I confess: I am an inveterate yard sale, junk shop, used bookstore, antique store, tag sale, estate sale, flea market shopper.  I am forever on the lookout for the lost treasure–hidden from all eyes but mine. I have often wondered what attracts me…and with no other outstanding answer, have put it down to the love of the smell of old paper; an appreciation of objects and people that have been a part of history; and a hopeless hope to find at least one piece of the family silver.  My uncle sold it decades ago, and I have always mourned its loss.

Each year the Orient, NY Congregational Church (founded in the early 19th c.) sponsors a yard sale featuring old books in excellent condition.  Working for a stationery company, I am always on the lookout for old agendas, diaries and journals. On Saturday I went home with my latest find:  The Wanamaker Diary 1937. My book is unmarked. There’s a mystery – someone kept it all these years.

The Wanamaker Diary was issued by Wanamaker’s Department Store, Broadway & 8th Street, in Manhattan.  Intended as a recordkeeping book and souvenir, it is crammed with information, advice, and facts about New York, including seating charts for theaters and stadiums in the city.  It has whole sections on astronomy, astrology, legal holidays, receipts and payments pages. Ads, of course! Each page is numbered. The binding is perfect and the pages have a slight tinge of yellow. Only its charm betrays its age.

I particularly enjoyed this piece of trivia on the page for January 19/20: “The paper on which Bank of England currency is printed is made from white linen rags, formerly obtained from English shirts when discarded. Today, however, practically every Englishman wears colored shirts. The result is foreign shirts, mostly from France, where white linen is still genteel, are relied upon in the making of bank notes. The worn out shirt of a French peasant is sent to the Laverstoke mill and turned into Bank of England notes.”

Wanamaker’s Department Store was founded in Philadelphia in 1887.   Wanamaker’s sent buyers overseas to Europe to scout for the latest trends and luxuries. They expanded to New York City in 1896. News of the Titanic’s sinking was transmitted to Wanamaker’s wireless station on the roof of the New York store and given to anxious crowds waiting outside.  A famous landmark in Manhattan, the store was razed by fire in 1956, 34 years after the death of its founder, John Wanamaker.

The Wanamaker Diary was printed by Cary Press Corporation, 406 West 31st Street, New York.  That’s just two blocks from where I work at Exaclair.  I’ll have to walk over this week and see who’s there.

Alberto Lung’s phenomenal Manga-like artwork has popped up before on this blog and on Rhodia Drive. Here, then, is one of a small-but-growing library of his YouTube videos, where he plays with different materials and demonstrates his techniques.

In the video embedded above, Alberto does a few sketches with a glass pen, an Exacompta pad, and J. Herbin’s anniversary ink. Awesome to watch them evolve, no?

Here’s something I couldn’t resist purchasing at the Glass House gift shop: Graphkins, these cute little graph paper napkins. Made of 2-ply recycled paper, they measure 6.5″ square and come ready to be written on with a light blue printed graph background. As Colin O’Dowd, their inventor, explains on his website:

Some of the world’s greatest designs, famous buildings and innovative ideas have all started out as sketches on paper napkins. Now with graphkin you can doodle n’ dine with real accuracy!

At $6.50 for a pack of 12, they weren’t cheap, and I suppose it goes without saying that they weren’t very fountain pen friendly. Still, for a small dinner party, what a great conversation starter! They’re available through Colin’s online shop for 3.50 GBP; I couldn’t find any other North American vendors, but if you live near New Canaan, CT, you can swing by the gift shop and pick up a pack for yourself.

Our latest Writers’ Project interview just launched!

This time, we spoke with bestselling suspense author Jeff Abbott, who told us about his life, his writing routines, and his new book, Adrenaline.

You can read the interview at the Writers’ Project website. And if you missed our last interview, with Damon Young, be sure to check it out in the archives.

Photo by EJ Azucena; styling by Kristine Grace L. Natividad and Donna Bae Malayang

Many of you know Clement Dionglay from her blog, Rants of the Archer. I caught up with her recently to ask a few questions about her background, life, and hobbies…

Tell us about yourself… where are you from, where do you live, and so on?

I’m Clement Dionglay, a.k.a The Archer, the person behind Rants of the Archer blog. I was born in the sleepy town of Alaminos, Laguna, a big province south of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. I am currently based in Los Baños, a small, closely-knit science community in the same province where I grew up; where I am currently engaged as a publications designer and electronic list keeper in an international organization. I am currently working on a degree through distance learning that I am scheduled to finish in a year. I’m a doting aunt to four girls aged 1 to 10, and an avid hoarder of a lot of stuff.

How did your passion for pens and paper develop?

My passion for pens and paper developed at a very early age. I was writing (and reading) long before I started schooling. My maternal grandmother was an elementary teacher, and had lots of paper I used to doodle on. I even had hand-me-down notebooks from my aunts and these were my first notebooks. My aunts supplied me with pencils and other stationery (scented erasers, colorful Sanrio stationery) and that I guess became the starting point of my longest love affair – that with pen and paper.

When did you start practicing the gorgeous calligraphy that we see on your blog?

I started doing calligraphy only very recently. I forced myself to learn the art after I received my first 2 bottles of J. Herbin ink out of the Bastille Day offer last year. I was about to write a review of the inks and I wanted to come up with a little extra aside from my regular handwriting, so I took out my Lamy Joy set and downloaded a lot of Chancery calligraphy guides from the internet. And I found out it wasn’t even difficult at all!

What are your favorite pens at the moment? Your favorite notebooks and inks?

I love Sheaffer pens. I got several NoNonsense pens and I love them. They are dependable, durable writers. But my daily stable of pens also include Schneider Base pens and several Lamy Safaris. I love blue and brown inks — Bleu Pervenche reminds of somebody’s dress, Terre de Feu of somebody’s eyes. I keep a large Quo Vadis Habana as my journal, and despite its weight, it’s currently my favorite notebook.

Which pens have surprised you most over the years, either positively or negatively?

My pens are mostly student grade pens. I love them all because they function well, and I am able to use them fully. What surprised me the most is the set of two Manuscript calligraphy pens I got from a store selling used clothes and shoes. I got the set for P50 (a little over $1) and did not like them at first because they have crisp italic nibs. After I learned doing Chancery calligraphy, I found out that these pens do fantastic work! So much value for their price.

I understand from your blog that you’re an avid diarist. Do you have any particular writing routines — a certain place, time of day, etc.?

Yes, I love writing in my diary/journal. I have a strange preference of where to write: on my dining table! LOL! Seriously though, I write, do craft, paint and even sew on my dining table. I don’t remember how this strange practice started, but I love using the dining table, perhaps because it’s bigger than my study/work table. I love to write at night, when I’m done with most of my chores and the neighborhood gets some semblance of calm and quiet. I like to write in silence. I always have. Silence brings me so much: words, emotions, remembrances — even sound. Writing has become ceremonial for me. Almost ritualistic. I like to write after my night bath, with a mug of steaming hot tea next to me. While I’m a coffee drinker, I love sipping tea at night, and I like it steaming hot because I love the aroma of tea filling the room. My journal entries always begin with the day and the date. I also include the pen and ink I am using for the day’s entry. Sometimes I also listen to late night jazz while I write.

To learn more about Clem, please visit her blog.

To learn more about EJ Azucena of EDGE photography, check out his Facebook page.

Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on June 16th in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel, Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The name “Bloomsday” derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses.

The novel recounts the hour-by-hour events of one day in Dublin–June 16, 1904.  Dubliner Leopold Bloom wends his way through the urban landscape, the odyssey of a modern-day Ulysses.

The special significance of June 16, 1904 was on that day Joyce had his first date with his future wife, Nora Barancle, a 20-year-old chambermaid. They walked to the Dublin urban village of Ringsend.

Davy Byrne’s Pub on 21 Duke Street was made famous in the novel. Leopold Bloom stopped there for a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and a glass of burgundy wine.

Within hours of landing in Dublin two years ago, a group of us trooped off to Davy Byrne’s Pub.  Since it was early in the morning the pub was still closed–they were sweeping ,vacuuming and polishing the bar–but the owner invited us inside and gave us a tour of the pub and some good stories about Joyce. We later went back for lunch. Our group was split between Guinness and burgundy wine!

This year illustrator Robert Berry is releasing Ulysses Seen, is a comic book adaptation of the novel.  The first chapter can be seen at http://ulyssesseen.com with an accompanying readers’ guide, and as a free app for the iPad.

The idea, born on a prior Bloomsday, was fueled, Mr. Berry explained, “by a few pints of Guiness and a bet.”

Has anyone followed in the steps of Leopold Bloom? Participating in a Bloomsday event?

From calligraphy artist Lorna Mulligan comes word of a new exhibit in Montreal’s Ame-Art gallery called Fibres, poils, cailloux. Featuring pieces by Mulligan and other members of the Les Calmars group, it’s on display through June 20.

For those of you who can’t make it to the show, we’re lucky enough to have pictures of two pieces that are on display (both are by Lorna). The first, Beaudelaire, started with small landscape segments done in J. Herbin’s Lie de Thé and Bleu Myosotis. After that, Lorna added the text from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal in black ink with a pointed pen and brush.

The second piece includes an image transfer of an old map of Montreal that shows Lorna’s neighborhood beside the park. Beside this she created a moody background with a mix of earthy inks (Ambre de Birmanie, Lie de Thé, and Vert Olive). The words talk about different ways of walking: And so I must be going… sauntering, wandering, meandering, and so on.

See more of Lorna’s artwork on her website.

Funny story: I was just watching a new video we made for Clairefontaine (Karen’s going to blog about it later), and followed one of the automatically generated suggestions to find the clip that’s embedded above.

Who was “Brian,” I thought to myself — could it be Brian Goulet? Sure enough, I emailed him, and he knew exactly what this was. One of his customers, Lauren Irby (irbyls on the FPN), purchased some Basics notebooks, and he sent her follow-up note asking for her feedback. One thing led to another, and Brian ended up featuring her elastic band notebook hack on his blog back in April.

Lauren also, of course, made this video, which seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle until I stumbled across it yesterday. Funny coincidence, eh? Anyway, it’s a cool demonstration, so I figured I’d feature it here.

Vienna trades heavily on its associations with art and with the past, in ways that are charming, irritating, and probably inevitable given its history (and the size of its tourism industry).

Either way, there are a lot of stores that sell antique prints, and while many are astronomically expensive, there are also bargains to be had. In 2002, when I lived there, I picked up some marvelous 18th century lithographs of insects and butterflies. This time around, I bought these handsome buffalo:

Maps are more expensive, but unframed naturalia won’t typically set you back more than 20 Euros a pop, depending on their condition. The provenance of these pieces is unfortunate — it must be said — since they’re not proper prints at all but plates that were ripped out of old books during the 19th century. (They tore up medieval manuscripts, too; the thought just breaks my heart.) But that damage has already been done, and for those of us who can’t afford to spring for original artwork, they remain a unique and cost-effective way of covering the walls.

At any rate, you can find these all over Europe (antique bookstores tend to have the best prices), and in the U.S., too, though if you’re ever in Vienna, head to Meindl & Sulzmann at Kochgasse 32, in the 8th district…

How cool is this: reader Cole Wardell, whose lovely cursive doodles we featured back in April, just made herself a new journal with four different types of Clairefontaine paper: a Graf It sketch pad, DCP paper, a Calligraphy Art Pad, and the Ingres Pastel Pad. “All the papers serve very different functions,” she writes, “so binding them into one journal is a way … to keep me artistically on my toes!”

You can read more about Cole’s journal and the different papers that she used over at her blog.