Posted April 29, 2009 by Karen Doherty
in Editorial | 2 comments »
Here is the last batch of J. Herbin green and orange ink reviews from our St. Patrick’s Day offer! Our deepest thanks and appreciation to all the reviewers for their comments and their time. The artwork and penmanship are a delight to see. Thank you - all – very much. 
Gentian from Drawing with a Squirrel reviewed Diabolo Menthe, Orange Indien and Vert Reseda.
Daniel from Passion du jour reviewed Vert Empire and Orange Indien.
Seth from Good Pens reviewed Vert Olive.
Stephanie from Spiritual Evolution of the Bean reviewed Diabolo Menthe and Vert Reseda.
Jason from Unposted reviewed Vert Pre.
Kim from Prosaic Paradise reviewed Lierre Sauvage.
John from blog.mignault.net reviewed Vert Empire and Vert Olive on The Fountain Pen Network.
Carys from All the Colors of the Carys reviewed Vert Pre and Orange Indien.
Margana from Inkophile reviewed Vert Reseda.
Beth from BTI Books reviewed Vert Reseda.
Eric from Mon Bon Voyage reviewed Vert Reseda.
Kooky Chick from Potentially Percipicacious reviewed Lierre Sauvage.
and Stephanie from Paper and Pens reviewed Vert Empire.
Posted April 28, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Where to Go? | Add your comment »
The latest entry to our “Where to Go” contest comes from Julie Bynum, who writes in with an account of her trip to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or BWCAW.
Last summer (August) I spent 3 days canoeing and camping in the BWCAW. Now believe me, I am not the outdoorsy type, but the area is absolutely awesome. The trip I took was through the International Wolf Center, which is located in Ely, in partnership with Outward Bound. The people and the area is not to be missed. It is on NatGeo’s list of top 50 places to visit. Here is a link to my photos of this trip and here are two of my favorite photos; and this is me!
I forgot to mention the best part of this trip:
NO CELL PHONES
NO RADIOS
NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES OF ANY KIND
In fact, the only sounds of civilization at all during the trip was the two times that the Park Ranger airplane went over.
For more photos of this trip and others, check out Julie’s pBase site.
Posted April 27, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Planning Tips | Add your comment »
For those of you who’ll be graduating soon or are moving to a new city for work/life/family/whatever, here’s a tip from one of our readers about how to make things easier:
I used the Quo Vadis desk monthly calendar to plan my move from PA to MA and it was wonderful. The large spaces for days, the column for to-do and the year overview were essential in the process.
Good idea!
Posted April 24, 2009 by Karen Doherty
in Where to Go? | 1 comment »
A few people who volunteered via a blog comment to review J. Herbin inks never heard back from me. I can tell you this is not for lack of trying on my part! Either I did not get a complete email address from the poster, or, their email service provider thought a message from karen@exaclair.com was spam!
So, I am reaching out to those of you still waiting for a reply to please ask that you contact me again. I would be happy to send you the bottle of the ink you originally hoped to review. Since people (wisely) did not include their mailing address with their comment, I needed to write back to the person in order to address the package.
Leah and I will be offering contests and reviews on this blog thoughout the year. I can tell you that if you do not hear back from either of us personally by email within 2-3 days of your message (and we usually respond within a day) either we didn’t receive it or our response isn’t being delivered. If I have to request a response from our manufacturing plant or people in France the wait may be a little longer as the question or issue is being researched. Nevertheless, I will contact you to say that I received your question and we’re working on it.
I would ask that those of you who received “No Reply” to please try again by writing to me directly via the form on this blog. And, everyone is always welcome to call me personally at 800-933-8595, Ext. 17 with any complaints, suggestions, or requests. I will do my very best to help you right away.
Posted April 23, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People | 5 comments »
Another impulse buy I made last week at Art Brown is this lovely multicolored pencil from Koh-i-noor. Did anyone else have a pencil like this as a kid? Mine was small and pink, with four different colors of lead stuck together in quarters, like a pie chart, and I cherished it.
In this Koh-i-noor model, the colors are all mottled together, so it’s hard to control which one actually comes out when. Of course, that’s also part of the fun. Here it is on pale yellow paper:
Posted April 21, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People | 6 comments »
When I stopped by Art Brown the other day to pick up some fountain pen supplies, I obviously couldn’t resist having a look around, and I ended up buying something that’s been on my mind for a while: a letter opener. I used to think these were nice, but inessential (and like most city dwellers, I try not to keep too much inessential stuff around the house). Then a couple of weeks ago, I opened an envelope that was taped shut at the top, and almost tore the letter inside.
The carved metal models were cool, but in the end I opted for a light curved wood design. Pretty, right? I figure it might save me a few fingernails, as well.
Do you use a letter opener?
Posted April 20, 2009 by Guest Author
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »
Entrepreneur, inventor, and QV friend Kenneth Schwartz is back today with a fascinating post about making ink from Chinese ink sticks.
I’m attracted to elemental forms of expression – having an understanding of the elements that go into creating something, particularly in my cooking, is an interest of mine. I also enjoy sharpening knives with waterstones – the simple creation of mud from stones is elemental to knife sharpening. So, with inks, it attracted me to try my hand at this primitive means of producing ink by rubbing an ‘ink stick’ to produce a slurry, suitable for making a black ink. This is an ancient technique dating back roughly 2000 years, used for brush painting. By controlling the ink’s density (these are typically made of lampblack and are thus a carbon particle ink), you have the flexibility of controlling the shading of the ink to an even greater degree than only controlling shading with your writing or painting instrument.
The ‘elements’ couldn’t be simpler – an ink stick, a stone ‘well’ or inkstone to make the ink, some water to make the slurry and a brush, or in my case a glass nib, to apply the ink to paper. The ink drawings and calligraphy have withstood the test of time with drawings having survived hundreds of years. An excellent discussion of this history and the relationship of the ink stick in Chinese culture to the scholar who used it in his studies is found here.
After the jump, learn more about Kenneth’s ink stick experiments.
Continue reading »
Posted April 17, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People | 8 comments »
So I finally got around to removing the boring blue cartridge of ink that came with my Phileas and putting in the ink converter. It took a little longer than I expected: I washed, waited, and loaded up some fresh J. Herbin bleu nuit… and then suddenly couldn’t get the two halves of the pen to close.
As a fountain pen novice, of course I figured I must be doing something wrong. I took the converter out, examined it, compared its length and shape to the other cartridge. The converter was a tiny bit longer, but other than that there weren’t any substantial differences. I scoured the Internet to see if anyone else had had the same experience. No-one had. Finally, I set the whole mess aside and resolved to make a trip up to Art Brown to figure out what was going on.
As it turns out, I’d been sent the wrong kind of converter, one that wasn’t even made by Waterman in the first place. I guess that’s the danger of buying pens from an anonymous retailer on Amazon (Pendemonium was all sold out!). Art Brown was more than happy to sell me the proper converter, however, and now I’m inked up and ready to go.
My first tests—photographed on a breezy day, hence the presence of the snail shell / makeshift paperweight—above and after the jump…
Continue reading »
Posted April 15, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Where to Go? | Add your comment »
Jonel Burge joins us this morning with a meditation on her favorite place to go—the deck in her parents’ backyard.
I think… my favorite place to be is home. I’m 20, so… a few years ago when my parents moved to Alabama I helped them build their house and the specific place I love the most is their back deck. Not only does it have internet access (I’m 20, the internets are my life), but it overlooks a hilly area. There are also our cats, which function as my muses. There’s nothing more calming and quiet and inspirational than watching the backyard.
And now that I’m in college, I actually enjoy it a lot more than I used to.
More photographs after the jump…
Continue reading »
