The Well-Appointed Desk

As you read this post, I’m out of the office on my first business trip since the summer of 2019. My day job is working in marketing at an agency that caters to crafty entrepreneurs in the fiber and fabric space (think yarn stores, quilt stores, yarn dyers, needle manufacturers and more!)

The truth is I don’t travel much, but I do tend to go to an industry trade show about once per year. Or I did until 2020 happened. This week I’m in Chicago at the first big industry show since COVID. Not traveling often, and not having traveled for work for 3 years, I was struck with a bit of a panic about what to bring. I had time to order a few things, but I thought I’d cover my “carry” for this show.

One bag to rule them all – The Baron Fig Tote Bag

Those of you who were around for the Kickstarter days of this one may remember that it was the subject of a bit of controversy. However, I’ve recently rediscovered my Baron Fig Tote Bag and I have to say it’s checking my boxes lately. The straps are wide and comfortable and will be nice and utilitarian for carrying a bag through a conference floor. It will easily hold my marketing materials (biz cards and postcards), a notebook for keeping notes on my meetings, my wallet and phone. It doesn’t have a lot of pockets, but I like that one on the front for my keys and phone, and the rest will be contained in zippy pouches and the like.

When I’m not on the conference floor, I can slip my laptop in the bag (in a new sleeve, keep reading) and head for coffee to catch up on my notes. And there’s probably still room for a knitting project.

The Laptop Sleeve – Rickshaw Horizontal Laptop Sleeve

When I realized I wanted to throw my laptop in the Baron Fig Tote rather than carry a more padded bag (I’d rather carry less weight on the trade show floor), I decided I needed a sleeve to slip my laptop into to keep it safe and scratch free. Cue Rickshaw. I ordered myself a Horizontal Laptop Sleeve in the custom color of my choice, added priority shipping and I had it in just a few days.

The Notebook Cover – The Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter

A while ago Ana gave me her Roterfaden Tachenbegleiter on loan, and it is the perfect tool this week. It’s lightweight, made primarily of felt and cardboard, with lots of pockets for biz cards and other things. It’s got metal tabs where you can add notebooks, and a pen loop so you have a pen handy. I don’t see these amazing zippy colors (Ana says this was a special order), but you can find more details here at JetPens.

The Notebook – Midori A5 Color Paper Notebooks

I ordered a stack of the Midori A5 Color Paper Notebooks ($3.25, Jetpens) these a while ago, and I just need a lightweight notebook I can dedicate to this show – my notes on meetings, photos, leads to follow up on and more. I “customized” mine by adding a leftover holiday card envelope (using washi tape) to the inside front cover so I can store lots those biz cards I collect with all my notes.

The Pens – An assortment of favorites

As much as I love fountain pens, they’re just not always the most convenient at a working show. People are always asking to borrow your pen, cartridges somehow always explode all over me and I just need something quick and reliable. For this show I opted for the following three:

Zebra Zensations – I don’t like going disposable, but I’ve been very pleased with these. If it walks off at the show, I won’t be super upset, and I’ve still got lots of ink left, so hopefully it will get me through!
Spoke Roady – I just got this one last week and I’m eager to take it out for a drive. It’s a combination of fun and convenient. I’ve got a brand new refill in it and I’m ready to go!
Kaweco x Hello Kitty AL Sport – Ok I can’t resist so I’m taking one of my favorites with me. It’s filled with KWZ Raspberry Ink and it will be super fun to use!

All of these are stored in my Unicorn Snot (Spa Blue/Lime Green) NockCo Sinclair pen case which I use as a combo pen case and wallet when I travel. My id, a few cards, some cash and 3 pens and I’m good to go.

So that’s what I’ve got with me this week. What are your must haves when you travel?

In Tools

Desk Accessory Review: Rickshaw Bags Valet Tray

AnaJune 20, 2022June 20, 20226 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

I’m a huge fan of Rickshaw Bags. Ever since my first daily-carry Zero Messenger Bag (now 10 years old and still looking great), which has traveled with me to four continents, I’ve found reasons (and excuses) to buy more bags in other colors, sizes, fabrics and styles. I also have several stationery accessories. Handmade in San Francisco, the products are all well made, durable and – the most addictive part – color-customizable!

Rickshaw’s Plush Valet Tray ($34) is not an item that initially struck me as useful. Traditionally, a valet is used by men as a pocket dump. Since I don’t carry coins, keys, knives or anything else in my pockets, I don’t have this need. However, I do have a specific art table need, and when I spotted the cushy valet, I suddenly realized what its purpose is.

When I’m working on a drawing or other project at my desk, I’m constantly picking up and putting down various pencils, pens, scissors or other tools, and I don’t like the noisy clatter they make on my desktop surface or a hard tray. I’d tried paper towels and fabric to set tools down on, but round pencils kept rolling off.

The rectangular 4-by-8-inch valet is an ideal size for giving my currently used tools a soft, silent place to land – it’s plush-lined! Yes, my pencils now have a more comfy seat than I do. I don’t have any of Rickshaw’s gorgeous, plush-lined fountain pen cases or Coozies because I refuse to let my pens be better dressed than I am. OK, I do have one Clover Pen Sleeve (alas, no longer available), seen in this post, which also shows a couple of my many Rickshaw bags. But the Clover has a specific travel purpose beyond keeping my pens warm and stylishly dressed.

I chose Cordura fabric in Iris on the outside (in homage to my original, well-traveled Zero Messenger) and orange plush on the inside.

The valet has an interesting and functional design: In use, the four corners are snapped together into a simple tray. When unsnapped, the valet goes flat for storage or travel. It’s also available in three square sizes and a slightly less cushy version in waterproof EPX fabric.

This is one of those things that I did not know I needed until I saw it, and now I don’t know how I ever worked at my desk without it! Did I mention that it’s color-customizable? Don’t play with the customizing tool just before bedtime. I guarantee you will stay up too late trying out all the color combos.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

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

In Pen Review

Pen Review: Spoke Roady

Laura CameronJune 17, 2022June 17, 20221 Comment

I’ve been watching Spoke for a while now, and I finally broke down a week or two ago and ordered my very own Spoke Roady in Purple ($59.00). I opted to start with the ball point/gel since I’m getting ready to travel and I don’t always fine fountain pens the easiest to travel with (more on that next week).

The Spoke Roady is Spoke’s pocket pen and it manages to be fairly tiny, without being minuscule (I’m looking at you Liliput!) It is approximately 4.25″/10cm in length when capped, and ends up at 4.625″/11.5 cm when posted, which is how I found it most comfortable to write.

The Roady is Spoke’s standard metal body with a titanium grip section and silver hardware. It comes in at about 27g so it’s fairly lightweight as well.

The Roady comes with a Jetstream Uni SXR-600-07 refill in black and I just popped that in there for easy usage.

I found the Roady a pleasure to hold in my hand. Even though the grip is scored, it’s nice and smooth, so it’s comfortable to hold. The Jetstream Uni is also quite smooth, without the skipping I find in a lot of ball point pens. While the pen can be used without posting, I found that I liked the weight distribution better with the cap on.

And the cap is really fun – it’s magnetic and it just slides onto either end of the pen easily.

Overall, I’m liking my Roady so far and I’ll be testing it out more on my travels next week!

Paper: Ghost Paper Notebook ($25)
Pen: Spoke Roady in Purple ($59.00)

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

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Dominant Industries Autumn Forest

Jessica ColesJune 16, 2022June 16, 20221 Comment

Dominant Industry is a new ink brand that has started showing up in many pen retail stores recently. They come in beautifully shaped glass bottles packaged in a dust bag and thin cardboard box.

I purchased my bottle from Yoseka Stationary where it is listed as $20 for 25mL because I couldn’t resist the color combination in Autumn Forest.

While the description of Autumn Forest calls the ink base “dark green”, I would describe the ink as a dark brown-grey.

The pearl sparkle in Autumn Forest is red and looks striking against the dark ink.

The writing sample below is on Midori MD light paper.

I started this writing sample immediately after I inked up the pen in order to best show the sparkle.

I then waited for a full week with the ink sitting in the pen. I began the second writing session with the words “I typically…” in the photo below. The pen did not have a problem starting, but the ink color was noticeably lighter and the sparkle took time to show up.

When the sparkle in Autumn Forest can be seen, it is dramatic!

There was no bleeding or feathering on the Midori MD light paper.

Comparing the color of Autumn Forest to other inks is difficult. Shifting the angle of the page brings out new colors every time. In one type of light, the base ink looks grey with strong blue undertones.

The color of the sparkle is close to the ink color in Diamine Frosted Orchid while the mixture of the ink and sparkle resembles Sailor 252.

The overall look of the ink is close to that of Krishna Pencil – at least, the first batch of Pencil.

But overall, Autumn Forest is a unique color combination. Below, the ink on Tomoe River paper looks grey and blue. There was no problem with feathering or bleed-through.

The pearl sparkle almost takes the role of sheen!

On Cosmo Air Light paper, the blue undertones of Autumn Forest almost disappear. Again, there was no feathering or bleed-through.

I am happy I’ve purchased an entire bottle of Autumn Forest and I look forward to seeing how the ink and sparkle act over a longer period of time.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were paid for by myself. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Odious Task Week

AnaJune 15, 2022June 15, 20221 Comment

OMG, can I tell you how much I love the MDK post about Odious Task Week? We all have things on our to-do list that we keep putting off. Scheduling an oil change for the car, annual check-ups, organizing paperwork, cleaning out our email inbox… just for example. Shall we all commit to tackling at least a couple of the tasks on our Odious Task List this week? I feel a new notepad design in the works, don’t you?

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In news

Shop News: Mini Ink Bottle Stamps

AnaJune 14, 2022June 14, 20221 Comment

Sometimes I get goofy ideas like “What if I shrunk all the ink bottle stamps and sold them as a set?” Is it a well-thought-out, market researched idea or is it just that I thought it might be cool? Much more the latter. So, I did it. I have just made a few sets because, like I said, this was a harebrained idea. But heck, maybe other people want teeny, tiny ink bottles to stamp in their planners, journals and letter?

The set ($40) includes four stamps, mounted on wood blocks: a tiny ink sample vial (1″ x 0.325″), the “Classique” ink bottle stamp and Ink Bottle (short) (both measure 1″x1″), and the tall faceted bottle stamp (1.5″ x 0.75″).

For scale, I stamped each new mini stamp on a Col-o-ring card. The Calssique bottle is actually the same size as the original full-sized stamp. Everything else has been miniaturized. The goal was to make the stamps more convenient for people who track their inks in journals or notebooks as well as being useful on your Col-o-ring cards to indicate if you have a bottle or just a sample of your ink.

The same stamps do fit on Dipper cards but it’s a bit more of a tight fit.

Just for size comparison, the new mini ink bottle and sample vial stamps are at the top and my very used, very well-loved full-sized ink bottle and sample vial stamps are at the bottom.

The Mini Ink Bottle Set is also available on Etsy.

Should I miniaturize or maximalize something else in the shop? Are there other ink bottle shapes you’d like to see? Where will you stamp these?

In feature

12 for 12: Our 12 Favorite Products for our 12th Anniversary

AnaJune 10, 2022June 11, 20225 Comments

12 faves for 12 years

In honor of twelve years of The Well-Appointed Desk, I thought I’d pull together my current favorite items. I wanted to include more than just pens so I’ve included my favorite pen case, bag and even pencil accessories.

As a bonus, I have also listed my 12 favorite inks.

Galen Leather 3-Pen Case ($39): I recommend the Crazy Horse Leather. It ages beautifully and takes ink stains well. And, with some creative organization, I fit five pens in my case but I use pretty slender pens. (full review)
Rickshaw Bags Soho (Sm/Med or Large): I own the Sm/Med version that I use as my everyday carry bag but friends of the blog have been recommending that I upgrade to the Large for maximum tote-ability. Rickshaw allows for full customization to get just the color combo you want as well as their velcro pocket system for as much compartmentalization as you want.
Kaweco Sport Fountain Pen (approx. $27): The new Iridescent model is a true “unicorn” but I still love the Frosted Collection. If you haven’t added a Sport to your collection, the most difficult decision will be choosing which color.
Schon Design Pocket 6 Fountain Pen (starting at $142) : I have a custom faceted model that we here at The Desk call the Ferrera Rocher in brass but any of the Pocket Six pens are a delight and a favorite from the mottled anodized aluminum to the brass and copper models. (full review)
Caran d’Ache 849 (ballpoint and fountain pen, starting at $20) : While I love the fountain pen with an unexplained passion, the classic ballpoint is a must-have for any pen collector. There are dozens of colors and finishes available as well as special editions available so find a design that speaks to you to add this classic pen to your collection. (full review of ballpoint, full review of fountain pen)
Opus 88 Koloro (starting at $93): The Koloro is the smallest pen left in the Opus 88 line-up and the first I purchased. It remains a favorite. I’m particularly partial to the Blue-Blue filled with Monteverde California Teal which is a perfect match. (full review)
William Hannah discbound leather planner (A5 starting at £120): The issue I’ve had with discbound boteeks and planners in the past is that they tend to look and feel cheap. This is where William Hannah elevated the discbound planner with leather covers and metal discs making the discbound system competitive with traveler’s notebooks and ringbound planners like Filofax. (full review)
Midori MD Light (available in A5, A6 and B6 Slim, starting at $11 for a pack of three cahier notebooks): I know the pen world loves Tomoe River but when I discovered MD Light, I found a new paper passion. While I wish there were more notebook styles available in the MD Light, I will continue to stockpile the cahiers just in case they are ever discontinued.
Stalogy Editor’s Series 365Days Notebook A5 Dot Grid (starting at $25): While I am not always inclined to use A5 size of Tomoe River paper, the Stalogy has 52gsm Tomoe River paper (the best I can tell) and has the lightest dot grid of any notebook so its not too distracting. The “Editor” series does not have the date markings at the top of each page like the original Stalogy notebooks so they are great for bullet journaling or any note taking needs. (full review)
Blackwing Pencils ($27 for a box of 12): While these are not cheap, in the world of fountain pens, they are reasonably inexpensive. They are well made, have that unique ferrule and eraser and can be a great gateway into high-end office supplies for friends and family. (full review)
Sakura Foam Eraser ($1.60): Best eraser on the market. Any foam eraser will work but the Sakura is cheap and effective. (full review)
KUM Long Point 2 Step Pencil Sharpener ($5.50): I can’t pick favorite pencils without also choosing a favorite sharpener. This sharpener give a wicked point without stabbing your wallet. (full review)

Bonus: 12 Favorite Inks:

These inks are in no particular order. I can’t rank my favorite inks anymore than someone could rank their children. These are the inks I couldn’t live without. Could you make a list of 12 of your favorite inks?

Pilot Iroshizuku Ku Jaku ($22.50 for 50ml): When I am incapable of making a choice about what ink to fill a pen with, I reach for Ku Jaku. It’s aqua blue but also a little bit teal. Dark enough for everyday writing but has some shading, a little sheen and some haloing around letters as I write (depending on the paper stock). (full review)
Vinta Mermaid Green Sirena 1952 ($12.50 for 30ml): Sirena was one f my first experiences with a color shifting ink. When wet its a watery green. As it dries in becomes more muted aqua blue-grey with a pink cast. This is total mermaid ink. (full review)
Pen BBS #224 Tolstoy ($16 for 60ml): I love a lime green ink and Tolstoy is a deep olive/lime. Pen BBS inks are also well-behaved and reasonably priced. (full review)
Robert Oster Caffe Crema ($18 for 50ml): I know most people go for Oster’s blues like Fire & Ice and Blue Water Ice but I love his more unusual colors. If you have ever seen me at a Vanness table at a pen show, I’ve probably recommended either Caffe Crema or Viola to you. This is my favorite brown ink, it shades, has some variation and is not so dark as to look black.
Robert Oster Viola ($18 for 50ml): This is one of the first muted purple inks to come to my attention and it remains a favorite. There is great tonal variation and shading. (full review)
Callifolio Andrinople ($13 for 35ml bottle): This is a pink that’s not too pink, too bright and rich enough to use regularly. (full review)
Platinum Carbon Black ($25 for 60ml bottle): This is the one permanent black that rules them all. You need a black ink, might as well be permanent. (full review)
Waterman Inspired Blue ($11.30 for 30ml): Perfect for vintage pens and an absolutely gorgeous shading, sheening turquoise. Do not overlook this classic brand of inks.
KWZ Standard Honey ($ 15 for 60ml): I know not everyone loves the smell of KWZ inks but I think the scent added to the ink makes it smell like vanilla or like honey making the honey ink (chef’s kiss) perfection. (*Turns out, I had run out of KWZ Honey so I inserted my favorite alternative to it, Callifolio Heure Dorée. If you don’t like the smell of KWZ, I recommend Heure Dorée as an excellent alternative.) (full review)
Sailor Shikiori Yama Dori ($14 for 20ml): Yama Dori is a dark blue-black ink with a reddish-purple sheen on some papers. If you need a business appropriate ink with a little pizzaz, grab a botlle of Yama Dori.
Monteverde California Teal ($10 for a 30ml bottle): California Teal is one of the best sheening inks. Its a beautiful shade of green with a vivid reddish sheen. It’s reasonably priced and available in both 30ml and 90ml bottles. I really need to invest in the full 90ml. (full review)
Montblanc Oyster Grey ($24 for a 60ml bottle): I love a grey ink and choosing just one favorite is always a challenge. Oyster Grey is a fairly neutral grey, not to warm, not too cool. I am also swayed by the delightful “shoe” bottle. There are some thing that Montblanc WAY overcharges for but their stock inks (at present) are not one of them.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Bonus: 12 Favorite Inks: