The Well-Appointed Desk

Link Love: Creative Self

AnaJune 17, 2020June 17, 20203 Comments

Today, I am spending the day watching the Adobe 99U Conference: The Creative Self. Usually, the conference is held in NYC but because of this year’s pandemic, the conference was held online and Adobe opened it up for free to anyone who wanted to participate. There is so much uncertainty in the creative field (there’s a post below suggesting a loss of 20% of all creative jobs in the UK) as tis true in so many other fields. Many of the topics deal with staying creative and fighting burnout which can apply to anyone whether you work in design or another field. We are all creative thinkers so check it out.

Strangely, there are two disappointing pens in the pen review section. We, as pen reviewers, tend to like most pens but we also know that it’s important to let readers know when pens are not good. Both of these pens are not one-off cases. I’ve seen other reviews of these products that suggest that these were not isolated incidents. I hope that both manufacturers are seeing this and planning to redesign and retool these products.

We will continue to post about both Black Lives Matter and the pandemic as it crosses our path and seems relevant and important. I want to see more BIPOC in the creative and pen community and getting more recognition for their contributions. The pandemic continues to effect our economy globally as well as our health and our communities (both digitally and in the real world) so I’ll include links where it seems appropriate.

Giveaway Winners: Nibgrinder & Skylab/Desk Packages

AnaJune 16, 2020June 16, 20205 Comments

Thanks to everyone who entered our tenth giveaway in honor of our tenth anniversary! This has been such fun! Would you believe the Random Number Generator picked three people who all wanted different prizes? Thanks, RNG!

Keep reading! Keep commenting! We’ll keep hosting giveaways… just maybe not 10 in 10 days because I needed a freakin’ spreadsheet and I hate Exel. If we make it to 20 years, we’ll reconsider it.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Diamine Florida Blue

Laura CameronJune 16, 2020June 16, 20204 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

As you might have guessed, I’m continuing to order samples of blue ink in honor of the Pantone color of the year. Today I’ve got some Diamine Florida Blue (30mL, $7.50) up for review!

Florida Blue is a bright blue that I found leaned somewhat turquoise in application. It reminds me of the warm waters surrounding Florida, so I guess it’s aptly named.

This one shades nicely, but doesn’t sheen. Even in ink drops, it is just beautiful brilliant blue.

From my collection, I think the closest inks to Florida Blue are Colorverse’s Supernova and Pen BBS #128, Santorini. Gotta love those ocean blues!

Diamine inks perform really well for me. Not too wet and not too dry, they’re the perfect middle road. With a million colors to choose from (ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration) and a fairly low price point, I think they’re a great ink to experiment with!

I don’t know if it exactly fits the “Classic Blue” that Pantone had in mind, but I’m totally digging this blue and I’m glad I’ve added it to the stash.

Paper: Crossfield Journal ($24.00)
Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) and Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards ($15)
Ink: Diamine Florida Blue (30mL, $7.50)

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.

In feature

BONUS GIVEAWAY: Retro51 The System Alloy from ClickyPost

AnaJune 16, 2020June 22, 2020221 Comments

Mike Dudek from ClickyPost created one of the most favorite Retro51 pens, The System, and did a special edition in all-alloy. It sold out in a nanosecond but he has ONE and because Mike is a generous soul, he decided to let you wonderful folks have a shot (to the moon) at winning it.

The solar system is acid-etched into the pen, in a tumbled, pewter finish, the debossed lines of the planets and their orbit trajectories darkened to be seen and felt. This is a rare opportunity to hold the universe (or at least the solar system) in your hands.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me your favorite space-related bit of trivia, quote, movie, book, etc. Can be fact or fiction but let’s reach for the stars! 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 10pm CST on Friday, June 19, 2020. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner 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. Winner must respond within 5 days or I will draw a new giveaway winner (Check your spam!). Shipping will be handled by Mike Dudek/Clicky Post. If you want faster, fancier shipping or added insurance, the winner will be responsible for covering those costs. 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 by The Clicky Post for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Pencil Review

Mechanical Pencil Lead Review: Caran d’Ache 2mm Colored Leads

AnaJune 15, 2020June 12, 20201 Comment

Review by Tina Koyama

Mechanical pencils and lead holders are not a large part of my (otherwise vast) stationery stash. I have a few clutches for art materials, and I keep a couple of mechanicals on principle, but I love woodcased pencils so much more for tactical and esthetic reasons that I don’t reach for mechanicals often.

Recently, however, I heard about some colored leads made by Caran d’Ache that got my attention. I’ve long been a huge fan of Caran d’Ache woodcased colored pencils . . . I couldn’t resist trying the Swiss company’s 2mm colored leads (set of 4/$20.50)!

Sold in a set of four leads – one each of yellow, red, blue and green – they come packaged in a slim, transparent tube. Let me get this picky complaint out of the way: The tiny stopper on the soft tube is a bear to pull off. It would have been nice to see these dearly priced leads packed in a hard plastic box (certainly I’ve seen graphite leads sold in such boxes, including Caran d’Ache’s own graphite leads). With that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff.

While making basic scribbles, I was immediately taken by how soft these 2mm leads are. A couple of years ago, I reviewed Koh-i-Noor’s Diamond Lead Holder Drawing Pencils with colored leads, which were the best colored leads I had used up to then. Although I wouldn’t have called them “soft” by woodcased pencil standards, they were satisfactorily soft to sketch with. The Caran d’Ache leads are significantly softer yet! Mind you, not creamy-Prismacolor soft – I’m not sure it’s possible to fairly compare a clutch lead with a woodcased pencil – but soft enough to make me sit up straight. These were different!

As a convention, I tested for erasing also, though I wasn’t optimistic. I first tried a Tombow Mono Smart (which was a finalist in my Blackwing eraser hack-a-thon), and the color barely budged. Then I tried the Seed Sun Dolphin 3 electric eraser (a favorite in my eraser rub-off challenge), and it didn’t fare much better. Don’t bother erasing these.

It was time for the only test that really matters to me: the sketch test. Stupidly, I couldn’t find my Koh-i-Noor Diamond lead holders until after I had finished the sketch, so I used what I had easily at hand, a Mitsubishi Uni lead holder, and changed the lead each time I needed a different color. (Yes, it was tedious and annoying, but I was so eager to get to the sketch that I couldn’t take the time to keep looking.) The pigment applied and blended beautifully, just like many woodcased colored pencils, and look at the rich hues that resulted!

As I said, it’s hard for me to compare a lead with a woodcased pencil, but I’d put it somewhere in the range of a Faber-Castell Polychromos, which is on the harder end of the scale of artist-quality pencils. And the pigment content is right up there with the quality I would expect from any colored pencil bearing Caran d’Ache’s name.

Final Impressions

Immediately after I finished the sketch, I remembered where I had put my Koh-i-Noor lead holders, so I filled the appropriate colors with these remarkable Caran d’Ache leads. I also gave passing thought to my Pentel Multi 8 2mm lead holder, but I knew from my experience with the Koh-i-Noor leads that I’d have to break the Caran d’Ache leads to get them to fit. The heck if I’m going to break leads that cost more than $5 each! I will happily use them in my Koh-i-Noor lead holders. (Goldspot, which provided the Caran d’Ache leads, also carries a 2mm Caran d’Ache Fixpencil lead holder, but only in black.)

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

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

In news

Giveaway Winners: Vanness Pen Shop Inks & Esterbrook Camden Composition Pen

AnaJune 15, 2020June 15, 2020Leave a comment

Last week was such a fun week. I was able to give away so many amazing gifts to readers as part of our tenth anniversary celebration. Everyone who entered shared wonderful birthday stories and their favorite inks. I’ve added some great ideas for future birthday celebrations and some inks to check out.

Thanks to Lisa at Vanness Pen Shop and Cary at Kenro/Esterbrook who provided these awesome prizes for the readers of The Well-Appointed Desk.

So, I’m about to make some new friends very happy.

The winner of the Vanness Pen Shop Ink set:

and the winner of the Esterbrook Camden Composition Fountain Pen:

In feature

Giveaway #10: The Well-Appointed Desk + NibGrinder Bonus

AnaJune 12, 2020June 16, 2020304 Comments

For our final Anniversary giveaway, Bob and I decided to basically giveaway the store, so to speak. And we’ve had some help from our good pal Mark Bacas at Nibgrinder who decided to dial this giveaway up to 11!

So, we decided to divide our giveaway into THREE different packages so we will pick THREE giveaway winners.

Package #1: Swatch it like you mean it

This package includes:

Package #2: Beam Me Up, Chewie.

(Yes, I mixed quotes… It’ll make sense if you win this package, I promise.)

This package includes a whole bunch of our space-themed, letterpress-printed, fountain pen-friendly (except the coasters which are drink-friendly), pop culture products:

Package #3: Nibgrinder Rocks!

Our last package comes from Mark Bacas at Nibgrinder who has kindly donated a TWBI fountain pen of your choice from his current inventory with a custom ground to your specifications.

So, how do you enter this giveaway? We are going to make easy on you this time.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me which package you want (and why). Call ’em out by name or number! Play along and type in something. If you don’t we will disqualify your entry. Plus, it makes reading through entries more interesting, okay? One entry per person.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Monday, June 15, 2020. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Tuesday. Winner(s) 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. I do need to forward your contact info to Mark Bacas at Nibgrinder if you win the TWSBI/nib grind in order to fulfill your order. If winner does not respond within 5 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: Some items included in this post were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Black Lives Matter:

Coronavirus/COVID-19:

Package #1: Swatch it like you mean it

Package #2: Beam Me Up, Chewie.

Package #3: Nibgrinder Rocks!