The Well-Appointed Desk

Eye Candy: Lamy Bronze Al-Star & Fountain Pen Ink

Following the jokes last week on The Pen Addict podcast about trying to urushi a Lamy, I thought it best to share the untainted Lamy Al-Star Bronze before I possibly offer up my Lamy Al-Star to a possible attempt to urushi it, if that’s something that could be attempted. The 2019 Bronze Al-Star ($38) is the most recent in a long line of limited edition Al-Star models. It turns out that just four years ago, in 2015, Lamy released the CopperOrange which is not all that different than the new Bronze. The Bronze pen barrel is more of a light orange color and a darker, ruddier tone that I would think of as bronze.

When I think of bronze, I think of bronze statues that are darker, almost brown with a golden undertone. A Lamy AL-Star in deep chocolate brown metallic would be stunning.

The limited edition Bronze fountain pen ink ($12 for 50ml bottle) is not an exact match for the pen. The ink is more of a burnt orange than what I would think of as a bronze color.

I put the Bronze ink next to several other well-known orange inks for comparison. From top to bottom: Robert Oster Pen Addict Fire on Fire, Lamy Bronze, J. Herbin Orange Indien, Montblanc Lucky Indian, Noodler’s Apache Sunset, Sailor Jentle Apricot.

J. Herbin Indien Orange is closest in color with Apache Sunset being slightly redder and a little dirtier. Fire on Fire is much redder in comparison and both Apricot and Lucky Orange are more saturated and cleaner by contrast. If you’ve ever wanted an orange ink but didn’t want one that was too bright, Bronze might be a good option.

Since the Lamy limited edition inks are so reasonably priced, its hard to skip them, even when I’m just ho-hum about the colors. After several years of Lamy ink scarcity, it’s worth it to grab a bottle, just in case.

Tools:

Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15)
Swatches: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
Ink: Lamy Bronze ($12 for 50ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: The Pre-Show Show

AnaApril 3, 2019April 9, 2019Leave a comment

Tomorrow, I hop a plane to the . Check out The Pen Addict episode from last week to get the lowdown on pen show etiquette and what’s gonna be happening this weekend. Then on Thursday, I’ll meet up with Jesi and both of us will be a part of the live recording of The Pen Addict Podcast on Saturday.

If you won’t be joining Jesi and me in Atlanta, there’s still plenty of podcast fun to be had. You can listen to this week’s episode of Erasable where Caroline Weaver, Andi Talarico and I hosted the show while the boys lounged around drinking Mai Tais or something. We talked about face masks, eyelash extensions and astrology. It was not your average Erasable episode.

The Well-Appointed Desk is taking over the whole stationery community!

Fountain Pen Review: Ferris Wheel Press Brush Fountain Pen

Laura CameronApril 2, 2019April 9, 20197 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

During Inkmas, Ana shared a special ink from the Ferris Wheel Press Kickstarter campaign. You can see her Sunshine Yellow Brush Fountain Pen ($138 USD) in some of her photos, but she didn’t specifically review the pen. However, she brought it to a knit night for me to try and I had to have one. I managed to sell a pen during the Arkansas Pen Show and immediately sent away for a Brush Fountain Pen of my own!

Ferris Wheel Press bills itself as “a stationary lifestyle brand where the whimsical sights, sounds and nostalgia of the carnival dances with the rat-tat-tat of a traditional print shop.” This gives them a bit of a vintage, steampunk feel. The Brush Fountain Pen is a copper bodied fountain pen with a stainless steel nib, and brass trimmings. It is available in three colors: Crème Glacée White, Printmaker’s Teal and Sunshine Yellow. Each pen comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity, in a cute little box bearing the gold foil logo.

The pens themselves are 5.67″/14.3 cm in length, capped and weigh approximately 23g putting them well within the common weights of TWSBI’s and Lamy AL-Stars’s and slightly lighter than Pilot Metropolitans.

pen weight comparison chart

The pen is sleek, fairly light weight and easy to hold. The cap rim is a brass nut! The cap isn’t postable however – posting it may cause scratches in the shiny painted finish on your pen.

My favorite part about these pens are the brass sections and nibs. I love that the nibs are stamped with the logo, and the section is printed, but not etched, making it lovely to hold.

Part of what made me want this pen was that Ana’s wrote beautifully! The pens come with medium nibs and her was like butter. Mine isn’t quite there (I’m still playing with it and deciding if I want to tune it), but it’s still a delightful experience.

Overall I love this pen and I’m really glad I picked one up for myself!

Papers: Maruman Mnemosyne N182A Inspiration Notebook A5 ($10.50), and Ghost Paper Notebook ($25)
Ink: Robert Oster Honey Bee (50ml for $17.00)

DISCLAIMER: I purchased the Brush Fountain Pen from Ferris Wheel Press with my own funds. However, some of the other 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 Paper Review

Notebook Review: Nuuna Inspiration Mood Book

AnaApril 1, 2019March 31, 20191 Comment

Finding a truly unusual notebook is a bit of a feat for me these days so when I stumbled across the Nuuna notebooks at Vanness Pen Shop a couple weeks ago, I was blown away at the innovation and playfulness. I decided to try the Nuuna Inspiration Mood Notebook ($34). It’s 13cm x 19cm (roughly 5″ x 7.5″) with heavyweight cardstock covers printed with a spray paint-style white design on the cover. It looks like a silkscreen print as the white ink feels tactile and very opaque.

While there are not a lot of the accoutrements normally expected with the modern notebook like a back pocket for ephemera or ribbon bookmark, the Nuuna Mood notebook is special in its own way.

Inside is where the magic happens. The pages are printed in an array of undulating hues like skyscapes. Each two page spread looks like a horizon line of some sort to me. It’s like looking out on a foggy morning or staring up at the sky as the sun sets. Maybe you see the shoreline on a foggy day? Whatever the softly shifting colors evoke, you are bound to be inspired to pick this book up just to thumb through the array of colors.

I decided to run the paper through a whole variety of pen and pencil tools to see how it performed. This is definitely the kind of notebook that would be fun to experiment with not just regular pens but brush pens, colored pencils, markers and other tools. I wanted to try them all.

And now for the pen worthiness of this paper. I’m delighted to say that, even with the heavy application of ink to create the “moods,” I didn’t have many issues using the paper. Yes, it’s a bit more absorbent than other papers that might be more specifically designed for fountain pens but there was bound to be a trade-off for the magical color. There was some bleed through with wetter inks and heavier coverage but I plan to set aside a few pages in the back for testing pens as I go along so that I can keep the front of the book looking good and make a mess in the back.

This is the reverse of my test page and it really didn’t show through much. In person, I can see a little bit more. I just happened to luck out and the Aurora Flex nib pen landed right where the darkest printing is on the reverse side so it obscured the tiny dots of showthrough. There are a few dots further up the page where I was using the wet deAtramentis in my Pilot Decimo. You may be able to see the dots just to the right of the spine in the light blue area at the top of the page. Overall though, the paper handled the pens quite well.

To push my luck, I pulled out some folded nib dip pens and really ladled the ink onto the paper. It definitely blobbed and bled at this volume of application. I think the bleeding had as much to do with my over-enthusiastic folded pen as it did for the paper.

As expected. you can see the writing through onto the reverse side of the paper in bloops and blobs. Considering the size and volume, I don’t see as much as I thought I would.

Overall, this notebook is a lot of fun to use and it definitely brightens my spirits. I am looking forward to some creative experiments like adding various brush pens, opaque gel pens and other unique tools that don’t often get used in my collection.

Even if you only intend to jot notes, this would definitely make a budget meeting more pleasant.

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

In Paper Review

Paper Review: Life Typewriter Paper

AnaMarch 31, 2019April 9, 20194 Comments

While I was in Little Rock for the pen show, I couldn’t resist picking up a pad of Life Typewriting Paper. It is not everyday in 2019 that you find paper specific to typewriting at your favorite pen and stationery shop so how could I pass it up?

The Life Typewriting Paper ($10) is A4 sized sheets in a 50 sheet top bound pad. The paper is a warm white. It’s not ivory or cream colored but its not a bright, arctic white either. The paper is also quite thin. It’s similar in weight to some of the Tomoe River paper or airmail paper.

Like a good typist, I inserted two sheets in my typewriters to protect my platens and tested the paper with four of my typewriters: three manual typewriters and one electric.

I can’t guarantee the newness of my ribbons on any of my typewriters or the enthusiasm with which I pound on my manual typewriters but the paper seemed to perform pretty well. My Privileg being the most finicky but I think that pink ribbon is on its last legs. The Adler, Webster and Smith-Corona all worked as expected.

For comparison purposes, I ran a piece of standard office laser printer paper through the typewriters as well, which is what I usually use for typing. It’s the big box office supply store 24# bond. I used two sheets as well. Obviously, the copy paper is a brighter white which provided more contrast to the typewriters with colored ribbon but I feel like the thicker, softer laser printer paper also absorbed more ink overall and created a cleaner read.

At the last minute, I decided to try this paper with pens and pencil on the off-hand chance that it would prove to exhibit interesting characteristics. I am glad I held off on finishing this review until I could thoroughly test the Life Typewriting Paper with pens. It had an unusual texture and the thinness of the paper reminded me of Tomoe River paper.

The natural clean white of the stock shows ink colors well and inks dry fairly quickly under normal circumstances. When I applied larger swashes of ink like the folded nibs, it did take longer to dry but that’s to be expected.

The paper did show sheen. I didn’t do extensive testing so I don’t know if the sheening is as good as Tomoe but you’ll some sheen. The texture is different. It’s hard to explain… it’s a bit toothier while still being smooth. It’s like difference between silk and satin. They are both smooth but in different ways.

In standard use, fountain pens did not bleed through, only the flex nib, felt tip and liquid ink showed signs of bleed through. The paper is thin like Tomoe River so there is showthrough with everything but pencil. Until Tomoe River though, this Life Typewriting Paper took pencil quite well.

The paper would be good for letter writing or other long form writing. The paper is thin enough to work well with A4 guide sheets.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Fashionable Friday

Fashionable Friday: Cherries A-Bloom

AnaMarch 30, 2019March 30, 20191 Comment

FF Cherry Blossom

It finally feels like spring and the cherry trees are blooming. The magnolias and other flowering trees are starting to bloom here so it’s put me in the cherry blossom spirit. In my enthusiasm, I completely forgot to include Fahrney’s exclusive (and annual) Retro 51 Cherry Blossom pen and pencil offerings.

MT Japanese Cherry Blossom Washi Tape $3.50 per roll (via CuteTape)
Kurochiku Magnetic Bookmark – Sakura (Cherry Blossom) $6.25 (via JetPens)
Kobe #30 Ooji Cherry Fountain Pen Ink (50ml bottle) $30 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
Visconti Breeze Cherry Fountain pen €82.64 (via Appelboom)
NAVA Design Haiku Notes – Pocket-Sized Notebook $8 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
Freund Mayer Wax Seal Stick in Pearl Pink $2.75 per stick (via Vanness Pen Shop)
Cherry Blossom Enamel Pin $10 (via Jenni Bick)
Pilot Iroshizuku Kosumosu Ink (Fall Cherry Blossom) (15 ml Bottle) $9.90 (via JetPens)
Kyo-Iro Cherry Blossom of Keage Ink (40ml bottle) $28 (via Anderson Pens)
Daydream Nail Polish $9.50 (via Noodles Nail Polish)
Caran d’Ache 849 special edition “Claim Your Style” Pink ballpoint pen €39 (via Fontoplumo)
Kaweco Frosted Sport Fountain Pen in Blush Pitaya (Dragonfruit) $27 (via Pen Chalet)
Lamy Safari Pastel Rose fountain pen (2019 Special Edition) €20.90 (via Fontoplumo)
Retro 51 Tornado Fountain Pen in Orchid $52 (via Goldspot Pens)
Kurochiku Japanese Pattern Eco-Bag – Small – Sakura (Cherry Blossom) $9.50 (via JetPens)
Glossier Cloud Paint in Puff $18 (via Glossier)
Pilot Lady White Fountain Pen in Sakura Cherry Blossom $187.50 (via JetPens)

Thanks to my sponsors that provide some of the images I use for Fashionable Friday. Please consider making your next purchase from one of the shops that support this blog and let them know you heard about them here. Thank you for reading the blog and for supporting the sponsors that help keep it running.

In feature, Pen Review

Pen Review: Silo Ballpoint Pen by Caravan Designs

Jessica ColesMarch 28, 2019April 9, 20192 Comments

By Jessica Coles

A while back, Ana asked me if I would like to review something a bit different than my usual; it was the Silo ballpoint pen from Caravan Designs ($25.00 for the pen, sleeve, and refill). I was excited to try a new kind of pen – Every Day Carry (EDC) items are not usually my area. Why not? Because women don’t get pockets.

When I opened the package, I was quite impressed by the look of the Silo pen; the pen sleeve is a thick leather in rich brown, exactly long enough for the pen. The pen is an interesting item in the looks department as well; a slender cylinder of stainless steel with only a bare hint of where the cap and body meet. The design is a minimalistic look almost to an extreme; the result is a very eye-catching pen.

Of course, I had to take the entire pen apart before anything else. I was impressed to find that it consists only of four components: the barrel, the section, the cap, and the refill. No O-rings, no separate grip piece, no adapters. The stainless steel has a brushed finish – I think it will take scuffs and scrapes beautifully without detracting from the overall look.

A quick rundown of the pen dimensions and some common pen comparisons:

Weight: 32 gms

Length: 150 mm

Diameter: 5 mm

The Silo ballpoint arrived with a lovely gel refill that looks to be a 0.5 width. The Caravan Designs website claims that the Silo pen is “compatible with various ballpoint and gel style refillable ink cartridges” and I believe that means refills that match the Pilot G2 dimensions (see Ana’s world-famous refill guide if you want an easy reference for other refills that will fit).

The refill had no issues with a loose fit; there was no rattling or movement at all.

I did notice that it took several turns to open the pen – just over 5 turns which seemed too much in my experience. The Silo pen can’t be posted, but holding the cap didn’t bother me at all since it was just the right size to act as a fidget piece.

Since there is no grip section with the Silo pen, holding the pen to write is either on the section very near the ballpoint tip or a bit further up on the barrel of the pen. I had no issue with this and the brushed finish kept it from ever feeling slippery. If you find metal grips to be slippery in your own writing, take that into consideration.

Another point to consider is the lack of a clip on this pen. This definitely adds to the overall aesthetic of the pen, however, it introduces the danger of rolling away on a flat surface (especially with the same diameter along the length of the pen). Pen loops may not work well for the same reason. However, the included sleeve solves that problem for me.

The weight of the pen is quite nice in my opinion, but the weight distribution is a bit heavy in the back depending on how you hold your pen. I found that it was perfectly balanced for my grip, but when I asked other people for opinions about the pen, a few individuals thought there was a bit too much weight towards the back.

If you hold your pen very near the writing tip, this might be an issue for you.

Overall, I found this pen to be quite fun to use especially because I like to fidget with pens; the price is a great one for a stainless steel pen that takes many other refills and includes a leather sleeve. I love the fact that I can use colorful refills (especially Pilot G2’s), that I can take it fully apart, and I love the weight. The only point that was a downside for me? The time it takes to screw the cap off and on each time. But I can get over that, especially since this pen is a great conversation starter!

Now to get some pockets…

DISCLAIMER: The pen included in this review was provided to us free of charge by Caravan Designs for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

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