Cassandra Ketrick is planning to relocate to New York City in February so, as a good and loyal paper junkie, she built a custom moving planner to organize all the things she needs to accomplish in the next few weeks. There are more photos of her planner available on her web site.
Several months ago, my friend sent me this lovely little oddity. It is the Pentel B-100 Pen. Overall, the pen looks like your standard budget disposable pen. But its not what it appears. The body of all the pens are green (Pantone Color of the Year Emerald, I might add) with the tips indicating the color. Mine is a clear red ink but the pen is also available in black from Kiosk. It wasn’t until I started writing with it that I realized it was quite unusual.
The pen has some line-width variation I would not have expected in a rollerball or fiber-tipped pen. It writes almost like a stub nib fountain pen or a small calligraphy nib. Looking closely at the point I couldn’t quite figure out exactly what it is. My best guess is that it is a rollerball but the translucent plastic casing around the ball is slightly flexible allowing the line to flow a bit differently than a rigid plastic rollerball.
It is not water-proof but water-resistant enough to be used on envelopes or folders. On my testing paper (the Miquelrius grid notebook), I got a little bit of show through on the back side of the page but it was nominal. On good quality paper, this pen could be used on both the front and reverse of the paper without any readability issues.
Overall, I quite like this pen. It wrote smoothly, offered line variation not often found in a disposable pen and the body is a lovely green, concealing the fun of bright, red ink inside.
Pens are sold individually for $4 each from Kiosk with a wonderful little card with a story about the pen.
This desk was built by the Roentgen brothers in the 18th century and is full of hidden compartments and unique features. If you like this, you might also like this 18th century, French mechanical table.
(via Neatorama and a tip from mjh)
Color your world, or at least your wall, with the 2013 Pantone calendar ($14.99). Designed by the legendary design firm Pentagram, each month is a pixel grid of colorliciousness. There is also a weekly desk agenda ($16.99) which also features a bevvy of color and inspiration.
(via Felt & Wire, Pentagram and Amazon)
The folks over at Carolina just built a beautiful, simple worktable from cast iron plumbers pipes and a heavy wood top. The table can be crafted at counter height or at dining height. It looks a little vintage Parisian workshop and a little steampunk-y. The Cartolina blog has download links to build your own table.
(via Poppytalk)
My darling friend Annie sent me a pack of gold engraved, skull-and-crossbones note cards from the London-based stationery shop Mount Street Stationers. The envelopes are lined with glossy black paper and are perfect for my next order of rum or official decree for someone to walk the plank.
I noticed that I had never written a review of the Pilot Varsity Fountain Pen so I thought I’d add it. Let me start by saying that I bought this several years ago and was very unhappy with its performance and stuck it in a drawer. It actually took quite some time before I was willing to venture into fountain pens again because of the experience. To be honest, at $3 per pen, I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting.
To a newbie though, the Varsity seems like a reasonable way to get into fountain pens. Its not. The most expensive part of a good fountain pen is the nib and feed, and this one, available in a medium width only, is not good at all. Its a plain steel nib. Steel nibs can be good but not at $3, I think.
If you look at the writing sample above, the pen skips and whole letters will not appear while the ink flow readjusts. It squeaks on the paper, actually squeaks. If you have an aversion to the sound of nails on a chalkboard, you best give this pen a wide berth.
I’m not inclined to write reviews for products that I genuinely dislike and think are terrible. I’d prefer to let me silence speak for itself. However, I get enough people asking about the Varsity and other sub-$10 fountain pens that I felt I should be honest.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll put up reviews of the other entry-level priced fountain pens. Maybe there is a gem among them.
