I’ve always been a fan of Musubi. The owner Daryl is completely transparent about what he is trying to do: create beautiful writing tools and notebooks that fully support artisans who hand make many of the products. The Pocket Folio Notebooks are just the newest to a wonderful product lineup.

There are a lot of pocket folio notebooks out there to choose from, often at similar price points. This particular one comes in a slim A6 size (90mm x 140mm, or 3.5″ x 5.5″. The books have cardstock covers and sewn binding, reinforced with tape.

The paper itself is Spica Bond 75, a white 75gsm paper made from 25% cotton. The books are available in blank, lined (7.2mm) or cross grid (5mm) and each book contains 48 pages.

The notebooks come in eco-friendly packaging of cardboard and ribbon. And here is why I love Daryl’s products so much – he truly thinks about how every part of the product and packaging can be used. The cardboard used to hold the package of 3 notebooks together is actually perforate and designed as index cards. These cards can then be used to sort your notebooks (for easy storage in any box that can store standard 3.5″ x 5.5″ index cards or photos). The only part of the cardboard that is “waste” is the small tab connecting the two index cards. The ribbon can be repurposed to be a bookmark, or used to tie the notebooks back together.

So let’s talk about the paper a little more. The paper is smooth to the touch and my pens glide across it easily. One thing I do really like is that the cross grid still absorbs the ink as normal – in some notebooks the ink is repelled by those grid points making it harder to read. I don’t see any feathering on the front side.  As for the backs, it’s not bad news. There is some bleed through where I reinforced my lines (the musubi up top) and when I used larger nibs (the Sailor Music nib I used for “pocket notebooks are the best!”)

Even so, I think these notebooks are perfectly functional for an every day carry. I can see carrying one in my purse or pen case (specifically the Sinclair) to jot notes, quotes I want to remember, to do lists, or more. And again, I appreciate that if I want to keep the notebooks as an archive of my daily life, I have some handy index tabs to sort them by! Are they the cheapest notebooks on the market? No, but it’s roughly comparable to other popular pocket notebooks like Field Notes and a number of other smaller brands. However, if you want to support a business that is committed to creating great craftsmanship and ethical production, I can’t think of a better place to shop.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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While I tossed and turned in my hotel bed on Sunday night, I realized that the answer to the question “When was the last time you had your septic tank cleaned?” and my blank puzzling for a date/time could be resolved by none other than pen and paper. This morning, when we stopped back at the house, I grabbed a trusty Leuchtturm 1917 Hardcover A5 Metallic Edition. I also approached the file cabinet of doom, and grabbed the extra thick “House” file and took it with me. Today I have been busy building a journal of my house’s greatest and shittiest events (see what I did there?) so that I have dates and repair companies and what type of work was done.

I’ll see you again when indoor plumbing has been restored.

via GIPHY

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Colorverse “Golden Gate Bridge” is the “Show ink” for SF pen show 2023. I was excited to see how Colorverse would interpret such an iconic color,  which can be hard to pin down. Is it orange? Red? Red-orange?

As a Bay Area native, I learned early that the paint color is called “International Orange” (only do an image search on that if you are wearing sunglasses), but as it appears on the bridge itself, it is a deep and rich vermillion. This color is not-red, not-orange, not-pink, an elusive beauty much like the deeper shades of coral.

In this review, I compare the ink with others in my collection, write on a few different papers with a fountain pen, and paint with the ink using a brush in my Art Test.

What is the color like?

The ink is a saturated, non-shading color. I found it to really resemble the bridge color when the ink is wet, but dry to a more magenta-leaning shade.

Some Col-o-ring comparisons

The closest “red” shade I have is Kyo-pro “Flaming red of Fushimi”. This comparison shows how much more saturated, GGB is, and how it has leans away from the yellow-orange tones.

I thought KWZ Grapefruit would be a good match. In this comparison, more shading is evident in Grapefruit, as well as the yellow-orange tones.

Possibly the closest match from the inks in my collection is Pelikan Edelstein “Star Ruby”. This ink to my eye is straight-up magenta. GGB next to it appears just a bit more a true red, but matches the saturation level really well.

To further illustrate this point, I have an entry from my Hobonichi Techo, which shows lines in a Fine nib of GGB to the left, a short sentence written with Star Ruby in a Fine nib to the right of that. For extra credit, the rubber stamps were inked with the Ranger Archival Ink stamp pad in the color Vermillion! In a Fine fountain pen nib, there is very little difference in perceived shade of the two inks.

Note: The owl rubber stamp is part of a collection I bought from the Hobonichi  store, and the lovely ink bottle stamp is of course from the Well-Appointed Desk! One of my favorites in there. But I digress.

Standard Paper tests

So far we have seen the ink with Col-o-ring paper, and Tomoe River paper. What if all we have are a standard Field Notes book, or some copy paper?

In the Field Notes, I detect a little bit of feathering, if I look closely. Slight show-through on the back, but usable on both sides for sure.

As for the copy paper, I have HP 24lb bright white inkjet paper for my own printer. I found the ink to behave pretty nicely on this paper, with a little bit of feathering visible and minimal show-through.

The Art Test

If we have met before, you knew this was coming! The best way I know to discover the true range of an ink, is to paint with it. I use the ink direct from the bottle, as well as dilutions with water. The paper is cold-press watercolor paper. For this piece, I started out with pencil, then used various dilutions of ink and water for the light wash effect. I built depth and shading with straight ink, and when dry, drew fine details with the ink in my fountain pen.

From the lightest light that I could get with dilutions of water, to the darkest dark with fully saturated ink, there are not too many middle shades in this one. This tracks for me in how saturated a color it is in the pen.  I also see clearly in the painting, how magenta the lighter shades are. The darkest areas looked more vermillion and had more orange tones when wet. With the detail lines in place, I can see there is a bit of sheen on this paper, which shows more of the warmer hues. I have posted a VoiceOver narration video  of my process YouTube while painting this piece over on YouTube, for those curious to see the painting unfold in real time.

TL;DR

Colorverse Golden Gate Bridge is a bright, saturated color. It writes well on a variety of papers. The wet shade is an orangey vermillion, which dries to a magenta-leaning red color. There is no shading, but a bit of sheen can be detected with more intense applications.

Julia van der Wyk is an artist, classical musician, knitter, and professional web developer (The Web Atrium). She teaches an Ink Painting class at the SF Pen Show, and resides in Santa Cruz, California, where she can draw Pelicans with Pelikans, and brag about the weather. Follow her adventures on Instagram @juliavdw and Juliavanderwyk.com. Also check out her Ink Wash Painting Class!

The post Ink Review: Colorverse Golden Gate Bridge appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The Esterbrook “Write Your Story” journals are a collaboration between Esterbrook and lettering artist Betty Soldi. The A5 journal comes in three colors: burgundy, teal and camel. The cover has a faux leather feel and is adorned with foil and etched embossing in Betty’s “Alphabetty” font. The journal is hard cover, with a sewn binding.

The inside of the journal is also fun! The first spread shares a bit of history about the Esterbook brand as well as a few facts and tips about writing with different nibs. The next page provides a place to trace the “Alphabetty” font if you wish, and encourages you to have fun with your own lettering. What follows are 2 pages set up for recording the contents of your journal.

The bulk of the journal is made of up numbered pages (190) of 80 lb fountain pen friendly paper in a cream color with 5mm gray dot grid. To the touch it feels smooth and almost a little luxurious. The final details include an envelope at the back, and a ribbon bookmark with an Esterbrook charm.

Now we get to delve into the paper! I found the paper enjoyable to write on. It was super smooth, and the ink dried fairly quickly. There was no feathering or bleeding, and on the plain writing sample (the first one below) there was very little show through.

I then tested wider nibs, different kinds of pens (brush, gel, etc) and even a silver writer which I believe is alcohol based. Even with those there was show through, but no other issues.

Ultimately my opinion on this notebook is that it’s pretty darn nice. I am definitely a tactile person, and just holding the cover and feeling the paper in my hands is a pleasure. It’s not an inexpensive investment and I surely wouldn’t use it for to do lists and the like, but if I’m thinking about keeping it as a journal and re-reading it over and over, then I would definitely consider buying another!

DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Esterbrook for providing this journal free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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The “old school” Twist and the “new Coke” Twist are quite different in aesthetics! The older Twist is brightly colored (it came in a variety of hues), whereas the new Twists tend to have slightly more muted colorways. But the really big difference is the pen body!

Whereas the older version is a round barrel and cap with a slightly tapered section, the new Twist is all angles. I have to say that on aesthetics, the new Twist wins for me. Despite its slightly less vibrant colors, those angles are so appealing! It also has a slightly reduced tapered section.

Both models are plastic barreled. In the case of the older Twist the pen comes in weighing a cool 10g; the newer pen weighs 21g coming in closer to a Lamy Safari or TWSBI Eco. Both pens feature snap caps that are postable. The older version has a clip; the newer version has an angled body to keep it from rolling away so they haven’t added a clip. They’re relatively close in length, with the newer TWSBI running about 1/4″ longer.

There is some difference in the nibs. Both are steel and marked with a single bird. The nib on the older version is slightly smaller than the newer one. The older nib is unmarked, whereas the newer nib is a medium (no options on it as far as I can tell).

Both take international cartridges. The older pen came with a long one, and the newer one came with two short ones.

So let’s get down to the details. Which one do I like better? Going into this, I was convinced that I was going to be a fan of the new Twist. As I said before the aesthetics made it much more appealing to me. It’s fun, it’s cool, it’s so different (reminds me a bit of the fun shapes of the BENU pens).

But the writing experience was definitely the deciding vote for me, and I just didn’t care for the newer Twist. In the older Twist I had assumed that the nib was a medium, but it was actually a crisp writer and wrote more like a western fine nib. Pelikan nibs are somewhat known for being wet writers, and this wasn’t at all. The smaller girth of the pen was super easy to hold in my hand with zero fatigue.

The newer Twist was simply harder for me. While I don’t hate the triangular grip as much as I hate the Lamy Safari’s angled grip, it just wasn’t comfortable in my hand. I think the pen might just be too big for me (do remember that I have super special tiny hands so it might be a me thing.) The thing I disliked the most was the nib. While it wrote softly with no friction, it was kind of all over the place. It felt much more like writing with a Pelikan medium firehose.

This was a superfun comparison, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be using that old Twist a lot!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided free of charge by Endless Pens. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Let’s do the twist! Pelikan Twist old and new. appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Congratulations Lea! I hope you’ll enjoy it!

The post Giveaway Winner: Pelikan Hub Goodie Bag appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

If you’re not familiar with Pelikan Hubs, where have you been? Just kidding. The Pelikan Hubs are held in September and are basically a fun pen party “hosted” by Pelikan. Pelikan sends boxes of goodies out to different cities (each of which has a hubmaster or host) so that on the same Friday evening in September pen lovers worldwide can celebrate their love of fountain pens.

And the Kansas City Hub didn’t disappoint. It was organized by our local pen club and hosted in Crown Center outside of Pen Place, our local fountain pen store. There was wine, cheese, a selection of desserts (including an oversized gummy bear in remembrance of the Chicago pen show gummy snake courtesy of our friend Andrew). There was a table where participants could bring items in search of loving homes. And there were prizes for a raffle!

But more than anything there was lots of good pen conversation with other pen people. New faces, old friends, pen friends visiting from out of town (Andrew Coon!), and just a great time.

One of the other fun things is the Endless Pens donated new/old stock of Pelikan Twists from the 1980s – enough that almost everyone took one home. I wondered how it compared to the new Twists so I ordered one and I’ll compare them in next week’s post.

But let’s get to the real reason you’re here: THE GIVEAWAY! One of the fun parts about the Pelikan Hubs is that Pelikan usually gives each registered attendee a bottle of the Pelikan Edelstein ink of the year. For 2023, that’s Rose Quartz. Sometimes they send extra paper or postcards, and sometimes the hubmaster or an affiliated pen shop donate other things for the goodie bags. And we had extra goodie bags so we’ve got one for one lucky reader!

You are entering the giveaway to win:

• A bottle of the Pelikan Edelstein Rose Quartz
• A pad of Pelikan Paper
• A Pelikan Postcard
• A set of fountain pen notecards

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and let us know what your favorite Pelikan is! If you don’t have one, which one would you buy if money were no object? Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Thursday, September 28, 2022. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Friday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this giveaway were provided to us free of charge by Pelikan and Pen Place. Please see the About page for more details.

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Many folks say that Uni-ball gels are their favorite kind of pen, and after trying these I can see why. The 3-color set comes with smooth plastic barrels and comfortable rubber grips. They are clickable, and sport a clip that easy holds onto the front cover of a notebook or a small stack of paper. The gel pens are available with either .38mm or .5mm tips. I got the .38mm ones, and the lines are thin and precise!

The packaging denotes that the ink is water-resistant, and pigment based. It lays down cleanly and is quick drying. While it’s referred to as “vibrant colors” the Miyabi is really more of a bit of a pastel set. The Orange (Loquat fruit) is fairly vibrant but the Purple (Bellflower) and Gray (Mamedifuku) are softer colored, while still being legible. I happen to love gel pens (I favor them over ball points and roller balls) so I’m pleased to have some fun new colors in my pen cup!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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As I mentioned last week, I’ve been taking a look at what I’ve been using for the last few years, and while I really like it, I’m always interested in seeing if the grass really is greener over on the other side. I also cleaned out my stationery cabinet recently (an Ikea Alex unit) and found a Chic Sparrow A5 cover that needed to be used.

So I set off on a hunt for planner pages to fill it with. I quickly stumbled on Paper Republic, an Austrian company focusing on leather covers and paper. I looked at a few of their offerings and settled on the Timeless Planner – 2 x 6 months ($18).

The Timeless Planner is just a fancy way of saying its pages are undated. The set comes with two 6 month notebooks, enough for a year, making the $18 pretty economical. The paper in the notebooks is fountain-pen friendly 100 gsm paper in a creamy white. It’s not ivory, but I’m not sure it’s 100% pure white either. The notebooks have cardstock covers in an olive/sage green.

The layout of the notebook is perfect for me – week at a glance. Each week you simply add the month, fill in the dates and you’re ready to go. You have a vertical column for each day and the weekend is a single column split into two. The columns aren’t preprinted with numbers, though you certainly could add those in if you wish. And the pages are blank and clean – ready for you to add anything.

I tested out a spread for next week including washi and stickers, noting important appointments and things to do (can’t forget my Tuesday post!). The paper is fountain pen friendly. I tested a couple of different inks, albeit mostly fine nibs, and there is no bleed and absolutely no show through. The footprint of the A5 planner, even when open, isn’t too big for my desk and enables me to keep a clear eye on what’s coming in the days ahead.

For me, this feels like a good solution for what I should do this year. I’ll revisit it early-mid next year and let you know if it’s working out. Have you decided what you’ll use next year yet?

The post Paper/Planner Review: Paper Republic Timeless Planner appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

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Another way to stay “in the know” about what’s on sale when is the Jet Pens handy 2024 Planner Notification Signups. This page is chock full of great information on quite a few planner systems. It’s got comparison charts so you can try and determine which planner might interest you the most, and you can sign up to be notified when what you want is in stock. It also includes a ton of quizzes, blog posts and videos on how to determine the right planner for you based on your needs and preferences.

Which planner is your favorite? I’ve used a number of planning systems over the years and I’m still debating on which works best for me. I’ve ordered a few contenders for 2024 and I’ll be sharing them over the next weeks.

Happy planning!

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