Paper Review: Sterling Ink, Owl Paper, Hobonichi & Aura Estelle’s New Sanzen Paper

Paper Review: Sterling Ink, Owl Paper, Hobonichi & Aura Estelle’s New Sanzen Paper

One of my lovely readers sent me a sample of the new paper that Aura Estelle will be using in their planners for 2026. My plan was to review this new Tomoe River Paper 52gsm white (New Sanzen) paper on its own but it quickly became clear that a comparison was needed between not just…

Notebook Review: Fabriano Classic Artist’s Journal

Notebook Review: Fabriano Classic Artist’s Journal

I grabbed a luxurious Fabriano Classic Artist’s Journal at the Dallas Pen Show. It’s a delicious stack of 192 sheets of Fabriano drawing paper. Fabriano is a very famous Italian papermaker known in the art world for their drawing, watercolor and printmaking paper. To have a big, solid block of this fancy Italian paper that I…

Ink Preview: Robert Oster FranklyX

Ink Preview: Robert Oster FranklyX

In honor of their 10th anniversary of Federalist Pens created FranklyX, an exclusive Robert Oster Shimmy Ink ($20). The ink is a black base color with champagne/light bronze shimmer particles to create a golden color-shifting shimmer showing green, grey and blue hues as well as the top color of gold. When compared to other inks…