In Link Love

Link Love: Oscar-Worthy?

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Link Love: Oscar-Worthy?

( I had an image of John Cena from the Oscars ceremony as the Link Love featured image but I was worried that Getty Images would sue me for usage rights so envision Cena holding up the envelope with “Link Love” printed on it. Funny, right?)

I confess I was too busy knitting with my friends on Sunday night to watch The Oscars but I did follow the red carpet through live feeds and even some of the winners through out the evening. I confess, the red carpet is my favorite part. I love to see what all the actors and film folks choose to wear. I was just excited to see Jack Quaid on the red carpet (“Lower Decks! Lower Decks!”) I wondered about the red pins that celebrities wore at the Oscars (via My Modern Met) I oooh and aaah over the dresses and the tuxedos. I even caught myself saying “The Rock really brought it this year” when I saw his suit.

If you missed the spectacle, check out the Vogue red carpet recap. Vanity Fair featured post-Oscar party portraits which have a relaxed confidence to them, as only winners can have. One of my favorite articles about the Oscars was about whether the Oscars need to add a category for Best Titles (via It’s Nice That). I say, yes. Hell, yes but its always been my favorite part of all movies, especially when they set the tone and mood of the film. And the closing credits too! Now, the question for the future is which of the Oscar-winning films will receive Criterion treatment (via Casual Optimist)

Are you a fan of the Oscars? Did your favorite film win its category?

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Let’s roll out the red carpet for pens, pencils, ink and paper! Please support our sponsors, affiliates or join our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In quote

“The only thing constant in life is change.”

Author Laura CameronPosted on 6 Comments

I’ve been thinking about this adage a lot in the last week, particularly in light of the discussion surrounding Lamy’s reintroduction of Dark Lilac.

As a knitter, I’m familiar with colors that aren’t quite replicable. For instance, when buying yarn for a project, crafters are always encouraged to purchase enough (extra) skeins at the front end of a project to ensure that the colors match. This is because yarn is dyed in batches, referred to as dye lots. When yarn tags are printed, particularly for commercial yarns (versus independent smaller sellers) the dye lot is often included along with the colorway. And when using skeins from smaller, independent producers we’re often encouraged to alternate skeins every few rows or rounds to prevent stark differences showing up in the finished piece.

The reasons for these differences are many. First, there can be differences in the dyes that are used to apply color to yarn. Chemicals can change over time, or be removed due to health concerns. Even dyes derived from natural elements, like cochineal, can vary over time due to differences in diet or environment. Most dyes are set on fabric and yarns using water. Did you know that the pH level of the water can change how the colors appear? (One of my favorite color expression tricks is that you can change the color of your hydrangeas but adjusting the pH level of the soil!)

Photo from this Reddit thread!

But let’s talk about an inky example. What color is sepia? Ana has joked for years that anyone who comes up to her at a pen show looking for sepia ink has a slightly different color in mind. Sepia ink is created by cuttlefish and squid, in their ink sacs. (The pigment can also be made from dried ink sacs.) But variations in species, environment and diet can create anything from a warm browns, to violet-tinged black brown. There is no one true sepia ink, even you have your own preferred version.

So back to Lamy Dark Lilac, where I started with this. According to @fountainpenmemes on Instagram, Lamy has noted that the red dye they used in the original Dark Lilac is no longer available, so they had to substitute another. There’s also been discussion that the sheen is slightly different as well. This could be due to refraction from the inks, or it may be that other components have changed as well.

So maybe it’s worth thinking of our favorite inks as products of their time, and in “dye lots.” There may be subtle variations from batch to batch, but each may bring their own lovely attributes to the table.

In feature

Pen Show Recap: Baltimore Pen Show

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Pen Show Recap: Baltimore Pen Show

(I flew back from Baltimore on Sunday night last week. It turned into an epic journey of flight delays. I didn’t land in KC until 2:30am on Monday morning which put my sleep deficit at an all-time high — at least since college. Apologies for the delay in getting a post-show recap published.)

Overall, this year’s Baltimore Washington International Pen Show (BWIPS) was a great show. There were lots of great vendors, friendly faces and, from what I gathered from other vendors, the sales were good.

Friday was a good steady stream of East Coast, die-hard, pen-and-ink collectors. What felt different on Friday in Baltimore compared with LA two weeks previously was that Friday attendees in Baltimore were more seasoned pen show attendees. In LA, there were a lot more newbies or “this is my first pen show” attendees. Since the California Pen Show is only two years old, this seems to make sense. But it was interesting.

Saturday, the weather turned rainy and there were some issues early in the day with parking but I think after noon, when other hotel guests had left, the parking issues improved. For future shows, I do recommend carpooling with friends or parking along the street (this was an option on the opposite of the street from the hotel though it might be a bit of a hike so plan accordingly). There were more “new to pen show” folks on Saturday but that is usually the case.

Sunday was a nice mix of 3-day pass holders and local residents who decided to avoid the rain on Saturday and come on Sunday instead. As a result we were busy up until closing time which is unusual. Most shows tend to slow down on Sundays around lunchtime.

The Baltimore Show is held at a hotel near the airport and there is a hotel shuttle from the airport to the hotel for folks coming in from out of town making it a pretty easy show to attend for travelers. For locals, the parking issue is a bit concerning but it did seem to diminish throughout the day on Saturday so I think, as long as you are prepared for a walk from on-street parking or doing a few loop-de-loops through the parking lot, its not terrible.

Locals, if you took public transport or have other transport recommendations, please put them in the comments.

The overall atmosphere of the Baltimore show is good. Folks were friendly and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I heard the classes and workshops were well-attended though there were some questions about where classes were being held so hopefully that gets sorted out for next year. Best recommendation would be to check with the front desk 10-15 minutes before your class to verify the location.

I’m trying a gallery of images this time so if there’s something you want to see in more detail, click on the image for a larger view.

Friday morning view of the Dromgoole’s tables
Our view of the show’s main ballroom
Highlight of the show for me: catching up with old friends!
Marty & Kimberly at the Retro51/Rickshaw tables
Delicious array of vintage pens
Jonathan Brooks at Carolina Pen Company
Those Taccia pens!
Cary from Kenro and Jimmy from Total Office Products
Brian at the Edison Pens table
Some beauitful engraving work at Ironfeather Creative
Hardy Penwrights table
Darail Penz from Columbus!
Mayfair Pens
3D skull pen holders at the Linocln’s Leathers table
The gang at the Write Stuff table
Me and Les hamming it up at his booth — Stylosuite, the place for custom flex nibs!
OMG! Is this the new power girl group of the pen world? We like to think so! Jesi, Azizah of Gourmet Pens and me. Such fun to see old friends!
The snark gets pretty thick by Sunday morning. Jesi and I being our rowdy selves.
In Link Love

Link Love: Lamy’s Inky Drama

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Link Love: Lamy’s Inky Drama

This past week was full of news about Lamy. We already posted about the sale of Lamy to Mitsubishi but Friday every phone at the Baltimore Pen Show lit up like the ink equivalvent of an Amber Alert when the NYTimes article about Lamy’s re-release of Dark Lilac was published. There were many comments about how it must have clearly been a slow news day if the NYTimes was writing about fountain pen ink inconsistencies. Fountain Pen Memes got to talk with an executive at Lamy about all the Dark Lilac hullaballoo and cleared up some of the questions many of us had on the topic.

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In Ink Review

Ink review: Pennonia Ragi Bubblegum

Author Laura CameronPosted on 1 Comment

In my ongoing quest to explore all that is peach ink, I liked the look of Pennonia Ragi Bubblegum ($16 for 60mL). While Americans often think of bubblegum as intensely pink, this one has those peach tones I was looking for!

According to Pennonia, Ragi Bubblegum is a pastel coral peach with medium shading. I would say the pastel, coral and peach are right on, though I think the shading is debatable.

In heavy applications like with a q-tip or ink splotch, you can definitely see the shading.

But when I get around to doing handwriting samples in nibs, I think this one is way too light to read as the nibs get finer.

The color itself is very pretty, and when I compare it to my trusty swatches you can see it fits in between the reddish/pink version of coral, and the melon-y orange Iwi ink I looked at last. I feel like I’m honing in on what I’m looking for, but I’m not there yet!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the 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

Giveaway Winners: OEDA letterpress Two Color Paper Notebook

Author Laura CameronPosted on Leave a comment

Thanks to everyone for entering the giveaway fort the OEDA Letterpress Two Color Paper Notebooks. It was fun to see what papers you love!

My answer is: all of them! I know that’s cheating, but I like quite a few papers – Tomoe River for it’s sheen, dot grid for the format, and especially the slightly thicker, toothier papers.

It turns out both of our winners love Claire Fontaine, among others:

Congratulations to Ingrid and Meriah!