Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for the Ro-Biki notebooks, generously sent to us by Yamamoto Paper for giveaway! Without further ado, the winner is:
Congratulations Sandra! Stay tuned for a few more giveaways this month!
Notebook Review: Field Notes (F)All Editions
I meant to publish this review/overview months ago. Then I realized that my Field Notes subscription had lapsed and I had to renew it in order to get the most recent Colors subscription. And for whatever reason, getting Field Notes from Chicago to Kansas City is a Herculean task that takes weeks. I think they arrive faster to the UK than they do to me.
Since it took awhile to get all the editions and then I received the notification for Group Eleven, I just waited. I decided to just do a great big round-up of the currently available editions for 2019: Group Eleven, Autumn Trilogy, National Parks, Mile Marker and Wilco. It’s been awhile since I have talked about Field Notes at any length.
If you subscribed to the Colors Quarterly Editions, all but the Wilco edition would have been shipped to you over the last six months. If not, you can subscribe starting with the Group Eleven edition. As a subscriber, there is often a subscriber “extra” included that is not available with individual purchases. The Autumn Trilogy “extra” was a screenprinted cotton bandana that featured the leaves printed on each cover. Mile Marker shipped with a map of the US and Group Eleven shipped with a 2020 desk calendar.
In the case of the National Parks edition, subscribers received all twelve editions. In order to get all twelve editions in open stock, you have to order packs A, B, C and D at $12.95 each.
After some thought, it seemed that the best way to see the differences between the features of each Color Edition (and the Wilco set) was to put them in a spreadsheet.
| Title | No. of Editions | Notebooks in each edition | Lined/Graph | Paper Weight | Special Features | Price for full set (USD) |
| Mile Marker | 1 | 3-pack | Dot Grid | 60#T | holographic laser foil | 12.95 |
| National Parks | 4 | 3-pack | Graph | 60#T | there’s a lot of them | 51.76 |
| Autumn Trilogy | 1 | 3-pack | Ruled | 70#T | deep deboss | 12.95 |
| Group Eleven | 1 | 3-pack | Dot Grid | 70#T | metallic foil edging | 12.95 |
| Wilco | 1 | 6-pack | Dot Grid | 60#T | slipcase storage box | 27.95 |
All the books feature 48 pages per book regardless of whether they have 60# or 70# paper.
When lined up like this, it’s easier to see that over 2019 dot grid has reigned supreme if you don’t count the sheer volume of National Parks edition books. If dot grid and the heavier 70# textweight paper is your jam, then you’ll want to grab the new Group Eleven books.
At this point, this is almost a “which Field Notes of 2019 is your favorite?” post. So, I’ll roll with it.
While the Wilco edition has not clearly been stated as a regular edition or limited edition, it’s still available. From an aesthetic standpoint, its my favorite. But I have to confess, I am not actually a Wilco music fan. Don’t shoot me. The Wilco x Field Notes is still a total treat.
While a 6-notebook set seems like a lot of notebooks, it’s not as big a commitment as the 12-notebook set of National Parks. The slipcase box for the Wilco set provides great storage for the notebooks too for a mere $2 upcharge. The 60# text weight paper is just right for most people and, even if you’re not a Wilco fan, the colorful graphics are fun and who doesn’t like dot grid? I think it would make a perfect holiday gift for the “paper curious” or the music enthusiast.
The National Parks edition is great for the outdoorsy folks. Pick an edition with parks that might be places they’ve visited.
The Group Eleven is almost elegant in its simplicity and the latest edition to feature the heavier 70# text weight stock inside. It is also dot grid so it should satisfy most paper fanatics. Autumn Trilogy also features 70# text weight only with lines instead of dot grid.
In 2019, Field Notes created an edition to satisfy the most discerning tastes or the most ardent collector. Which edition is your favorite?
Notebook Review: Blackwing Clutch
Review by Tina Koyama
Since most pocket notebook users are probably writing in them and not drawing, unruled pages are harder to come by than ruled. When I find one, I’m always interested in trying it. The Blackwing Clutch (pack of 3 for $14.95) was next on my curiosity list. (Ana included the Clutch in her review of three Blackwing notebook formats a couple of years ago. Check out her post, if only for the eye candy of her Lady Sheaffers!) The Clutch is also available with dot grid or ruled, all in a choice of black or white covers.
First, I should acknowledge that I’m a faithful Field Notes user for both notetaking and sketching, so I tend to judge every pocket notebook against that standard. However, Field Notes’ regularly available, blank-page, pocket-size Kraft contains paper that I don’t care for, so any competitor with unruled paper is worth considering.
Like Field Notes (and many other competitors), the 5½-by-3½-inch Clutch is sold three notebooks per pack, wrapped with a bellyband, 48 pages per book. The creamy paper is 100 GSM with sewn signatures instead of staples. A notable Clutch distinction is that the book’s format is designed to be landscape instead of portrait. Of course, if your pages are blank or dot grid, it doesn’t matter, but the orientation of the back cover’s logo and inside-cover printing indicates that it was designed in that direction. The ruled-page option is ruled in the landscape direction with a vertical center line that might be handy for list-making. (The bellyband hedges bets: It’s landscape-oriented on one side; portrait-oriented on the other.)
The matte-finish cover is a hard cardboard that is substantially thicker than that on Field Notes or most other paper cover notebooks. It’s also less flexible, so pants-pocket carriers might find it a bit stiff. As a bag-pocket carrier, I like the sturdy cover with a pleasant touch. The cover alone justifies the nominally higher cost compared to competing notebooks. The only branding is a debossed logo in back.
I was pleased to see that the signatures are stitched, since such bindings usually open easily and stay open (as do stapled books). To my surprise, the attractively rounded spine and stiff covers tend to make the book snap shut, and I learned this while trying to photograph page spreads for this review: I had to hold the pages open against the table. Despite that, I could easily bend one side of the book all the way back so that the two covers touch. This is my preferred way to hold a notebook while sketching in it, so it’s an essential quality I look for. The spine recovers completely without visible creases afterwards.
As for my media tests, the only pens that bled through a bit were the Derwent Paint Pen (which bleeds through everything) and my juicy Sailor Naginata Fude de Mannen fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink (review available as well), but neither fountain pen I tested feathered. The paper surface is smooth and pleasant to use with all pens and pencils.
Since I like to use a lot of dark, broad brush pens (all of which perform beautifully on the paper), my only disappointment is that the paper is not more opaque. In the photo of my sketch below (made with a Uni Pin brush pen), you can see the ghost of the sketch on the previous page. But for 100 GSM paper, this is typical, so I’m just being picky. And I’m pleased that the Uni Pin’s pigment ink did not feather or bleed at all.
Final Impressions
It took me a while to try the Clutch, but I’m happy that I finally did. It’s a great unruled-page option with paper that holds up to most writing and casual sketching materials. The sturdy cover is a bonus.
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.
Ink Review: Newest Penbbs Inks
Black Friday (and the related Small Business Saturday, In-Between Sales Sunday, Cyber Monday…) has come and gone and packages ordered online last week are now being delivered. During these sale days, I happened to see a few new inks pop up on Vanness Pens – all Penbbs inks. Ok, I admit it was more than a few. It was 34 new inks. Luckily, I have amazing willpower; I only purchased samples of each.
One downside of ordering this time of year is that the Post Office is rather busy. Typically packages from Vanness arrive at my home within three (sometimes only two) days. I didn’t receive my ink this time until yesterday afternoon, so I had a busy evening swatching inks! Fortunately, this is one of my favorite things to do.
I do admit, though, that 34 inks is too much for me to review one by one. But how can I best show these ink colors if readers are curious and can’t tell the colors from the bottle labels? Rather than trying to review every ink, I have grouped them. These first six photos are the swatches in numerical order.
#381 through #392 are the large style hexagonal bottles, have no particular theme that I could see and cost $16 for a 60mL bottle.
#501 through #509 are themed on flowers and cost $18 for 35mL square bottles.
#510 through #524 are not named (please ignore the Midnight Blue label on #515) and also cost $18 for 35mL bottles.
I this second group of photos, I have grouped the inks by color and added a swatch of inks that are familiar to most people and can be found online easily if not. Hopefully these will give a reference to place these colors in the mind of the readers.
My favorites: #381 – an orange-yellow coral color, #501 – an opaque true yellow that doesn’t fade into the paper, #505 Azalea – a dusty pinkish purple, #507 Lily of the Valley – a dusty teal, #511 – purple, of course, #514 – a bright turquoise that has a faint halo in writing, and #516 – even on a paper towel, this black didn’t break down into separate colors.
I hope this presentation helps to show the colors of these inks. Pick out your favorites – samples are $3.50 or $2.50 for 4mLs so it is plenty of ink for trying out the ink – or pick a couple of bottles. Penbbs inks are one of the best value inks for the money!
Tools:
- Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Refill ($30-35 USD)
- Ink: Penbbs Season 26 and Flower series (Vanness Pens, $18 for 35mL or $16 for 60mL)
- Swatch Cards: Col-o-ring ink testing cards ($10 for 100 card pack)
DISCLAIMER: All materials used in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details.
Link Love: Gift Guides and Moleskine Apps
Inkvent has started, gift guides continue to publish (including the annual Pen Addict Podcast episode) and “…. of the year” are starting to appear. Moleskine’s digital offerings are getting a lot of attention but Notebook Stories provides some analog alternatives to the traditional Moleskine notebook. That’s the long and short of it this week.
Gift Guides:
- The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 387 – Costs Me Money Every Time – Holiday Gift Guide 2019 (via The Pen Addict)
- Checking Them Multiple Times, or at Least Twice (via Field Notes)
- 2019 Gift Guide: Gift Ideas for Creatives (via Oh So Beautiful Paper)
Pens:
- Montegrappa Miya 450 Fountain Pen Review (via The Pen Addict)
- Pelikan And Luigi Colani: A Collaboration (via The Pelikan’s Perch)
Ink:
- Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2019: Introduction (No Spoilers!) (via The Pen Addict)
- Organics Studio Frog Green Shimmer (via Mountain of Ink)
Pencils:
- Pencil Review: Alpino Junior (HB) (via Polar Pencil Pusher)
Notebooks & Paper:
- SEQES Dotted Hardcover Notebook (via Mountain of Ink)
- Ikea items for planner people (via Philofaxy)
- If you change one thing for 2020, I would… (viaWood & Graphite)
- How to finish your year strong (via Quo Vadis Blog)
- Why I’m obsessed with reading books about writing in notebooks | Op-eds (via Gulf News)
- A Box of Squared Notebooks (Moleskine alternatives) (via Notebook Stories)
- Galen Leather A5 Notebook Cover (via Gourmet Pens)
Art & Creativity:
- The Best Brush Pens for Lettering and Calligraphy (via JetPens Blog)
- Daniel Smith PR101 watercolour pigment compared (via Parka Blogs)
- Best type of paper for quick urban sketching (via Liz Steel)
- Drawing has to come out of your body (via Austin Kleon)
- Drawing insects (via Nina Johansson)
- Book Review: Creating Characters for the Entertainment Industry (via Parka Blogs)
- Creatives share their biggest lessons of 2019 and how they’ll be doing things differently (via Creative Boom)
Other Interesting Things:
- Fountain Pen Shows – killing the goose that lays the golden pens? (via Inked Happiness)
- Actions by Moleskine Adds Reminders Import, Shortcuts with Parameters, and Context Menus (via MacStories)
- Moleskine’s digital notebook and visual inventory of Earth win Apple’s Apps of the Year (via It’s Nice That)
- Book Review: The Big Book of Less: Finding Joy in Living Lighter (via Parka Blogs)
- Less stress, more living (via Flow Magazine)
- Daily rituals: getting up early to read a book (via Flow Magazine)
- The use of writing letters to yourself (via Flow Magazine)
- ‘Triode’ Internet Radio App for iOS, Mac, and Apple TV (via Tools and Toys)
Yamamoto Ro-Biki (GIVEAWAY)
Back in January (EEESH where has the year gone?) I reviewed Yamamoto’s Ro-Biki notebooks, which are fun Traveler-sized notebooks made of recycled materials. Recently, Yamamoto generously sent us two notebooks, the Topographical map series and the Basic Reticle Dot Series for giveaway! (One lucky winner will win both plus some swag from me.)
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me what your favorite size notebook is! 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 moneys some time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, December 6, 2019. 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 10 days, I will draw a new winner. Shipping via USPS first class/Prioirty Mail 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.
A Terrible Case of the Mondays
This was not at all the post I was planning to publish today. But, as in the past, I look on my personal experiences as a chance to be a cautionary tale for you, my lovely readers.
Allow me to tell you what transpired today. After having to go to the eye doctor for the third time to get my prescription sorted out, I was driving back to work when CRASH!, a 22-year-old driving a zippy BMW sports coupe pulled out in from of me from behind a car turning left in center lane. He didn’t look to see if there was anyone (namely, me!) in oncoming traffic. So, he sideswiped my beloved Mini Cooper.
No one was hurt (except for my 2009 Mini Cooper, AKA Fat Charlie) and it was really just a fender bender.
Luckily, he pulled over and we exchanged information. This brings me to the point of sharing my story with you (beyond the “Poor baby!” comments which are welcomed).
Since this is the first time I’ve had a car accident in 15 years, I discovered that analog tools come in handy.
The most important items in your car, wallet or handbag are, of course:
- driver’s license
- insurance card
But it is also very advantageous to keep a few other things in your car for emergencies:
- notepad
- pencil and/or durable pen (I recommend a mechanical pencil and/or a space pen)
I needed to write down insurance information, time, location, etc. so having paper and pen in the car within easy reach helped reduce my stress and let me feel prepared to document what I needed without feeling flustered digging around in my bag or looking under the seat.
Having your cell phone handy is also useful to immediately document not only the damage but also for taking a quick photo of the other driver’s license, insurance card, and the license plate or the other driver’s car. I wrote things down but did manage to transpose some digits in my nervousness.
I did not get a photo of the driver’s car or plates but an eyewitness who stopped did note that the other driver’s plates were expired. UGH!
Be sure, if there are eyewitnesses, that you write down their names and phone numbers should you need them to corroborate events or other details of the events.
For personal comfort, I recommend keeping a few other items in the car as well. While these might not be stationery-related, again, allow me to be your cautionary tale.
- kleenex or other facial tissue
- any emergency medication (i.e. asthma inhaler, epi pen, etc) or document with list of necessary medication/allergies
- granola bar, energy bar, trail mix or other packaged snack (it helps with adrenalin shakes)
- mints (just good thing to have for any occasion but can help with nausea too)
- blanket, wrap or towel (if you’re shaking from adrenalin, an extra blanket or wrap can help warm you or someone else up)
If you like to be fully prepared, there are emergency kits that are available in shops and online that include everything from first aid supplies, jumper cables, reflective vest and flashlight or light sticks. The Always Prepared Premium Roadside Safety Assistance Kit 
So, there you have it. Engage your inner Scout and be prepared. And stay safe on the road, okay?
DISCLAIMER: The item in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.