The Well-Appointed Desk

Today is Fountain Pen Day!

AnaNovember 5, 2021November 5, 20211 Comment

In honor of Fountain Pen Day, There are many special deals, offers and discounts across the stationery-world. Rather than attempt to list them all here, I am just including a link to the FPD web site where all the participating shops are listed. Click on any participating shop to find out what special deals they are offering.

One of the most coveted special projects this year is Papier Plume‘s special FPD ink: Cafe Diabolique which was blended to be an exact match for Cafe Brulot, a trance-inducing after-dinner coffee ritual which is still being performed by a few old-school waiters skilled in the flaming at-table ritual. This is something I definitely want to try next time I visit the French Quarter. As of posting this, the direct link to the product was not yet available so check the inks page (linked above at Noon, New Orleans time) or Papier Plume’s Instagram account for more info.

Also available today, the last few pads of our latest iteration of our Vintage Typewriter Paper Pads ($12 each, limit 3 per customer — also on Etsy) featuring super lightweight Southworth Onionskin paper. There are just a few of these pads left (Patrons got a first go at them so they pretty much cleaned us out!) so be swift if you want to try our latest NOS paper pads. Also, all orders placed today and Saturday will include a free Col-o-ring Dipper (no coupon required)!

Happy Fountain Pen Day!

In Ink Review

Ink Line Overview: Pineider Inks

Jessica ColesNovember 4, 2021November 4, 20211 Comment

Many new ink lines have been introduced lately, many by pen manufacturers testing their skills in the ink market. Esterbrook, Diplomat, Otto Hut, and Pineider are a few of these. Today I will be looking at Pineider’s first ink run.

This ink line consists of 6 colors – Black, Sepia, Red, Blue, Turquoise, and Green. I purchased my samples from Vanness for $25 for the 75mL bottle or $3.10 for a 4mL sample.

Pineider Red is a bold red that looks a bit pink in lighter applications. It never hurts the eyes – a good plain red. I only saw shading in the large swatch, not in writing.

Pineider Green has just a touch of yellow in the undertones but overall is well-balanced between yellow and blue. I did find a bit of sheen at the edges of some letters, although I would call it a halo rather than an actual sheen. Shading didn’t really show in the writing but it is there in the swatch.

Pineider Turquoise shows shading in writing but no sheen. It is a bit bluer than the majority of turquoise inks in my collection and a touch lighter than Aurora’s turquoise.

Pineider Blue also showed some shading in the writing sample and is more of a blurple than a pure blue. Blue is the only color in this collection that pushes away from the standard color.

Pineider Sepia was my favorite ink of this line – slight shading, a hint of red undertone, and lighter than most brown inks that I have sampled.

Pineider Black is more a cool-toned dark gray. I was a bit disappointed at how light it was even in the writing sample.

Above is the Pineider ink line – a solid, standard ink selection. I hope this isn’t the last we see from Pineider – their ink so far is well-made and priced affordably ($0.33 per mL).

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me and I was not compensated to write this review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Everyday is Fountain Pen Day, Right?

AnaNovember 3, 2021November 3, 2021Leave a comment

Fountain Pen Day is coming up on Friday this week and while I believe that everyday is Fountain Pen Day, this annual public celebration is a great way to increase the knowledge and love for fountain pens. Oh, and get some extra special deals from your favorite vendors.

Col-o-ring Dippers

In honor of Fountain Pen Day, both of our shops (Big Cartel and Etsy) will be offering a FREE Col-o-ring Dipper with every order placed from Friday, November 5 through Saturday, November 6, 2021. (No coupon required.)

We need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates or join our Patreon. 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!

In photo, Tools

NaKniSweMo

Laura CameronNovember 2, 2021November 1, 202110 Comments

Last week on the Pen Addict podcast, Brad talked at length about NaNoWriMo. If you aren’t familiar with that term it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, many many intrepid writers gather together to write a novel (or 50,000 words) between November 1 and November 30. The organization that supports it (which is now a 501c3) provides structure, milestones, encouragement and a network to support burgeoning writers participate. While many participants work digitally (composing on a computer), Brad talked about how he wanted to use NaNoWriMo to spend more time with his favorite tools: pen, ink and paper.

Every year since 2010, Ana and I have been participating in a lesser known, but similarly themed November event called NaKniSweMo. This stands for National Knit a Sweater Month and, like its inspiration, encourages crafters (knit and crochet are welcome) to create a garment between November 1 and 30th that contains at least 50,000 stitches. Ana and I use all of our analog tools to participate: needles and yarn to knit with, notebooks and pens (or spreadsheets if you prefer digital) to track our progress of stitches knit. Each year we plan for the process, scouring patterns, jotting down ideas or sketches, and getting ready for the event. And then we knit.

This year, I’m going to be knitting a cropped pullover sweater, Nydia by Vanessa Smith (pattern available on Ravelry). My yarn is Delightful DK from Apothefaery Fibers in the At the Hearth colorway, a gorgeous pumpkin orange I think is perfect for the fall. I’ve already done my homework (testing out the stitches to be sure it will create fabric of the right feel and proportions), and I’ve set up a notebook to track my progress.

In case you’re interested in seeing what we’ve done in the past, I’ve included a few of Ana’s and my past projects for NaKniSweMo.

Do you participate in a November project? (or any other month?) We’d love to hear about it and see your progress!

In Pen Review

Brush Pen Review: Kuretake Zig Fudebiyori Metallic

AnaNovember 1, 2021October 31, 2021Leave a comment

Review by Tina Koyama

It’s planner prep season, and it’s also time to start thinking about (say it ain’t so!) the holidays. I took care of both with one set of brush pens: the Kuretake Zig Fudebiyori Metallic set of 8 colors (8/$17 or $2.50 each).

Although I have a gazillion brush pens and use them frequently, most are black, and I’ve somehow managed to resist color. In the daily scribble journal I’ve been keeping, however (more about that coming soon), color is essential. Since I already know and love the basic black Fudebiyori, these were an easy choice. (If you need more than metallic colors, Fudebiyori brush pens come in 48!)

First I tested them in a Leuchtturm 1917 A5 notebook, which is what I’ll be using for next year’s daily journal. Only silver shows a significant metallic sheen, but it may be because the pigment-based, acid-free ink contains no stinky, toxic xylene or other solvents. I have several metallic pens containing solvent-based inks, and while they are shinier, I’m fine with the tradeoff in using safe, non-smelly markers. I’m showing both a photo, which shows the metallic effect better, and a scanned image, which captures the colors more accurately.

The bold inks ghost on the back of the page, but no bleeding is apparent.

Next I tested them in my red and black Shizen journals, where these metallic brush pens pop and shine. Red even shows up on red paper, and black shows on black! That’s when I saw potential for holiday cards and other festive uses.

Of course, I also love making winter nocturne scenes on the black pages of my Stillman & Birn Nova Trio sketchbook, so I couldn’t resist a pre-dawn sketch of the front porch and car across the street (I used silver and black brush pens).

These will do nicely for festive writing, daily journal scribbling and even sketching!

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.

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

In Ink Review, photo

Yarn & Ink: Halloween Frankensocks

Laura CameronOctober 29, 20213 Comments

In September a lovely friend sent me a belated birthday present, a Frankensocks kit from Knitterly Things.

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A post shared by Laura Cameron (@fluffykira)

Knitterly Things is known for dying self-striping sock yarn. That is, she dyes the yarn such that when you knit it up you get delightful stripes in your socks without having to change yarns and having all the extra ends. This kit was bits and bobs of leftovers of her colorways so that you could create spooky mismatched socks (a la Frankenstein).

I’ve been squeezing these socks in between work projects for a few weeks now and I think I’m going to finish in time to wear these beauties on Halloween, but I thought they’d make for an EPIC yarn and ink post.

Without further ado, a few of the hues I see:

In Ink Review

Ink Review: IWI Colors of Nature Part 3

Jessica ColesOctober 28, 2021November 12, 2021Leave a comment

The most recent ink line in my collection is the IWI Colors of Nature line. The line includes 24 colors so I will be presenting the collection in parts – today I’ll be covering the third set of 8 out of 24. I purchased my samples of IWI Colors of Nature inks at Vanness: each ink is $12 for a 30mL bottle or $2.60 for a 4mL sample. If you missed part 1 or part 2 of this series, make sure to read those as well.

I’ve divided up the Colors of Nature inks into various themes. Today’s inks are all in the Temperature and Condensation group. I’ve started with Slight Heat. I’m not certain of the order of these inks so I’ve ordered them with how they would be seen in Colorado. Slight Heat is similar to ColorVerse Supernova.

Great Heat is next which is nearly identical to KWZ Chicago Blue.

Limit of Heat is a great rust orange close to Diamine Ancient Copper. However, IWI Limit of Heat feathers quite a bit.

Slight Cold is my favorite of the Temperature and Condensation group (purple is best!). It shades dramatically in the swatch and slightly less dramatically in writing.

Frost’s Descent shows a decent amount of sheen and looks like a darker version of Robert Oster Fire & Ice. Surprisingly, I didn’t see feathering in this sample at all.

IWI Slight Snow is a dusty rose and was hard to match from my current swatch cards. This was the worst in the feathering category in the Temperature and Condensation group. I was disappointed since this is an amazing color!

Great Cold is slightly darker than Monteverde Rose Noir, but again, feathering.

The final ink today is Great Cold ink – strangely this is nearly the same color as Great Heat. It has a bit more blue in the mix and is almost a match for Kobe #50.

I love seeing the differences in these inks on Tomoe River paper (top) and Cosmo Air Light paper (bottom). CAL shows the blues in Slight Cold but almost blocks out the pink. CAL also has a more defined boundary to the ink edges rather than the granulated texture on Tomoe River paper.

Again, on Tomoe River paper (left) and Cosmo Air Light paper, the ink shows different properties. Slight Snow shows as bluer on CAL paper.

The differences in color don’t show as dramatically with Great Cold and Great Snow (CAL paper on the left and Tomoe River paper on the right), but the texture difference is easy to see here.

I inked three pens that each had the same nib to test the feathering issues with a more even ink flow and with a rounded point nib. Cosmo Air Light paper is on the top here with Tomoe River paper on the bottom. I did not see a single issue with feathering this time. The “l” in Slight Snow isn’t showing feathering, just a bit more ink.

However, when I wrote on Col-o-ring paper with the same three pens, the feathering showed up again in Slight Snow with a touch of feathering in Slight Heat as well.

Finally, here’s a photo of the eight inks reviewed today:

If I look at the entire 24 inks of IWI Colors of Nature only for the colors, I adore this lineup. The colors are not standard, the line has a wide range of colors, and several are colors I do not already have in my collection. But I can’t ignore the feathering issues with these inks. I don’t know if this is something IWI can change in the future but until that time, I can’t recommend more than a few of these inks for everyday use. I will check back periodically to see if the line has been updated – if the feathering is fixed, these inks will be a huge hit!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me and I was not compensated to write this review. Please see the About page for more details.

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