The Well-Appointed Desk

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 1 – TWSBI 1791 Part 1: Pink and Prairie Green

Welcome to the first day of Inkmas! We are celebrating the impending holiday with 12 Days of ink reviews — a somewhat annual tradition here at the Desk. We are going to start off with Tina’s reviews of the new TWSBI inks so really, you’re going to get way more in the next 12 Days than just 12 ink reviews.

Enjoy, stay warm (or cool depending on your hemisphere) and happy Inkmas to all and to all a good ink!

TWSBI, the Taiwanese company known for its affordable, stylish fountain pens, will soon be known for inks with the debut of a limited-edition, six-color set in time for the holidays (six 18 ml bottles for $36; individual bottles also available for $7.50 each). The 1791 series is “inspired by the vivid scenes described in Cao Xueqin’s Dream of the Red Chamber. First printed in 1791, the novel is widely lauded as one of the greatest works in the history of Chinese literature.”

As part of this year’s 12 Days of Inkmas, I’m going to review them two at a time. This post will serve as an introduction to the boxed set and review of Pink and Prairie Green.

Packed in a sturdy carton with nicely rounded corners, the set would make a lovely gift for an ink-collecting friend or someone new to fountain pens. A diecut on the bellyband shows the TWSBI logo, which also appears on each faceted bottle lid. My favorite part of the design is the frosted glass – a distinctive touch among fountain pen inks.

On to the review of Pink and Prairie Green.

TWSBI Pink is a pure, lovely rose that is neither too orange nor too blue. I see no sheening, and it’s a little too pale to show shading. This pink evokes peonies and the centers of cherry blossoms. I forgot to test for water-solubility until after I photographed the swatches, but none of the TWSBI inks is in any way waterproof. All washed richly with a swipe of water.

Sampled with the fine Zebra G nib, the pink looked a bit pale for writing, so I tried it in my medium-nib Lamy Nexx. I like it better here, and it would probably be best with an even broader nib.

Closest in my collection to TWSBI’s Pink is Iroshizuku Kosumosu, though the latter leans more toward the coral side. Iroshizuku Momiji is more saturated and bluer.

Prairie Green might be my favorite in the set – a vibrant yellow-green of young leaves. Like Pink, Prairie Green sits squarely in the leaf green range without being too yellow nor too blue. Again, I don’t see signs of sheening.

It turns out l like this green because I found several others in my collection that come close. Caran d’Ache Chromatics Delicate Green is the most similar. Others are close but tend slightly toward either olive or yellow.

TWSBI Prairie Green struck me as a beautiful color to paint/draw with, so I filled a waterbrush with it.

At Gage Academy’s annual Drawing Jam event in Seattle, both nude and costumed models pose for short and long durations all day. For this five-minute pose, I used the Prairie Green-filled brush to make the initial gesture strokes. Then I used a hacked Pilot Parallel filled with TWSBI Sky Blue (coming up in Part 2) to emphasize the shading. They’re beautiful inks to draw with!

TOOLS

Paper: Canson XL Mixed Media pad, 98 lb., 10” x 7” (60 sheets/$6.90)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
Pens: Zebra Comic Pen G Model Nib (10/$13.50) with Koh-i-Noor holder and Lamy Nexx, M nib ($25.60)
Brushes: Winsor & Newton pointed round 4 ($12.28) and Kuretake waterbrush – large ($7)
Inks: TWSBI 1791 Pink and TWSBI 1791 Prairie Green (18ml/$7.50)

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.

Updated: 12/18/19 to add link to the Gage Drawing Jam.

In Paper Review

Notebook Preview: Baron Fig New York City Softcover Notebooks

AnaDecember 13, 2019December 9, 2019Leave a comment

The latest limited edition from Baron Fig are the New York City Softcover Notebooks ($16) which feature three distinctly illustrated covers by illustrator Josh Cochran of city life. As someone who dwells in a considerably less urban environment than New York these days, I wasn’t sure if the latest edition would resonate with me or just make me homesick for city life.

One cover illustrates people on the daily commute on the train, another folks on the beach and the third out walking in the park. As a former Chicagoan, these scenes could easily be the L, the North Ave Beach and along Lakeshore Drive. I’m sure folks in other cities can substitute their own rail system (if you are lucky enough to have one), your favorite spot to lie in the sun and the best place to take a walk (be it park or parkway). So, the books give me a little bit of nostalgia for my hometown but also for warmer days as we all bundle up like sherpas for the blustery winter ahead.

Inside, the “Flagship” medium size softcover notebooks provide the same features we love about Baron Fig’s products already: 72pages of sewn bound 90gsm paper with 5mm dot grid and lovely rounded corners.

The Baron Fig medium still features their own unique dimensions at 5.4″x7.7″ (137mmx195mm). To compare, a standard A5 size is 148x210mm. A Baron Fig medium notebook will fit into a notebook cover designed for A5 sized notebooks but there will be excess space.

The NYC edition is an aesthetic treat and I love that Baron Fig is doing different things with their special edition notebooks than what Field Notes does. The original illustrations are a refreshing change and let Baron Fig shine on their own.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi

Jessica ColesDecember 12, 2019December 12, 20196 Comments

By Jessica Coles

Kyo-no-oto is an ink line from the TAG stationery store in Japan with colors designed to represent traditional Japanese dyes. The latest release from Kyo-no-oto is Sakuranezumi or Cherry Blossom Mouse (maybe the cutest name ever).

From the box, the color seems to be a dusty pinkish purple that shades well. The box is a thick cardstock with the name Kyo-no-oto letterpressed into the material and is one of those boxes that I can never seem to open without a small tear in one corner.

Opening the bottle, the ink seems to be a very dark purple and on the thin side – very little ink stayed on the inside of the lid.

Sakuranezumi is an amazing shading ink. On my swatch card, the shading varies from a dusty rose to a plum with a dark halo and a hint of a goldish-green sheen on tthe edges of that halo.

In very heavy applications, Sakuranezumi can even move towards a violet. This only happened where I allowed a LOT of ink to dry.

As I compared Sakuranezumi to other inks, there was a wide range to match. The lightest areas seemed to be a good match to Robert Oster Claret while the heavier applications looked near the lightest portions of Bungubox Ink of the Witch.

Due to the sakura portion of the name, I was inspired to draw a few flowers. The shading is great here, just don’t judge the quality of the actual drawing!

Another large swatch of ink shows again the leaning towards blue undertones.

The biggest complaint about Kyo-no-oto ink is that the inks are terribly dry. I used a pen that is normally too wet for my taste in order to compensate for the dryness and I was pleased with the results! The flow seemed perfect. I would label Sakuranezumi as a dry-ish ink, although nowhere near the dryness level of Stone Road or Hisoku.

Wide nibs and script writing (rather than cursive) show the shading very well. In writing I would actually say Sakuranezumi is a medium shading ink.

At $28 for 40mL, Kyo-no-oto inks are on the pricy side, but, in my opinion, are worth the price for the original colors. Now I need to find a stuffed Cherry Blossom Mouse for my desk!

Tools:

Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Refill ($30-35 USD)
Ink: Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi (Pen Boutique, 40mL for $25.20)
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.

In Link Love

Link Love: December Reflections

AnaDecember 11, 2019December 11, 2019Leave a comment

This week, the lists (year end, gift guides and favorites) are more predominant than in past weeks. There’s the Pen Addict’s Stationery Products of the Decade, Pencilcaseblog’s Holiday Gift Guide, plus some creativity classes from My Modern Met and more.

December is a good time to plan, reflect and take time to think about how the past year (or years) have been and plan for the future. Certainly, we can pause and reflect anytime and hit our own personal reset button but the new year on the horizon always creates a natural reflection point.

2020 will ring in the tenth year of The Well-Appointed Desk and I’m ready to reflect, celebrate and reminisce. Are you planning to “reset” for 2020?

Pens:

The Edge – a budget pen from Kickstarter (via dapprman)
A pen that’s dressed like a pencil (via Woodclinched)
BIGiDESIGN Ti Ultra Pen Review (via The Pen Addict)
News: M200 Pastel-Green (via The Pelikan’s Perch)
The Best Markers for 2020 (via JetPens Blog)

Ink:

Ink Review #978: Ferris Wheel Press Buttered Popcorn (via Mountain of Ink)
review: diamine shimmertastic tropical glow (via Ink Sharks)
3 Oysters DIY My Color Kit (via Mountain of Ink)
Lucy in the sky with Diamine – The Fab Four (via FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART)
News: Edelstein Ink of the Year 2020 – Moonstone (via The Pelikan’s Perch)

Pencils:

Pencil Review: DOMS X1 (via Polar Pencil Pusher)

Notebook and Cover Review & Giveaway: BB7B B5 Binder

Laura CameronDecember 10, 2019December 10, 201935 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

A few months ago, the Desk was contacted by BB7B, a relatively new company whose mission is specializing in premium stationery and accessories. From the company website:

The name BB7B is text message shorthand for the traditional Irish language sign-off in a letter to a friend or colleague: Beir Bua agus Beannacht, which means I hope you are blessed with great success.

BB7B’s innaugural product is a B5 Binder in a dark green color (normally $45, now on sale for the holidays for $19.99).

The binder itself is hardcover, covered with dark green book cloth. It has been designed with a lay-flat spine that is rounded. The front cover is completely plain. Inside the front cover is a grey cardstock envelope approximately 3/8″ (1 cm) thick that can hold miscellaneous items up to and including a phone or small tablet. There is a dark green elastic band that holds the grey envelope shut.

On the opposite side of the binder, there is a B5 sized notepad (6.9 x 9.8″ or 176 x 250 mm excluding the margin), perforated for ease of use, and two-hole punched and held in place by a metal band and two screws. The back cover is embossed with the BB7B logo, and has a light gray colored elastic band to hold the notebook pages in place.

Overall the B5 binder is somewhat bulky. It measures 8.7 x 10″ (220 x 270 mm) and is approximately 1″ (25 mm) thick. With the notebook in place, the full weight comes to about 1lb 1oz (~675 grams) so this isn’t going to be a lightweight EDC.

My feelings about this product are mixed. First, the binder. While advertised as “subtle, stylish, professional,” the binder doesn’t have the clean lines and luxury feel that I had hoped for. The hardcover feels like cardboard which I worry wouldn’t stand up to wear and tear, and I also wonder if the book cloth will fray over time. While I like the inner envelope quite a bit, I don’t feel like the card stock is sturdy enough that I’d want to put my iPad in there safely. I do see it being excellent for storing business cards, post-its, handouts from meetings, etc.

To me, the true hidden gem of this product is the notepad inside! The ivory paper is 100gsm and features light gray dot grid. Originally I wasn’t sure that the paper would be fountain pen quality, but it is and I REALLY enjoyed writing on it. It’s smooth and crisp, and I didn’t have any bleeding or feathering. There’s barely even any show-through on the back side! While I wasn’t entirely impressed with the quality of the binder, the paper is more than I was expecting.

Underneath the notepad there is a note that you can reorder paper from BB7B. That item isn’t available on the website so I reached out to our contact to see what the story is. They are expecting to have the notepad available on the website any day now (darn that manufacturing process!) but they also advise that any B5 size notepad will work and the gap between the holes is the same as any standard two hole punch.

Overall, I have some ideas for how the B5 binder could play into my life. It’s not going in my bag or getting transported as a part of my EDC. I suspect I’ll use it for a specific purpose like my meal planning. I think the paper will be perfect for notes, recipes, ideas, etc. and the envelope will hold all the bits and pieces of that: coupons, recipes from magazines and papers, spare recipes cards, etc.

Now, onto the GIVEAWAY.

BB7B has generously sent me B5 binders for for TWO lucky readers to try!

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me how you think you’d use your B5 binder! 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 Friday, December 13, 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.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review and giveaway were provided to us free of charge by BB7B for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature

Giveaway Winner: Yamamoto Ro-Biki

Laura CameronDecember 9, 2019December 7, 20193 Comments

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!

In Paper Review

Notebook Review: Field Notes (F)All Editions

AnaDecember 9, 2019December 9, 20195 Comments

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?

TOOLS

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things: