Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway last week for the Goby Design Leather Notebook Cover. I always wish I had more than one to give away!
Without further ado, the winner is Susan:
Well I’m sorry that this one is Wheat rather than Plum, but if you love it enough, there’s never too many notebook covers right?
Thanks again to Goby Design for the generous giveaway! The winner has already been contacted via email. Thanks for entering!
While attending the Dallas Pen Show I had the opportunity to talk with the rep from Chartpak, the distributor of many popular art and design supplies. He was displaying new products from Kuretake — their fountain pen ink lines including the Art Nouveau series which is inspired by the art nouveau art movement which was in full swing when Kuretake launched on to the art scene back in 1902. There are five ink colors in this collection: Old Rose, Zsolnay Green, Mahogany Brown, Perkin Mauve and Concrete Gray.
At first glance, these inks appear quite dark. The Old Rose looking more like a coppery tone and the Mauve so dark it almost looks black. But stick with me…
It turns out that all five inks are sheening inks reflecting the light with pops of gold, green and red.
In swatches on 68gsm Tomoe River, I added just a hint of water to get a better sense of the underlying tones. These inks are super concentrated and might make great colors to use in painting, brushes and such. Seeing the color potentials, I wanted to push it further.
What I’ve discovered over the past few years is that when you favor fine nibs like I do, inks that might look a little ho-hum in a swatch can come alive when the application is lighter. So, I decided to go ahead and fill some fine nib fountain pens with these inks to see how they performed in more “real world” tests.
The Mahogany Brown, in my Sailor ProColor, is just a tiny bit darker than my tried and true Kaweco Caramel Brown and a great alternative color moving into the darker days of winter.
Old Rose reminds me of a slightly warmer Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve. Perkin Mauve is a deep regal purple without too much saturation. It’s subtle, regal and sophisticated.
The Concrete Gray is a bit more neutral grey when compared against one of my go-to inks, Diamine Earl Grey which has a bit more blue undertone.
Zsolnay Green is a deep pine-y green. It’s not a color I use much on a daily basis as I tend to prefer more yellow-y greens so I don’t have a lot of immediate comparisons I could make.
Comparisons:
From my swatch search, J. Herbin Cacao du Brsil is probably the closest I could find to Mahogany Brown. Cacao du Brasil doesn’t have any sheen so if you’re looking for a similar shade without sheen, that would be my recommendation.
With Old Rose, it showed the most sheen so I hunted down some of my sheeniest reds: Krishna Brown Pink, Bungubax Matador and J. Herbin Rouge Hematite. Honestly, Old Rose is probably closest to Matador, and considerably cheaper.
My preference for yellow greens was really noticeable when trying to find comparisons for Zsolnay Green. All the dark greens I could find lean more to the yellow green like Epinard, Tokiwa-Matsu and Astorquiza Olive. Astorquiza Olive was probably the closest though Tokiwa-Matsu and Epinard have the similar sort of sheen just a slightly different hue.
The sheen in Perkin Mauve makes the comparisons a little hard to discern on screen. Honestly, Sailor Chu-Shu is probably theclosest, just without the sheen.
With Concrete Grey, I didn’t have a lot of off-black greys that sheen. 3 Oysters Giwa is probably the closest in color just, again, without sheen and if you’re looking for sheeining blacks or greys, my go-to is Kyo-No-Oto Nurebairo which is a dry AF ink but the sheeniest deep blue black I own. I just add a little White Lightning to keep it flowing.
I wasn’t sure where I was going to land with these inks. The initial swatches were so dark but in the end, with some experimenting and trying different things I have ended up really liking the options these Kuretake inks might provide. I am actually planning on using these inks for my November Planner Set-Up which should be posted soon.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Kuretake USA/Chartpak for the purpose of review. To purchase these inks, visit Dromgoole’s. Please see the About page for more details.
This summer, Esterbrook launched their new line of fountain pens: The Niblet ($175). This pen is definitely designed to compete with the Kaweco Sport and other small, pocketable pens.
I got the Sea Glass model and the color is stunning and definitely reminds me of sea glass, oceans and hints of creamy shell and a little pearl oyster shimmer. This is the color combo that will totally work for my annual Mermaid month next year.
I got the medium nib which is a little too wide for my microscopic handwriting so I may swap out the nib with a finer or extra fine nib in the future. The wide nib sizes available make this a very good option for anyone looking for a small fountain pen but want a unique nib. The standard nib options are extra fine, fine, medium, broad, stub 1.1, extra-fine flex, fine flex. For an up-charge, you can also get a double broad, needlepoint, mini stub, journaler, scribe or fude nib.
Some of the selling points for the Niblet is a full No. 6 nib compared with Kaweco which use a smaller No. 5 (or 5-1/2-ish) sized nib. The Niblet also allows the cap to be screwed to the barrel using the same threads that are used for capping the pen. The little roll stop corn nugget may be how the pen got its name.
The medium nib was smooth and easy to use, even for an overhanded left-handed writer.
The Niblet comes with one cartridge but no converter. I think all fountain over $100 should come with a converter. It costs the manufacturer probably less than $1 to include one, they should be included.
The name. Sigh. I am not a fan of the name Niblet. I cannot get past the association with baby corn and the Jolly Green Giant. There’s so many other diminutive descriptors that could have been used: Bijou, Dainty, Mini, Elf, Petit, Pipsqueak. And that’s just me and a thesaurus and five minutes. Imagine how many better names I could think up with time. I think Bijou is more sophisticated and classy. The Estie Elf is cute and charming. Call me, Kenro, before you name your next pen.
The Niblet is a branded version of the Fine Writing Pencket Fountain Pen ($74.50). Yes, the Niblet is available in different, potentially finer quality resins and a branded Esterbrook No. 6 nib which appears to have a higher quality feed (ebonite maybe?) than the Fine Writing lower priced pen. I’m not sure the branded nib, pretty resin, felt pouch and packaging warrant a $100 mark-up over the Fine Writing Pencket Fountain Pen.
The felt sleeve that ships with the pen is not very high quality. The pumpkin orange color of the sleeve does not coordinate with the Sea Glass pen at all. The edges of the felt are burned and that makes it very scratchy when it touches your hand. Maybe my physical synesthesia is too sensitive but I do not like the sleeve provided. It was not necessary to include it and if leaving it out would have reduced the price a bit, that would have been preferable.
There is an American flag label on the felt sleeve. Yes, Esterbrook is an American company but the pen and the sleeve are unlikely to be made in the US. (Knowing that the Fine Writing Pencket was produced in Taiwan, its definitely misleading. Nowhere else is there indication of where the pen or case was produced so I think its a little misleading and unnecessary.
In the end, its a lovely pen and the nib quality is good and easy to swap with a custom nib if you choose that option. The price though? Eh.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Esterbrook (Kenro Idustries) for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I was so excited to see the new Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot Metallic Double-Sided Marker – 6 Color Set ($26) while I was working at the Dallas Pen Show. I like using Zig Clean Color Dot markers for adding bullets to my notebooks. So, a set of metallics? Yes, please!
The set comes with silver, gold, red, blue, green and violet with dual tips — a standard 1.0mm marker tip and the other end is the puffy, little, q-tip-style end that makes it easy to make dots. Depending on your pressure the dots can be big or small. The package suggests that the dot size can vary between 1 and 5mm depending on how hard you press.
The inks are water-based so its easy to clean up but the designs are not permanent or water-resistant so I recommend using them as your top layer if you blend tools in a mixed media technique.
The unique upside of metallic markers is the colors are often more opaque which makes the colors pop on darker paper stocks. So, if you have journals or notebooks with kraft paper or black paper, these metallic markers may be useful and fun to use for you.
I found that, on white or light colored papers, the metallic quality and brightness is not as noticeable as when I tried a dark paper stock. I also found that the silver and gold dot end was more visible and opaque than the marker tip end on light papers. Silver and gold were more apparent and opaque on the darker paper.
On 68gsm Tomoe River, there was absolutely no showthrough on the back of the page so that’s a pleasant bonus.
Overall, these markers are fun and unique. I think I prefer them on darker papers overall but everything but the silver pen worked well on light paper too, just not as sparkly as I hoped they would be.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Chartpak/Kuretake US for the purpose of review. To purchase, visit Dromgoole’s. Please see the About page for more details.
Laura, in an act of selfless kindness, found some fabric that she said was “so me” and then bought it and made me a whole freakin’ quilt! It’s huge and beautiful and covered in a bright, fun assortment of stationery-related prints. She quilted it with loopy stitches that are reminiscent of calligraphy swirls. So well-planned! So cool! So cozy!
Patrons make me happy. I make them extra special treats, record a bi-weekly podcast and keep them up to date with newsletters and more. If you’d like to join our Patreon, it would make my day! Patrons are the best! Thank you to all our Patrons and to you, for reading all the way to the end of this post!
Today we have a special treat for you, the perfect accompaniment to starting a new journal or planner! This lovely leather notebook cover was donated as a giveaway by Goby Design.
Goby Design boasts handcrafted leather notebook covers made in Berkeley, CA in a rainbow of gorgeous colors! They source both American and Italian leather There are three sizes available:
Pocket Size Moleskine Cahier or Field Notes (90mm x 140mm or 3.5″ x 5.5″)
Large Size Moleskine Cahier (130mm x 210mm or 5.1” x 8.25”)
A5 Size any single signature notebook (149mm x 210mm or 5.8” x 8.25”)
Each leather notebook cover comes with a Clairefontaine Triomphe Notebook inside, held in place by a somewhat flexible, but sturdy, center wire. When you’ve finished the notebook, simply slide it out of the cover, and add your own! This is a fairly skinny cover, but I do think some of the thinner A5 cardstock cover planners would fit very well in there.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the Giveaway:
You are entering to win 1 A5 Goby Design notebook, as pictured above in the color Wheat, with the included Clairefontaine Triomphe Notebook.
You’ll also receive a few goodies from me (Well-Appointed Guest stickers, ink samples and the like).
TO ENTER: Head on over to Goby Design to check them out. Then leave a comment below and tell me your favorite color/size they make. 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 Sunday, October 19, 2025. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. 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.
A special thank you to Goby Design who provided us with the leather notebook cover for giveaway!
Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway for the Wonderland 222 B6 notebook. It looks like our commenting system is working again and ready for prime time!
Our winner is:
I have reached out via email to our winner. More giveaways will be happening soon so stayed tuned!
