2020 Cheers and Tears

2020 Cheers and Tears

Over the last few years, I’ve tried to look back over the year and highlight the ups and downs in the stationery world. 2020 was chock full of challenges both big and little but sometimes, its nice to just look at a little wedge of the world and fuss about the good and not-so-good that happened. Hopefully, you’ll find a little amusement in all this.

Pen meme
(via Fountain Pen Memes)

Cheers:

Ink:

J. Herbin despite confusing corporate naming — Are you Jacques Herbin or J. Herbin today? I thought I’d figured it out with the fancy $45 per bottle inks being the Jacques Herbin branding and everything else rolling up under the J. Herbin branding but then the new Anniversary ink was released. Which is what I wanted to cheer: Vert Atlantide ($29.50 for 50ml bottle). While it’s still hard to acquire, it makes makes me happy. As the first ink brand (to my knowledge) to really experiment with unique properties in inks and releasing just one specialty ink per year, the 1670/1870 and now 350 series of inks is always a seasonal release that is watched and welcomed with enthusiasm and much discourse. While some reviewers received samples as early as July, the ink did not hit the new world until late fall. They are generally worth the wait.

Diamine Inkvent Blue Edition Ink bottle

The release of the Diamine 2019 Inkvent “Blue Edition” inks (starting at $15 per 50ml bottle) in the uniquely shaped bottles made the summer a bit more bearable. Both Mountain of Ink and myself did a little “Christmas in July” review of the inks to celebrate. While Diamine did not release a 2020 Inkvent calendar, many bloggers and folks on Instagram created their own “Inkvent” by swapping samples with friends and swatching a new color everyday leading up to Christmas. We here at the Desk have been celebrating the end of the year with our Inkmas posts where we try to “catch up” with inks that did not get reviewed throughout the year. More inks are released than we could ever possibly review but our 12 Days of Inkmas at least allow us to share a few.

On the topic of ink bottles, Krishna released the S Series bottle which is a beautiful desktop ink bottle with reservoir. It rivals Akkerman for most interesting ink bottle.

This year saw a rise of mix-it-yourself ink kits. The 3 Oysters My Color DIY Ink Kit ($52) and the Kuretake Ink-Café Ink Mixing Kit ($40) for example show that as the ink obsession grows more fervent, the option to mix one’s own custom ink color has grown as well.

On the topic of inks, the absolute wealth of new ink brands available in the US is definitely something to celebrate. Shigure Ink has brought new delights to us like Tono & Lims and Lennon Tool Bar. JetPens introduced me to Kala Nostalgia inks. Vanness Pens brought Ancient Charm to the US along with adding Pennonia and Ink Institute.

Both Ferris Wheel Press and Birmingham Pen Company have been releasing a huge array of custom created inks and each takes a beautiful approach in their themes, colors, and presentation. 

This year was a good year to be an ink lover.

Pens:

Pelikan did it again this year with the M205 Moonstone. The Star Ruby from last year was a roaring success and the Moonstone, in its glittering grey translucent material, is equally striking.  Unfortunately, there was no Pelikan Hub event this year which is usually about the same time as the release of the Color of the Year M205 pens. And speaking of Color of the Year, points to Pelikan for actually being ahead of Pantone on the color for 2021.

TWSBI White Rose Gold ($49.99) was released this year to much fanfare around the Desk. The simplicity of the white combined with the rose gold hardware made it a real standout.

Diplomat added more diverse color options for their flagship pen, The Aero,  including Rose Gold, Green and Volute.

Stationery:

This year saw an explosion of new papers to rival (or replace) Tomoe River. Yamamoto Paper introduced their Paper Sampler in 2019 and has been steadily releasing pads of the most popular papers from the sampler this year. Bank Paper ($20 for A4 pad) and Cosmo Air Light ($18 for a A4 pad) have become a pen community favorite.

The Field Notes United States of Letterpress edition was both a personal and professional cheer. It turned out beautifully and was warmly received by the stationery community. It was also a huge part of the Skylab/Desk summer while we (and by “we” I mean Bob. He did all the printing and I did the bulk of the household duties and provided copious amounts of moral support and beer) worked furiously to produce the flyleaf pages included in every single book.
Personal:

2020 will be the year I will say “At least we had Baltimore…” Just prior to lockdown, I attended the Baltimore Pen Show and was able to participate in the Erasable podcast as well as spend quality time with some of my favorite people. I also did my best to steal a pen from Cary at Kenro but was thwarted, temporarily.

2020 Products

I have spent the better part of the year adding new products to our online shops– Big Cartel and  launching an Etsy shop and made plans for even more in 2021.

Ollie and Lucy

In July, an orange furball named Ollie came into our lives and into our hearts. He needed a home and our house clearly had a “vacancy” sign posted. He needed some fattening up but he’s well on his way to being a plump lump. He’s become the unofficial mascot of the Desk, a title Lucy gladly relinquished in exchange for her new life of leisure.

Twitter Billboard 2020
(via Design You Trust)

Tears:

Ink:

The worst thing that we can say about 2020 in regards to ink, there were just too many. Even ink addicts like myself, Jesi and Jaclyn just felt overwhelmed. We have done our best to stay on top of the releases but there are just too many for us to cover. Thankfully, there is Mountain of Ink and Fountain Pen Pharmacist who have devoted their blog endeavors to reviewing nothing but ink. Otherwise, 2020 was coined the “InkSwamp”.

Pens:

Lamy Safari Candy Collection

This year was also a “PenSwamp” year. Lamy released the delightful but overwhelming Safari Candy Collection, Sailor had so many special release designs that many were lost in the shuffle, Opus88 released new colors in their oversized Jazz, Flow, Bela and Demonstrator models.

Newer manufacturers like Narwhal, Schon Design, Leonardo Officina, Additive, Benu and more also added range to their product lines. This meant there were more options than ever for fountain pen users and collectors.  Deciding which model or brand is right for you though, is becoming an even bigger challenge.

2020 Retro51 poppers

Despite the sad news that Retro51 was going to shutter its business in 2020, there was an absolute flood of new Poppers and Limited Edition Tornado designs released throughout the year. As it stands, Retro51 shows no indication of slowing down for the foreseeable future. SO… this is actually good news, right?

 

TWSBI Eco Primer Cement Grey

TWSBI also released a lot of color variations of its ECO, 580 and Vac lines. The least appealing had to be the Cement Gray. I know some will disagree with me but this isn’t the first time TWSBI has ended up in my Tears list. Some of their design decisions seem a little odd and the flat primer grey of the TWSBI ECO is a clear example.

Stationery:

Planner Tweet

This was not a good year for planners. Pretty much everyone bailed on their planner sometime in March when most major cities and towns went into lockdown. Some planners stayed in timeout, collecting dust. Some people found new uses for their planners: tracking the spread of the virus, archiving national and international events, testing inks or just creating gratitude journals to help get through the year. I am sure 2021 planner sales were seriously down. We are an optimistic bunch but not THAT optimistic.

Tomoe River announced changes to the beloved 52gsm paper causing a disturbance in the community that could be felt all year. Many people spent the remainder of the year scrambling to get a hold of the few remaining notebooks, loose sheets and pads of Tomoe River in the original formula. Others shrugged. 2020 messing with us again.

Twitter 2020 billboards
(via Design You Trust)

Personal:

While I did not have but one a few friend(s) announce that they had COVID, many people in my life were infected with the illness and no one I know has perished from this horrible virus. But many people near me have lost family members. The tragedy is on a scope that will take us years to fully process.

Even without pandemic-level illness, 2020 was fraught with upheaval and changes. I lost my job of 19+ years and spent the first half of the  year on unemployment, a first in my adult life. I have since cobbled together an income through several part-time jobs. None of these came with health benefits so we are having to pay out-of-pocket for health care — not that anyone plans to visit a doctor in the next few months unless its a true emergency.

What else is there to say about 2020 other than, like most people, I’ll be glad to see the back of it. Onward… to 2021!

 

Link Love: Never Enough Stationery

Link Love: Never Enough Stationery

This week’s title is inspired by the latest issue of Uppercase Magazine and their newest volume, No. 48, which is all about  stationery and paper goods and the lovely design on the back cover which expounds “Never Enough Stationery” in a lovely lettering design. If you’ve never purchased anything from Uppercase or subscribed, Janine is offering a special end-of-year deal. Use the coupon code brightspot for $15 off subscriptions, gift subs and renewals until the end of 2020. I am not being paid to say this. I am just a fan.

This week, we have a plethora of pink inks, more year end wrap-ups and people planning for 2021. Stationery nerds are nothing if not optimistic about the future with our pile of analog tools and empty notebooks, ready to be filled. To a brighter, healthier, happier future!

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

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Planner Review: Year of the Optimist Planner

Despite the fact that I didn’t go anywhere in 2020, I still used my Knitter’s Planner quite a bit to keep track of all of my work obligations. I also developed quite a few preferences for what I wanted to see in a planner going forward, and I think I’ve found it in the Year of the Optimist Planner ($28.95).

Creator Nikol Lohr has been producing these planners for quite a few years  now and improving upon them each year. I purchased one several years ago, before I needed to track daily activities and didn’t end up using it very much. But now that I rely on pen and paper to track work activities, I decided this was the one for me.

The planner itself measure 9.5″ x 7″ (including the spiral) and approximately 1-1.5″ thick. The book is spiral bound, with cardstock covers and pages, boasting illustrations. There is also an elastic loop secured to the back cover that can hold the planner closed.

The planner begins with what Nikol deems the “Uber List.”  As she notes:

Instead of grave, important resolutions, make a friendly little to-do list, numbered for the year. Then congratulate yourself as you bang out your incredibly easy goals. It’s like racking up Fitbit badges: meaningless, yet oddly satisfying.

After the Uber List, you move on to the real nuts and bolts of the planner. One of the first pages explains all the features of the planner. There are spots for weekly goals, tracking things like the weather, your mood, etc, and bullet points to highlight daily tasks or appointments. Each page includes 7 boxes (1 for each of the days) with plenty of room to write.

At the end of each section Nikol includes a page for “Garbage Soup.” This is the page where you declutter your brain by just jotting down everything that occurs to you. You can then use this to plan the current month, or the next. Finally, at the end of each section is a sturdy cardstock month-in-view section, allowing you a visual of the month and a place to note anything important. Whether or not this one will get used this year remains to be seen, but it is the year of the optimist!

I’m delighted that all of the pages in this planner are varying types of cardstock. Thought it does make the planner quite thick (perhaps less of a daily carry?) it means that the pages are very receptive to fountain pen inks! I did notice a bit of feathering with some inks and larger nibs, but in my finer nibbed pens everything looked fine.

Finally, at the back, Nikol includes a sturdy envelope for holding any mementos, receipts, or other detritus from your year!

I had multiple reasons for wanting to buy the planner this year. I can disclose that Nikol is a friend of mine and I wanted to support her endeavors in a year that has been hard for artists. I also discovered that I really enjoy a spiral bound planner, with lots of room for notes each week. I like recording weekly goals and daily tasks and appointments, and being able to cross them off as I go makes my wizened old heart go pitter patter. 2020 was the first year that my planner really became an indispensable part of my life, and I’m looking forward to seeing what 2021 brings.

If this looks like something you’d like to try, I encourage you to support Nikol at Year of the Calendar and get yourself set for 2021!

Disclaimer: This planner was purchased with my own funds for personal use and the purposes of this review.

Product Review: William Hannah A5 Notebook

Product Review: William Hannah A5 Notebook

After reading Jaclyn’s post a few weeks ago about her customized William Hannah A5 discbound notebook cover (starting at £99), I realized how much I had always wanted one. Compared with other discbound systems, the William Hannah covers are definitely on the luxury end of the spectrum. The covers are leather, with durable metal rings and the option to customize the overall look of the covers, making the higher price seem a little more understandable.

There are two levels of customization: Bespoke/full customization (choosing cover and inside material colors as well as stitching) and partial customization (adding pen loop, £6 upcharge and/or adding a monogram, £10). In either option, the cover comes with 50 sheets of paper that can be lined, dot grid or blank or a combination of all three. There is also an option to choose the color of the lines or dots to coordinate with your covers. There is also an accessory Pen Band (£29) that is a leather sheath on an elastic band that can be wrapped around the cover vertically to keep one pen as well as securing your notebook closed.

The packaging for the William Hannah products is excellent. There is great care taken in the packaging but it’s all paper and paper board so it’s fully recyclable. I ended up keeping the wraps and extra sheets in the packaging as it was beautiful and durable.

There is even a lovely little booklet included about caring for your notebook.

I ordered my cover in Dark Chocolate & Lime with the pen loop.

Look at the delightful pop of lime visible around the edges. If I had custom ordered a cover, I might have changed the stitching to be lime green as well which is why I didn’t really bother with a custom design because Chocolate and Lime are pretty much perfect for me. There are several other leather cover choices (black, whiskey brown, red, deep teal called Agave and a few others) and an assortment of rich suede colors for the inside lining.

The cover is supple. I wouldn’t describe it as stiff or floppy. It’s in the middle. I think the inner lining provides added stability for a soft leather cover.

The pen loop is pretty slender and barely wraps around my Caran d’Ache 849 fountain pen. The loop was definitely designed to hold a standard gel or ballpoint point or even a pencil. If you are inclined to use large diameter fountain pens, I’d skip the pen loop.

The Pen Band, on the other hand was designed to hold a larger pen. However, I discovered that its not too big either. I put my Diplomat Esteem MadC in it and it just barely fits.

Because the MadC has a snap cap, when I was attempting to pull the pen out, I ended up with the cap in my hand and the pen still in the band. Of course, unbeknownst to me, the pen was nib down and I immediately got a stain of orange ink on the beautiful lime lining. You’ve been warned.

Both the front and back insides include a sheet of clear plastic as an overlay to protect both the paper and the cover from rubbing. The front piece is a “my name is” page. The discs are 0.75″ and 303 gauge stainless steel. They are securely attached to the cover with a long rod and the discs are completely enclosed by the leather.

As far as I can discover, the 0.75″ ring is the only option available, even in the Bespoke designed covers.

I chose green dot grid (10 sheets), grey lined (10 sheets) paper and blank (40 sheets).

I’ve been using the blank paper most to do some of my ink sampling. I love blank paper and this paper is aces! I know other people have commented on how durable and fountain pen friendly this paper is but I thought they were just being generous. Nope. It is the BOMB.

Heavy swatches of ink will case the paper to ripple a little but there is no bleed-through. Seriously.

As you can see in the close-up photos, the writing is crisp and the paper has a little texture/tooth. According to William Hannah, the paper is 115gsm and I believe it. It’s definitely hefty.

There are lots of other inserts available including several planner/calendar options. They all appear to use the same 115gsm paper so it will all stand up to liberal applications of fountain pen ink.

I have a disc-style hole punch held over from a previous disc system and it works just fine with the William Hannah notebooks. I’ve cut some other papers down to fit into the cover though I have not actually tested the other papers yet. It’s just nice to know that the hole punch works and I can add other papers, printed or from other sources as needed. However, I now understand why other people loyal order more paper from William Hannah. It’s really nice.

So, between the delicious covers and flexible system, I can definitely see this becoming my notebook of choice.


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

12 Days of Inkmas: Ferris Wheel Press Ink Timeless Blue Special Edition 2020 (We forgot Day 8!)

12 Days of Inkmas: Ferris Wheel Press Ink Timeless Blue Special Edition 2020 (We forgot Day 8!)

Huge apologies for skipping Day 8 on Inkmas this year. Thankfully, one of our readers noticed the oversight. So, we have decided to bump this out to be our post-Boxing Day Inkmas post.

There’s no reason that the holiday festivities can’t continue, right? The Ferris Wheel Press Ink Timeless Blue Special Edition 2020 ($18 for 38mp) is a great gift. As a Special Edition ink, its a good end-of-year celebration, for as much as any of us want to celebrate 2020. We just want to celebrate that it’s over.

The packaging and bottle is lovely. There is gold foil stamping on both the box and and the bottle. The bolt cap is heavy metallic painted a brushed gold. Inside the cap is a rubber gasket which keeps the ink from leaking.

The 38ml bottles are flat on the front and back providing good real estate for branding and labelling the ink colors. This is an upgrade from the larger 85ml bottles which are almost completely spherical but are more difficult to label once removed from the box. As such, I much prefer the 38ml bottles. Not to mention, when am I ever going to use 85ml of any one ink?

The color is a bright, vivid Ultramarine blue. It doesn’t have a ton of shading but there is some sheening. Not as much as the new Krishna S Series Paakezah but it does sheen.

Even on Rhodia paper, the sheen will show with wider strokes and heavier ink coverage.

In regular writing, there is very little evidence of the shading and, with an EF nib, very little evidence of sheen. But the color is deeply saturated and bright.

The ink is water soluble. And when wet, the ink shows some evidence of a soft lavender undertone.

On Tomoe River, the results regarding the color are consistent to the results on Rhodia — not much shading, a little sheen. Timeless Blue is a little dry, it’s good for EF nibs and everyday paper since it is not likely to spread as much as other wetter inks. The ink has a little bit of a gritty quality which is more noticeable on smooth paper or with pens that have particularly smooth nibs. The ink adds a little tooth to the writing experience. If you prefer wetter, more lubricated ink, the Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao would probably be a good alternative.

When compared to other inks, as mentioned above, Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao is a good option as well as Monteverde Sapphire, Penlux Cobalt Blue (a Sailor made ink so it’s probably lubricated as well), Private Reserve Cosmic Cobalt and Monteverde 2018 DC Supershow Blue (which is very hard to tell apart from Sapphire Blue).

I don’t have a swatch of the white whale of the ink world: Parker Penman Sapphire but the swatch Jesi included in her review can be cross-referenced here too:

I think Parker Penman Sapphire has more sheen and is a little less violet in hue, even with the sheen.

This is definitely an ink color category that is thick with competition. These colors are all very similar. If I inked up seven pens with each of these colors, I think I’d be hard-pressed to know which ink was which. If you haven’t acquired any of these inks, Timeless Blue is a good option, albeit a bit more expensive than Monteverde or Private Reserve (at least in the US). If I was trying to find a good substitute for Parker Penman Sapphire, I don’t think Timeless Blue is quite there but its probably close enough for many who have not seen the Parker ink in person.

Side note: I created my own version of the Ink Journal Ink Collecting Guide Sheet (FREE) for the Traveler’s Notebook. If you are interested, I can add it to the Guide Sheets. Let me know in the comments if you’d like my version.


Tools:


DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

These are my working conditions! Cute, but quite the Ollie-obstacle.

12 Days of Inkmas: Krishna S Series Paakezah (Day 12)

12 Days of Inkmas:  Krishna S Series Paakezah (Day 12)

Today is our final day of Inkmas! Thanks for following our crew as we have shared a fun bunch of inks.

On day 12, I’m presenting a fun new ink that is beginning to show up at various retailers – Krishna Paakezah. This ink is a bright blue with slightly turquoise undertones and medium-high sheen. The sheen shows up more in the writing than it does in large swatches which surprised me. Usually I find the opposite.

The accompanying ink well is what sets Paakezah apart from other inks. This package has the ink well inside a can surrounded by foam (it was tough getting it out – I recommend removing the foam with the ink well first, then separating the two) and the ink is packaged separately – this is to ensure that if there is accidental breakage, the ink won’t make that a disaster. An eyedropper is included to help get the ink into the ink well. I will be reviewing the ink well separately later on.

I’ve compared Krishna Paakezah to some highly sheening inks so you can see that, while the sheen is definitely present, it isn’t overwhelming the main ink color. The base color is close to Robert Oster Blue Sea.

I did notice how close Paakezah was to Parker Penman Sapphire. No one would mistake one for the other, but both are a beautiful jewel tone blue.

I am thrilled to report that Paakezah showed no signs of smearing that are usually present in sheening inks. I did allow the ink to dry for 10 hours before I tried to smear it in this case, however. In tests where I let the ink dry only 1 minute, I could get it to smear slightly on Tomoe River paper, noticeably on Cosmo Air Light paper and not at all on Bank Paper. (For the smear test, I rubbed the ink as hard as I could with my finger for about 10 seconds)

Sheen on Tomoe River Paper:

Smearing on Tomoe River Paper

Sheen and (no) smearing on Bank paper:

Sheen on Cosmo Air Light paper:

Smearing on Cosmo Air Light paper:

 

Tools:


DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased with my own funds. Please see the About page for more details.