The Well-Appointed Desk

The pen community has been showered in great Kickstarter opportunities lately. We thought we would round up all the best and also follow-up on a few that are currently shipping.

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward is the brain child of Oscar Rodriguez and his project to provide free pens, ink and notebooks to children and new pen enthusiasts at pen shows. In order to help continue to fund the project, he launched this Kickstarter recently. The enthusiasm to back it has been excellent and the backer rewards are great. Backers can receive a specially created ink by Papier Plume called Heart of Gold, a set of Story Supply notebooks and a recently added stretch goal option of Rickshaw Bags pen sleeves printed with the Pay It Forward logo printed on them. The Franklin-Christoph pen option went fast so that backer reward is no longer available sadly. I missed that completely.

Both Laura and I are backing this Kickstarter at the Ink & Notebook Level. We both backed before the Rickshaw Sleeves were added.

The Pen Addict RelayCon 2018

Its year four of RelayCon and Brad, Myke and I are ready to record live from Atlanta. But wait… that’s not all. This year, we want to do more! NockCo has a new case called the Tallulah and I designed enamel pins with our heads as backer extras. But wait… there’s even more! Brad and Myke want to take The Pen Addict on the road to New York to visit CW Pencils and then on to the Toronto Pen Show too! My fingers are crossed that they can kidnap me and take me across the border too! Let’s go big!

Laura is kindly backing this at the Vlog level because she does not want to wear my head. Can you blame her?

Elemental Notebooks

Using the table of elements as a jumping off point to create a series of notebooks, the Elemental Notebooks created four notebooks. The first four in the Kickstarter are Carbon (black), Hydrogen (light grey), Oxygen (blue) and Nitrogen (green). Each color will become available as the campaign hits a certain funding level. The paper is 100gsm and available in dot grid, lined or blank. The page edges are painted black with color details and the cloth spines are foil stamped with the table of elements information for each element. Backing starts at $20 and there is 30 days left in the campaign.

Laura and I went in together on one backing package for this Kickstarter.

Wancher Dream Pen

I reviewed the Wancher Dream Pen a couple weeks ago and since then, the Kickstarter has been going gangbusters. There are still two weeks left to back the project and many options including the Ebonite version as well as the True Urushi and the luxury True Maki-e.

Laura backed the True Urushi and since I have already have the True Urushi, I don’t need to have two.

DeNobil Fountain Pens

Just launched is the  DeNobil Fountain Pen.  While the brand itself did not include a video introducing its pens and brand to the world, they did include a review that Matt from The Pen Habit did of one of the pens offered as a backer reward. There are two fountain pen models — the 300 and the 400. The 300 is a cigar-shaped pen while the 400 is a flat-end design. I’d compare the 300 to a Sailor 1911 and the 400 to a Sailor ProGear in terms of shape. Then they are offering both models with clips as the 350 and 450 respectively. Both models are ebonite and like the Ford Model T are available in “whatever color you want, as long as you want black.”

DeNobil has a long way to go to reach its funding goal and but it sounds like their goal is to set-up their whole factroy with the funds from this Kickstarter so they have a lot riding on the outcome. Backing starts at $140 for one ebonite pen.

No one at The Desk has backed the project yet but we are keeping a close watch on this Kickstarter.

TiArto EDC

The TiArto EDC from BigiDesign is the newest iteration of their refill friendly pen design. This time the pen is modular sized and accepts 750 different refills. The Kickstarter backing is over but the pens have not been delivered yet so you can still get in on pre-order pricing. BigiDesign has fulfilled several previous Kickstarter projects and their pen designs continue to refine and innovate on their previous endeavours and the TiArto EDC is no different. If you have a favorite refill or six, this is a great way to have one pen to use them all.

I did not back this Kickstarter as I love my original TiArto but wonder if I should pre-order one anyway?

Hippo Noto

The latest update from the Hippo Noto campaign is that the ivory paper editions of the Hippo Notos were approved and were shipped prior to Chinese New Year and are on their way to Hawaii now to the warehouse to be distributed. If you are still waiting on your Kickstarter backer order (like me), its only a matter of weeks now. There is still an option to do a Late Pledge so if you’d like to get a Hippo Noto notebook, go ahead and place a pledge now before retail prices are final.

Laura has both received and reviewed her Hippo Noto. I am still awaiting my Hippo Noto and ink shipment.

Comp Design Notebook

Last year, the Comp Design composition notebook was one of the most anticipated Kickstarter projects. The goal was to make a high-quality composition notebook with high-quality binding and  high-quality paper. Unfortunately, the project faced many setbacks in the manufacturing process that caused delay after delay. By the time the notebooks finally arrived, I had such a sour taste and I didn’t really want to use them. However, they are a solid notebook and met the goal they set out to fill. If you did not back the original Kickstarter and wait over a year to receive your Comp notebook, you might want to hop over to the Comp website and order one to try. Available in lined or blank.

I backed in the 3-pack of blank Comp notebooks plus the tote bag.