Link Love: Living Vicariously

I often worry that Link Love is just another way to promote consumption and consumerism. I hope that each week, as you read Link Love, you see it as an opportunity to live vicariously through other people’s collections. By reading and using your discernment, you can sometimes say to yourself, “that must be great for them but that (fill in the blank) is just not for me.” So that, on occasion, you can conscientiously make purchasing decisions.

I enjoy that this week there are some posts that re-evaluate tools that may already be in your collection and maybe the posts will convince you to reach into your stash and try them again (like the Stabilo Boss Highlighters, the Pilot Vanishing Point and the Uni-Ball One). I also love that, like me, Kimberly at Pen Addict waited to swatch her Inkvent calendar until halfway through the year. Decembers have just been too stressful and busy for me to have the bandwidth to swatch each day or even once a week. Inkvent in July should definitely be a thing.

Pens:

• Platinum 3776 with a Coarse (C) Nib (via dapprman)
• Pen Porn: Cypress Kawari-Nuri Pink (via Rachel’s Reflections)
• Uni-Ball One or Zebra Sarasa Grand: A High-End Gel Pen Showdown? (via The Gentleman Stationer)
• Stabilo Boss Highlighters Review (Including swatch testing on 100gsm and 160gsm paper) (via All About Planners)
• Updating My Perspective on Pilot’s Vanishing Point Pens (via Pen Boutique Ltd)

Ink:

• Robert Oster Skyward Fountain Pen Ink Review (via The Pen Addict)
• Ink Review #817: Wearingeul Helio Tropium (via Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
• Ink Review #2559: Endless Alchemy Wizard’s Pencil (via Mountain of Ink)
• Dominant Industry Royal Azalea (via Inkcredible Colours)
• Ink Review #2555: Van Dieman’s Marilyn (via Mountain of Ink)
• Colorverse Blue Dragon Ink Comparison: 2024 Special Series (via Pen Chalet Blog)
• Lessons Learned from Inkvent 2023 (via The Pen Addict)

Pencils:

• Stephen Sondheim Blackwings sold at auction (via pencil talk)

Notebooks & Paper:

• Edge indexes (via Austin Kleon)
• Working with PLOTTER A5: Chart Grid and Blue Quadrant Inserts (via A Gathering of Curiosities)
• What would it make for a binder to work out? (via Stationery Pizza)
• Undated planners (part 2!) (via Nero’s Notes)
• Review: Denbigh Notebooks (via Notebook Stories)

Art & Creativity:

• Rare Photos of Frida Kahlo on Display in New York City (via My Modern Met)
• BOOK REVIEW: “Watercolor Workbook: Café in Bloom” by Sarah Simon (via Doodlewash)
• Creating Hundreds of Colors, La Maison du Pastel Continues a 300-Year-Old Tradition (via Colossal)
• Sketchbook Experiments: Videos (via Apple-Pine)
• How to Write Calligraphy with Art Masking Fluid (via The Postman’s Knock)

Other Interesting Things:

• Mid-Year Review: Five Favorite Posts from the First Half of 2024 and a Big Announcement! (via The Gentleman Stationer)
• The Encyclopedia Project, or How to Know in the Age of AI (via The Cramped)
• Oreo Kintsugi (via Kottke.org)
• Visiting stationery shops in Portugal and Spain (via Inkcredible Colours)
• CLUE: This Naturalized U.S. Citizen Is Now Honored With a Forever Stamp (via USPS Newsroom)
• Outgrowing a Pen Case (via Rachel’s Reflections)
• Rickshaw 6-Pen Coozy Roll Review (via The Pen Addict)
• Starmark Pen Fest (via INKED HAPPINESS)
• My new stamp carousel (via Austin Kleon)

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