Today I’m taking a look at a new notebook from Midori – the A5 Color Paper Notebook. I did order a notebook in each color – pink, yellow, turquoise, green, lavender, brown. They only come in ruled, A5 size with 56 pages and you can find these in-stock at Vanness for $3.50 each.
I chose the brown notebook for this review. The paper is a light tan color and I’ve found it can look quite different based on lighting and surroundings.
The notebook is made of 14 pieces of paper folded to make a single signature of 28 sheets or 56 pages (if you number front and back, the final number will be 56). It is held together with brass colored staples inside a thick cardstock cover.
I chose the brown notebook for this review since it is the least cheerful of the lineup – my reasoning was, if I love the brown notebook, I’ll have no problem loving the other colors!
I love these bright colors! They are perfect right now in the spring – cheerful, happy, lovely color.
The pages are a pastel version of the cover page in each notebook. Above, from top to bottom – turquoise, lavender, green, brown, pink, yellow. Showing the pages next to each other like this is really the best way to give a good idea of the paper color – without a point of reference, they can be tough to photograph.
So, on with the brown notebook. It will stay open on its own if given a bit of encouragement. The paper itself is thick – I would estimate 80-100 gsm although I can’t find a specific weight. The notebooks are made by Midori but this is not MD paper.
The paper is just a tad on the toothy side of average – pencil glides over the page without slipping. I’ve added stamps to my paper tests lately since I’ve noticed that several popular papers are terrible with stamp ink including Tomoe River, onion skin, cotton, and MD. The paper in the Color Paper notebook is good at taking stamp ink but not wonderful. There was plenty of show-through but no ink bled through the page.
On the reverse side, you can see some ghosting (the photo picks up more ghosting than I saw in person) but Sharpie is the only item that actually came through the page. Even Sharpie did not bleed through onto the next page, though. I was terribly impressed with the success of the graphic pens and the brush pen!
I used the first page of the notebook for my testing. The notebook stayed open to this first page with only a little encouragement, and I found that it is a great one to use with the pages folded back on themselves if needed for one-handed use.
I’m glad I purchased the whole set of these notebooks – they are perfect for an A5 Traveler’s-style cover or an A5 Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter cover and at $3.50 each, they are well worth the cost. Plus, the color! Love the color.
DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us at a discount for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
First, the USPS Droids stamps are out and available. When Bob picked up some at the local post office, the woman behind the counter said “these seem to be very popular”. Duh. These ARE the Droids we’re looking for.
This week, we had so many delightful cat links, our favorite pet gets its own cat-egory. Oh, the puns!
On a more serious note, Parka Blogs linked to an artist discussing why Instagram is not good for artists. I think her sentiments ring true for all creators not just artists but also musicians, illustrators, designers and even small makers. She delves into the issues that have been created as a result of the algorithms put into place by Facebook that makes it necessary for anyone who wants to be seen on Instagram to have to post repeatedly and create Reels and Stories in order to be bumped up in the viewing algorithm. All this creates exponentially more work for creators just to be seen in the cacophony of noise the Instagram perpetuates. This work to create eye catching posts, reels, and stories and post them daily takes away from the time they could be creating new work.
This “endless hamster wheel of posting” issue doesn’t even delve into the issues Instagram creates in viewers. Instagram presents an endless stream of products to purchase and people with whom to compare ourselves. We all know that social media presents a curated “perfect world” life of those who post but it doesn’t make it any easier for our ape brains that only see the things we are not, don’t have, haven’t accomplished or don’t look like.
This Instagram hamster wheel is something I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately. I was tired of being bombarded with moving images every time I “checked in”. I considered deleting the app completely until Laura reminded me I would be unable to post without it. The sad truth is that for many small creators, Instagram is still one of the key channels to reach potential clients, customers or readers. Instagram, at present, is the Catch-22 of the digital world right now. You can’t live with it, but you live survive without it either.
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I’ve always wanted an Italian fountain pen, but sadly many of them are outside my price range. So when I came across the Pineider Avatar UR Fountain (on sale for $126.50 at Vanness) I hit buy pretty fast!
The UR in the title stands for ultra-resin, a new mother-of-pearl compound resin that Pineider developed in Florence for the body of these pens. I chose Abalone Green, but there are six other colorways in the the Avatar collection. The mother-of-pearl gives the body a sheen, and all the colors are a bit marbleized.
The model I chose is the regular line up which features a steel nib, and steel clip and hardware. There is also the Deluxe option, which comes with a 14K gold nib and gold hardware. Nibs are available in extra fine, fine and medium (I chose fine) and the steel nib is an N6 demi-flex nib. I did play with it a bit and it’s quite bouncy, and produces some line variation.
The details on the pen are really nice. The steel clip feels sturdy, and the band on the cap is engraved with a Florence-inspired design. The cap itself is magnetic, for a soft closure that produces a nice seal. Those who like to fidget with pens will enjoy this one! The cap is postable, but given the length and weight of the pen, I don’t think it adds anything and may actually disrupt the balance (I didn’t post!)
The Pineider comes in at about average length (capped: 5 3/4″/14.5 cm; uncapped 5 1/4″/13.5 cm) and is a bit heavier than the standard resin-bodied pens at 30g.
I really enjoyed the writing experience with this pen. The pen is smooth and cool to the touch, and the nib writes really nicely. Loading it with ink the first time went super smoothly, and I didn’t notice any problems restarting after letting it sit overnight. I always talk about how I have small hands and pens end up being uncomfortable to write with after short notes, but this one doesn’t feel like that at all. It’s just a really nice writing experience – the kind we fountain pen users crave.
I ended up choosing Colorverse Photon for its inaugural inking, which I think matches the pen perfectly!
DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Glass nib dip pens grabbed my attention over the last year in a way they hadn’t before. This increased interest was in part due to their booming popularity in the Japanese market and the release of some wild new products such as the Too ribbon pen. Although many of the Japanese specialty products aren’t widely available, there are still some interesting glass pens available in the US market. After adding a few of these pens to my collection, they’ve become a tool I use on a regular basis and they have even surprised me in some unexpected ways!
One of my favorite uses of dip nib pens is dunking them into the most outrageous inks in my collection without any fear that they might harm my pen like I may worry about a fountain pen. I also don’t have to commit to a specific ink for any length of time. If I don’t like the ink or I feel like changing colors mid-sentence, I can simply clean off the pen, put the ink away, grab a different one and keep writing. For this review I decided to grab a sheening ink, a shimmering ink, an ink with black particle material, a neon ink, and a shading ink to attempt to show how different properties of ink may show up with the use of different glass dip pens.
One of the things that has surprised me about glass nib dip pens is the variety of pens available and how the differences from pen to pen are similar in some ways to customizing the writing experience of a traditional fountain pen. For example, not only can the size of the overall pen vary drastically- the size of the glass nib itself can also vary greatly pen to pen. The overall shape of the glass nib pen plays a dramatic role in the weight of the overall pen and also how the pen feels in your hand. Specifically, the amount of glass at the end of the pen versus the front of the pen changes the way that the pen feels in the hand when you’re writing. The closest comparison I can make with traditional fountain pens is the way metal sections add weight to a pen. Many glass nib pens have a wider section or decoration near the front of the pen that weights the pen more towards the front of the pen.
I got my first glass dip pen at a stationery shop on a vacation five or six years ago. I don’t remember now exactly where I got it or even the town I bought it in. However, for a long time this was the only glass dip pen that I owned. This particular pen has a very small nib and also very small grooves in the nib of the pen. The smaller nib is great for some use cases like dipping the pen into tiny sample bottles. However, the tiny grooves of the nib make this glass pen more difficult to clean than the other models that I now own. So for a long time, I thought that all glass nipped pens were very difficult to clean- it was a pain to get the ink out of the grooves of the nib of the pen. I think this is one of the overall misconceptions about glass nib pens. While some are a little more difficult to clean the ink out of the grooves or the glass, some are exceptionally easy to clean and it varies greatly depending on the pen.
The size of the grooves of the pen specifically impact how much ink the nib can hold, and also what type of ink properties it will demonstrate. It doesn’t show very well in the photo below, but this glass nib pen wasn’t able to hold any of the black particles that are present in the Tono & Lims ink Bee. All the other glass pens put some black particles down on the page, but the “glass nib pen” from the mystery vacation stationery store made the ink look like a bright yellow without a single black particle. The same can be true for some shimmering inks with this particular glass pen.
The second glass dip pen that I acquired was a gift from my parents when they traveled to France. The same style of pen from J.Herbin is also available from many retailers including Goldspot. Compared to my first glass nib pen, this pen has a significantly larger nib which makes it easier to clean but also more difficult to dip into small sample vials and some ink bottles that have smaller openings.
Overall for the price point, I feel like this glass nib pen is a very good starter pen to get a feel for what glass nib pens are all about. With drier inks, this pen can sometimes be a little inconsistent and you can get some “skipping,” or thinner lines- but for most inks it produces a wet medium to broad line and provides a decent representation of most ink properties.
Over the last year as I started hearing more about glass pens and I started following some of the Japanese glass makers, I also started looking around at what was available to the US market. One of the first makers that I came across was FirespiderGlass. What first struck me about these specific pens were the intricate glass details. One of the things that he is most known for is his jellyfish pens which appear to have a jellyfish floating inside of the end of each glass pen. Outside of the jellyfish pens he also does some other pens with different designs including galaxy themed pens and cane striped pens. I watched his site for about six months before I finally decided to purchase two of the pens. What you’ll notice about the pens on his site is that because each one is handmade and unique, over time different pens of different shapes and sizes and designs will be posted and available.
The first pen I got from FireSpiderGlass is one of the jellyfish pens. This glass pen is one of my favorite overall designs and is beautiful to look at and use. The details at the end of the pen with the jellyfish and near the grip of the pen are intricate and truly amazing work. This glass pen is one of my larger pens, so if I’m using a glass pen for a multi-hour writing marathon this may not be my first pen of choice, but otherwise it is just so fun to use. Also notice that the grooves on the nib of this pen have an interesting shape and design. I thought this may make the pen more difficult to clean, however it has been just as easy to clean as my J.Herbin glass pen.
The second pen that I got from FireSpiderGlass has become, by far, my favorite glass nib pen. The pen is one of his rainbow cane pens and is a little smaller and more straight shaped than the other pens in my collection. The nib also has very wide, straight grooves that make this pen the easiest of my glass pens to clean. Cleaning the ink off of this specific pen is literally no different than cleaning ink off a smooth glass surface. I typically dip it in the water a single time wipe it off carefully with a cloth and I’m good to go for the next ink. There is also a slight tapered shape in the section of the pen that makes the pen extremely comfortable to hold. Just like fountain pens, glass pens are an extremely personal purchase, and it’s all about finding the pen that speaks to you and feels right in your own hand with your own handwriting.
These two pens from FireSpiderGlass really changed my opinion of glass nib dip pens overall. The glass work specifically in the nib section of the pens make these two pens extremely consistent writers and drastically changes the feel of the pen on the page. This is where the skill of the glass maker not only impacts the overall look of the pen but also the use of the pen and the feel of the pen as you use it. I didn’t necessarily expect there to be a difference in writing, but the pens from FireSpiderGlass produce a consistent smooth line with just a bit of feedback and are really a joy to use. If you’re looking to upgrade your glass pen collection, I highly recommend watching his site over time to find one that really speaks to you.
The final glass dip pen that I added to my collection was a pen that either Jesi or Ana sent me over messaging from Shigure inks. What really intrigued me about this pen is that it could be purchased in different nib sizes. Although my other glass pens vary in line width a little from pen to pen, the width is not usually something that you can choose when you purchase the pen. I decided to purchase a broad nib pen and I’ve really enjoyed using it ever since it arrived. The broad nib puts down a ton of ink on the page allowing me to see properties of the ink that I may not get to see with my smaller glass pens. The line is also very consistent and feel on the page is extremely smooth- the pen just glides across the page. I also really enjoy that the pen is smaller and shorter overall making it more comfortable for longer writing sessions or longer swabbing sessions- especially with my smaller hands. There are several styles available in this brand, and I think for the price these are really great quality, and in the current US market one of your only opportunities to customize the size of the nib of a glass pen.
One of the things that you have to get used to with glass pens is controlling how much ink is in the nib and how much of that ink will go down onto the page. For some pens, if you dip the pen in the ink without allowing some of the ink to drip off or gently wiping some of the ink- the ink will pool on the page or leave extra drips or globs of ink on the page when you first start writing. My advice would be to really spend time learning the pen on scrap paper before you use it to write anything of importance. Each glass dip pen has its own sort of personality, and with practice you learn how it’s typically going to write. I usually have an extra piece of paper out when I’m using glass pens so that I can write a couple of characters with each new ink before I write on my actual page or ink swab. This allows me to see what the writing will look like with that particular ink and get any extra ink off the pen before I start writing on the page.
Overall glass nib pens are a really interesting choice specifically for testing a large amount of inks very quickly. I also think the practice of using the pens has a very different feel than inking up a fountain pen. Obviously, glass pens are very fragile and don’t travel well the same way that my fountain pens do. But there’s just something kind of relaxing or meditative about sitting down with glass pens and inks at my desk and writing or drawing or swabbing inks. I’m excited to see how this specific part of the market will continue to evolve, and if the US market will continue to expand or if some of the Japanese specialty glass pens will become more widely available. I would definitely love to get my hands on one of the ribbon pens at some point in the future!
We have one of each of the following, and each will go to one lucky winner:
9-Vial Case (₱2,125, approx. $44USD)
The case features stitched leather straps that have been designed to perfectly hold 5ml sample vials. While you may not be taking ink samples with you everywhere, those empty vials can also hold extra nibs while not in use, so you could use it for that! As with the others, this is a case with clean lines and a sturdy zip.
The A6 Hobo/Notebook Journal Cover is another unique case. It features a carrying handle along the spine which makes the case a good option for toting your Hobonichi around the office (or home office). It’s got a pen loop, sturdy zip, and some slots for cards (but they’re not quite credit card sized!)
THE DETAILS: Two lucky winners will be selected from the comments on this post to win their choice of either the 9-Vial Case or the A6 Hobo/Notebook Journal Cover.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell us which case you’d prefer to win and what you would put in your new case! 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 midnight CST on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Thursday. Winners 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 7 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.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purposes of this giveaway. Please see the About page for more details.
To celebrate our favorite holiday, May the Fourth Be With You, we are hosting a week long sale in the shop. It’s a once a year event — we are offering 20% off all merchandise and this offer is available in our Big Cartel and Etsy shop. Sales ends on Sunday.
I probably should have titled this week’s Link Love as “All Our Inks Are Blue” since we are chock-a-bloc full of blue ink reviews this week. There are also some stationery-related links in “other interesting things” and a noticeable absence of cats. If you need a cat fix, go back to last week and revisit the Bodega Cats.
In Art & Creativity, Laura launched a new knitting pattern. Check it out and send her a big congrats!
Finally, we say goodbye to another space pioneer this week. Godspeed, Michael Collins, may the view from wherever you are now be stellar.
We need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates. Your patronage will let them know you appreciate their support of the pen community. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!
Between working with hand-dyed yarns and now ink samples, they way I see color has evolved over the years. So I’m especially tickled when the ink samples I’m working with (yellows and golds) match my new project!
First, the 
