Many of us are not quite back into the pen show circuit yet, but we’re eagerly watching others. One of my favorite ways to “do” a pen show that I can’t attend is to watch Mike Matteson’s feed (Inkdependence on YouTube). If he’s at the show, it’s a good bet he’ll do a Friday afternoon walk through. You do need to guard your wallet though, because it can be dangerous.
Back when he did the Philly Pen Show walkthrough in January I was on the hunt for a new notebook. I’m getting ready to change jobs (I start a new one on March 6th!) and I wanted to treat myself to a new notebook to store all those first few weeks of information in. You know, where they turn on the fire hose and inundate you with information you’ll need later but just can’t absorb all of. So here I was blithely watching Mike walk the pen show floor when he came upon Odyssey notebooks. And that Pompei Marine Life? I was smitten.
I chose the 300 Page A5 Cosmo Air Light Notebook, with the Pompei Marine Life cover ($34) because those sea creatures (artwork by Flaroh Illustration) are AMAZING.
The notebook is A5 size (8.25 x 5.625″/21 x 14.5 cm), weighing in at a hefty 423g. Though it’s not lightweight, it packs a lot of pages!
The cover is printed cardboard and the inner illustrations are beautiful as well with their Greek theme. Inside are 300 numbered pages of 83gsm Cosmo Air Light paper in an off-white color. I was super interested in trying this notebook out because I haven’t sampled Cosmo Air Light paper yet. While I love Tomoe River, I often find it’s too thin for my liking, so I was interested to try out a slightly heavier weight notebook. The paper is really interesting – it’s super smooth and just a bit toothy. On my wider nib pens (Kaweco B, Pelikan F) the ink is really wet, but it seems to dry quickly. I didn’t find any feathering, but the ink definitely spreads a bit. Even my Kaweco with the F nib isn’t a super thin line.
That said, there’s a bit of show through but no bleeding and the opposite side of the page is super useable (I get distracted if I can see too much of the previous page through the paper).
While I love the cardboard cover and it seems sturdy, I’ll likely slip it into one of my notebook covers (maybe my Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter?) to keep it from getting too banged up.
I’m excited to start a fresh new job with a fresh new notebook.
P.S. Next week I’ll tell you about the new pen I bought!
DISCLAIMER: I purchased the notebook above from Odyssey Notebooks with my own funds for my own use. Please see the About page for more details.
Good luck with your new job.
Hi, Laura! How’s the new job going? Hope you’re enjoying it. I just recently discovered Cosmo Air Light paper, too. I love it! The off-white color is just right; not like stark white, and not yellowish, either. Also, I have lots of inks that shade; it’s my favorite ink characteristic (other than wetness). And they shade beautifully on this paper! I have a question, though. A while back I read somewhere that Cosmo paper was being discontinued. And that was right after I discovered it! Bummer. Have you heard anything about that, one way or the other?