In Pen Review

Fountain Pen Review: Leonardo Momento Zero

Author Laura CameronPosted on 6 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

I’ve been seeing Leonardo Momento Zeros everywhere lately, so when Ana handed me one for last week my first thought was Jackpot! She got one of the gorgeous Green Blue versions with Silver Trim (€147.11, or approximately $164) for review.

The Leonardo Momento Zero is a resin-bodied pen, with a steel nib and is available with gold or silver hardware. The body of this pen in particular is a mesmerizing marbled blend of blue and green iridescent bits.  The nib is stainless steel, imprinted with the Leonardo logo and is available in EF, F, M, B and 1.5mm stub; mine is a Fine.

The Momento Zero has a screw cap that is postable, but posting is not super tight and makes the pen top heavy, so I prefer not to post.

Compared to some of my other pens, the Momento Zero fits right in at a length of 5 1/2″ (14 cm) capped and 5″ (13 cm) uncapped.

L to R: Platinum 3776, TWSBI Eco Rose Gold, Leonardo Momento Zero, and Carolina Pen Co. Charleston

It also weighs in with its competitors at 26g.

The Momento Zero was lovely to write with. I loaded it up with my Papier Plume Ivy Green and away I went. The nib was smooth right out of the box, and wrote beautifully with no rough starts. While the pen is gorgeous and I can’t stop looking at it, I have to admit that it might be a little big for my hand. (Remember – I have small hands and the Pro Gear Slim is totally my speed!) I can’t decide whether I care for the section, which is somewhat graduated, or whether I would prefer one that was a consistent circumference.

Grudgingly, I have to admit that as much as I love this pen (and others) this one’s going to Ana! That said, you really should try one of these and decide for yourself!

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 Tools

Brush Review: East Hill Water Brushes

Author Laura CameronPosted on Leave a comment

Review by Tina Koyama

Since I don’t do much “real” watercolor painting – my main use of brushes is with water-soluble colored pencils – convenient water brushes serve me better than traditional paint brushes. Some new water brushes hit the scene recently at JetPens, so I jumped right on them: the East Hill line of three sizes ($8.25 each).

While most water brushes typically come in small, medium and large sizes and the occasional flat, the East Hill series offers a couple of shapes I thought were unique – Hake and Menso – and the more traditional Kumadori.

Kumadori (“acorn shape”) is identical to Kuretake’s large size (which is also identical to the Yasutomo Niji-branded large water brush).

Hake is unique among all water brushes I’ve seen or tried. It has a round brush with a flat top, which mimics the shape of traditional Asian watercolor and sumi brushes used for making large, wet washes. (I photographed it with and without paint, trying to get a good image of the shape.)

I thought the “ultra extra fine” Menso would also be a unique offering that I was eager to try.

Since the nylon bristles on water brushes perform about the same, the most important feature of a water brush is how well water flow can be controlled. I’ve tried many (possibly all?) water brushes currently on the market, and my favorite is Kuretake (also branded as Niji and Zig). Unlike most, Kuretake water brushes have a plug between the reservoir and the brush, which aids significantly in controlling flow. (For an easy way to fill these brushes, see my review of the Kuretake that was included in my ArtSnacks box a few years back.) Others without a plug simply gush water to the brush when the barrel is squeezed. A photo in my review of Tombow water brushes shows the difference between those with a plug and those without.

When I first started reading the product information about the East Hill water brushes, I perked up when I saw mention of a removeable “nozzle,” because I thought it might be similar to the Kuretake’s. To my relief, it is not only similar – it is identical! As the barrels show, East Hill brushes are made by Kuretake! My favorite Kuretake brushes apparently go by many different brand names.

Shown below are brush strokes made with (from top) Kumadori, Hake and Menso. The Hake has the widest line variety and can make an unusual thick-and-thin stroke that will be fun to explore further. The Menso, described as “ultra extra fine,” turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. It’s the same as the small Kuretake/Niji.

If you want the finest stroke available in a water brush, I think the fine Pentel Vistage is finer than the Menso. The image below shows the Menso on the left and the Pentel on the right. My scanned image below shows a brush stroke comparison of the Menso, the Pentel and the Kuretake.

Although I think Menso and Kumadori are redundant, Hake is worth exploring and is a welcome addition to the Kuretake (by whatever name) water brush line. Water flow is reliably easy to control in all three brushes that go by the East Hill name.

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: 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 Link Love

Link Love: Covid-19, not Conid

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: Covid-19, not Conid

Pen Show season is in full swing right now. The Baltimore, Long Island and London pen shows have just passed and the Arkansas and Atlanta are coming up in the next few weeks. That said, the fears of a pandemic-level outbreak of the Covid-19 virus has already lead to the cancellation of one pen show event (the Maruzen World Fountain Pen Exhibition in Japan). While I understand the fears that people have about the virus, we are already seeing the loss of revenue for vendors (as well as hotels, restaurants, airlines, etc) in other fields as a result of events being cancelled (SXSW, Vogue Knitting Live Seattle, YarnCon Chicago, etc). As someone who both attends and vends at pen shows, I fear the financial repercussions as much as the health risks.

Do I have a recommendation or conclusion about this? I do not. But I have links for a song generator for your hand washing routine and opinions from others about the implications of viral fears.

And did I mention that the 6th Annual Pen Addict Live event is live on Kickstarter? Brad, Myke and I may be the only people at the Atlanta Pen Show if Covid-19 continues to spread but at least we will be filming it!

Speaking of podcasts, be sure to listen to Erasable 135 which was recorded live at the BWI Pen Show and featured some pencil talk from both Brad Dowdy and me.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Typewriters:

Other Interesting Things:

Covid-19:

In Paper Review

Giveaway: Galen Leather Co. EveryDay Books

Author Laura CameronPosted on 103 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

I love all the Galen Leather Co. products I have tried, so when I received a handful of their new EveryDay notebooks to review I was super excited.

We’ll start with the complete set. The A5 EveryDay Book set ($32.00) includes three A5 notebooks, guide sheets, a leather blotter and a fun zippered case. Each A5 notebook is filled with 128 pages of blank 52gsm Tomoe River paper. The covers are made of cardstock and are handbound (stitched). The notebooks themselves measure 5.7 x 8.25″ (14.5 x 21 cm).

The paper is, in a word, lovely. It is thin, but sturdy. The ink dries fairly quickly and while there is a bit of ghosting on the reverse side, there’s no bleeding through or feathering.

But if A5 size isn’t your jam, there are tons of other sizes: passport, pocket, regular (Traveler Notebook sized), B5 and B6.

So now for the giveaway. You are entering to win:

  • TWO A5 notebooks + guides + leather blotter courtesy of Galen Leather (we’re sorry to break up the set but we used the third A5 notebook to test and the zippered pouch had an unfortunate ink exploding incidient)
  • TWO Regular notebooks + leather blotter courtesy of Vanness Pen Shop

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell us what your favorite paper is! Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting, 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 Friday, March 13, 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 7 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.

In Pencil Review

Pencil Review: Musgrave Tennesse Red

Author AnaPosted on 6 Comments
Pencil Review: Musgrave Tennesse Red

Okay, I talk about Chicago all the time but what you might not know about me is that I went to high school and college in Tennessee. I appreciate my varied upbringing and that I can relate to urban life as well as the smaller, Southern towns. As a result, I’ve always had a soft spot for Musgrave pencils. When I heard about the release of the genuine Tennessee Red cedar pencils ($9/dozen), I knew I needed to get a dozen ASAP. The pencils come in a beautiful matchbox-style box with the Tennessee Red lettering emblazoned on the sleeve in white on bright red.

Musgrave Tennessee Red Pencils

Inside the box is a dozen natural finish Tennessee Cedar pencils with gold ferrules and bright white erasers. The branding is printed in red foil on the natural, hex pencils.

Musgrave Tennessee Red Pencils

For Tennessee natives, you’ll recognize the red circle with three stars from the Tennessee state flag.

The pencil sharpens to a good point and don’t let me fool you, I ripped this package open and sharpened these pencils as soon as they arrived. I love a crisp hex pencil and the variations in the tones of wood made these pencils covet-worthy even if they wrote terribly.

Tennessee Red Writing Sample

Which they don’t. They are actually some of the smoothest Musgrave pencils I’ve used. They are a rich dark graphite but don’t actually smudge that much which is a big deal for a lefty like me. I was even using Rhodia paper ($13.75) which is super smooth and therefore more inclined to smudge but… no, not so much.

The built-in eraser works better than most on-pencil erasers but do yourself a favor and get a foam eraser like the Pilot Foam Eraser ($1.65). The different is amazing.

If I could have tweaked the design of this pencil at all, I might have gone for a silver or dark pewter ferrule but otherwise, I think this is an exceptional pencil at a great price.

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

In Pencil Review

Pencil Cap Review: Sonic Cupot

Author Laura CameronPosted on 2 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

Usually made of lightweight plastic or aluminum, pencil caps save you from being stabbed by sharp pencil points and keep your bag or pocket from being marked. You’d think that something as simple as a cap would be easy to choose and be happy with. Given all the colored and graphite pencils in my daily-carry, I have tried many caps, all of which imply that they are one-size-fits-all. Yet as with sharpeners, subtle differences in pencil barrel size make finding a universal pencil cap challenging. It should not be so loose that it falls off on its own, nor so tight that it’s a struggle to remove or mars the pencil’s finish.

I had heard good things about the Sonic Cupot (6 for $3.25) accommodating many different pencil sizes, so it was time to give it a try. Giving an eyeroll to the “boyish” set and the “girlish” set, I opted for the rainbow assortment. I like that they are brightly colored yet translucent, allowing the point to be visible.

Most pencil caps are straight-sided or tapered tubes made of one material. A unique feature of the Cupot is its “soft rubber rim that grips the pencils without damaging their paint.”

I popped a Cupot onto each of six pencils, some of average size and others that tend to give me trouble because they are slightly larger than average – two Caran d’Ache (Museum Aquarelle and Grafwood) and a Derwent Drawing Pencil. In every case, the Cupot went on without feeling forced, stayed on without any doubt that it might slip off, and pulled off easily without scratching the finish. I even tried one on a “mini-jumbo” pencil, and while it does fit, it feels a bit forced and requires muscle to pull off, so I probably wouldn’t use it on that. But for all other pencils, the Cupot is, indeed, universal. Finally, one size fits (almost) all!

 

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: 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.