The Well-Appointed Desk

Ink Review: Sailor New York and Sailor Texas

I’m happy to see Sailor continuing on with their 50 States Collection which began with Colorado and California. Today I get to show you Sailor New York and Sailor Texas (20mL each, $25 each at Dromgoole’s) which were sent to me for a review. Thank you, Larry!

The first ink is Sailor New York (I’m only going alphabetically – I’m not trying to put New York above Texas!). Included with the ink is a small card explaining a bit why this color was chosen for New York.

“Sailor’s New York Ink was inspired by a famous baseball team that resides here. Can you guess which one?” The answer, of course, is the New York Yankees, who use a dark blue as an official color (HEX COLOR: #002D72). Even the first glimpse of the ink seems like it will be accurate. There’s a nice sheen on the threads of the bottle – not an overpowering sheen, but definitely present.

The color of New York on a Col-o-ring card is a lovely dark blue-black with a touch of a green-black sheen. This blue-black does lean towards the purple side, but not much. The sheen showed up in writing around each letter – not quite a halo, but at the edges of letters (I typically define a halo as an outline around the ink that makes the writing appear to pop out from the page). It is not a permanent ink but it does show water resistance.

The second ink today is Sailor Texas. The included card states “Sailor’s Texas ink was inspired by the state’s history of making leather goods”.

Unfortunately, there is no standard color of leather for me to compare, but the color definitely does fulfill my idea of a leather color! The first look at the ink shows an orangey medium to light brown.

Swatching Sailor Texas showed a darker brown than I had expected and also shows a small amount of a dark brown to black sheen. The shading on this ink is medium and definitely shows up in writing. I even found that a hint of the sheen showed up occasionally.

Texas is close to Aurora Sepia in shading and saturation but Sepia has red undertones where Texas has orange. Franklin Christoph Honeycomb is the closest in tone. Again, the ink is not waterproof, but is very readable after getting wet.

In my opinion, Sailor has once again selected great colors to represent these states with two inks that are very useable, office-safe colors. The price is the biggest downside of these inks. At $25 for 20mL, this puts the 50 States inks at $1.25 per mL, on par with some of Montblanc’s Elixir inks. The true worth in the Sailor States inks is in the link between state, color, and the reason the color was chosen. The purple Colorado was one that I purchased as soon as I could! If there is a state or states that are dear to your heart, the 50 States collection will definitely call to you.

I’m happy Sailor is continuing with this series and I’m looking forward to seeing further releases. Do you have any guesses as to which states will be next? Any requests?

Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
Ink: Sailor New York and Sailor Texas (20mL, $25 each)

DISCLAIMER: Some items in this review were provided free for the purpose of this review. Except for the Col-o-ring which was provided to me by a wonderful person who pays me to write blogs by keeping me supplied with Col-o-rings. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Ollie Got Mail!

AnaSeptember 16, 2020September 15, 20204 Comments

First, I have to point out that Ollie got mail this week. And it was AWESOME (it’s the postcard above with the evil kitten on top of the demon)! I get lovely mail regularly (like the postcard above on the right) but this is the first time one of our felines got mail. He may be a chair-stealing, crappy intern, but he is pretty dang cute and even you all seem to agree. My students have even started to call him my TA because he sleeps on my work table behind me so he’s on camera for our Zoom class every day (photo below) and sometimes even “helps me” draw.

In other news, the USPS is raising postal rates for the holidays which will require many small businesses to raise either their shipping rates or their products prices or both to absorb the costs. Below is a list of the price increases. Supposedly, these prices will come back down in January.

October 18th–December 27th USPS temporary rate increase:

First Class Package: 25 cents/package
Priority Mail (including Flat Rate, Regional Rate, and Cubic): 40 cents/package
Parcel Select Ground: 40 cents/package
Priority Mail Express: $1.50/package

On a more (plug-the-firm side), we’ve made some under-the-hood updates to shop this week. We have added Stripe to our payment options. Doing this expands how customers can pay and means you do not have to have a PayPal account to make a purchase. It also means that you can now use Apple Pay (if you are using Safari and have it set up on your phone, iPad or computer). This is all in preparation for our restocking ALL the Col-o-ring products which we are manufacturing now. So, if you are waiting for new Col-o-ring, Col-o-dex, OVERSIZE or DIPPER, hold tight! They will all be listed on the site in the next two weeks or so.

In Link Love news, Mattel released a Day of the Dead Barbie this year which absolutely tickles me. Years ago, Bob and I went to every thrift store for miles around and bought up Barbies, dipped them in white, house paint and then drew Day of the Dead designs on them. Then I think we participated in a Barbie Art Show with more refined versions of the Day of the Dead Barbies. So, to see these available for sale warms my former Albuquerque-dwelling heart.

It’s starting to cool off here in KC so the knit-related links are increasing including one of my favorite YouTube knit vloggers, Constance, who was featured on Fancy Tiger Crafts this week. And of course, it wouldn’t be Link Love without at least one Star Wars link (season two trailer for The Mandolorian) plus a ton of creative and design links, ink, pen and paper links. No pencil links this week but I can say with some authority that progress is being made on the next issue of Plumbago (I did some illustrations for the new issue) so hopefully there will be info in the upcoming week about when it will be available.

ONE LAST THING:

Art Supply Posse is swiftly approaching its 100th episode. If you have been a regular listener of the podcast, or even an occasional listener, would you record a message of support, congratulations or praise to Marcus and Kim for keeping it afloat? Record a message and tell them if you learned something new, were inspired to try a new supply, or maybe mention who your favorite guest was.

You can record a message using the voice recorder on your phone or the built-in microphone on their laptop or computer. Then they hit the share button and email it to hello@artsupplyposse.com

(HINT: You may want to listen to episode 100. I have it on god authority that the special guest is a fan favorite.)

We all need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates. They help keep this blog going. Without them, we would not have products to review or a server to house our content. Your patronage of their shops, services and products 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 Tools

Review: Formal Dept Notebook Case (& Giveaway)

AnaSeptember 15, 2020September 21, 202087 Comments

Several months ago, the team that creates Formal Dept (illustrator Kate Pugsley and industrial designer Charlie McArthur) launched a Kickstarter to develop a watercolor dish and cup set. I was super excited to see the project reach it’s goal. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter launched in the middle of pandemic lockdown which affected the outcome and it didn’t fund. I hope that Formal Dept attempts the watercolor Kickstarter product again once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. In the meantime, I wanted to introduce you all to some of their other products.

Their Notebook Cases will be of particular interest which are available in a foliage grey ($30) or a shapes ($30) pattern created by Kate. Kate’s pattern is excellent but I’m biased because I am a fan of her illustrations. The material on the shapes pattern is cotton canvas-y where the foliage grey is nylon so they have a slightly different feel. The foliage grey, like all nylon, attracts cat hair like I attract cats.

The Notebook Cases hold an A5-sized notebook in a pocket on the right-hand side and a zip pocket for small ephemera and 4-slots on the left for pens and drawing tools. The case zips all the way around with a big zipper. There is no structure built in to the case so depending on how stiff the notebook is that you put into to the case will determine how stiff the case becomes. I put a sketchpad in mine so it was not rigid but stiff enough that the case did not flop around or feel unstable.

I filled the gray model with my drawing tools and doubled up pens, pencils and waterbrushes for sketching. Since the case is large enough for an A5 and the slots for pens are not blocked by anything, a full-sized waterbrush will fit and the pockets are large enough for the widest pen or two smaller pens. In the zippered pouch, I stored extra leads for my mechanical pencils, a Tile and some stickers and business cards.

I was even able to stick my cellphone in the notebook pocket and zip up the case. This makes the notebook case a great option for taking out for a walk-and-draw, out to the patio, or (someday) to conferences or lectures. It holds everything you’d need for a day of notetaking, plus phone, some credit cards or cash in the pocket. And the price on these can’t be beat.

THE GIVEAWAY:

We are giving away one Formal Dept Notebook Case in the Shapes Pattern (new, unused) to one lucky reader (pictured here).

TO ENTER:

Leave a comment below and tell me what you’ll put inside the Formal Dept Notebook Case. 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, Sept. 20, 2020. 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.

DISCLAIMER: I was not paid for this review or giveaway. I purchased these cases with my own money because I think they make really cool stuff. Please see the About page for more details.

In podcast

Inky Ears: Stationery Podcast Roundup

Laura CameronSeptember 14, 2020September 21, 20208 Comments

These days there are so many stationery-themed podcasts we can hardly keep track so we decided to put together a list of all the ones we know about. If I missed you, I apologize – please leave me a note in the comments and I will update the post to add you!

Otherwise grab a cup of your favorite beverage, a project (knitting anyone?) and give these a listen!

(In alphabetical order.)

1857 : Join Stuart and TJ, two guys talking about analogue pursuits in a digital world – and a fair amount of nonsense too. Make the Past, the Present in the Future, this is 1857.

The Bent Tines : Hosted by Kat and Matthew and focuses on fountain pens and ephemera, the people in the pen community community, and other topics like food and drink, home ownership, art, and life.

Erasable : Join Andy, Johnny and Tim as they explore their love of pencils and, more recently in the pandemic, their newfound love of pens!

Fountain Pen Companion : Urban, Ana, and Daniel podcast about fountain pens and related stationery items with a European perspective.

The Nib Section : This podcast features rotating hosts in a roundtable discussion podcast about fountain pens, ink and the people who go crazy for them, from Fountain Pens Oceania.

The Pen Addict : Brad & Myke host a long-running podcast that’s your weekly fix for all things stationery. They love pens, pencils and Sailors with an unholy devotion. You’ll find the latest pen industry news here, as well as links to Kickstarters, new releases and more.

The Pentertainment Podcast : Join PenBoyRoy for all things fountain pens (yammer and more!)

RSVP : Dade, Less and Lenore chat about all things stationery! I love their discussions of journaling, gameplaying and other analog hobbies that make use of the items we love.

Tinterías: A podcast in Spanish about all things fountain pen related! (Un podcast sobre la estilográfica y los materiales de papeler.)

Tokyo Inklings : Join CY and Jacob as they share two Tokyoites’ insider views on the Japanese fountain pen world. Japan has a HUGE stationery market, much of it hard to find for Westerners – get the inside scoop from these two!

There are also a few folks that host streams that are not quite podcasts. We’ve added those here in case you want to give them a try!

Inkdependence: Mike and his wife Audrey (the Nib Doctor at Franklin Christoph) host a weekly Friday “happy hour” live on YouTube which is my “don’t miss” at the end of the week.

The Pen Addict: Brad from the Pen Addict streams on Twitch several times a week. From unboxings to what’s on his desk on any given day, he’s got more pen content and live chats for you!

Again, if we’ve missed anyone please let us know in the comments below!

9/21/20 Edited to add a few recommendations from our readers!

The Stationery Cafe : Enjoy candid conversations between the co-hosts April and Phyllis, or journaling-related topics with artists and stationery enthusiasts.

Stationery Orbit : Do you love fountain pens, ink, wax seals, and stationery as much as John does?

In Pen Review

Highlighter Review: JetPens Highlighter Sampler

AnaSeptember 11, 2020September 6, 20203 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

In a strange moment of synchronicity, several highlighters in my home went dry at the same time, and my stash of spares was nearly empty, too. Instead of stocking up on my usual go-to brands, I thought it would be fun to try some new ones. JetPens offers numerous highlighter sampler sets by color theme, which made it easy to try six in my favorite highlighter color – magenta (6 highlighters/$10).

Included in the set are two Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Highlighters (one Mild Magenta, one Mild Fuchsia), one Lilac Pink Stabilo Boss Original Highlighter, one Red Purple Uni Mitsubishi Propus 2 Double-Sided Highlighter, one Purplish Red Zebra Optex 1 EZ Highlighter and one Purple Pilot Spotliter 2 Double-Sided Highlighter. If purchased separately, the total would be $10.55, so the sampler set offers a bit of savings. They all come in at least 10 colors (though it’s hard to beat the Mildliners that come in 25 colors).

A distinguishing characteristic of the Spotliter 2 and the Optex 1 EZ is that they are refillable with convenient cartridges (also available at JetPens). These environmentally friendly options are appealing, though the skeptic in me wonders whether the tips will mush down before the highlighters need be refilled. (My heavy handedness will tell the tail soon enough.)

All but the Stabilo Boss and Optex 1 EZ have both a standard chisel point and a fine point, so it’s like having two highlighters in one. Of course, I have always used a chisel-point marker on both its side and its tip (see my chart below), so it can be used two ways also. Here are closeups of the tips.

Below I made lines with each highlighter tip to show the differences in colors and point sizes. Though they are all similar, even the two Zebra Mildliners, the scanned image shows the colors a bit more accurately. Unfortunately, the biggest difference in color doesn’t show well in either image: The Stabilo Boss is closer to a neon hot pink while the others are more like pale magenta. (Strange… whenever I try to photograph or scan neon-colored inks or colored pencils, the fluorescent properties seem to disappear from the images.)

Next I made a bunch of scribbles with a Blackwing graphite pencil, Uni Jetstream ballpoint, Uni-ball Signo gel and Pilot Petit fountain pen containing water-soluble ink. To test for transparency and smearing, I drew each highlighter through the scribbles several times. As expected, all highlighters smeared the water-soluble fountain pen ink, but the other pens and pencil showed little smearing. All were sufficiently transparent.

Finally, I highlighted a line of text in a catalog page with each highlighter to again compare their relative transparency and color. Since I most often use highlighters in books, catalogs and other printed matter, this test is most important to me.

My favorite? I like the bright ink color of the Stabilo Boss best. Unfortunately, its unwieldy body is the least user-friendly highlighter design I’ve used. It’s awkward to hold, and the tapered cap is difficult to pull off.

Which brings me to the Optex 1 EZ’s “EZ cap,” which I had nearly overlooked: To uncap it, you simply squeeze the four dots above the arrow, and the cap pops off. I love it when small conveniences like this take almost all the effort out of using a simple highlighter! The cap also posts securely, which is always a big deal to me because I’m prone to losing caps that don’t post well. Both of these features make the Optex 1 EZ my favorite, and it’s refillable, to boot. I don’t mind that it doesn’t have a fine point on the other end, but if you prefer one, the double-sided options are equally good performers.

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

Ink Review: Jacques Herbin Essential Inks

Jaclyn MyersSeptember 10, 2020September 10, 20203 Comments

Back in 2018, J. Herbin released a new line of inks and other stationery items under a Jacques Herbin branding. At the time, the line was exclusive to Le Bon Marche/ Boisnard (Paris), Itoya (Tokyo), and Milligram (Australia). Recently, it was brought to my attention that the inks are now being sold at a variety of additional US and international retailers. I decided the increased accessibility warranted a revisiting of the line.

Back during the original release my parents coincidently also happened to be visiting Paris. When I realized they were a few blocks from Boisnard, I dropped a not-so-subtle hint about my Christmas list and Santa was kind enough to travel over to the shop to pick up several of the inks. To this day, they remain some of my all-time favorite Christmas gifts.

Overall, the line includes ten inks: Vert amazone (green), Gris de houle (grey), Noir abyssal (black), Bleu de Minuit (blue/black), Bleu austral (blue), Violet boreal (purple), Rouge d’Orient (red), Terre d’ombre (brown), Orange soleil (orange), and Ambre de baltique (yellow). Those ten inks are divided across two miniature ink sets (Solaris and Luna), and the one I own (Solaris) includes the green, black, purple, red, and orange. I also received a bottle of the blue/black.

The full-size bottles are 50mL squares that are nearly identical to the J. Herbin 1798 inks, minus the wax seals on the front of the bottles and wax-covered caps. The opening of the bottles are wide enough to easily fill any pen in my collection, and one of my favorite details is the glass embossing on the bottom of each bottle.

My parents had never picked out an ink before choosing these, but they made an excellent choice in picking the full-size bottle with Bleu de minuit. To be fair to the other colors, I’m naturally biased to blue/black. But to be fair to Bleu de minuit, it has some fierce completion in my personal ink collection and still somehow manages to get used on a regular basis nearly two years later. The color is a rich, deep blue that straddles the line between blue and blue/black. Depending on the nib you are using it can produce both shading and sheen. The sheen is right at the level that produces a “halo effect” around each letter in print writing- and while I enjoy super-sheening inks as much as anyone- this type of sheen is some of my favorite in actual practical day-to-day writing.

The Solaris miniature set of inks includes five other essential colors, and overall I really like how this set is packaged and executed. When the new line was released, it was targeting a more premium market and I think that direction shows in nearly every aspect of the “look” of these inks. The price is also premium, but not totally out of range for other “premium” inks we have seen in recent years. At the current price I was able to find at the writing of this post, the price per mL of the miniature set (75mL for $67.20) is similar to the Sailor studio ink line (20mL for $18). Beyond the “premium” branding, the size (15 mL each) and shape of the bottles make them a particularly useful sampler set.

The orange ink is nearly empty, but I was still able to piston-fill a TWSBI earlier this week in preparation for this review. Any bottle that allows for piston-filling even with the last few mL of an ink is a major win in my book.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself reaching for the purple and the orange most often from the set. The orange is yellow-based and very bright even in finer nibs. The purple is an interesting shade- almost dusty, but still maintaining a vivid color and exhibiting significant shading even in writing. FYI: The writing samples below are a decent representation of the colors but the photo does not accurately display the sheen of the bleu de minuit and noir abyssal.

I reach less often for the black and the red, but to no fault of their own. The red is a rich, classic red that leans towards a darker red or maroon. Inking it up this week reminded me what a great color it is. The black is a dark, saturated black and even has some sheen to it which gives it some interesting character on the paper. Both colors are really good, but probably tend to get edged out by similar or competing colors in my collection that have become my fall-backs in those color categories (looking at you Platinum Carbon Black). Out of the entire set, the green is the only ink that I don’t personally prefer. There is nothing “wrong” with the color. It is saturated and behaves well, but is just a little too “classic green” without much character for my personal tastes. (I tend to prefer darker greens with brown undertones.) It also seems to write a little drier than the other colors on the page in my experience this week, but I need to re-ink it in a different nib to re-test this theory.

I’m on vacation this week for the first time in 2020, and before we left for a socially-distanced quiet (rainy) get-away by a lake, I decided to ink-up the entire line in their closest matching TWSBI. Perfect travel companions.

Back in 2018, Santa also surprised me with a J. Herbin glass pen along with my inks, and I noticed that Goldspot is carrying these glass nib pens in a variety of colors alongside the Jacques Herbin inks. I use this glass nib pen on a regular basis on many of my ink swatches to showcase the ink properties in a thinner line.

The miniature ink sets- Solaris and Luna, full-size bottles, and ink cartridges (!), are all available at a variety of retailers including Goldspot. I may have to re-stock my orange soleil and even track down the Luna miniature ink set- for the sake of science of course.

Tools:

Pens: TWSBI Eco ($30.99), J. Herbin Glass Dip Pen ($27)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10), Col-o-Ring Oversize ($15), Well-Appointed Desk Rubber Stamps ($8-16)
Ink: Jacques Herbin Ink ($32 for 50ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased with my own funds or gifted to me under the Christmas tree. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Stamping ALL THE THINGS

AnaSeptember 9, 2020September 9, 20201 Comment

A few quick notes for this week:

The Ollie Comics are not about MY Ollie but are still totally worth checking out.
This week is overflowing with other people’s reviews of the new Esterbrook JR Pocket Pen. Check out our review here in case you missed it.
If any of the students from my DMM1 class are reading my blog, take particular note of the Just Draw with Fineliner Art book review and Tina’s Putting My Hand to Work.
When I first heard Brad mention the Roady pen on his podcast I thought he said something completely different and I can’t get that out of my head. (Don’t ask but now I’m sure you’re wondering…)
Hobonichi started releasing their 2021 planners. We all want to see the back of 2020 and Hobonichi planners are always so fun. So, enjoy planning for a better 2021.
Finally, last week The Desk Shop got some new stamps in. We don’t drink the ink but we like to swatch with it. And we like popsicles and crafty stuff too. I’ve tried some on kraft paper with opaque white ink too like wrapping paper and it looks super cool. It’s giving me ideas for some more new stamps!