Over the last week or so, I’ve been slowly updating the shop. First, I have added more pen clean out and ink destashing. Patrons get advanced notice when I do stationery cupboard clean outs so if you join the Patreon, you too can get first dibs when I clear out my ever-expanding pen, paper and ink stash. I’ve been a little stressed by my collection — that feeling of having too many things to keep track of, etc — that I’m probably removing items from my collection that are from the core of my collection, not the fluff. My loss is clearly your gain.

Lots of stamps have been restocked in the shop as well as our stamp cleaner (also on Etsy). We are even stocking refill bottles of the the stamp cleaner (8oz bottle for $14) if you have a spray or dauber bottle that needs a refill.

The pen and ink destash is only available on our Big Cartel site which ships to the US only. Sorry to our international readers but shipping ink out of country is very complicated.

And finally, we have created the first products in our new Tiki Collection. Bob and I have been cocktail fans and tiki collectors for years. In the heat of this summer, we wanted to capture the joys of delicious cocktails and that retro vibe of a Trader Vic’s or Beachcomber Don’s bar. When you live in the parched, land-locked part of the country, its fun to dream about the sea breezes and sounds of tropical birds cawing from a nearby tree. Jot down your favorite cocktail recipe on our new notepad (40 lined pages, fountain-pen friendly paper, $10) and put your icy cocktail glass on one of our absorbent coasters (8 coasters, 2 of each design $12). Aloha, friends! See you at the bar!

The Tiki Collection is available on both our Big Cartel and Etsy shops.

The post Shop News: Pen and Ink De-stash (and new products!) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by May Day Paper & Post (@maydaypaperandpost)

This past Friday while Ana was at the St. Louis Pen Show, I drove up to check it out! The store is super cute, set in midtown Kansas City. It has a fun, curated collection of greeting cards, notebooks and notecards, journals, stickers, mugs, wrapping paper and other giftables. To be clear, this isn’t a pen store. They did have a fun selection of Gelly Roll pens and a few roller balls and ball points, but it’s primarily about the paper. It’s whimsical, and the owner definitely has a sense of humor.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by May Day Paper & Post (@maydaypaperandpost)

I was restrained but found a few cute cards on the long wall. My selections were from Black and White and Red All Over and A Zillion Dollars. Both cards are printed nicely, and use recycled content for both the cards and envelopes.

I saw many of the familiar notebooks (Maruman, Kleid, Leuchtturm, and more), plus some from companies I hadn’t heard from. I did pick up one notebook – I’ll share my thoughts on it next week!

Overall it’s a cute shop, and if you’re in the Kansas City area, you won’t be disappointed if you stop by! And if you’re looking for a fun new shop to support, you can also shop online!

P.S. If you stop by, make sure you give shop dog Lucy lots of pets!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by May Day Paper & Post (@maydaypaperandpost)

The post A new stationery store: May Day Paper & Post appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

So what are we to do but have a pen sale and find forever homes for these beauties! A few notes about the sale going on right now over in the Well-Appointed Desk shop:

• All pens are in “gently used” condition. At a minimum they have been inked and used for review, and they may have been used a little more than that.
• All pens are listed at prices to sell. Many of these pens we bought with our own money but, regardless, prices are mostly well below retail.
• All pens come as is in the listing (with or without boxes and converters included, with the nibs specified). We don’t like surprises.
• It should go without saying, but these are all lovely pens in working order. We’re not getting rid of them because they don’t work. More like our pen cups runneth over and we’d like to see them get used and loved.

We hope you find a new-to-you pen and we’re thrilled to send it to a new home!

The post Did someone say pen sale? appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The Good News

First, in our Big Cartel shop, we have just relisted the Col-o-ring FOLIO ($40 each + $10 oversized shipping). We only make a small quantity of these pads at a time so place your order early to guarantee you get one from the new batch.

The Col-o-ring FOLIO is our biggest Col-o-ring product ever! It can double as a desk pad or drawing pad with 40 sheets of 12″ x 16″ original Col-o-ring paper (same 160gsm weight) and now with sturdier covers thanks to the fine work of Skylab Letterpress.

We ship the FOLIO out in large cardboard mailers and they weigh in at almost 4lbs so that’s why the shipping is high. We will be trying to bring these behemoths to some of the pen shows this year, so be sure to let me know what shows you’ll be attending and I’ll try to stuff a few extras in my suitcase.

We’ve also relisted our Ink Bottle Stamp Set ($40) on both Big Cartel and Etsy. These are miniature versions of the Ink Bottle (Short)  and Sample Vial plus the rare, discontinued Pedestal Bottle (if you know, you know) and the Classique Bottle ($10 on it’s own, if that’s how you roll).

We have also restock stickers, our Daily Grind and Compendium of Unfamiliars Nib Rubber Stamps and some of our postal-themed rubber stamps.

The Bad News

It’s a tale familiar to most of you that, in the current manufacturing climate, we have to announce that starting in March 2023, we will be raising the price on our Original Col-o-ring Ink Testing Books to $12. All other products are still the same price.

We have needed to do this for some time but we didn’t want to put undue pressure on our devoted customers. But we’ve hit a point where we feel the small bump will be acceptable to most everyone. Our paper distributor relocated to the other side of the country in 2020 and, on top of material costs, we have to pay shipping just to get our paper.

When we started the Col-o-ring project, our distributor was about two miles from the print shop and we could pick it up. During COVID, we figured that trying to keep people happy with our product was more important that trying to stay ahead of the curve.  What can we say? We both have art degrees, and not business degrees!

When we launched the Col-o-ring in 2017 (SIX YEARS AGO!!!), we had no idea it would be the success that it has become.

Thank you for being such a large part of this success.

The post Housekeeping: Shop Updates! appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Seriously, Bob went to look for some printing equpiment out in the country and as they were talking, the gentleman mentioned he had some blotter stock and would we be interested in it? Um, yes. And so a deal was struck, the cargo was loaded and we started planning the best way to cut it and make it available to all you lovely folks.

The vintage blotter paper is thick, adsorbent cardstock available in two sizes: A5 and A6.

This blotter paper is white with blue marble look. It is very thick. It’s cardstock not paper. It will work great inside your journal or notebook to soak up an ink that hasn’t completely dried before closing the page.

Each pack includes 5 sheets.

• A5: 5.5 x 8″ (20 x 14 cm) $10/pack of 5
• A6: 5.75 x 4″ (14.5 x 10 cm) $5/pack of 5

The stock is very limited. When this batch is sold out, that is all there is so grab it quick. I don’t think it will last long.

Currently, the Blotter Paper will only be available on Big Cartel.
For anyone supporting us on Patreon, check your email or on Patreon for a special offer!

Reminder: The paper is vintage NOS so there may be some slight variation in color and texture. We quality checked it, trimmed it and packaged it so it should be the best of the best but be aware, this is OLD STOCK.

One last thing: Every order placed will also receive a blotter bookmark (while supplies last).

This post is a shameless plug for product we sell in our shop. 

The post New Product! Vintage Blotter Paper appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I just wanted to provide a little update on the current Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book chipboard covers. Chipboard, by its nature, is a recycled material often used for backing boards, filler, dividers in shipping, etc. In that regard it’s a lot like corrugated cardboard. As a result of being a recycled material, the color can shift from batch to batch and from manufacturer to manufacturer. Our most recent stock of chipboard arrived and was a much warmer shade of brown. I think the color is pretty and actually matches the paper stock used on our new Col-o-ring FOLIO tablet (more details below).

Bob spent weeks trying to find a different manufacturer who had a similar color chipboard to our previous batch but it became a bit absurd the more we researched it. Chipboard is not like other papers. It’s not dyed to be a specific color. It is the color it is because of the materials that go into making it. I finally had to tell Bob to stop killing himself trying to find a “perfect match”. I just wanted to make sure that you were aware that the color of the chipboard covers may not be the same from time to time due to the nature of the material.

We want the interior paper to be perfect and beautiful and consistent. The covers are just there to protect the inner pages. Right?

Also…

The Col-o-ring FOLIO is now available in our shop.

This is the largest product we’ve made containing our signature Col-o-ring paper. The Col-o-ring FOLIO ($40 per tablet plus $10 shipping because this is HEAVY!) is exactly the same paper that is available in our original Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book, Col-o-dex, Dippers and OVERSIZE. The FOLIO is 12 x 16″ and has a lightweight kraft paper cover wrap to protect your creations without crating too much bulk. The cover will easily fold over and tuck behind the sturdy, chipboard backing.  It’s just now available in a 40-page, glue bound tablet perfect for drawing, doodling, ink testing or turning into your own creations.

At the moment, the Col-o-ring FOLIO will exclusively be available on Big Cartel and, as a result, only available for US and territories shipping.  My apologies to our international customers but the shipping is prohibitively expensive.

The post Col-o-ring Update: Cover Colors & FOLIO! appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The set ($40) includes four stamps, mounted on wood blocks: a tiny ink sample vial (1″ x 0.325″), the “Classique” ink bottle stamp and Ink Bottle (short) (both measure 1″x1″), and the tall faceted bottle stamp  (1.5″ x 0.75″).

For scale, I stamped each new mini stamp on a Col-o-ring card. The Calssique bottle is actually the same size as the original full-sized stamp. Everything else has been miniaturized. The goal was to make the stamps more convenient for people who track their inks in journals or notebooks as well as being useful on your Col-o-ring cards to indicate if you have a bottle or just a sample of your ink.

The same stamps do fit on Dipper cards but it’s a bit more of a tight fit.

Just for size comparison, the new mini  ink bottle and sample vial stamps are at the top and my very used, very well-loved full-sized ink bottle and sample vial stamps are at the bottom.

The Mini Ink Bottle Set is also available on Etsy.

Should I miniaturize or maximalize something else in the shop? Are there other ink bottle shapes you’d like to see? Where will you stamp these?

The post Shop News: Mini Ink Bottle Stamps appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Shipping:

Rubber Stamps and notepads are available in both our Big Cartel and Etsy shop. International shipping is available through our Etsy Shop only. Be aware that, to meet postal deadlines, orders must be placed by:

• First Class Package: Ship by December 18th.
• Priority Mail: Ship by December 19th.
• First Class Package International, and Priority Mail International:  December 7th (Deadline has passed for packages to arrive in time for Christmas for Central America, South America and Africa).

New Rubber Stamp Ink Pads:

I am a reseller of Ranger Archival ink pads ($7 for full-sized pads) since this summer but, due to the pandemic, Ranger is having a terrible time keeping up with demands. As a result, I have expanded my ink pad offering to Tsukineko Staz-On ink pads ($9 each) as well.

The Staz-On pads have a plastic inner liner under the lid to help keep the stamp pad from drying out and each pad comes with two small stickers for labelling the ends of the stamp pad containers if you file them on their ends. Very Japanese details.

As a result, I have a few pads in color and black from Ranger and some red and blue from Staz-On. Both are great waterproof and archival stamp pads.

I also have the Staz-On All-Purpose rubber stamp cleaner available now too. It’s designed to work with the permanent inks which tends to dry quickly onto the stamps and will eventually cake up making your stamp a bit mushy and indistinct. So, stamp cleaner is pretty handy. I would try to figure out how to make my own but this is reasonably priced and comes in a nice spray bottle ($4.50) or dauber bottle ($5) which is very handy so it’s just as easy to buy a bottle.

We are also carrying one water-soluble rubber stamp ink pad: The Tsukineko Brilliance Moonlight White ($9). I got this for entirely self-serving reasons because I like to stamp all the outgoing boxes and some of our mailing boxes are kraft colored and this opaque white sings on the kraft brown. It will also look great on colored paper. Just remember, it is water-soluble so plan accordingly.

Rubber Stamps Back in Stock:

Thanks to the hard work of Paper Pastries in LA, I’ve been able to restock all of the nib stamps (The Daily Grind and The Unfamiliars)($11 each) as well as Ink Bottle ($14) and Sample Vial ($13) stamps. Paper Pastries stamps are gray rubber instead of the red rubber that I was getting from my previous vendor but the quality is top notch! I will be continuing to work with Margaret at Paper Pastries through the end of the year until my stamp manufacturer recovers from their fire.

Did I mention our latest Star Wars edition?

I know it’s not Wednesday but I still have Star Wars to talk about. You probably already know about our Rebel Plans and Imperial Orders and maybe you’ve seen our Do or Do Not addition. But we couldn’t stop there. Nope. Now we have our Stay on Target pad as well. They all use the same fountain pen friendly paper found in all our notepads. The Stay on Target pad feature 7mm lines because this was Bob’s baby and he writes with a big ol’ crayon-like 1.1mm fountain pen these days and insisted on wider line spacing. We used the same 7mm line spacing for the Do or Do Not pad to leave space for those all-important checkboxes.

All notepads feature 40 pages and are $8 each.

What’s Next:

I want to tell you all about what we have coming but I’ll keep it a surprise. I hope you’ll like them. Follow us on Instagram for regular updates.

The post Shop Updates appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

First, label those Pen Flush containers with our new Pen Flush stickers. Packs of 3 are available for $2.50!

Next, we have our Col-o-ring Love Sticker Pack.We include free stickers with every order from our shop but many folks have asked for extra stickers. So, we are now offering sticker packs for anyone who wants more stickers. Get all 3 stickers for $2.50.

For both sticker sets, if ordered alone, the stickers will ship in a standard #10 business envelope for minimum shipping charges.

If you order Col-o-ring stickers with other items, there is no additional shipping and these stickers will be shipped in addition to freebie stickers already included with every order. If you order the Pen Flush Stickers with other items, there’s no additional shipping and you’ll also get freebie stickers in your order.

There’s no such thing as too many stickers, right?

The post Shop Update: Stickers! appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I also added some NOS Hunt Mapping Pens in the store. We haven’t had a lot of vintage merchandise in the shop recently but I scored a good stash of these and I’d like to share these with you all. These mapping pens are still sold today but made of less interesting plastics so these are worth getting for the lovely marbled material as each one is unique. Each box has at least a dozen nibs. Be sure to anneal the nibs before using them so they hold ink but don’t melt the plastic holder. (I recommend holding the nib with a pair of pliers to anneal it.)

One of our other new products is our laser-etched flasks ($20 each). Be prepared for your next pen event with your favorite spirits. There are two versions: the G&T and the Whiskey versions (with or without text, in silver or black). Thanks to our good friends at Vanness who did the laser-etching for us, I did the illustrations for these and are able to offer these unique flasks to the pen community.

We have also restocked stationery, stamps, typewriter tins and more! Come by and check out what we’ve got!

The post Shop Update: Booze Alert and More appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.