We're proud to host the April 2013 edition of the Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper. These are posts freshly picked from the wild of the internet blog-o-sphere that stoke your love of the writing process and its materials. Check them out! Maybe you will find a new blog to follow, a new pen to lust after or just a plain ol' good read.
Thanks for reading this month's edition of the Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper. Stay tuned for the next issue coming May 7th over at the Rants of the Archer Blog. You can submit an article (requires log-in) if you have a post you would like to share.
The crowd was wildly untamed that late March afternoon. Preparations were made earlier that day for a celebration that would be remembered through the ages. Balloons were netted, confetti corked, the champagne put on ice. The police could hardly hold the barricades up as the climax of the event was about to take place.
I was about to write my final words in this God-forsaken Moleskine journal.
It was an event that was over two years in the making. You could blame a lack of daily writing for the sluggish pace. When I bought the Moleskine back in January of 2010, I didn't know any better, I swear. I was convinced, as many of the uninitiated are, that if Picasso, Chopin and other famous artistic minds had used this journal, then I should have one as well.
I was very wrong.
As a nearly-exclusive fountain pen user, I found out pretty quickly that the "1-ply" paper quality that Moleskine affords (don't you have another square to spare?) just doesn't cut it for most pen & ink combinations. Part of the fun in owning fountain pens is to write with the entire gamut of the visible spectrum, and the journal I chose to write in is color-blind. It would only "accept" lighter, less saturated colors. All other inks had a fair amount of bleed-through to the other side of the page. I'm not a wasteful person, so only using one side of the page was not an agreeable solution.
Making sure that there was always a pen loaded with Moleskine-friendly ink around, I drudged on through the journal. It wasn't until after doing some homework on the internet that I found many like-minded FP users to be complaining of the same issues with the paper. The ultimate solution - we started carrying Rhodia!
After my pen tasted the promise land of 90 gsm, French-milled, ivory silkiness that is the Webbie, the Moleskine's days became numbered. There was much unrest about how long it would take to finish the last 30 or 40 pages that remain in that wretched Mole, but it had to be done. There were principles to uphold.
Sensing the imminent transition, the citizens ordered the new Rhodia Webnotebook into the presence of the writer to push him to write more and faster. The new journal, wrapped in its thin layer of clear plastic and packaging, taunted him, made his hand quiver in regret as the last few pages were being written. The crowd became cross, frustrated and impatient.
5 sheets to go. 7 pages left. 2 pages. 1 more entry.
As the last word was laid to rest, the crowd erupted into relief and jubilation. The writer collapsed in tears and raised his arms to embrace the sky. It was done. That chapter is over.
Here are the pages that were used to catalog the ink & pen combinations that were used over the 2+ years. They are in order from the very last page of the journal going inward (in reverse).
Take my life lesson seriously folks - if you are an avid fountain pen user, you would be doing yourself a disservice by using a Moleskine journal. Go Rhodia and never look back.
We here at Goldspot pride ourselves as a full-service store for writers and those inspired by fine-writing. And as such, instead of reviewing each of these products separately, I decided to review them together, because their qualities compliment each other in ways that our pens and accessories often do.
Story of the Libelle Brass Chromatic
One day a week or so ago, our esteemed manufacturers of Libelle pens sent us a shipment with an unmarked box. It was a Libelle Chromatic ballpoint pen that we had never seen before. We placed an order for one with a silver brushed barrel and brass trim, which have been discontinued. Instead, we got this odd, C3PO-looking fella completely in brass color. After looking through our price lists and inventory, we figured that this must have been a one-off that they never sold to retailers.
A phone call later to Kenro Industries would confirm my suspicion that it was indeed a prototype of a color finish they never put into full production. I already liked the color of the pen and the fact that it is a rare style only made me want to have it more! Gracious as they were for making the shipping error, they let me have it. Couldn't be happier to add to my collection!
The pen has a very interesting texture, weight and feel. The high metal content gives it a nice, sturdy weight. The matte and polished contrast, along with the wire mesh areas build into the barrel really gives this pen a unique identity and tactile feel. The first thing I had to do was change the refill. As an avid fountain pen user, pasty ballpoint ink just doesn't do it for me. So I opted for the next item on this review : a Monteverde Parker-Style Capless Gel ink refill...in BROWN.
Brown, you say? Yes, I chose brown because #1 I can #2 it seemed to be the ideal match for a brass-colored pen. The gel ink writes smooth and evenly, writing like a fine tending toward a medium point (in fountain pen speak). As for the color brown, it is not very saturated as a dark brown, I would even call it a lighter tan-ish brown. I wrote that line, along with the other samples, on a Moleskine large lined journal.
That particular journal has been around with me for the last year or so, even before we started carrying Moleskine (yup, I paid full price for it). I had to see what all the hub-bub was about and needed a journal to replace my previous one that filled up the year before. I already heard about Moleskine's lack of fountain pen friendliness, so it wasn't a surprise to me when some pen and ink permutations permeated through the page and feathered a bit. However, I've found the general rule of thumb to find a good Moleskine-friendly combo is to go with a finer nib and with a lighter colored ink. The expandable pocket in the back is nice for depositing movie ticket stubs, candid photos and cocktail napkins with the phone number from that girl at the bar last night. However, I'm eagerly awaiting the finish of this notebook, as I want to upgrade to a Rhodia Webbie as my next journal of choice for the smoother, higher quality paper.
Putting away the Moleskine, I realized that there has to be a better home for my traveling pens. I have four fountain pens inked at the moment, which is a bit more than usual for me, but some (like the Aurora Optima or the Pelikan m215) never seem to run out soon enough for me to want to try new colors or pens. I usually keep them all in my messenger back, clipped to what used to be a cellphone pouch, but I turned into a perch for my inked pens.
One good turn deserved another, I thought, and purchased my own Libelle Black Leather Zip 10-pen case. In my case (shown below, left to right), I now have the Aurora Optima Auroloide Blue Marble in extra-fine, the Libelle Chromatic Brass ballpen, an ST Dupont Orpheo Palladium fountain pen in fine, Pelikan M215 in blue/black in fine point, a Lamy Safari Blue in extra-fine, a Black Parker Sonnet ballpen and a Parker Executive multi-function. And these are just the pens I have inked at the moment. Each pen is secured by two elastic loops, which are tight, yet stretchy enough to even fit the generously sized Orpheo.
As you can see from the second picture, the felt flap that covers one side of the case protects the pens from clanging into one another when you close the case and zip it shut. The quality of the leather is very good considering the price. The covers are plush, finely grained and supple to the touch. The soft inside material, the flap that goes over the right inside cover and the quality of the sewn elastic bands really makes me feel confident that my pens will be safely transported and kept in great condition.
So, that's the whole story, touching every base while coming back home to the point of fine writing taking over my organizing style, messenger bag and (unfortunately) wallet. Hope you enjoyed and feel free to share your daily arsenal (#dailyarsenal topic on Twitter), including any pen-related accessories that help with your writing or maintenance of your writing instruments.
Our very own Tom O. from the graphic department entered an e-mail design contest and was selected as a top 10 finalist! He needs your help to make it to #1! Voting on the top 10 designs is taking place now until Jan 31st.
Then, click the "like" button to vote on Tom's Design, which is called "Hand Drawn Moleskine (notebook)". You will need to be logged into Facebook (which most people are nowadays) to cast the vote. You do not need to give any e-mail address or personal info to vote.
This is a sample of what the e-mail template looks like :
If Tom is selected as the winner, this template will be included for all Vertical Response e-mail clients to use in their correspondence, which would be a huge thrill! I greatly appreciate your time and help to get the word out on this vote and to get as many people as you can go vote on it as well. If you would like to use this e-mail template and know a bit of HTML to be able to customize it to your needs, please drop me a line at toddo [at] Goldspot dot com
Goldspot works with dozens of brands and manufacturers every year that roll out their newest styles and colors to captivate the fine writing market. Some ideas tend to overlap when a need has been discovered for a particular type of pen. Here are the hottest pen trends that we have found in 2010 (in no particular order):
Always Bet on Black - The style of black on black has been a hot one replicated by several prominent brands. For example, Monteverde has their Invincia Stealth Black, Retro 51 made a Tornado Stealth and Parker released their Premier Special Edition in all black.
More Special Editions - Speaking of the Premier Special Edition, more manufacturers are leaning toward producing limited runs (in the neighborhood of 50 pieces) of pens that use a specific material or design that is exclusive to the production. Conway Stewart has been offering a special edition finish every month that usually sells out. Just recently, Visconti developed a few Opera Club special colors that are in short supply.
A Rollerball that Writes Like a Fountain - Both Visconti and Monteverde have jockeyed for the claim to fame that they are producing a rollerball pen that refills like a fountain pen. On one side, you have the Monteverde Invincia Ink Ball, which is a current iteration of the Mega Ink Ball pens that were once popular a few years ago, but have sizzled after the economy tanked. In the opposing corner, you have the Visconti Rembrandt Eco Roller, which promotes eco-friendly writing, despite needing a new replacement front end every 15 fills.
Paper is Important, Too - With a resurgence in idea notebooks like the Moleskine, writers and creatives across the world are now toting a little black book to dump all ideas, sketches and brilliant (or not-so-brilliant schemes) that may come to mind. However, fountain pen users have quickly responded to the sub quality paper for their nibs. In comes Rhodia, who has filled the market demand for high-quality, affordable notebooks that work like a dream with any fountain pen. Rhodia has worked out so well that Levenger decided to offer their infamous Circa notebook system with Rhodia paper.
Yes, this is a "pen spotlight" post, but I just happened to find a few blogs that were talking about notebooks in the last few weeks that I found interesting to share with our pen crowd. Most notably, Notebook Stories sparked a discussion about the importance of having a crap notebook. Especially check out the comments below the post. Seems that most people have both nice & crap notebooks, each with their own intended uses.
I nearly squee'd when I saw that Moleskine was coming out with new covers for the iPhone and iPad that have notebooks attached to them. These hybrid tools are fantastic for those who straddle the line of tech and old-fashioned pen & paper tasking. They are taking pre-orders on Amazon, but one would assume that the covers will hit the US market shortly before the Holiday Season in the next month or so.
For our long-term Filofax fans out there who stumble across their beat up, old leather cover organizer, there is still hope yet to restore it! Philofaxy has a great how-to article on restoring a leather Filofax cover. Pictures included.
Rhodia recently sponsored an event called Two Night Stand, which according to Rhodia Drive :
[Two Night Stand] was planned as a weekend-long collaborative event where 20 creatives (designers, bloggers, photographers, coders, illustrators, video artists, etc.) would converge to tackle a mystery project together. The entire creative process was to be cataloged online via the website and through social media.
You can see it here at http://www.thetwonightstand.com/feed
Creative collaboration, especially when done under a time constraint, is always a fun time, provided there is enough caffeine (or beer, in this case) to go around. The Rhodia pads they used were probably a great asset as they needed to sketch, design and draw out their concept from start to completion. One other writing escapade that will commence shortly is NaNoWriMo, which is a yearly event that takes place the entire month of November. The goal is to write an entire draft of a novel during the span of the month. Having tried and failed last year, I can tell you that it is no small feat.
Since early this year, I've been compiling a sample of pens + inks that have come across my desk. Every time I have a new fountain pen combination, I'd write down the pen name and ink in my Moleskine journal. It is very true what folks say about Moleskine paper and fountain pens. Some pen & ink combinations bleed right through the page like an extra-thick Sharpie marker would. Finer points fare significantly better in this test.
It is also interesting to see how the same ink shows up using a pen from a different brand nib. For example, the Parker Premier and the Edison Herald using the same Noodler's Standard Brown. The Pelikan m215 vs the Montegrappa Miya using the same Pelikan Turquoise ink is also a helpful comparison.
What can you learn from this sample? Moleskine works best (and has the least bleedthrough) when you use a fine or extra-fine point and a lighter ink color (turquoise, light green or light orange). If you have a Moleskine, what pen & ink combinations work the best for you? The worst?
Pelikan - Germany debuts the new design of the fun and functional Pelikano series. Of course, Goldspot will be carrying the new Pelikano when they become available in the US.
We've recently added the S.T. Dupont Brand of fine-writing instruments to our store. As an authorized retailer, we will be able to supply our customers with brand-new pens of the highest quality, backed by manufacturer warranty.
Speaking of new brands, we are excited to add Moleskine notebooks to our store's offerings. Reading Unposted's review of the Book Journal heightens our anticipation. The Moleskine Passions line is a very creative way of re-imagining the notebook.
The Fuel Your Writing Blog asks, "What is your Pen Personality?"
Think you know about italic and calligraphy nibs? Try taking a look at bleubug's post on Music nibs.
Have a great weekend, folks! Spring is coming right around the bend and hopefully it will bring better weather than this rainy weekend!
