Ink Drop for June: Summer Picnic

Spoiler peek at the Goulet Pens Ink Drop sample colors for June arrived and they are themed “Summer Picnic”. Its all fruit and vegetable themed. None of the colors were particularly keen to my flex nib dip pen but I think that actually bodes well for the fountain pens. I am particularly fond of the warm orange of the Sailor Jentle Apricot and the de Atramentis Plum which is a lovely deep teal blue.

I’m looking for a different method for sampling inks in the future. Does anyone have a suggestion?

(Sorry about the cruddy photo!)

Fabriano Eco Quo Dotgrid Notebook

When I saw the Fabriano Eco Qua dot grid notebook at our local Utrecht, I couldn’t pass up that lime green cover. I purchased the A5 (5.8″x8.25″) size with a light grey dot. Its 85gsm paper in a soft white. I wouldn’t call it ivory but its not a bright blue-white either. A pleasing-to-the-eye white. The grey dots are fairly unobtrusive and pretty close together so its good for anyone with small handwriting or if you want to use two rows of dots for larger writing.

The cover is not sealed to the perfect bound (or more specifically glue padded) sheets so it can be folded back out of your way while writing. Because the sheets are only glue bound into the book, I wouldn’t recommend this for long term archival uses as the glue will grow brittle over time and the pages will fall out. But for work notes, letters or situations where you would want to be able to perf out pages quickly and easily, this is a very good pad for that.

I had so little issue with bleed through, or even show through, that I totally forgot to take a picture of the reverse of the sheet. The only line that even showed through on the back was the Lamy Studio 1.1 with dark brown ink.

I’ve written several letters on this paper as its a good-quality inexpensive pad to carry around with me. $4.99 available with eight different colored covers. Other sizes and configurations are available.

East… West… Everywhere also reviewed the Eco Qua and does fantastic calligraphy with it!

Field Notes Crop Edition and Father’s Day Deal

Everyone who has a penchant for paper goods has probably already heard of Field Notes. I know the Red-Blooded edition got lots of great press in February for my pal Bryan’s love letter video to his darling wife. But have you given a good look to the hearty Crop Edition? Its a set of six notebooks inspired by the crops of the US and come packed in a box with a patch and a map.

I love the Field Notes notebooks for their adherence to the classic good looks and functionality of the vintage notebooks while bringing a lovely designer-ly touch to each quarterly special edition.

Available from Field Notes and they even have a special deal for Father’s Day. Spend $20 or more this week and then type “YAYDAD” into the coupon code blank and get a free mixed set (blank, lined and grid) of Kraft notebooks.