Review by Tina Koyama Musgrave Pencil Co. of Shelbyville, Tennessee, is one of very few remaining pencil manufacturers in the US. Operating since 1916, it’s still family-owned. As such, I feel an affinity for the company’s history and heritage, though not always its products. For example, the gorgeous Tennessee Red pencils in their cedar box…
By Jessica Coles I recently fell in love at first sight with a pen – the Stipula Adagio and specifically the Seaglass variety. I fell in love with it just from the photo but then I started looking into the details a bit. Stipula, in my mind, is a rather expensive pen manufacturer – one…
I remember vividly the first pen show that the Nibsmith had Leonardo pens stocked at his table. The Momento Zero model caught a lot of people’s attention at that show, and for good reason. I was not immune. It’s one of the only pens I can think of that I purchased immediately when seeing a brand…
by Jessica Coles This is not a review of the Traveler’s Factory Green lineup. It begins that way but don’t be fooled. There is more to this post (and the pen) than just a review of a pocket pen. The latest lineup from Traveler’s Company is a set of compact writing tools – fountain pen,…
By Jessica Coles Recently I wrote a post about a local art supply store (Meininger’s) that happens to have a wonderful selection of ink and fountain pen friendly paper. Well, I did forget to mention it also has a huge variety of pens. Among these pens I forgot to rave about are Sailor pens. But…
With the top ten non-fountain pen list, I decided I needed to break it up into two categories, refillable pens and non-refillable. I didn’t want to call the first group disposable pens because, in some cases, the refill can be replaced, but generally speaking, they are sold to be used until the refill is empty…
By Jessica Coles The Retro 51 news hit me hard. If you haven’t heard yet, Retro 51 announced that they would be retiring and closing the business at the end of the year. I’ve loved Retro 51 pens since I first became enamored with pens and the first two pens I purchased in a brick-and-mortar pen…
