In Pen Review

Fountain Pen Review: Esterbrook Niblet (Sea Glass/M nib)

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments
Fountain Pen Review: Esterbrook Niblet (Sea Glass/M nib)

This summer, Esterbrook launched their new line of fountain pens: The Niblet ($175). This pen is definitely designed to compete with the Kaweco Sport and other small, pocketable pens.

I got the Sea Glass model and the color is stunning and definitely reminds me of sea glass, oceans and hints of creamy shell and a little pearl oyster shimmer. This is the color combo that will totally work for my annual Mermaid month next year.

The Good Stuff:

I got the medium nib which is a little too wide for my microscopic handwriting so I may swap out the nib with a finer or extra fine nib in the future. The wide nib sizes available make this a very good option for anyone looking for a small fountain pen but want a unique nib. The standard nib options are extra fine, fine, medium, broad, stub 1.1, extra-fine flex, fine flex. For an up-charge, you can also get a double broad, needlepoint, mini stub, journaler, scribe or fude nib.

Some of the selling points for the Niblet is a full No. 6 nib compared with Kaweco which use a smaller No. 5 (or 5-1/2-ish) sized nib. The Niblet also allows the cap to be screwed to the barrel using the same threads that are used for capping the pen. The little roll stop corn nugget may be how the pen got its name.

The medium nib was smooth and easy to use, even for an overhanded left-handed writer.

The So-so stuff:

The Niblet comes with one cartridge but no converter. I think all fountain over $100 should come with a converter. It costs the manufacturer probably less than $1 to include one, they should be included.

The name. Sigh. I am not a fan of the name Niblet. I cannot get past the association with baby corn and the Jolly Green Giant. There’s so many other diminutive descriptors that could have been used: Bijou, Dainty, Mini, Elf, Petit, Pipsqueak. And that’s just me and a thesaurus and five minutes. Imagine how many better names I could think up with time. I think Bijou is more sophisticated and classy. The Estie Elf is cute and charming. Call me, Kenro, before you name your next pen.

Size comparison with the Kaweco Sport. The Niblet is a tiny bit taller and the overall width of the pen is a bit narrower than the Sport.
Nib size comparison between The Niblet and a Kaweco Sport. Posted, both pens are about the same length.

Now, for some of the down sides:

The Niblet is a branded version of the Fine Writing Pencket Fountain Pen ($74.50). Yes, the Niblet is available in different, potentially finer quality resins and a branded Esterbrook No. 6 nib which appears to have a higher quality feed (ebonite maybe?) than the Fine Writing lower priced pen. I’m not sure the branded nib, pretty resin, felt pouch and packaging warrant a $100 mark-up over the Fine Writing Pencket Fountain Pen.

The felt sleeve that ships with the pen is not very high quality. The pumpkin orange color of the sleeve does not coordinate with the Sea Glass pen at all. The edges of the felt are burned and that makes it very scratchy when it touches your hand. Maybe my physical synesthesia is too sensitive but I do not like the sleeve provided. It was not necessary to include it and if leaving it out would have reduced the price a bit, that would have been preferable.

There is an American flag label on the felt sleeve. Yes, Esterbrook is an American company but the pen and the sleeve are unlikely to be made in the US. (Knowing that the Fine Writing Pencket was produced in Taiwan, its definitely misleading. Nowhere else is there indication of where the pen or case was produced so I think its a little misleading and unnecessary.

In the end, its a lovely pen and the nib quality is good and easy to swap with a custom nib if you choose that option. The price though? Eh.

Tools:

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Esterbrook (Kenro Idustries) for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Pen Review

Pen Review: ZIG Clean Color Dot Metallic (6-color set)

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Pen Review: ZIG Clean Color Dot Metallic (6-color set)

I was so excited to see the new Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot Metallic Double-Sided Marker – 6 Color Set ($26) while I was working at the Dallas Pen Show. I like using Zig Clean Color Dot markers for adding bullets to my notebooks. So, a set of metallics? Yes, please!

The set comes with silver, gold, red, blue, green and violet with dual tips — a standard 1.0mm marker tip and the other end is the puffy, little, q-tip-style end that makes it easy to make dots. Depending on your pressure the dots can be big or small. The package suggests that the dot size can vary between 1 and 5mm depending on how hard you press.

The inks are water-based so its easy to clean up but the designs are not permanent or water-resistant so I recommend using them as your top layer if you blend tools in a mixed media technique.

The unique upside of metallic markers is the colors are often more opaque which makes the colors pop on darker paper stocks. So, if you have journals or notebooks with kraft paper or black paper, these metallic markers may be useful and fun to use for you.

I found that, on white or light colored papers, the metallic quality and brightness is not as noticeable as when I tried a dark paper stock. I also found that the silver and gold dot end was more visible and opaque than the marker tip end on light papers. Silver and gold were more apparent and opaque on the darker paper.

On 68gsm Tomoe River, there was absolutely no showthrough on the back of the page so that’s a pleasant bonus.

Overall, these markers are fun and unique. I think I prefer them on darker papers overall but everything but the silver pen worked well on light paper too, just not as sparkly as I hoped they would be.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Chartpak/Kuretake US for the purpose of review. To purchase, visit Dromgoole’s. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Pens & Quilts = JOY

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: Pens & Quilts = JOY

Laura, in an act of selfless kindness, found some fabric that she said was “so me” and then bought it and made me a whole freakin’ quilt! It’s huge and beautiful and covered in a bright, fun assortment of stationery-related prints. She quilted it with loopy stitches that are reminiscent of calligraphy swirls. So well-planned! So cool! So cozy!

Some of the individual squares that Laura made for the Pen Quilt. You can see some of the pens in the fabric pattern.

Post of the Week:

Pens:

Ink:

Planners, Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Patrons make me happy. I make them extra special treats, record a bi-weekly podcast and keep them up to date with newsletters and more. If you’d like to  join our Patreon, it would make my day! Patrons are the best! Thank you to all our Patrons and to you, for reading all the way to the end of this post!

In Planners & Organizers

GIVEAWAY: Goby Design Leather Notebook Cover

Author Laura CameronPosted on 57 Comments

Today we have a special treat for you, the perfect accompaniment to starting a new journal or planner! This lovely leather notebook cover was donated as a giveaway by Goby Design.

Goby Design boasts handcrafted leather notebook covers made in Berkeley, CA in a rainbow of gorgeous colors! They source both American and Italian leather There are three sizes available:

  • Pocket Size Moleskine Cahier or Field Notes (90mm x 140mm or 3.5″ x 5.5″)

  • Large Size  Moleskine Cahier (130mm x 210mm or 5.1” x 8.25”)

  • A5 Size any single signature notebook (149mm x 210mm or 5.8” x 8.25”)

Each leather notebook cover comes with a Clairefontaine Triomphe Notebook inside, held in place by a somewhat flexible, but sturdy, center wire. When you’ve finished the notebook, simply slide it out of the cover, and add your own! This is a fairly skinny cover, but I do think some of the thinner A5 cardstock cover planners would fit very well in there.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the Giveaway:

You are entering to win 1 A5 Goby Design notebook, as pictured above in the color Wheat, with the included Clairefontaine Triomphe Notebook.

You’ll also receive a few goodies from me (Well-Appointed Guest stickers, ink samples and the like).

TO ENTER: Head on over to Goby Design to check them out. Then leave a comment below and tell me your favorite color/size they make. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Sunday, October 19, 2025. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

A special thank you to Goby Design who provided us with the leather notebook cover for giveaway!

In Friday Friends

Friday Friends: PensiveCandy

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Friday Friends: PensiveCandy
© Candace Milner @pensivecandy 2025. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Candace Milner (@pensivecandy) is a creative and a long-time fountain-pen-and-ink enthusiast, based in Perth, Western Australia. She was first introduced to fountain pens in primary school (many, many, many years ago). Today, she uses her pens and ink to make art. Her explorations in ink typically result in intricate patterns, detailed line-work and the use of expressive ink combinations.

© Candace Milner @pensivecandy 2025. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

I absolutely love what Candace does with her fountain pen inks and how her focus has changed from acquiring new items to creatively using the inks and pens she owns.

© Candace Milner @pensivecandy 2025. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Be sure to check our her instagram to see videos of her creating her patterns. It’s both mesmerizing and inspiring!

In Paper Review

Notebook Review: Wonderland 222 Tomoe River Tomoegawa B6 (& Giveaway)

Author AnaPosted on 44 Comments
Notebook Review: Wonderland 222 Tomoe River Tomoegawa B6 (& Giveaway)

I met the creative team behind Wonderland 222 while I was in Portland this summer and was absolutely delighted to be able to put faces to this amazing product line. Wonderland 222 is best known for their Tomoe River-based planners — simple, minimal planners in loads of formats.

While talking with Liisa, I discovered that Wonderland 222 still has some notebooks that use the classic Tomoegawa (original) Tomoe River paper.

I purchased the B6 368page Grid Edition ($24) from 2023 in Lichen (which is a very minty green). The notebook has a softcover, similar to the materials used for Stalogy and other flexy cover. And the big news of course is that these notebooks still contain 52gsm Tomoe River Paper by Tomoegawa. Yep, you read that correctly, Wonderland 222 still has old school Tomoe River Tomegawa paper notebooks still in back stock.

Inside, there is a page for a key and an index (just one page for each) and then simple pages for the remainder of the book.

The pages have numbers down the side for use as a time tracking/time blocking and at the top, there is a place to write in the date. The numbers start at 5 (am assumably) and goes to 24:00 (or midnight).

Each page is numbered which makes indexing easier.

It was fun to pen test on this classic stock and results were exactly what I expect from old school Tomoe River.

I definitely want to stock up on a few more of these notebooks especially since they are available with this delicious classic Tomoe River paper and available in an array of sizes (A5, A6 and B6) and page count (96, 192 and 368pp).

I also grabbed one to giveaway to one lucky reader. It’s a B6, 96-page softcover notebook ($10) in the Perfect Pinecone colorway which is sort of a shimmery copper color. It would make a perfect project notebook.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me your favorite notebook size. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Sunday, October 12, 2025. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.