Link Love: Ebbs and Flows

As summer rolls in, the blog post rhythms change. Folks in academia have more time as they are coming into their summer breaks. Folks with young kids have less time as the kids are now home from school and they might be preoccupied with kid activities. Some of us are coming to our mid-season pen show gap between Chicago and DC where we can catch up a bit with our regular lives, catch up on some much-missed sleep and a back log of reviews, posts and other things. Longer days here on the northern hemisphere help so hopefully there will be a wave of posts to get caught up on in the coming weeks here on The Desk.

This week, Junee at Alt. Haven reviews KWZ IG Green that doesn’t really look green, Kelly at Mountain of Ink reviews a bunch of purple inks, Ian at Pens! Paper! Pencils! tackles the UK’s Silvine Exercise Notebook and Brad goes to Texas and leaves the Pen Addict in the hands of Jeff and Sarah (Go, team!).

My Giant Strawberry delves into the heady topis of what it means to choose joy while The Cramped tackles our favorite debate: analog over digital for thinking and idea processing. The Pelikan’s Perch provides great info on nibs and the Ink Smudge considers the “whys” behind fountain pens and pencils.

It’s always interesting to watch the blog post tides roll in and roll out.

Pens:

• M815 Metal Striped Special Edition (via Pelikan’s Perch)
• Cleo Skribent ‘Skribent’ Fountain Pen (via Pens! Paper! Pencils!)
• Monteverde Pens Giant Sequoia Fountain Pen – Fine (via Gourmet Pens)
• Giuliano Mazzuoli Officina Fountain Pen (via My Pen Needs Ink)
• Fountain pens and pencils (via Ink Smudge)
• Opus 88 Koloro Demonstrator Fountain Pen (via The Pencilcase Blog)
• Something Blue (via Murber Draws)
• Video: Aurora DuoCart (via Scrively)
• Aurora 88 Satin Blacl: Use It One Year Later (via Frank Underwater)
• Nib Customization: A Guide to Common Nib Grinds (via Pelikan’s Perch)
• Revisiting The Fisher Space Pen Bullet Classic (via The Write Experience)

Ink:

• Robert Oster Purple Jazz (via Mountain of Ink)
• Colorverse Shrodingr & Cat (via Gentleman Stationer)
• KWZ IG Green #1 (via Alt. Haven)
• Papier Plume’s Chicago Inks: 2018 Edition (via Inkdependence)
• Franklin-Christoph Urushi Red (via Gourmet Pens)
• Pilot Iroshizuku Ajisai (via Winter Sharks)
• Papier Plume Mardi Gras Indians Purple (via Wondernaut)
• Montblanc Swan Illusion Plume (via Macchiato Man)

Pencils:

• One Pencil Challenge (via CW Pencils Blog)
• Futura #2 Pencil Review (via The Finer Point)

Paper & Notebooks:

• Hippo Noto Lined (via Notebook Joy)
• Silvine Exercise Notebook (via Pens! Paper! Notebooks!)
• Kyokuto Expedient Notebook (via Mountain of Ink)
• Zhi Jin B5 notebook (via Paper Pens Ink)
• Poll result: Paper vs electronic planning (via Quo Vadis Blog)

Art Supplies & Creativity:

• A Grandfather’s Memories in Sketchbooks (via Notebooks Stories)
• 30×30 Artist : Liz Steel (via Citizen Sketcher)
• Vintage Colored Pencils, Part 12: Empire Sunset Dual-Kolor (via Fueled by Clouds and Coffee)
• Cozy Days: The Art of Iraville is on Kickstarter (via Parka Blogs)
• Da Vinci Brushes (via Jane Blundell Art)
• Black Crown Quarterly #3 (via Emmeline Draws)
• Pentel Multi 8 + Koh-i-Noor Leads = Win (via Fueled by Clouds and Coffee)
• Adobe Make It Interview (via Austin Kleon)
• Ellen DeBoer, An Ardent Bookmaker (via Dispatch from LA)

Other Interesting Things:

• What Does It Mean to Choose Joy? (via My Giant Strawberry)
• A List of TPK’s Free Printable Calligraphy Practice Sheets (via The Postman’s Knock)
• Pilot Tatemo Pen Case (via Pen Addict)
• 2018 Chicago Pen Show Recap (via Pen Addict)
• Interview with Stuart Lennon of Nero’s Notes (via Pens! Paper! Pencils!)
• Atelier Musubi Pen Case (via Hand Over That Pen)
• I’m Going Back to the Good Ol’ Fashioned Wired Apple Keyboard (via The Newsprint)
• Getting back into the swing of things… (via All Things Stationery)
• Why I Don’t Use Digital Productivity Tools (or How a Notebook Makes Me More Productive) (via The Cramped)