Thanks to everyone who played along with our giveaway and told us what they would do with 25 Days of Diamine ink samples. And a drum roll please for our winner….
I have emailed our winner directly and await address confirmation for swift delivery. Teri, Jesi and I can open each window together!
Review by Tina Koyama
I’ve been keeping a journal since third grade, and my journal format has changed as my needs have. The past decade or so, I’ve simplified my journal to more of a log: On most days, I write only a few notes to document places I’ve sketched, friends I’ve seen, books I’ve read, movies and TV shows I’ve watched, restaurants I’ve dined in and any noteworthy weather. To make this log, I use an unruled A5-size notebook (for 2020, it will be a Leuchtturm 1917, but I also like Rhodia) and pre-date the first half of the book with a year’s worth of weekly spreads. Occasionally, I need more space to pursue thoughts or ideas, and I’ll use the remaining freeform pages in the second half of the book to write at length. I also use the freeform pages to glue in photos and other ephemera. I usually fill an A5 notebook nicely in a year. Shown below is a page spread from my current journal.
This DIY format continues to serve me well, but the DIY part – ruling the pages in a weekly page spread and filling in the 365 dates – can be tedious and time-consuming. I know I can easily buy planners with a weekly page spread, but usually commercial planners shortchange the weekend by making Saturday and Sunday share a space (a pet peeve). I’d also miss the space for freeform writing following the log. I had been wishing I had some dated stickers that would serve the double duty of dating the spaces while also being prominent enough that ruling the pages would be unnecessary.
My wish was fulfilled by the Himekuri Sticky Calendar ($24) that I spotted on Yoseka Stationery’s Instagram feed recently. The repositionable stickers come on a cardboard backing that can be folded into an easel for desktop display. I chose the colorful and adorable Cat theme. Other themes available from Yoseka are Gray/White, Stamps, and Stationery, which features iconic Japanese stationery brands like Tombow. (Oh, I went back and forth several times between Stationery and Cat!) Apparently other years have featured different themes.
My first thought was to stick the whole year of stickers onto my journal pages before the year began, one week per spread, as I’ve done with my DIY journals. But after preparing the first two weeks, it occurred to me that it would be much more fun to stick one day at a time as I wrote the notes for that day. It’s almost like an advent calendar that lasts all year! On days when I need a bit more space than usual, I could use that space and simply place the next day’s sticker slightly lower on the page. Since they are repositionable, I could also change my mind about their placement as needed.
I’m already looking forward to journaling in 2020!
Yoseka is the only US store where I’ve found Himekuri offered, but Sumthings of Mine in Malaysia carries it, too.
(Products in this review were purchased with my own funds.)
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
This week I decided to take a break from my normal lines of Sailor Studio and Montblanc inks and instead show an ink that is beautiful, inexpensive, but hard to find.
Diamine makes an astoundingly large variety of inks for a wide variety of clients. Some people even joke that Dimaine makes all inks (it isn’t true!). Two of the more interesting presentations of Diamine ink are their Music set and their Flower set. I have admired many of the colors in both sets for a while; the inks in each set are beautiful and well-matched to one another.
The existence of two sets actually became a problem for me, however. I could never decide which set I preferred. But then, I discovered that I didn’t need to purchase an entire set. I could order individual bottles from Cult Pens!
Although ordering from Cult Pens means ordering from overseas, the shipping rates are quite reasonable Music set along with Gerba, Pansy, and Marigold from the Flowers set.
Handel is a lovely pink-purple-brown ink. When it is first laid down, the ink looks rather muddy and pure brown. But as it starts to separate and dry, the purple and pink undertones start to show and then become the dominant colors. Handel is similar to Monteverde Blueberry Muffin but a dusty version of the reddish ink.
I used a glass dip pen for the writing above, so the shading is not as evident, but in the writing below, I used a fine nib that had no problem showing the shading qualities of Handel. It was rather mesmerizing to watch tthe ink turn from muddy brown to a dusty rose as I was writing.
Here’s a close-up of the shading in Handel (even bettter since the word IS Handel so the shading is actually IN Handel! Sorry).
In larger swatches, I found that the brown is more present that it is in writing. A very faint green-black sheen showed up at the edges of a large pool of the ink, but I never saw it in my writing.
I love that the colors are each very muted but easy to see in my writing – it is one ink that makes me want to keep writing longer just to get more of the color down on the page.
I hope you have enjoyed exploring an often overlooked ink with me! If you have any future suggestions, please let me know!
Tools:
DISCLAIMER: All materials used in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details.
As we edge closer to the end of the year, more holiday gift guides continue to emerge in the weekly links I see. Once again, I see a trend of reflection too, like Writing for Pain and Pleasure’s “How Many Versions of the Same Pen Does Anybody Need?” Others are starting to update their Top Lists of the last year, creating recommendation lists and making predictions for the coming year.
There are also more planner reviews and recommendations. Have you chosen your planner yet? Do you have predictions for the pen community for 2020? My Magic 8 Ball did not predict shadow inks craze of 2019, that’s for sure.
Guest Review by Jaclyn Myers (AKA Inkpothesis)
Typically my opinion of an ink forms long after I have opened it. Assessing the important characteristics of an ink requires a pen to be filled, a nib to be dipped, and my Col-o-Ring collection to be expanded by yet another swab.
Other times, the presentation of an ink calls for some commentary. And in this case, two important topics must be addressed before we proceed.
Let’s start with the good news. Montblanc certainly knows what it’s doing when it comes to packaging. It’s not rare to find an ink bottle that catches my eye, but it is rare that I enjoy the process of actually unboxing an ink.
Montblanc special edition inks come in signature drawer-like boxes. They each feature the color of the ink on the inner box, and no detail is overlooked. Like all things Montblanc- it feels premium, and in this particular case, it’s done in a way I appreciate. If I’m judging this ink by outside appearances, consider me hooked.
But before I get too far ahead of myself, I have to go back to the moment I pulled this ink out of it’s shipping box. There’s just that one little thing- the little black text along the bottom of the box. The name of the ink.
I don’t know how many “good” names for pink exist in the world, and I do know that a lot of those names are already taken. Still, out of all the names- does anyone really need another “Ladies Edition” anything in the world? I won’t belabor the point here, as this lesson should have been learned many times over by now (Looking at you Bic for Women). But since something must be written with an ink to properly review it, I might as well make the quote applicable.
The thing that immediately stood out to me about this ink is the shading. In the quote above, I used everything from an extra fine TWSBI nib to a folded nib. With a pastel ink like this one, there’s a very fine line between great shading and sacrificing readability. Overall, I feel like this one strikes that balance well. Even in an extra fine nib, it’s acceptably readable. But in a broad nib and beyond, it really starts to shine. Sheen is all the rage- and I’m all aboard that band wagon- but shading is the dark horse of ink properties, and highly underrated overall.
There are a lot of pink inks in my collection that I REALLY like. Most of those fall under two categories: “eye-searing bright pink” or “dark pink with purple undertones.” So when making comparisons to this ink, I tried to grab a few pinks that I thought off the top of my head might lean towards a more dusty or light pink.
Confident in my choices, I gabbed my trusty Col-o-ring “Oversized” and swabbing accessories…
…I should have consulted with the ink experts Ana and Jesi.
I promise you that all five of the inks above are pink or at least pink-ish inks, but against the Ladies Edition the red tones of each of the other inks is exaggerated. In fact, when I went back to the rest of the inks in my collection- this pure, pastel pink was impressively distinct from all other pinks I currently own. It’s somewhere in the middle of the purple-pinks and red-pinks, and lighter and a little less saturated than most other shades.
Pastel Pink is not my favorite shade of pink. I tend to prefer more saturated inks. Overall however, in a crowded color range, I think Montblanc Ladies Edition Pearl sets itself apart as a pure light pink with excellent shading.
But…if you want a ladies opinion, you might have to look elsewhere.
Jaclyn is a research pharmacist and graduate student in Indianapolis. Follow her on Instagram, on her blog at Inkpothesis, or find her at pen shows behind the NibSmith table.
For several years, we try to do a 12 Days of Inkmas here are The Desk. But Diamine had the genius idea to take it even further and create in the Inkvent Calendar for 2019. Inside the paperboard windows are 24 sample sized vials (7ml each) of unique, holiday-themed ink colors plus one larger 30ml bottle for Christmas Day.
The artwork on the box is charming and will make keeping the Inkvent Calendar out on my table for a month a true delight. It was created by Sarah J. Coleman, aka The Inkymole.
Really though, I cannot wait to punch open those little windows and retrieve what’s inside!
I slid the end of the box open for a quick peek to make sure the bottles had not been damaged in transport. Each bottle is labelled to indicate if the ink is standard, shimmer, sheen or a combination of these traits. I cannot wait to swatch them up! But I am waiting and doing this properly.
For Spoilers, check out posts from Mountain of Ink or Nick Stewart. I prefer to pop each window open one at a time and be surprised and delighted at the colors in the spirit of the holiday.
To our readers in Europe, Appelboom has the Inkvent Calendar (€60.74) in stock!
If you don’t want to leave it to chance, I found a few Inkvent Calendars still in stock:
THE GIVEAWAY:
Now, for the most exciting part. Ms. Jesi was worried she wouldn’t get an Inkvent Calendar so, despite the fact that we order two Inkvent calendars directly from Cultpens back in August, she insisted on ordering a second one — “just in case” — from Pen Chalet when they announced they would also be receiving them. As a result, we here at Desk HQ have an extra Inkvent Calendar to giveaway.
So….
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me how/what/where do you plan to use the Inkvent Calendar inks? 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 moneys some time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, November 22, 2019. 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. If winner does not respond within 3 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. I want to get this in the mail ASAP so that the winner can start their Inkvent Calendar on December 1. Shipping via USPS first class/Prioirty Mail 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.
Review by Tina Koyama
For years I’ve been DIY-ing my own planners because none of the commercially available options gave me the exact format and features I wanted. This year I’m using Baron Fig’s undated planner (dressed up with a little washi fun) which does give me the page layouts I prefer – but I still had to do the work of filling in all the dates. For 2020, I got lazy and decided to forego DIY altogether: I’m trying a Leuchtturm 1917 weekly planner ($23.50) in the A5 size (Ana reviewed the weekly + notebook format a few years ago).
The leatherette hardcover is plain on the front and has an understated debossed logo on the back. The year is debossed on the spine. The elastic band matches the cover (I chose Berry; eight other colors available), and two coordinating ribbon bookmarks are attached instead of the more common single one. An obligatory pocket is on the inside back cover.
Except for Saturday and Sunday having to share space (is it just me, or aren’t weekends as busy as other days for everyone?), the weekly spread has the format I prefer in a planner: plenty of unruled, freeform space for appointments and to-do items as needed.
Several additional planning and information pages are included, such as reference calendars for 2019, 2020 and 2021, vertical planning pages, international holidays and project planning pages. All pages are numbered, as is typical of Leuchtturm’s notebooks, and the last nine blank pages are perforated for easy removeable. Although I tend not to use reference or project planning pages, all the other features are useful (and I’m thrilled to have unruled pages, which are so hard to find in planners).
Also included are a sheet of handy adhesive index labels and a gridded guide sheet – both standard with Leuchtturm notebooks.
An interesting anomaly included in the Leuchtturm planner is a thin, staple-bound booklet, which is suggested for anniversaries and addresses. I recall that Moleskine planners used to come with a similar address book that eventually disappeared. As much as I prefer analog tools to most digital counterparts, I cannot ever see myself giving up Outlook Contacts and going back to a messy, handwritten address book. The Leuchtturm address booklet seems anachronistic. But in fact, I have a use for it! More on this in a moment.
The planner’s ivory paper is the same as in most Leuchtturm notebooks. Shown below are my usual media tests. The paint pen bled through, as expected, as did tiny spots with my juicy Sailor fude fountain pen. None of the pens feathered, however. A more significant issue is the paper’s lack of opacity: There’s quite a bit of ghosting of darker, bolder pens that might annoy some. I generally prefer more opaque paper, but since I’ll usually be writing in my planner with a graphite pencil, show-through will be minimal and not bothersome.
One planner element that I find essential is a monthly calendar in a traditional grid format. This is where I like to record birthdays, anniversaries and other special days. I also use this space to get a long-term overview when I’m planning travel or large projects. Although the Leuchtturm planner includes European-style vertical planners and tiny monthly reference calendars, there’s no monthly page spreads.
This is where that address booklet comes in! I started thinking that its 13 index-tabbed pages would be ideal for making exactly the monthly calendar pages I want. Having already decided I wasn’t in a DIY mood, however, ruling the grids and filling in the dates seemed tedious. I started looking around at all the amazing planner stickers and other tools available these days, and I found the Pine Book Free Diary Washi Tape Set ($9.75). It’s available in several formats (I chose the color set, of course, but a more professional black set, a B6 size, and a set with slightly narrower tapes are also available), including an A5 set, which fits my Leuchtturm planner perfectly.
First, I ruled the page spreads horizontally to accommodate six weeks, which means that two days would never have to share a space at the beginning or end of longer months (as happens in many calendars gridded for five weeks – another planner pet peeve of mine). The provided address-book ruling gave me enough guidance that I didn’t have to measure the spaces; I only had to count lines. I decided that the dates themselves would demarcate the days sufficiently, and vertical grid lines weren’t necessary.
The Pine Book set comes with a 6mm roll of days of the week, and seven of them fit across the A5 page spread nicely. The adhesive is strong but forgiving and can be easily repositioned (in case you’re straight-line-challenged like I am).
Another roll contains a full year of dates. You only have to pay attention to which date starts the week, roll off seven days, and tear off at the handy perforations. Seriously easy and fun!
Month labels are also included. Look at August: On most commercial calendars, you’ll find the 30th and 31st sharing a space. Not on mine, baby!
The last step was to label the index tabs with number indicators for the months. To add more color and to conceal the existing A – Z index labels, I pulled out the Mark’s Maste Washi Tape Set that I got last year to jazz up my Baron Fig planner. The 15mm width fit perfectly on the tabs. Then I placed the Pine Book numbered labels over the tape. Done! All of this took so much less time than DIY-ing my own calendar pages – and it was much more fun, too.
Final Impressions
The Leuchtturm weekly planner has all the features I want in a planner and only one (admittedly idiosyncratic) flaw – the weekend days having to share space – so it’s a nearly ideal planner for me. After all these years of rolling my own, it’s a relief to find something readymade that’s close to perfect.
As for the Pine Book calendar tape set – I like it so much that I’m thinking I might order a set for the following year. I’d love to see more options (Different color themes? More sizes?). And it’s exactly the level of DIY I was up for this year.
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
