Archive for the ‘Pens, Pencils & Paper’ Category
July 1st
What’s the best book for left-handers? Does anyone want to offer an opinion?
Left-handed writers, myself included, grew up having to contend with ink smears and stains on our hand as we wrote. I have smeared on pocket and desk size planners, but finally settled on a Space 24, but that’s only because I write more notes than appointments.
Once at a pen show I asked one of the traders what was the best pen to use for writing, since my ink often smeared. He told me instead of a medium nib left-handers should use a fine or even extra fine nib, since the ink would dry faster. I made the switch, and rarely have that problem.
Many inks are marketed as “fast-drying.” While I certainly use J. Herbin inks (we distribute them), I also have to admit to a fondness for Noodlers Ink. I also like Swisher Pen’s own inks, which were made to be fast-drying. I have found them impossible to smear.
June 24th
In a Forum on Mac Resource, “Kap” asked:
“Do you still use a Daily Planner to keep track…of your appointments, reminders, contact info, etc.? I know thre are electronic devices made for such tasks but what if the battery runs out, the system crashes, the power is out, the device croaks, etc.?”
“Mr Downtown” responded:
“Quo Vadis Miniweek. 3 x 4 inches means never having to say ‘my calendar is in my bag/car/office.’ And it’s cool to occasionally look back at what was important enough to write in my 1979 appointment book.”
June 23rd
In a recent review of our Texagenda planner, a reader from Des Moines, IA, wrote:
“I think it is unfortunate that you do NOT carry the refills at Barnes and Noble, where I purchased my textagenda. If I buy the refill online, it will cost me $4 more than buying a brand new cover AND planner at Barnes & Noble.”
To clear up any confusion, let me first explain that it’s Barnes & Noble who chooses which products they carry—not us. (If it were up to us, they would carry everything we sell!) If you shop there, and you don’t see what you’re looking for, you can always try asking the customer service department.
Secondly, we do take pricing seriously when it comes to our online vendors—though keep in mind that they shoulder an additional expense for the product’s shipping and handling. Nonetheless, we’re going to talk around and investigate rates and carriers…
June 20th
Looks like I’m not the only one who’s grown irrationally fond of Rhodia pencils. Blogger Michelle Krell Kydd recently posted her own ode to the quirky orange writing utensils: “a pencil for the senses,” as she put it.
As a side note, Michelle mentioned that she thinks “deleted words and phrases from my computer documents are sent to a hidden folder and rearranged to tell a tale I will be held accountable for in the future.” Oddly enough, a friend of mine, an artist, created a computer program that did just that for a piece he made last year—appropriately titled “Lost Words.”
Happy scribbling!
June 18th
In a recent “Talk of the Town,” playwright David Mamet revealed his dedication to Clairefontaine notebooks—and longhand composition: “I hate the computer… I hate their spell-check. I won’t ever do e-mail.”
(He does sometimes use a typewriter.)
“I’m afraid of only two things,” Mamet said, “Being lazy and being cowardly. I get up early in the morning and go to work.”
No writerly angst for him, thankyouverymuch…
June 12th
Many thanks to everyone who wrote in with comments and questions about our new Habana notebooks…
By way of update, I’d like to announce that we will be importing the French Habana into the U.S. late this fall (rather than manufacturing it here with U.S.-made paper and French-made covers, as we’d initially planned). France, meanwhile, is going to start producing the Habana with 80gr ivory paper, instead of the 60gr they’re currently using. So there won’t be any difference between the notebooks you’d buy here in North America vs. the ones you’d find in Europe and the UK.
Please let us know if you have any further questions, of course!
June 3rd
I was with Sam and Frank Fiorella of Pendemonium at the Chicago Pen Show in early May. We showcased some new Rhodia products with them. Sam and Frank are fun, wonderful people and experts on all things pen, paper and inks.
With them at the show was Letta Grosekemper, who specializes in custom nib grinding. Letta spent 54 years with Sheaffer Pen Company in their Pen Point Department as a production operator.
My Sheaffer pen nib was fine, but Letta worked on my Yard-O-Led so it writes to perfection!
May 25th
In her 1952 spiritual autobiography, The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day (1897-1980) described her early habit of keeping a diary:Â “When I was a child, my sister and I kept notebooks; recording happiness made it last longer, we felt, and recording sorrow dramatized it and took away its bitterness; and often we settled some problem which beset us, even while we wrote about.” Day maintained this habit, though somewhat irregularly, throughout her life.
Somes her reflections were prompted by happiness, sometimes by sorrow, but mostly her diary entries were an expression of her intense interest in life and her responses to what was happening around her.
The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day, edited by Robert Ellsberg, has just been issued by Marquette University Press.
May 23rd
How cool is this: Karen just sent me a sample of a new product called Exafolio, a nifty little black binder that holds a Rhodia pad (or a President planner), offers 6 slots in which to file papers, and even has a couple of pen/pencil holders and some miscellaneous zippered pockets. I tote it around to meetings and feel like the slickest kid on the block.
It’s currently sold out at Pendemonium and Vickerey, but with enough interest, perhaps they’ll restock…
May 22nd
I love this work doodle by El Toro!
What yours?Â
