In Link Love

Link Love: Pen Show Panic

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: Pen Show Panic

Tomorrow, I head to San Francisco for the SF Pen Show and I’m both excited and a little terrified. I’ll be teaching two classes and hosting a seminar for left-handed fountain pen users plus working at the Vanness Pen Shop booth and trying to visit and explore and participate on some level. But the more pen shows I attend, the more activities I add to my list and the less time and energy I seem to have for after hours socializing and just hanging out. I will try to drink a late afternoon coffee and get charged up to spend some time with friends new and familiar.

If you will be at the show, don’t forget that there are a lot of really unique and interesting classes and some still have spaces available. Check the SF Class Schedule or might I recommend my good friend (and occasional contributor to the blog) Julia van der Wyk’s classes?

Yarnies, there are rumors that we will be attempting to organize an impromptu knitting meet-up in the lobby but I am not sure which evening. I suspect, if you see someone in the lobby knitting or crocheting, just plop down and the knitting meet-up will commence.

If you play Hello Kitty Island and need more friends to visit, find me and we can swap info. I can also link you up with a few other Islanders. Yes, I am THAT nerdy. If you are not going to the show but also play Hello Kitty Island, send me an email chair (“a” symbol thingie +) wellappointeddesk.com and we can make plans.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Other Interesting Things:

We need each other. Please support our sponsors, affiliates or join our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In Paper Review

Notebook Review: Midori Diary with Embroidered bookmark Owl

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Notebook Review: Midori Diary with Embroidered bookmark Owl

Midori has a line of A6 diary notebooks with a flexible bookcloth cover and an adhesive ribbon bookmark with an embroidered animal icon at the bottom. There are four design options: The Owl, The Whale Shark, The Cat and The Bird ($32 each).

The covers are flexible but not floppy. It is a happy medium of durable but bendy enough to open flat. The book is stitched so its durable enough to “crack the spine” if you wanted to fold it back while writing. IT’s a sturdy, pocketable design.

The embroidered bookmark is adhesive at the top so that you can attach it to the top edge of the spine of the diary on the outside or tucked inside if you prefer.

I attached my bookmark on the outside as the stitch work is the same color as the book cloth and won’t cause a bulge in the cover if I stuck it on the inside.

Each book includes 192 pre-printed pages with designs around the edges that compliment the color on the cover and bookmark. There are four different page spread designs with each style.

Above are the four page layout designs in the Owl Diary. The designs are casual illustrations printed in ochre yellow and deep blue. I like the illustration style. Its like a “pre-decorated” page. It would make it perfect for daily journaling while traveling — fun art without having to bring stickers or washi or anything else to jazz up the pages.

The dot grid is in the deep blue color. The paper is definitely Midori-quality in the soft ivory color that Midori paper frequently uses.

I think the Owl Diary is prefect for the colder months of the year and may be the book I use for the months of November, December and such.

In the writing samples, the paper performed like I expected. Perfectly fabulous Midori paper with fountain pens, gel, felt or brush pens.

From the back of the page, the only show through was the leaky rubber stamp ink. All the regular written text is invisible on the back.

My only complaint is that I wished that they had used the gold color for the dots instead of the dark blue to make them a little less vivid and distracting. They would still have been visible but it would make it easier to use a variety of lighter inks without the dots impeding on legibility.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Pen Review

Pen Review: Anterique Mach Ball “Brass Edition” Ballpoint Pen

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Pen Review: Anterique Mach Ball “Brass Edition” Ballpoint Pen

I am not a big ballpoint pen fan. As a lefty, I always feel like ballpoint pens were made to annoy me. They don’t write smoothly when you push your pen, not pull it. This issue is part of why I fell in love with fountain pens. But there are always moments when I need a ballpoint. I need to write on glossy paper stock like a receipt or I just need a pen I can leave in a bag for those grocery lists or other quick notes. That’s where the Anterique Mach Ball “Brass Edition” Ballpoint Pen ($29) comes in. I have used other ballpoints with various level of success but I’ve been using the Anterique for a couple weeks and the weight of the brass barrel along with a really nice refill make this a genuinely usable ballpoint pen, even for a lefty.

The Brass version of the Anterique Mach Ballpoint ships in a test tube container which is a fun packaging option. I can see reusing the tube for storing other items.

I tested the pen, in high humidity/heat advisory Midwest so dry times may be affected by the weather as well as the overhanded lefty writer. I used (from left to right) Midori MD, Cosmo Air Light and 52gsm Tomoe River.

Surprisingly, Cosmo Air Light had the most smudging issues but the toothy nature of the paper helped to slow the gel ink down a little.

With Tomoe River, I had just one smudge towards the top but otherwise I had no issues with the Anterique ink on Tomoe. If you’re looking for a classic look ballpoint to pair with a Hobonichi, this is definitely a good combo. Lefties, be warned about dry time issues but otherwise, go forth!

The last paper I tried was my favorite paper, Midori MD which worked splendily with the B6 Grain Notebook. This is a notebook I’ve been keeping next to my computer for jotting random tidbits and combining it with the Anterique Brass Ballpoint is a great pair. And there was no smudging issues even for this sloppy overwriting lefty.

Overall, I love the classic look of this pen and the brass definitely makes it feel more luxe. IF you want to try an Anterique ballpoint but are on a tight budget, there are simple plastic models ($5.50 each)  also available in an array of colors and now there is a mini version as well!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Gentleman Stationer for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature, Pen Review

Pen Review: Retro 51 Rollerball Conversion Kit

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 2 Comments
Pen Review: Retro 51 Rollerball Conversion Kit

I’ve always been a big fan of rollerball pens that use fountain pen ink. I wrote about them a while back and showed a small sample of my personal rollerball-fountain-pen-ink collection. Since that time, my collection has grown.

The most recent addition to that collection isn’t actually a pen itself but a conversion kit. Retro 51 recently introduced a rollerball conversion kit that converts a Retro 51 fountain pen into a rollerball that uses fountain pen ink.

* Photo from Dromgooles.com

The kit comes with a rollerball “nib”, a collar to fit the fountain pen, and a converter – the assembled set is shown below. Please note that the cap piece is not included in the set.

I chose my favorite Retro 51 fountain pen for this conversion – one with sparkles, unicorns, and rainbows. But the important part here is the rollerball conversion.

I have fit this into several Retro 51 fountain pens of varying ages and it has fit perfectly in all of them. The only annoyance was that the collar in the kit is only available in silver so it does clash a bit with fountain pens with gold or rose gold fittings.

The conversion kit works perfectly with the aesthetic of the pen overall and I was able to cap the pen with no issue.

Looking at the rollerball and the fountain pen sections next to each other show how close the two are to each other in size and shape. The only real difference is in the type of nib each can hold.

The nib itself is a 0.5 mm width (see my previous review mentioned at the beginning of this post for a more in-depth discussion of nib widths on this kind of pen) and I’ve had no problems with it in the three weeks I’ve owned it. When I first inked up the pen, the ink did take a bit of patience before it wanted to write. But once the ink started flowing, I had no further issues.

The Retro 51 rollerball conversion kit can be found at Dromgoole’s and other retailers that carry Retro 51 products. It is listed for $26. While the price surprised me when I first came across the kit, I’m not surprised now that I’ve used it. The collar is metal rather than the plastic I would have expected and the rollerball insert is a heavier build than I’ve found in other conversion pens.

I’m incredibly happy to see Retro 51 branching out into products like this and taking a chance in a new area. I look forward to what they have coming out in the future!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided at a discount by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Crickets & Bookworms

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments
Link Love: Crickets & Bookworms

This week, the Desk HQ has been filled with the sounds of crickets (and a few cicadas) and the sounds of school buses and kids on the playground (yep, Desk HQ is situated across the street from an elementary school). What do the sounds mean? It’s back-to-school time and the summer is coming to an end. But for the pen community, it means shopping for fun (or silly) back-to-school supplies and getting in touch with our inner grade schooler.

I think I’m going to find a cool pencil box and fill it with some gel pens, some fun shaped erasers and a box of crayons because they smell good! Maybe add some stickers, and few mini toys because I am secretly nine years old. Oh! And maybe I’ll visit the library for some new books to read to relive the feeling of a Scholastic Book Fair. Didn’t you love them?!?! How do you celebrate back-to-school season (even if you aren’t actually going back to school)?

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Do you like this week’s illustration? I made it by collaging vintage images together digitally. No AI. This type of work takes time and thought and Patrons of The Well-Appointed Desk receive a packet of my favorite collage designs as postcards when they sign up. Your support helps keep this site running and helps to keep me running (do you how much coffee it take to make the perfect “book worm”????) Please consider joining our Patreon — just don’t use Apple App Store to do. If you subscribe, you’ll hear me rant about Patreon in the most recent member’s only podcast. See??? Win-win! Thank you!

In DIY

Making my own journal.

Author Laura CameronPosted on 3 Comments

I am generally a pretty crafty person, so when I saw that my yarny friend Treasure Goddess was hosting a journal making class at her barn I was ready to sign up. The class was taught by local fiber and textile artist Barrie Mason, who has been selling her wares at local shows for years.

Barrie was delightful and made the class very easy for us by doing the hard parts in advance! We showed up on Saturday morning and among mimosas and muffins, got down to the business of journal making. Barrie provided the signatures of 80lb drawing paper, already folded and precut to size. She also brought a huge selection of covers, papers, threads and adornments for us to choose from, in addition to a bag of tools for each participant to use during the course.

Our first task was to select a cover and optional origami papers to separate the signatures. For covers, there were tons of different colors and options – leather, faux leather, indigo dyed canvas, and what I chose, which was cork. Materials aren’t as hard to come by these days as you might think. We were using heavy weight fabrics designed for bag (and journal!) making and they’re available at many independent fabric stores. Barrie also brought a beautiful selection of origami paper, in intricate patterns and solid colors that we could use to separate our signatures.

Once we had selected our materials, it was time to start. The first thing we needed to do was punch holes in the signatures. I should explain: signatures are groupings of pages that have been folded and trimmed down to size. For the journal that we were making, we were given three signatures. I chose to wrap each in origami paper as shown above. To punch holes in our paper (which would match holes already punched in the covers, and make sewing things easier), we were given a cardboard template (showing the location of the holes), an awl (a sharp pokey tool!) and a thick catalog to use as a cradle. Basically we opened the catalog and place the fold of the papers in the fold of the book. Then we lined up the template and used the awl to poke the holes. It was much easier than I thought!

Once our signatures were prepared, it was time to start sewing. Barrie brought tons of waxed linen thread colors to choose from. Once you had selected what you wanted, she led us through the process of sewing the book together with a blunt tipped needle. In and out and through and round and over and under…. very technical! And after adding each signature, we used a bone folder to keep the creases neat and tidy. And in the end our signatures were firmly held in place by the waxed linen thread and our book was close to done.

The final step was to choose a closure. Barrie provided snaps to those who wanted, but she had also told us we could bring a button or bead that we had in our collections. I had purchased some large purple buttons years ago and had one left – it was perfect. She helped us place it and then our final thread served to wrap around the journal and the button and hold it closed. She also provided a selection of beads – I added one at the end for a little extra weight and decoration.

The final journal is approximately 4.25″ x 6.25″ (11cm x 16cm) and is the perfect size to carry along or throw in a purse. Overall the class was super fun and now I need to decide what to use my new journal for!

In feature

New Girologio Leather Zipper Pouch

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
New Girologio Leather Zipper Pouch

Girologio recently introduced a new Zipper Pouch ($40, available in 4 colors — Midnight Noir, Rustic Saddle, Crimson Ember, and Aqua Breeze). It’s made from buttery-soft, pliable Italian leather and constructed in the US. The Zipper Pouch utilizes top-notch YKK zippers so zipping and unzipping is smooth and easy.

Yes, its a pouch, not an individually divided pen case but I like having some “dump cases” for non-fountain pens and accessories.

The zipper pouch measures approximately 9″ x 3″ x 2.5″ which is long enough to carry unsharpened Blackwing pencils or Tombow ABT Brush Pens. The pouch opens wide enough to dig around in the pouch without having to take everything out to get to something on the bottom.

While I am a bit concerned the light aqua color might show more wear and tear and dirt than a darker color but because the inside is also light its easy to see the contents. And its soooooo pretty. Like Tiffany Blue! So… trade-offs.

The loops on each end make it easy to zip open and closed as well as to carry around your office or pull in and out of your bag. One loop is a thumb loop for zipping the bag shut and the other is large enough to loop your fingers under to lift in and out of your bag. Be sure to remember which end you decide to be the “up” and which the “down”.

I recommend storing pens with the tips facing the longer grab handle as you may be more inclined to tuck in a bag with that end facing up and then reduce any chance of leaking. Storing horizontal is always the best option but when traveling (long distance or just to you local coffeeshop), you may need to carry it vertically.

I was able to cram a lot of pens and stationery accessories into the pouch including several rolls of washi tape, eraser, glue stick, stamps and even some business cards.

All this was in the case, and it easily zipped closed. It’s small size disguises its TARDIS-like capacity.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Girologio/Luxury Brands USA for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.