In Pencil Review

Pencil Review: Ito-Ya

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment

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A big shoutout to Andy Welfle at Woodlcinched and the Erasable Podcast for sending me this treasure from San Francisco. The Ito-Ya pencil is a smooth round pencil with an almost red-lacquer-like finish and a black rubberized dip end. The only printing on the pencil is the gold foil “ITO-YA” close to the rubber dipped end.

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There’s a little feedback noise on the paper (the scritch, scritch sound on the paper as I write) but its quite minimal and overall the experience of this pencil is smooth. It writes a fairly dark line and smudges a bit which can be a little messy for a lefty.

The lines erased super clean with the Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser and did a passable job with the Black Pearl which pairs well with the ITO-YA pencil nicely. Very Japanese together.

My personal preference is for hex or triangular pencils so this isn’t an A+ for me but a solid B+ pencil. If you like round pencils, I’m sure you’ll rate it higher.

The ITO-YA pencil can be purchased online through Pencils.jp for ¥65 each.

In Tools

STAK Ceramics Phone Dock

Author AnaPosted on 3 Comments

STAK Ceramics Phone Dock

When I was in Chicago at the Renegade Craft Fair last fall, I saw these beautiful ceramic desk accessories from STAK Ceramics. I was smitten with the Large Phone Dock ($50) in the mint green. It comfortably holds most mobile phones, a small plant and a little slot for paper clips or other little tidbits.

There is a slot underneath to run the charging cable up to the phone discreetly so it give a beautiful way to view and charge your phone while at your desk.

STAK Ceramics Phone Dock

STAK Ceramics offers several other phone docks. One includes a flower vase rather than a plant holder and some with wood accents. There is also an Tablet holder with a vase for kitchen tools ($60). I think my other mother would love the Kitchen Dock…maybe for Mother’s Day.

STAK Ceramics Phone Dock

In news

Cognitive Surplus Notebooks

Author AnaPosted on 7 Comments

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Several months ago, someone asked about a notebook that combined lined and grid or blank and lined or some such combination. I’m not sure if this is exactly what they were searching for but Cognitive Surplus has a series of hardcover notebooks that contain paper that is lined on the right hand sheet and grid on the left hand sheet. The covers feature archival illustrations in a myriad of colors. The books are 6.5″x8.9″ and inside the books have 100% recycled paper stock and 80 pages. Each book is $15.

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In Ink Review

Ink Review: Kaweco Paradise Blue

Author AnaPosted on 4 Comments

Kaweco Paradise Blue ink

Kaweco Paradise Blue is a pretty good match for my TWSBI Diamond 580 in Christmas Green. The pen body is a little more green than the ink color but not too bad a match.

Kaweco Paradise Blue ink

Kaweco Paradise Blue ($17.50 for a 30ml bottle) is a turquoise ink that leans a bit more green than most turquoise inks. It’s my second favorite Kaweco ink after Summer Purple because the hue is so unusual for a company that only makes a handful of colors. The label color is a little misleading as it shows a more bluish color.

Paradise Blue dries quickly and is not as watery as the closest color match I could find, De Atramentis Petrol which would make Paradise Blue a better option for wider nibbed pens.

Kaweco Paradise Blue ink

In my hunt for comparison inks, I didn’t find too many colors that were similar. In terms of darkness, Paradise Blue fell between two offerings from De Atramentis: Petrol, which is a little bit darker and Mint Turquoise, which is a little lighter color overall. Most inks that aspire for a turquoise hue are much bluer. Paradise Blue walks that fine line between the slightly greenier hues that I found as a comparison and the much bluer turquoise inks like Lamy Turquoise or Sheaffer Skrip Turquoise.

Overall, Kaweco Paradise Blue is a good, solid ink in a pleasing color at a reasonable price.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Kaweco for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Get Indxd

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment

rp_link-ana11.jpgLink of the Week:

Indxd, a digital tool for indexing all the content in all your notebooks, created by David Rea.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Paper & Notebooks:

Planners and Organizers:

Other interesting things:

In Pencil Review

Pencil Review: Kaweco Special 0.7mm Mechanical Pencil

Author AnaPosted on 4 Comments

Kaweco Special 0.7mm pencil

The Kaweco Special 0.7mm mechanical pencil is a bit wider pencil than I expected. It feels in the hand like a jumbo pencil. Luckily the anodized metal, hexagonal octagonal finish is warm and soft in the hand and quite comfortable. I thought the metal finish might be too slick but its not a shiny finish and the tapered end has a bit more tooth to it to keep fingers from sliding down.

Kaweco Special 0.7mm pencil

The stock lead in the Kaweco Special Pencil is super super smooth. The great thing about mechanical pencils is that you can change lead hardness or lead brands, but the stock Kaweco leads are an excellent option. I was quite pleased with the smoothness.

Kaweco Special 0.7mm pencil

The most unusual aspect of the Kaweco Special 0.7 is that under the presser button is the teeny, tiniest, little eraser. Its absolutely dorky how tiny it is in comparison to the size of the pencil and the lead thickness. Erasing one word with this eraser and most of the eraser is used up. I’d definitely recommend using a handheld eraser instead of this little dude. He’s for emergencies only.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Kaweco for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Ask The Desk

Ask The Desk: TARDIS Blue Ink?

Author AnaPosted on 10 Comments

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This message popped up in my Twitter this morning, which I found was very timely after my outrage at the lack of pop culture-themed inks.

@JetPens asked:

@wellapptdesk Just last week, @DQuartermane asked us what fountain pen ink is closest to TARDIS blue 😛 We said Sargasso Sea. Thoughts??

I hate to be too picky here but, over the years, the actual shade of blue for the TARDIS has changed so there will be room for disagreement as to what the “one true blue” should be.

(via l7world.com)
(via l7world.com)

TARDIS 3  TARDIS2

I think Diamine Sargasso Sea is an excellent option — more Matt Smith-era TARDIS than David Tennant. And Diamine Majestic Blue might be a great Eccelston-era blue.

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J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean would be a good option as well for a more Tennant-era TARDIS. Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Goa would be my choice for a Capaldi-era TARDIS blue and my favorite choice (but I love Peter Capaldi so I’m biased). And I did not delve into blues that might match earlier generations of the Doctor either. Please… discuss!

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(Just to establish my geek-cred, this was my Con TARDIS costume from last year)

(All ink photos from Jet Pens)