Archive for January, 2011

1670: The future of a limited edition

Posted January 31, 2011 by
in Announcements, Pens, Paper & People | 35 comments »

Last year, J. Herbin introduced a color called rouge hematite in honor of their 340th anniversary. It was created as a limited edition, and it did very well for us over the course of the year. Now that it’s 2011, we’re fielding questions about its continued availability.

If you’re a fan of rouge hematite, or you haven’t gotten the chance to try it yet, there’s good news: the ink will be in production at least through 2012. After that, we’re not sure. As you might have guessed given its name, the intention was originally to make, well, a limited edition. If people keep asking for it, though, we’ll definitely consider adding it to the permanent line-up.

What do you think? Should limited editions truly be limited?

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Marie Roberts, Artist-in-Residence, Coney Island USA

Posted January 31, 2011 by
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 1 comment »

It was my pleasure to meet Marie Roberts at an Exaclair samples sale last December.  An accomplished painter, Marie is a professor of painting at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Coney Island USA’s artist-in-residence.  She is also a member of FPN. 

Marie sent me some cell phone pix of drawings she did in an Exacompta sketchbook that including the King and Queen of Coney Island’s annual Mermaid Parade.  You can see them here. (I love mermaids, so those drawings were a special treat!)

Marie explained: “I tried to include a range of media (pen & ink, wash, watercolor, gel pen) work drawn from life and work invented. The sketchbooks are excellent to carry around because you can work spontaneously or in a worked over protracted manner on paper.”

“The paper is really excellent.  My only wish would be that the books were a bit larger.  Maybe I need to draw smaller.”

Marie is best known for her banners for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. Her canvas advertisements for Donny Vomit, human blockhead; Heather Holliday, the youngest female sword swallower; Serpentina, the snake charmer; and guest freaks like the Lizard Man adorn the CIUSA building. Marie’s banners are a year-round tourist attraction and a favorite subject of photographers.

Want to learn more?

Marie Roberts also teaches workshops on the art, technique and history of banner painting. Coney Island Sideshow School is one of the only places where students can learn the art from a professional working in the field.  Her spring 2011 session begins on Saturday, April 2 at her studio location on Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY.  Please contact her at bitterwonder@hotmail.com for more information.

You can visit with Marie Roberts and her Coney Island banners via Slideshow Picasso, a documentary film by Marilyn Agrelo.

More here on “Portrait of an Artist: Marie Roberts.”

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More to-do lists

Posted January 28, 2011 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 1 comment »

I discovered this charming blog about to-do lists thanks to my French counterpart, Murielle, who wrote about it back in December. It’s filled with all sorts of great stuff — lists about stuff to do before you die, lists about ways to make money, gratitude lists, and much more. (Apparently, there’s also a book.)

What caught my eye in particular was a reference to something I couldn’t actually find on the blog – to-do list tattoos! A quick Google search later, I now know that the product in this picture is a temporary tattoo made by a company called Fred & Friends.

Think of this as the lo-fi version of the to-do tattoo we featured last fall…

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How many planners do you use?

Posted January 25, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 6 comments »

Plenty of people pair a paper planner with a digital device, but how many of you use more than one paper planner? Here’s how one of our fans does it:

I pair the IB Traveler with the Visoplan in a Chelsea cover, and I’ve got everything on the calendar covered!

I paired a Sapa X with a Monthly 4 last year, but the Monthly 4 was really just for gardening, and I kept it in a separate cover. And now that I’ve switched to the Space 17 — which has a monthly calendar in the front — I’m hoping to do everything in one book. Less is more! Or is it? How many planners do you use?

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On office stores: the things they carry

Posted January 21, 2011 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 19 comments »

We recently got an email from a reader who was frustrated that she couldn’t find a refill for her Scholar at Office Depot or Office Max.

Leaving aside the vexed issue of finding refills in local stores (in short, we manufacture and distribute our products, but it’s up to retailers to choose which things they’d like to carry), it’s a question we’d like to consider. Do you shop at those big box office supply chains, and would you like to find our products there? If so, can you do us a favor and let us know? As usual, we can’t promise anything — the price points may be too low, for example. But if enough people write in or comment on this post, we can at least gauge the level of interest…

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Monthly planning

Posted January 19, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips, Product Reviews | 10 comments »

Another idea we’ve been bandying about recently: monthly planning. We know it’s important to people — to the point where Laurie recently made her own monthly planner to stick inside her Trinote! We can’t promise anything, but we definitely hear your concerns.

In the meantime, it’s worth noting that all Exacompta formats (Space 17, Space 24, Daily Pocket, and Visual) offer some sort of monthly planner, and that several of our monthly formats could be tucked inside other calendars:

• Visoplan with IB Traveler
• Monthly 4 with Trinote, Prenote, Septanote
• Exaplan with Business and University (not a perfect fit, but it should work)

I realize that mashups aren’t for everyone, but since our planner films are created at least one calendar year in advance, it may be a more realistic solution for the short-to-medium term…

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Move the pocket? Part II…

Posted January 18, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews | 9 comments »

A couple months ago, Karen wrote a post on Rhodia Drive about moving the Webbie’s pocket from the back to the front of the notebook, as per a reader suggestion:

I generally write on one side of each page in a journal. I also use the rear pocket for ticket stubs, receipts, mementos, etc. As the pocket gets things in it it becomes more and more awkward to write on the right side of the open journal. Has there ever been any thought of moving the pocket to inside the front cover, instead of the rear?

We got lots of great feedback in the comments (I particularly loved one commenter’s suggestion of a customizable stick-on pocket), and because I’m guessing Habana fans will also have opinions on the matter, I decided to post the question here.

What do you think? Are you happy with your pockets in the back, or would you prefer to see something different?

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Habana: the new artist series

Posted January 13, 2011 by
in Announcements, Beautiful Creations | 31 comments »

Speaking of cover designs, I’m excited to announce a new addition to our Habana family… a suite of “artist series” notebooks with artwork on the covers. First in line are these darling “Haring Habanas,” as we call them, that feature the art of Keith Haring! We’re importing them from France, and they should be available later on this year. I’ll post more info on the timing when we have it, but in the meantime, here are the specs:

• 85g fountain pen friendly ivory paper
• Lined
• Expanding pocket
• Elastic closure
• Black ribbon bookmark

There’ll be four designs and two sizes in total.

“Baby,” above, comes in small (4×6) and large (6-1/4×9-1/2). Continue reading »

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Travel writing

Posted January 12, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 7 comments »

Do you keep a travel journal? I ask because we’ve noticed some travel stores carrying Clairefontaine for the purpose, and we’re curious about people’s habits.

Do you keep a separate notebook just for travel? If so, what do you look for in the notebooks that you use?

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Cover designs

Posted January 10, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »

Here’s a suggestion we received from a Scholar user:

I wish you could get more decorative colors, or covers with a little bit of a design. Only the nonrefillable ones have a design, which I almost got except I harm the environment less with a reusable cover, so make some covers for the hippies in the world!

When I first started blogging for Quo Vadis, Karen sent me a lovely planner from our Robert le heros collection — powder blue, at that time. The format didn’t work for me, so I switched to a refillable planner. First, though, I ripped the leatherette cover off its cardboard backing since it seemed silly to let it go to waste. (Sadly, it didn’t look as inspiring after it’d been skinned, and is doubtless now buried deep in some box somewhere.)

At any rate, I sympathize with those who want a bit of decoration on their covers – though I daresay our Club covers offer plenty of fun colors! The reason we don’t make reusable graphic covers is because of our licensing agreements, which are negotiated in France and geared toward the French marketplace. We can license those designs in the US, but we can’t change the basic terms of the agreement.

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