Cartolina is well-known for its fabulous vintage illustration paper goods but they also take these images and apply them to other goods as well like iPhone hard shell cases which I think is brilliant.
Cartolina also makes an array of notepads that might work as flat stationery sheets at 5.5×8.5 for some folks. Each pad has 60 sheets and the designs range from floral to porcine. $8 each.
The last couple days have left my Instagram feed in awash in photos from the Stationery Show in New York. This annual event is THE place where all our favorite stationery and card companies unveil their latest goods and buyers from shops, big and small, place orders for the coming year.
I thought I’d share a few photos but if you want to see the over 6000 images on Instagram, just search for #NSS2014. Click on images to see the original photo or post.
Pens & Ink:
Paper & Notebooks:
Pencils:
Other stuff:
Peek inside some stationery shops like Present + Correct in the UK.
(via Monocle, tip o’ the hat to Letter Writers Alliance)
Frank at Fontoplumo was so impressed with the enthusiasm Desk readers had about the new Kaweco Skyline Mint fountain pen. He wanted to thank everyone for checking out his site and say thanks for all the orders. So, he’s offering a special discount code for Well-Appointed Desk readers. If you enter the code WAD2014 you get a 10% discount on anything you order. And this offer is good for the whole year.
Frank also let me know my Kaweco Skyline Mint is on the way so reviews and lots of photos will be posted soon!
Kansas City Letterpress-ati, Hammerpress, have recently updated their web site and added a lot of new products. Their letterpress cards are gorgeous and if you can’t make it to Kansas City to shop locally, ordering online is the next best thing. Prices on cards are $4-$5.50 per folded card, and are blessedly blank inside and ship with a kraft or coordinating envelope.
But the best shopping experience is to stop in to the Crossroads store in KC and browse posters, postcards, and ephemera.
Once again, I attended the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live event here in KC this weekend. Its a convention of fantasy and science fiction artists working in comics, fiction, storyboarding, sculpture and more. There are Q&A sessions and artists doing live demos of painting, sculpting and digital techniques. Its an amazing show with A-list artists from all over the world.
A couple years ago, a few artists were kind enough to show me the tools they use to sketch and draw. This year, I was able to talk to a few more artists about their favorite tools.
Tom Kelly showed off his favorite tools to my husband. And was enthusiastic about his Uni Ball Signo Broad opaque white gel pen, the Kuretake No. 13 brush pen, and the Pentel Presto! Correction Pen as a drawing tool. He also kept an arsenal of Sakura Pigma Microns, Sharpie markers and a Pentel Graphgear 0.5 mm drafting pencil.
And he makes stuff like this:
I met Hector Casanova who is not only an illustrator and comic book artist but also an illustration professor at KCAI. We bonded over our unending love for the Sanford NoBlot pencil. I just write and doodle with my NoBlots but Hector sketches and draws with his hoarded collection. Then he adds water to create a washy blue effect on his drawings like these figure sketches he did at an event at Spectrum this year ( may be NSFW).
Aren’t they amazing?
Hector also uses a full army of Japanese brush pens. I recognize the Pentel Pocket Brush pen and the Pilot Futayaku Double-Sided Brush Pens.
And with these tools are the start of artwork like this:
Pretty amazing, huh?
