Thanks to everyone who entered the Moo x Kate Moross Notebook Set giveaway. Our lucky winner is Sara!
And… because she played by the rules and answered the question (which I read all your entries… so I appreciate when people take the time to answer them. I learn so much about you all!) she is going to get some added bonuses in her package. Happy Monday, Sara!
I will start by saying that this review was not summoned from the past. No time machine was employed. No ouija boards were used. Nor am I torturing you with a review of an ink that no one could ever get their hands on. This review does not break the Zaxxon rule.*
Fontoplumo unearthed several bottles (you read that correctly, BOTTLES!) of NOS** 2014 Limited Edition Lamy NeonCoral (€7.90) recently and made them available on their web site at the original retail price(!!!).
The bottles of Lamy NeonCoral are 30ml and are cute miniature versions of the larger Lamy 50ml bottle. The bottles include the black ring around the bottle but do not include the blotting tape. Its just a faux tape ring. Very cute though.
NeonCoral really is a bit neon so its a pain to photograph. It’s vivid and bright and more orange-y coral than it photographs. It photographs more pink. C’mon, world… stop messing with me! It’s really a cool color. And unlike so many other inks. Trust me when I say this. I have a lot of ink.
I was worried that the ink might be too light to write with but in my fine italic stub nib, it is totally legible. It is not one of those inks that is light when wet and then dries darker. It’s pretty much the same color wet and dry, which is nice. I do think its a bit more orange when dry. There’s some shading but not much sheen in the writing. I did see some sheen in the swatch.
NeonCoral is still a limited edition ink and hard to acquire. There are some other options available that are similar. J. Herbin Corail des Tropiques is readily available and a bit more orange-y overall. As with all J. Herbin inks, this one can be a little runny, a bit wetter than other inks. It will feather and bleed on more paper than most. Other, more expensive and potentially more difficult-to-acquire options would be Kobe #12 This Pink Hill and Bungbox Lycoris Red. The Kobe ink is a very close match in terms of color and is a Sailor created ink so it will be very well behaved. Lycoris Red is a bit more red but is glows as bright as NeonCoral. Lycoris Red does have a lovely red sheen.
NeonCoral is a really cool color and shows that Lamy can do smart things when they put their minds to it. It makes up for the less-than-stellar releases from the last few years like the stream of LXs and this year’s AL Bronze and last year’s Safari in black-on-black (what was that about?). Sigh.
So, run, don’t walk, to Fontoplumo right now and snap up those last few bottles of NeonCoral. You won’t regret it.
And finally, I would never leave you hanging. If you don’t nab a bottle of the ink, don’t sweat it. A sweet Canadian reader gave me a pack of NeonCoral cartridges and I am giving them away to one lucky reader. See below to find out how to enter.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me what color Lamy should make as the next limited edition ink color. Play along and type in something that is an actual color. 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 Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Wednesday. Winners 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 (where it say “email address”) 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 only. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.
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.
*The NPR podcast “Pop Culture Happy Hour” holds its hosts to the “Zaxxon Rule,” wherein they are forbidden to bring up topics which are unrelatable to the audience, such as events in one’s personal life. (from Wikipedia)
**New old stock
Review by Tina Koyama (and Ana Reinert, with art from Hannah Carey and Cory Say)
Here at the Desk, we love brush pens, and we also have a penchant for white ink. Imagine our excitement when a white brush pen appeared on the market!
By way of explaining the product’s unusual name, JetPens describes the East Hill Tombstone white brush pen ($8.25; also available in black and vermillion) as “originally designed for repairing the engravings on Japanese tombstones and stone lanterns.” Very similar to the form factor of the Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Brush Pen, Pentel Art Brush Pen and other such pens, the East Hill pen contains ink in a soft reservoir.
Squeezing the barrel pushes ink from the reservoir to the brush tip.
I was pleased to find that the water-resistant, pigment-based ink is opaque and fast-drying. I especially like its opacity on toned paper (this opacity test and my sketch sample were done in a gray Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook).
However, I was disappointed that the ink doesn’t flow as smoothly as I would like it to when sketching. In my sketch sample, I tried to “paint” the sky behind the trees, but I think the ink is a bit too thick for that type of application. It’s good for a “dry brush” effect, though, if that’s the effect you’re going for. A calligrapher or fancy letterer could probably make some beautiful effects on dark paper with the thick/thin brush strokes.
In an ongoing struggle with flow, I found that the ink tends to clog. I assume that was the problem, anyway, when squeezing the reservoir barrel sometimes resulted in the ink over-flowing from the edge of the ferrule instead of flowing into the brush. If you squeeze too hard, an unfortunate drip of ink may result.
Now that I see that the Kuretake Zig Cartoonist comes in white, too, I’m optimistic that more opaque white brush pens will become available.
Now, it’s our turn to weigh in about the East Hill Tombstone Brush Pen. My friend Hannah (you might remember her from Episode 22 of Art Supply Posse) mentioned the Tombstone pen to me and we set about prodding JetPens to find it on their next sourcing expedition. They were able to locate them, much to our glee. Clearly, many other artists wanted it too, so it sold out as fast as they stocked it. Finally, we were able to procure a couple white pens and black pens.
Hannah agreed to test out one of the pens and see if it lived up to her memories. She was happy with the results and got some pleasant shading. We got to see one of her cool illos.
Cory took a white one for a spin. He got some good opaques and shading but said he had some difficulties getting the ink out as well. He still made it look easy.
We all had the same issues with the white pens bubbling that Tina did and I found the ink super dry. Hannah had a little better luck with the black pen. Either way, the Tombstone pens have the advantage of being waterproof when dry.
At one point, Elaine (at JetPens) cooked up a workaround since the Tombstone pens kept selling out. Using Dr. P. H. Martin’s Pen White ($12.25) in a water brush pen ($5.75) works exceedingly well for most cases where you might need opaque white. Of course, P.H. Martin’s Pen White is not waterproof but when added to the brush pen with a little bit of water, it’s so much easier to apply. The Tombstone was a bit of an ordeal to apply and felt chalky.
If you are adding eyelights, highlights or just doing lettering on dark paper and don’t need waterproofiness, I’d recommend making your own brush pen with Pen White. Since Pen White is soluble with water, it can be used for shading too. It will probably ruin the brush pen or it will probably be the only thing the brush pen can be used for. One bottle of Pen White can fill two water brush pens so it’s an even value to the Tombstone pens or you can go halfsies with a friend.
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: 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.
Thanks to everyone who entered the Floor 9 Daily Notebook giveaway. And now, for our lucky winner:
Maybe Enzo’s bed is a loft bed and his desk is below it? Let’s hope so. Happy writing, Enzo. I hope you don’t get writer’s cramp under there.
I found myself lost the other day in the depths of JetPens, wandering through various corridors. It seems that even though I could swear I’ve seen everything they offer, I can still find nooks and crannies of previously unseen goodies.
This time, I came across a Pilot fountain pen that I had never seen before. It was the Pilot Grance fountain pen ($137 from JetPens). I’ve known that Pilot offers a few amazing deals for mid-level fountain pens, but this was a special treat. A gold nib fountain pen!
Gold nib fountain pens are not necessarily for everyone. In fact, there was recently a great conversation about gold nibs versus steel nibs on an episode of The Pen Addict that touched on the pros and cons of nib materials (the question was asked by a listener and is near the end of the episode).
My personal preference swings between steel and gold, but I am always excited to find a great deal on a new gold-nibbed fountain pen – one that is at a lower cost than most others. Pilot also offers the E95S at a similar price ($135 at JetPens), but it is a rather small pocket pen that doesn’t usually appeal to those with larger hands.
The grip of the Grance is 9.5 mm, about the same as a Pilot Metropolitan. The weight of the Grance is also in-line with the Metropolitan, coming in at 25 grams to the Metro’s 27 grams. The posted Grance is about half an inch shorter than the posted Metropolitan, although the capped pens are nearly the same size. Again, like the Metropolitan, the Grance pen closes with a very satisfying snap.
However, the exterior of the Grance is quite different. It has a pearly finish that comes in white, pink, or light blue, each with black and gold accents. 
The pen is long enough (for my hand) to be used unposted, but the balance is much nicer when posting it.
The Pilot Grance is offered with an extra-fine, fine, medium-fine or medium 14kt nib. The nib is a buttery smooth nib with a bit of springiness. A small amount of variation is present when writing with no pressure at all.
The nib is soft when writing with light pressure.
In longer writing sessions, using the Grance pen feels elegant and looks amazing, especially in the sunlight! I had no problem writing for several pages with the posted pen – the balance of the pen kept me from pressing harder on the page and the nib was absolutely perfectly tuned straight out of the box.
The pen comes in a plastic clamshell box with one black cartridge but no converter. It is a sad thing that no converter is included in a gold nib pen purchase, but it seems one way that some pen manufacturers are using to keep the retail prices down. A converter is available separately ($7.25 at JetPens), or it can be used with Pilot’s proprietary cartridges.
Overall, I would highly recommend this pen. At $137 for a gold nib, a post-able, snap-able, beautiful pen that writes smoothly out of the box, I think the Pilot Grance is one that you will treasure.
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.
Moo has once again released a special edition of their notebooks. This time, they teamed up with artist Kate Moross and created a 3-notebook set in a slipcase ($24.99) that is available starting today.
The slipcase has the same texture and sturdy build as the slipcase that my original hardcover notebook came in. Its matte finish though. Inside the slipcase are three stitch bound, softcover notebooks each with coordinating covers, center pages.and stitching.
Each cover is printed in tone-on-tone inks with a clue to the purpose for each notebook.
The turquoise blue book is set-up for to-do lists, the bright goldenrod yellow is blank sketchbook and the red is lined for notes.
The red notes notebook is printed with yellow lines and has contrasting blue blank pages in the center and yellow end papers.
The yellow blank sketch book has contrasting red paper in the center and blue end papers.
The blue to-do book has wider red printed lines and check boxes with yellow pages in the center and red end papers.
These notebooks all use the same paper as the previous notebooks. The paper is 100gsm Munchen Kristall and the colored paper is 135gsm Colorplan, the same used in the previous editions of the Moo notebooks so all our previous writing tests apply here as well. The paper is lovely, these notebooks are cool looking and the slipcase makes for great storage later.
Clearly, I can’t possibly keep something this nice all to myself. So, I want to share the wealth. I am giving this amazing Moo x Kate Moross Notebook Set away to one lucky reader.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me which notebook you’d use first. 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 moneys some time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Sunday, February 3, 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 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.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
This week, the ink is where it’s at! Oh, there’s still lots of other interesting things to read but between Macchiato Man’s overview of the Sailor 100 inks and Mountain of Ink reviewing the much revered Parker Penman Sapphire, the Ink category is this week’s hot ticket.
Oh, and in honor of Chinese New Year, I thought you might enjoy seeing this video that our Asian American group put together at work in honor of the occasion. If you watch carefully, you might see someone you know!
