For years, friends have asked if we had a Patreon page that would allow readers to help support the Well-Appointed Desk community. I wasn’t sure what content I could develop, or offers I could create, that would entice readers to become patrons.This past year, however, has given me plenty of opportunity to develop a plan.
As is true for so many, last year was full of unexpected life changes (I left Hallmark after almost 20 years, pandemic lockdowns, et al). These changes gave me time to chart a new course for the blog and my life. I’m hoping that you will want to be a part of it.
Most importantly:
I want to offer worthwhile perks to patrons.
No part of the blog will change.
I won’t put any of our current content behind a pay wall.
Patrons will have access to (depending on tier):
special offers (discounts, sales, coupon codes, etc)
first chance to see new Desk product releases,
virtual Ask the Desk event each month
special Patron-only products to purchase
and more…
I hope you will consider being a patron. Your support will help us bring more great content to the blog each week and offer new opportunities to participate in our amazing community.
The ASC BOLOGNA Wild Celluloid ($745) is my first opportunity to try one of the higher end Armando Simoni Club fountain pens.
The pen shipped in a matte paperboard outer box with an interior, magnetic closure box. Inside, the pen floats in magnetic closure, clear, thin rubbery sleeve. The sleeve is interesting but unfortunately, the material became a little clouded so it looked a little unpleasant. The idea behind the packaging was cool but the execution didn’t quite meet expectations.
The clouded rubbery sleeve is shown in the background in this photo.
The Wild Celluloid is available with gold or rhodium trim and both feature a matching toned 14K nib in either medium or music nib. For this review I was sent both the gold and rhodium trimmed pens, both with medium nibs. Maybe someday I’ll get to try the music nib.
The black celluloid, shot through with ivory reminds me of licorice and white chocolate. The ivory accent is a creamy ivory color and the black is completely opaque. Aesthetically, I find the material very appealing and the celluloid feels weightier than some of the other polymer materials.
While I love the gold nib, I think I prefer rhodium trim on the Bologna Wild Celluloid pen.
The pen fills via a captured converter. The cover over the converter is etched and beautiful. I don’t know the longevity of cartridge converters but I enjoy looking at this one.
I love the etched nib. The design is beautiful, yet simple. So elegant.
The Bologna Wild Celluloid is one of the higher priced pens that I’ve reviewed. As such, I don’t have a great deal of experience or points of reference in which to compare this pen and it’s performance to other pens in this higher priced tier.
The Bologna Wild Celluloid is definitely a large pen. It’s one of the largest pens in my house at present.
From left to right: Pelikan M200, Pelikan M600, the ASC Bologna Wild Celluloid, Aurora Optima and Sailor Pro Gear Slim
The ASC Bologna is about the same width as an Aurora Optima and similar in length to an M600 (probably more so to an M800). Capped, the ASC Bologna is about 5.5″ long and uncapped is just slightly longer than 5″.
From left to right: Pelikan M200, Pelikan M600, the ASC Bologna Wild Celluloid, Aurora Optima and Sailor Pro Gear Slim
All the pens are post-able though I don’t think the ASC Bologna really needs to be posted though. Posted, the ASC Bologna is 6.75″ long.
The ASC Bologna is weighty at 48gms capped and filled and 36gms uncapped.
Our always handy weight chart with popular pen weights for comparison.Apologies for the typo. I worked on a campaign for the ACS (American Cancer Society) so I have the muscle memory for writing it.
However, once I started using this pen, it was clear to see that it performs at a higher level than lower priced pens. The 14K nib is so smooth and delicious to write with. It’s listed as a medium but writes more like a European F or a Japanese MF. The gold nib gives a little bit of flex to the writing but it’s more bouncy than flexy.
Because the nib is finer than the average Medium nib, there is a little tooth to the nib so that it is not so slippery that I feared the nib would get away from me but at no point did it feel scratchy. It wrote well from just about any angle I held the pen (overwriting, underwriting or side writing — lefties try it all).
I really don’t know what else to add to this review. If you have a spare $745, I would firmly recommend this pen. I’m certainly starting to save up for a ASC Bologna.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by The Pen Family for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I have obtained notebooks over the years for various reasons – interesting paper, a beautiful cover, an interesting size or shape, a great sale, review purposes, gifts. I need very little convincing to pick up a new notebook that catches my eye and I was enchanted when I came across a new line of notebooks from Princeton Architectural Press called the Observer’s Notebooks.
Please excuse the stained cover – I’ve had this notebook for four years so far and it’s seen plenty of miles!
This is the Weather notebook. Other notebooks in the line up include Trees, Astronomy, Birds, Butterflies, and Home.
I purchased this notebook back in 2017 from Amazon (Princeton Architectural Press Observer’s Notebook: Weather ($18.95)). It is a bit of a strange size – 7.25 inches by 9.25 inches. It’s a hard cover notebook but still slightly flexible.
The paper ruling was what first caught my eye – the notebook is separated into several sections with each section using a different paper ruling.
Overall there are 10 uniquely ruled paper sections throughout the notebook – the last four pages are a ruling for weather observations:
Sections are separated by card stock dividers, each divider a print that somehow relates to weather.
While the illustrations delight me, the paper was a huge disappointment. Every fountain pen ink feathered terribly and bled through the page. Colors looked dull and even gel pens performed poorly although I did eventually find that Platinum Carbon Black worked well on the pages in an extra fine nib.
So what do you do with a notebook like this?
Crossword puzzles.
I have a lifelong obsession with crossword puzzles. It started with helping my father with them when I was only old enough to read the clues to him. But seeing his answers helped me to figure out the way the answers worked. I would try to solve the puzzle then check the answers the following day to learn even more. Eventually the practice started to pay off and I got into the habit of keeping the finished puzzle alongside the answers.
But a pile of old crosswords isn’t exactly something that keeps nicely long term. However, notebooks look great when used for storage.
The Observer notebook was a perfect for that collection of clipped crosswords with the answers kept in the back using a bit of glue. The hard cover is a welcome support for writing, the paper becomes a backdrop for doodling and I still get to enjoy the color prints between notebook sections. This notebook has been on my desk now for nearly four years and gets more use than many of my fountain pen friendly notebooks.
The lesson I learned throughout this process – I should think a bit bigger. There are plenty of gorgeous notebooks that are useless for fountain pens that still deserve love and attention. I’ve started trying to think of more uses for my unused notebooks – magazine photos or articles, art work from kids that doesn’t fit on the fridge, old birthday cards or recipes.
I hope you can find further creative uses for some of the stationery products that might have been disappointing once they were used!
DISCLAIMER: The item in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.
Hello all! Laura here to tell you about the event I’ve been training for my whole life. I’ve joined the Knit for Food Knit-A-Thon, a 12-hour knitting event on April 11, 2021. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness for food insecurity, and all the money raised will be donated to Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry and Meals on Wheels. If this were a jog-a-thon, I wouldn’t be much of a team mate, but knitting for 12 hours straight? PSHAW…. BRING IT ON!
If you’d have a few dollars to spare support my effort, or the project, you can find more details on the campaign and how to contribute here. What started as a goal to raise $20,000 is now up to over $81,000+ and we can’t wait to knit all day long!
We need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates. Your patronage will let them know you appreciate their support of the pen community. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!
The Ensso Italia Fountain Pen ($129 for stainless steel and $189 for Titanium Nib) is titanium fountain pen limited to just 200 units. The titanium design with greek key cap band is a blend of classic and modern aesthetics.
The pen features a #6 stainless steel Bock nib and a Schmidt ink converter. Of course, the Italia will also accept a standard international ink cartridge. The titanium makes the pen a bit weightier than a resin pen.
Weight:
Capped & filled: 44.8 gms
Uncapped: 29.2 gms
Overall length: 139.5 mm / 5.49″
Uncapped length (with nib): 125.5 mm / 4.94″
The Italia is close in size to the Opus 88 Koloro. It’s a large pen but not gigantic. The Italia is about twice the weight though. The ends of the Italia are pointier too.
The same pens as shown above, uncapped and posted.
The Italia Fountain Pen is a good, pen with a reliable nib and reasonably priced. If metal pens are your catnip, this one might be for you. But hurry, there aren’t many left.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Ensso for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
For a long time I didn’t see the appeal of the capless pens from Pilot (also know as Vanishing Points). But I wrote about my changed opinion when I purchased the Raden Stripe Vanishing Point for my 40th birthday gift to myself. So when Appelboom offered us the chance to review the Pilot Capless LS Matte Black Fountain, I knew I wanted to compare and contrast the two!
The Capless LS Matte Black Fountain pen is the newest iteration in Pilot’s Capless series that started back in the 1960’s. The LS stands for Luxury and Silent, which is how they describe the new retractable mechanism they’ve developed for this model. The difference is that now the mechanism is a click to expose the nib, and a twist to retract it, whereas previous models had a click for both functions. This means that the knock and the end pieces have been somewhat redesigned.
The LS has a few other areas where it differs from the more “standard” Vanishing Point line (I use standard in quotes because the Raden editions are already more premium models as they contain the fine abalone work in the body, but the body design itself remains the same as the base level Vanishing Points.)
The LS weighs in at more than the Raden – the LS is a hefty 40g whereas the Raden is 31g. The LS is also a smidge longer at 5.75″/14.5 cm versus 5.5″/14 cm. Both models feature Pilot’s 18k gold nib and ink converter unit. Nibs are available in Fine, Medium and Broad and amusingly enough both the LS I reviewed and my Raden are M nibs. I find the Medium Pilot nib in both the LS and my Raden to be quite wet, and capable of putting down enough ink to get a good shade or sheen depending on the ink used.
Finally there are differences in body and trim. The LS is a matte black resin body, with a black clip whereas the Raden is a black lacquered body with the Raden stripes, and rhodium trim.
Functionally, the pens write very similarly. If weight is an issue, then some might find the LS heavy to hold, but I found it well-balanced and I do like the feel of a slightly weightier body (though I love my Sailors, I also adore my Retro 51 metal bodied pens so I’m used to a variety). Vanishing Points and the LS are the larger pen in Pilot’s “capless” offerings (if you’re looking for something with a slimmer line, try the Decimo). If I’m honest, I admit that even my Raden Vanishing Point is a bit wide for me to hold comfortably for long writing sessions, but it is one of my favorite pens in my collection so I still pull it out and use it. However, my discomfort is because I have fairly small hands, so if you’re not afflicted with that curse, size alone shouldn’t keep you from enjoying this one.
The LS, for its Luxury and Silence, comes at a premium price of €413.22 (or approximately $493). The base models of the Vanishing Points start around $200, and yearly Limited Editions start closer to $300. The Raden Vanishing Points are in more limited supply these days and run anywhere between $550 and $800, though I found mine in a screaming eBay deal and paid right around $400.
If you like capless fountain pens, there’s no one who executes it better than Pilot and the LS is no exception.
Papier Plume has released a suitably festive ink just in time for St. Patrick’s Day: Irish Channel Green ($12 for 1 oz/30ml). This ink honors the Irish immigrants who helped build New Orleans and lived in the neighborhood called Irish Channel in New Orleans.
Papier Plume will be donating $4 per bottle sold to Special Olympics Louisiana and St. Michael Special School of New Orleans.
The timing for this ink couldn’t be more perfect — not just because St. Patrick’s Day is just a few days away. This weekend I read the first book in the Molly Murphy mystery series by Rhys Bowen which is set in New York during St. Patrick’s Day. Of course its set in the late-19th century/early-20th century and the main character has just arrived in New York from Ireland. So, I was clearly in the mood for an Irish green ink.
Irish Channel Green is a lovely shading ink. No sheen.
(From top to bottom, left row: Papier Plume Ivy 108, Colorverse Sea of Tranquility, Papier Plume Irish Channel Green, Birmingham Pen Co. Field Tourniquet. Right row: Pen BBS #342 Green Matcha Ice Cream, Tacci Uguisa and Sailor Jentle Waka-Uguisa.)
When compared to other green inks in my vast collection, the closest colors are Birmingham Pen Co. Field Tourniquet and Colorverse Sea of Tranquility. Field Tourniquet (old formula) is slightly more yellow and Sea of Tranquility is slightly brighter, grassier green. Sailor Waka-Uguisu is the same value but, again, more yellow.
This ink is limited edition so don’t delay! If you want those Irish Eyes to smile, you better order now.
