Just a hodge-podge of Valentine’s Day fun, inspiration and things that are RED.
Link Love: V is for Valentine’s Day
Black is Beautiful
By far, the most popular ink color for pens is black. And for markers, be they art-making tools or big, bold utility markers, black is the go-to color. Which is why the new website Black is Beautiful is a great resource for lovers of felt/fiber-tipped markers. Included in their database is paint pens, washable markers and permanent alcohol-based markers like Sharpie.So far, there are over 100 markers in their database.
The site is beautifully arranged and features photos of each marker in the database. The site does not feature reviews of each pen but does provide detailed images and info about each pen. I do hope in the future they add more user information about the more commonly available pens.
Black is Beautiful is scheduled to be updated on a weekly basis, adding more pens to the database. At present, a limited edition poster is available for purchase for $50 for Canada and $75 for US (prices include shipping).
A Well-Topped Pencil
Does your pencil need its own chapeau? Is it more of a fedora-wearer or a trillby? If you are scribing a term paper on Lincoln, than maybe you need the stovepipe tophat. All four eraser caps are available for $3.45.
(via Neato Shop)
Thrift Store Chic
The desk shown looks pretty uninspired like something you’d pass in the local thrift store covered in dust, boxes and some old dot-matrix printers but clearly its worth a second look. Cleaned up and paired with a great chair, this desk becomes a lovely piece. Go forth and reconsider those thrift store finds!
(via Ray Down)
Modern Printable Valentines
Did you wait until the last minute to do anything for your Valentine this year? How about I help you out with this modern printable Valentines from Paper & Stitch? Just print these off onto cardstock, fold and trim, and put your favorite pen to work writing a special message. Add a candy bar, a bouquet of flowers or maybe a bunch brand new pencils to show your loved one you care.
(via Paper & Stitch)
HEMA Vulpen Fountain Pen Review
While vacationing over the holidays, my friend Cecelia picked up a HEMA Vulpen fountain pen in Belgium for me. I had to do a bit of detective work about it before I could post a review about it. HEMA is a chain of department stores from the Netherlands. From their website it looks like a pretty nice shop, maybe upscale Target? They look to be scattered all over Europe.
Okay, back to the pen. It is exactly 5″ long capped in a matte black metal with silver trim and a brushed aluminum clip. The cap snaps on with friction, not a screw post. The cap can be posted on the pen for writing if you like the extra weight and length.
The nib is an iridium tipped steel nib and I would guess it to be just shy of a medium nib — like “fine-medium” by the European standards, not Japanese. Its a slender pen and not too long. I find it comfortable to hold in my small hands. It takes standard small European cartridges which provides lots of ink options including a refillable cartridge or syringe-filling an old cartridge. I used a Kaweco blue-black cartridge for my tests rather than the cartridge that came with the pen if only to have a known-quantity in regards to the ink.
In writing tests, the pen preformed admirably. I used it almost exclusively for a whole week for notes, planner entries, and letters and it worked well on lots of paper stocks. It had a little hesitancy first thing in the morning if it had sat all night but no worse than the Kaweco pens do. It writes very smoothly, silky even. I just love how it feels in my hand.
The amazing thing about this pen is the cost — a mere €3.25 (under $6). It kind of blows my mind that this pens performs in the same league with pens five times more expensive.
There are not a lot of reviews of this pen online though there are a few and the only place to get this pen appears to be at a HEMA store as I could not find it on their website. Unless you know someone traveling in Europe you could bribe to pick one up for you, this may be your holy grail of cheap fountain pens.
DIY: Personalized coffee mug
I’ve been thinking that I might like to have a personalized mug at work. Something that is clearly mine. When I found this tutorial on Beautiful Mess for using a Sharpie and an oven set to 350 degrees, I thought, “ah ha!”
This means I can use a mug scavenged from the office, doodle on it with a Sharpie from the supply closet and then pop it in the toaster oven for 30 minutes and voila! Office crafts!
(There is a note on Beautiful Mess that this technique may or may not last so I recommend trying it out on a cheap mug first. Probably best to make sure its clean too.)
(via A Beautiful Mess)