When Princeton Architectural Press sent me their newest Little Notes in African Batik and Katazome (30 sheets and envelopes $16.95) a couple weeks ago, I thought to myself, “Well, these are cute but will people get much use out of them?” Then, the Covid-19 lockdowns started and I realized that these little notes are more…
More and more pen companies and pen shops are getting into the special edition game. So it comes as little surprise that limited edition Kaweco Sports are slowly making their way west. I acquired a set of special edition Kaweco Sports from Hong Kong a couple years ago (in the Pantone Colors of the Year:…
Oh, what a delight it was to find a new book from the inimitable Caroline Weaver of CW Pencil Enterprise fame. After the Pencil Perfect, I couldn’t imagine what other book she might publish but Pencils You Should Know: A History of the Ultimate Writing Utensil in 75 Anecdotes is a perfect follow-up. The book…
Review by Laura Cameron Almost two weeks ago Retro 51 announced that they would be retiring and closing the business at the end of the year. This has caused quite a bit of discussion in the fountain pen world. When I heard the news, I immediately thought about how Retro 51 was really my introduction…
Review by Laura Cameron Some lovely friends sent me an even lovelier gift this holiday season: the new Franklin Christoph Penvelope 3 ($25) in Cranberry. This natural wood fiber (NWF) 3-pen case is a perfect fit in my handbag and will hold 3-5 of my favorite pens. (if you don’t mind them touching!) The NWF…
Two years ago, the San Francisco Pen Show was rocked by the arrival of Yamamoto Paper and their Paper Tasting packets. The creators came across the ocean from Japan to share some of the many unique and different papers with western paper fiends. These cellophane jewels each contain a stack of B7, A6 and B6…
For several years, we try to do a 12 Days of Inkmas here are The Desk. But Diamine had the genius idea to take it even further and create in the Inkvent Calendar for 2019. Inside the paperboard windows are 24 sample sized vials (7ml each) of unique, holiday-themed ink colors plus one larger 30ml…
