The Well-Appointed Desk

Sticker Up Your Stationery Love

AnaJuly 31, 2020July 13, 20203 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

Back in the day when I frequented coffee shops, I was often impressed by laptops I would see that were completely encrusted with stickers. I have never been one to sticker up my hardware, not even my bumpers, but my sketchbooks and notebooks are another matter. Stillman & Birn sketchbooks, my everyday-carry, are a blank canvas waiting to be stickered, as are some Field Notes covers. And many of my favorite stickers have stationery themes – especially pencils!

In addition to “eclectic, unusual, and desirable stationery accessories, paper, and tools,” stationery purveyor Notegeist sells stickers featuring the shop’s personable ghosty mascots, Blackwing pencils and even stationery geekiness itself (emblazoned on an actual bumper sticker, no less).

Lead Fast, a pencil and notebook review blog, offers a few unique pencil-related sticker designs, including one for the fictional Borrowdale Mining Company. It’s kind of an in-joke for pencil geeks. (I also own a Borrowdale Mining Company T-shirt.)

Speaking of unique, Etsy shop Ernest Theodore offers hand-illustrated Field Notes, “hackwinged” pencils (Blackwing ferrules attached to vintage pencils), custom handmade desk organizers, pencil extenders hacked with Blackwing ferrules, and many other surprises. After my own less-than-satisfying experience using a Tsunago, I bought some Tsunago’d pencils from this shop because by then I had a much greater appreciation for how finicky that tool is (and I never wanted to use it again). In addition to all of that, stickers are a creative mashup of Wolverine, robots, Ghostbusters and more – all with a pencil twist.

Perhaps my favorite stationery-themed stickers come from another Etsy shop, Kamikokuen. Specializing in vintage Japanese pencils, this shop owner has also turned sticker designer lately, with new designs showing up regularly. I love the Star Wars-themed ones – R2 as a pencil! Look closely – pencils are hidden everywhere. Many stickers are limited editions, so if you see something you like, better grab ‘em.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. (Other stickers shown in my photo are from Brand Name Pencils, Draplin Design Co., Two Rivers Trading and Random Thinks. These were purchased with the reviewers own money.) Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Vinta Inks Makopa

Jessica ColesJuly 30, 2020July 30, 2020Leave a comment

By Jessica Coles

Purple. Gold sheen. Ink. New. The combination of those words made it a sure buy for me. The only trouble I had was deciding to get a sample size or a full bottle. Vinta Inks just released a new group of colors (I will be reviewing the others soon) and the Makopa color beckoned me from first sight. I found it last week while I was ~~haunting~~ browsing the new inks on the Vanness website.

Makopa has not disappointed me.

As you can see below, this is a bold color. My first impression was of Diamine Magenta Flash, although that ink contains plenty of sparkle as well. Makopa has no sparkle, just sheen.

Diamine Magenta Flash ended up being slightly too pink in comparison. J. Herbin Cassis is probably the closest, but depending on the width of the nib, the base color is closer to Fuchsia.

Makopa sites right in-between pink and purple in a place that can only be magenta in my mind. It takes me back to Lisa Frank, puffy stickers, leg warmers, and unicorns. The sheen in this ink is not overpowering compared to many high sheen inks – instead, the bright gold of the sheen only shows occasionally while a toned down greenish gold dials down the brightness of the underlying magenta.

A writing sample, using a Pilot fine nib – one of the finer nibs I own. I wanted to see how the ink would perform in such small lines. I have had this pen inked up for several days and have never experienced hard starts or dryness. It writes like a non-sheening ink, flowing very well.

One characteristic of sheen inks that I hate is their tendency to smear. When I used Makopa on Tomoe River paper, I fully expected the smearing to be an issue. When I was writing normally, I was shocked that it never smeared. In fact, it also dried quickly – under 15 seconds. Only when I laid down a large amount of ink did it smear a bit.

Waterproof? No. Although you can definitely still see the writing. The bright pink stains everything around the writing – quite pleasant to me. Two drops on the left were simply dropped on the grid then blotted up. the two drops on the right were smeared around before blotting up.

I’m quite happy that I purchased an entire bottle of Makopa. I have a feeling this is going to be an ink that is hard to keep in stock. Sorry, Vannesses!

Notebook: Musubi Tomoe River Folio (~$35 for 384 pages)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) and Col-o-Ring “Dipper” ($5)
Ink: Vinta Inks Malayan Apple Makopa 1938 (30mL, $12.50)

DISCLAIMER: All items in this review were purchased by me. Except for the Col-o-ring which was provided to me by a wonderful person who pays me to write blogs by keeping me supplied with Col-o-rings and now Dippers as well. Please see the About page for more details.

In Desk Set

Books for the Desk Set: Sketchbook Books

AnaJuly 29, 2020July 29, 20203 Comments

About a week ago, Notebook Stories posted a photo on Instagram of a delicious collection of books about sketchbooks. I threw down the gauntlet and insisted a more in-depth post about the books shown. It only seemed fair to return the favor. So, here are a few of my favorite sketchbook books:

Jason Brooks, James Gulliver Hancock and Sara Midda are all travel-related sketchbooks which let me virtually travel these days. Jason Brooks has a New York edition out and James Gulliver Hancock has books from several other cities so I could definitely stand to expand my collection. Rex Ray’s book is more of a reflection on his career but I think of it as a sketchbook because it shows the earlier, collage days of his work and then his later paintings.

Mark Hearld’s book shows some of his process as well as his whimsical collage creations. It’s so unique and wonderful.

The last two books are both from the comic book world. One is a larger overview of comic book artists’ sketchbooks curated by the legendary design writer, Steven Heller and the last book is a tome about Jaime Hernandez, one of my all-time favorite comic book artist. He and his brothers and their Love & Rockets series was so influential in my formative years for aesthetics, storytelling and perspective.

I put all these books into an Amazon List to make is easier to find the books. Some are out of print but there may be other books by the same creators that are still available so it’s a good place to start if any of these look appealing to you. If I find anymore books, I’ll add them to this list.

I swear I have more sketchbook books but they are scattered all over the house. Our filing system is a little odd so I may have a follow-up post in a few days. We organize by sub-sub-genre so if there’s a sketchbook book by an illustrator who specialized in space or sci-fi, it would be filed in our sci-fi section, not sketchbooks. You can see the challenge…

DISCLAIMER: The item in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Hurtling Into the Future

AnaJuly 29, 2020July 29, 20205 Comments

This week, I’m reminded of a quote from the brilliant mind of John Hughes, spoken through the sage Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast.” Even in the Age of COVID-19, I feel like we have rocketed from March to August in a sheltered-at-home, face-masked, hand-sanitizer cloud. Our whole world has changed over the last few months.

Now, as autumn approaches, like so many other people, I am getting ready to go back to school — but as a teacher at a local college. I’ll be teaching graphic design. Since the pandemic has affected how classes will be taught, I am not only having to get a handle on my new job and curriculum but also how to teach a studio design class over Zoom. I do get to select supplies for a whole class of students though. I feel particularly qualified for this part of my job.

What are you looking forward to in the next few months?

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In Pen Review

Pen Review: Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight 1.0, set of 10

Laura CameronJuly 28, 2020July 28, 20202 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Friend of the Show, The Pen Addict’s membership podcast where Brad interviews members of the pen community. One of the questions Brad always asks his guests is where their love for fountain pens started.

You’ve already heard about how I started into fountain pens (I’ve shared it over the past few years on the blog) but one of the things I remember fondly from being a kid is the Hello Kitty store at the local mall and Sakura Gelly Roll pens!

It turns out there are a LOT more of them today. When I went looking for my favorites, I found a million different kinds and sets and I eventually settled on the Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight 1.0 – 10 pen set ($10.75 at JetPens, also available in 0.6).

Included in my set were 5 fluorescent colors (which apparently glow in blacklight!) and 5 colors in archival, pigment based ink. I went ahead and took them out for a spin in the front of my Catherine Pooler Canvo Journal which already had doodles just waiting to be colored in!

The colors are super saturated and take a while to dry, but the whole exercise reminds me of a Lisa Frank binder!

I don’t know whether you’ve tried Sakura Gelly Roll pens, but they’re my favorite gel ink pens hands down and this was a nice bit of nostalgia for me! Now to save my pennies for the 74-color set!

In feature

Holiday In July: Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2019

AnaJuly 25, 2020July 25, 20202 Comments

Last December I was a little overwhelmed. Between work, the holidays and life, getting time to actually enjoy the Diamine Inkvent Calendar didn’t happen. I was able to open about half of the calendar before time got away from me. I wanted to enjoy the experience of opening each window and the inks so, on the advice of Jesi, I saved the calendar. Then the pandemic came along and this summer became the perfect opportunity to take time to open and enjoy these inks. This also coincided with Diamine releasing full-sized bottles of the colors originally included in the Inkvent calendar called the Diamine Blue Edition Collection ($15 per bottle) in new, whimsical shaped 50ml bottles.

The original Inkvent Calendar was a paperboard package that featured classic perforated windows. Under each numbered window there was one of twenty-four 7ml glass vials and on the 25th, they included a large 30ml bottle.

Each bottle indicates the color as well as whether the ink is sheen, shimmer, standard or a combination of these characteristics. The new Blue Edition Collection lists the inks with the same notations.

Per the listings, the inks are as follows:

Standard

Elf
Purple Bow
Gingerbread
Fire Ember
Mistletoe
Mulled Wine
Ho ho ho
Nutcracker
Triple Chocolate
Poinsettia
Candy Cane
Roasted Chestnut

Sheen

Midnight Hour
Festive Cheer
Holly
Polar Glow
Noel
Season’s Greetings

Shimmer

Solstice
Blue Peppermint
Gold Star
Snow Storm

Shimmer & Sheen

Winter Miracle
Jack Frost
Happy Holidays

This video will give you a day-by-day swatch preview of each color from day one to day twenty-five. There’s no audio for this video, it’s just a flip through.

I’ve also grouped each of the swatches by color. I’ll start with the reds. The set included six reds. It’s a holiday set and red is a predominate color for the holidays. There are three bright reds and three darker reds. Candy Cane is a little more pinky-red/cooler red. Ho Ho Ho is very Santa suit red. Fire Embers is a warm red-orange. Surprisingly, none of the reds were shimmers. The only sheener was Noel and it was almost a wine color.

I think the holidays is one time where it is entirely acceptable to have a shimmer ink for addressing holiday cards or packages. I think including a shimmery red ink would be totally appropriate in the Inkvent calendar and was a missed opportunity. For 2020, shimmery red with silver particles is my recommendation.

I found Poinsettia to be very watery. It bled on my swatch cards and that seldom happens. I noticed that it happened on the Vanness swatches too so it’s clearly the ink and not my nib.

There were five blue shades in the calendar. They are lovely colors but five is a lot of blues especially considering that blue is a common color in most ink collections. With a small sample size like the Inkvent calendar features, I think being more experimental is totally acceptable. It’s a great place to try out inks and get feedback from consumers.

The next grouping of colors is browns. There are four browns in the set. I think all four colors are lovely but naming two after nuts was unimaginative. I would have renamed Nutcracker and called it Santa’s Boots or after one of the reindeer or Sleigh Horses or something. There are lots of options. And again, I think there could have been more experimentation here.

There are three greens in the set. Elf is a classic bright green, Mistletoe is a deeper green and Holly is a more deep forest blue-green. It’s a decent range but next year, I’m hoping for some more vintage-inspired pale greens, aquas or celadon.

There are two violets: Winter Miracle and Purple Bow. Winter Miracle has a lot of sheen. It’s supposed to have shimmer as well but I had trouble seeing it. Maybe because it’s such a deep color. Purple Bow is listed as a standard ink but on Col-o-ring paper there’s a little bit of a reddish halo sheen.

Finally, there are five standalone colors: a gold, an aqua, a grey, a green-black, and a deep navy/blue-black. Besides being standalone colors, several of these are also shimmers: Blue Peppermint, Snow Storm, Gold Star and Solstice. Season’s Greetings is a sheening ink that is an unusual blue-black/deep navy color. While I don’t use a lot of shimmer inks in fountain pens (I tend to use them with dip pens more often), I like some of these ink colors best in the set, maybe because they are more unusual?

I did a quick ink vial stamp and swab of each color in order (from bottom to top) on Col-o-ring OVERSIZE to have a record of the colors altogether since they will get separated in my Col-o-ring and Col-o-Col-o-dex by color.

Of the set, I think Polar Glow, Mulled Wine, Gold Star and Gingerbread are my favorites. At some point, I might buy a full bottle of one of these but I would I rather wait to see if Diamine will try to repeat the success of 2019 with a 2020 Inkvent Calendar.

Tools:

Pens: Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib Holder – Model 40 dip nib holder ($8.25) with Zebra G chrome nib ($13.50 per 10-pack)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10), Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15), Col-o-ring OVERSIZE ($15)
Brush: Schraff 3000 Fineline #3 Round ($34.50)
Ink: Diamine 2019 Inkvent Calendar, now available as Blue Edition Ink Collection ($20 for 50ml bottle)

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

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