) for the purchase; my current Moleskine is great in the weekly spread. But it’s crap for the monthly spread because it’s too small. I need more than one page per month. I’m cramming appointments and things into tiny squares and it’s driving me batty. But I enjoy the weekly spread, which the Techo doesn’t have. Boo. But for me if I had to choose just one layout (month, week or day) it would be the month, definitely. So I will just learn to live without the weekly spread. I hope!

The planner goes to March 2017. I like how there is no doubt as to which year this page is referring to!

I can’t start this planner until Dec 16. There is a monthly spread for December 2015 but the daily pages don’t start until Dec 16; no idea why. And it’s not a full day until Jan 1, 2016.

Here is the daily page layout. Sundays have red ink which is handy when you are flipping through. The grid layout is nice, for lists and things. I’m looking forward to seeing how I fare with daily pages. I haven’t used a daily page in a very long time.

There are a couple of other Hobonichi products which offer weekly spreads. The Cousin, as I understand it, offers a monthly layout, a weekly and a daily. And it’s A5 which is my preferred size. But I understand it is more expensive, not in English and frankly all three layouts in one book seems a tad much. And there is something called the Hobonichi Weeks which I think fit in Midori notebooks. Who knows what I will find myself wanting down the road but I am very happy to start with this little guy and see where I go.

There are covers that these planners fit into and Wonder Pens is currently out of stock on the blue and green one that I like. So hopefully by the time I can start using this I will have a cover as well.

There are a few notes pages at the back of the book in red dot grid format. Such amazing paper. And at the very back of the book are metric conversions, a printed ruler, international dialing codes, etc. There is also information about Japan and how to have an amazing Japanese dining experience.

Please let me know if any of you have jumped onto this bandwagon as well. They seem to be very popular so I’m sure I will fall in love with it even more when I start using it. I can FINALLY use my fountain pens in a planner (Filofax paper and Moleskine paper and fountain pen ink do NOT get along). Maybe 2016 will be the year when I stick with one planner all year long. Wouldn’t that be crazy? 🙂

Journal Writing Wednesday: 28 pages

Tags

birthdays, calgary home and design show, christmas, crowne plaza portland, franklin christoph, letters, oregon, portland, vineyard burgundy, vintage trouble, visconti rembrandt, wonder pens, zenscapes by emily

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

Total pages written since this post (Sept 16): 28

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1260

Total pages written in 2015: 420

So today I say goodbye to the Cadence pen and say hello to the October pen: my Visconti Rembrandt in red. Yay!! I haven’t used that pen for a long time and I want to try my new Vineyard Burgundy ink in it.

I will choose the pen for November on Oct 28.

Purchases: My packages from Wonder Pens and Franklin-Christoph have arrived so I will be writing posts about those goodies very soon. I have not made any other purchases since Portland.

Some points covered this week (and last) in my journals:

• I have started my Christmas shopping. Each year I try to finish completely by December 1 so I can avoid December crowds. Some years are better than others for achieving this, so I start early. I wanted to buy a bottle of ink as a gift and of course I have to do that well in advance of the snow. So that at least is done.
• I’ve started writing letters again. HUGE apologies to those of you I owe a letter to; please forgive me. I blitzed out 5 letters in 2 days and that has made a small dent in my enormous Reply To pile. And the letters were replies to letters from LAST MARCH! Goodness it’s a wonder anyone continues to write to me. I will try to do better this fall, honest. 🙂
• Birthday time again for me. I am getting less and less enthusiastic about celebrating. Getting older is depressing but when you consider the alternative…
• Went to the Calgary Home and Design Show. My niece Emily’s company, Zencapes by Emily, had her “official” debut with her handcrafted miniature gardens. She’s on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, and probably other places her old aunt (me) hasn’t heard of. Check out her magical creations – you will fall in love!
• Our trip to Portland, Oregon was magical. We crammed three days’ worth of stuff into 24 hours. The hotel, the Crowne Plaza Portland, was amazing. The shopping, food and people were awesome. And Vintage Trouble were fantastic. We got to meet them and they are the nicest guys around. The drummer hugged me and the guitar player asked us how they sounded! And then proceeded to fist pump David and wish him a happy birthday. They have an unbelievable connection with their fans that they work hard to maintain. An experience we will NEVER forget. Check out the Vintage Trouble website and buy their stuff. You will not be disappointed.

Monday Miscellany

Tags

chip kidd, field notes, hobonichi techo, josh ginter, knopf, moleskine, moleskine store web daily, mrporter.com, the newsprint, wonder pens

Hey! This blog was mentioned in the Sept 14 edition of Moleskine Store WebDaily. Apparently it’s a daily roundup of Moleskine references around the internets. If you scroll almost to the bottom of the page you’ll find me. Thank you Moleskine! 🙂

Liz from Wonder Pens mentioned on their blog this article from The Newsprint in which Josh Ginter chronicles one year of his journaling efforts. And it is quite the effort. I really enjoyed how he integrated his analog efforts with a digital repository so the content is searchable. He is a devotee of Field Notes and the Hobonichi Techo. And of course, fountain pens.

Ballpoints lack the character and the zeal necessary to keep an inspired journal or diary. The flow of true ink — not the garbage found in a disposable pen — into the fibers of the paper brings the writing a little closer to home. Increasing the passion and decreasing the friction, I believe, is the key to lengthy journal habits. For me, fountain pens do the trick.

And finally tonight here is another article from Mr. Porter discussing the favourite fonts of five graphic designers. I like Blender, the font nominated by Chip Kidd, Associate Art Director of Knopf (the best publishing house in the world). Which one do you like?

Until next post, happy writing!

P.S. Journal Writing Wednesday will not be published this week as I will be travelling. It will return on the 30th.