The Aurora Style Aquamarine Fountain Pen with extra fine nib is probably one of the most budget-friendly Italian pens. The pen price is $85 at the time of this review which is pretty reasonable. Aurora makes their own nibs so there is real appeal to being able to get an Aurora for less than $100, even…
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Product Review: ArtSnacks March 2017 Subscription Box
Review by Tina Koyama On top of all the usual excitement over the release of the latest ArtSnacks box, the March edition was a celebration: ArtSnacks’ birthday! For four years, this subscription service has been curating a monthly assortment of fine art and craft supplies to art material junkies like me. The March box included…
Review: Field Notes Utility Graph & Tom Sachs Notebook
Oh, the hullabaloo around the quality control for the latest release of the Field Notes Colors Edition Utility Graph and Ledger has reached epic proportions. My Graph set had no visible flaws but the lower corners on the Ledger had a bit of a booger on a couple of them. (Here is where I start…
Review: Dingbats* Wildlife Grey Elephant Notebook
I was recently introduced to a notebook company with a pretty long history called Dingbats*. The company was started in the early 19th century in Lebanon and has been passed down to the current great-great grandsons who have brought the business into the 21st century with a very interesting line of products. I got to…
Review: Manuscript Notebooks & Crate Info
Manuscript Notebooks is a company that specializes in notebooks with a literary bent. They offer Large (A5), pocket (passport) and hardcover (pocket-sized) notebooks featuring classic literature covers. The covers are a matte finish coated stock rather than the uncoated paper used by a lot of other companies giving it a slightly more durable feel. On…
Review: This Is Ground Medium Leather Notebook Cover & Notebooks
What could be hidden inside these silky, black nylon bags? I wondered the same thing when they mysteriously arrived in my mailbox recently from This Is Ground, most known for their high-end leather goods designed to hold electronics like iPads and iPhones. What I found inside the luscious bags were two perfect-bound notebooks (perfect, of…
Sharpeners for Thick-Barreled Pencils
Review by Tina Koyama My vast love of colored pencils is directly proportional to my frustration with sharpening them. While my desktop Carl Angel-5 does a decent (and sometimes very good) job on most colored pencils of average barrel diameter, it can’t handle pencils of slightly larger girth, which happens to be the case for…