Category RSS Archive for the ‘Pens, Paper & People’ Category

Do you use bookplates?

Posted March 5, 2012 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 4 comments »

I am constantly amazed at the amount of stuff in my home, which seems to accumulate independently of my periodic efforts to cull and toss. The other day, I rediscovered these world map bookplates; if I remember right, I got them as a stocking stuffer a couple years ago.

Handsome as they are, I’ve never actually put them to use. Perhaps it’s a question of habit. In college, I wrote my name onto the inside covers of my books. Now that I’m more settled and my books are less likely to go missing, I don’t even do that. I love looking at old bookplates (here’s a great bookplate blog I discovered thanks to one of Karen’s posts), but somehow I’m just not ready to continue the tradition.

Do you use bookplates?

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Rants of the Archer Ink Review

Posted February 29, 2012 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

Clem, the Archer of “Rants of the Archer” just finished a review for J. Herbin’s Ambre de Birmanie ink. Please have a look here.

Clem writes some of the most memorable ink reviews I have ever enjoyed. Because of her beautiful, flowing language and imagery,  I’m convinced she was a poet in another life. Her reviews are always balanced, thorough and precise. She is one of the people I rely on for an expert opinion on notebooks and pens as well as different inks.

Besides our mutual affection for all things pen and paper, we both love lighthouses!

If you have published an ink review recently (all brand welcome), please include a link to your review in the comments section.

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From the mixed up files of Dr. FG Beltrami

Posted February 28, 2012 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 13 comments »

Karen recently forwarded me a copy of an old promotional brochure with some more information about Dr. FG Beltrami, the founder of Quo Vadis and inventor of the Agenda planner with its one-week-on-two-pages layout.

Up till now, the only other thing I knew about Dr. Beltrami is that he practiced medicine in France and created his first planner by stamping a grid onto the pages of a notebook. Thanks to the brochure, I learned he was in charge of a dental school and hospital — no wonder he was interested in time management!

His outlook was also surprisingly modern:

Too much to do, and too little time to do it. It seems like that is what work, and modern life in general, is all about. That is why we have to fight back, and regain a sense of control.

As a doctor, I have a pragmatic outlook on people. We are all just simply… people. We all tend to do what is easy rather than what is more difficult.

I believe in taking simple steps to accomplish what is truly important.

Not so far from today’s world, is it?

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Habits and destiny

Posted February 23, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 4 comments »

Treadmill

Another great piece in this weekend’s New York Times magazine, adapted from a forthcoming book, told the story of Andrew Pole, who analyzes retail behavior for the marketers at mega-retailer Target. The goal, of course, is to get shoppers to change their habits and buy more stuff at Target.

It’s fascinating stuff, however. Author Charles Duhigg describes the three-step process by which habits are formed:

First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop — cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward — becomes more and more automatic.

But habits aren’t destiny, pace the famous proverb that’s attributed to Gandhi, and the neuroscience that underpins Pole’s analysis can be used for more constructive purposes, too. Pole describes using it to break his mid-afternoon habit of going down to the cafeteria for a cookie. The secret was to determine that the reward he really sought was a bit of socialization: “When I walked to a colleague’s desk and chatted for a few minutes, it turned out, my cookie urge was gone.” He has since lost 21 pounds.

Are there habits that you’ve broken, or that you’re trying to break right now?

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Presidents and pens

Posted February 20, 2012 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

The New York Times magazine ran a great story this weekend about papermaker Timothy Barrett, whose hand-crafted pages have been used to mend historical documents from manuscripts to musical scores. There’s lots to think about here, but first and foremost:

Barrett’s work has been driven by the notion that good materials, worked by hand, transmit their power in ways that the products of less painstaking manufacture can’t. “I have to believe that the eye and the hand take it all in, even when we’re not aware of it,” he said. There’s a poignancy to his work, given that paper’s long role as the repository of cultural memory and accomplishment is being usurped by swift technological change.

The piece is well-worth reading, as is the online slideshow that shows Barrett at work.

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Pen spinning

Posted February 16, 2012 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

I was catching up on recent posts by my French counterpart when I saw this one from early January about pen spinning (“it’s very simply the art of juggling with your pen”). A propeller pen of one’s own, n’est-ce pas?

I immediately got a pang of nostalgia for my 9th grade geometry class, when a bunch of us taught ourselves to spin pencils around our thumbs. Alas, I’ve since lost the technique, but it was still fun to watch the video that Murielle posted, the so-called Daydream of a pen spinner, which is actually a commercial for Samsung Mobile.

I blogged about a Hong Kong pen spinning tournament last year. But did you know there’s also a World Cup of pen spinning?

Judging from the promotional video above, it’s no joke.

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Lizzy Ross Band

Posted February 14, 2012 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People, Videos, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

One very gratifying part of my job is to be able to hear feedback from people who have made our journals, planners or sketch books a companion in their life. We send a blank page out in the world, and people take that blank page and make it into beautiful art, music, or part of their life story. Wow… That is fantastic, and a little humbling, too.  On the manufacturing end, this certainly gives meaning to our work.

One such person is Lizzy Ross, a singer/song writer from Chapel Hill, NC.  A few months ago, the Lizzy Ross Band released their debut album “Read Me Out Loud.” 

You can see a video here. 

Singing used to mean trouble for Lizzy Ross. Her elementary school teachers couldn’t make her stop singing, even in class, so they’d fuss at her or call her parents. In college, singing and songwriting became Ross’ creative outlet. Her solo debut CD, “Traces,” was released last year and her voice drew comparisons to Janis Joplin and Grace Potter.

Lizzy and her band tour all over the South.  Her music has been described as “Folksy, jazzy, bluesy in all the best senses of the words…a voice like cigarettes and the smoothest whiskey you’ve ever tasted.”

http://lizzy.net

 

 

 

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Paper and Digital Journals

Posted February 7, 2012 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 8 comments »

Do you agree with the following description of a paper journal?  Have digital journals caught up?

“A journal is personal.  I can play with margins, draw doodles, and make corrections in my own way.  When I go back and look at my marks on the page, I can even follow the train of thought that led to the changes.  The paper is mine, and I can skip pages or even fold them.  Words pour from the heart to the brain through the hand and pen onto the paper. This is the process of writing. Palm pilots and computers are excellent for logical order, planning and things, but not the free flowing emotion that is the centerpiece of a journal.” (by Robert I., college student, about 8 years ago.)

What do you think?

 

 

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Guest post: Vintage pens

Posted January 30, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews | Add your comment »

Guest blogger Kate Marshall of K’s Notebook went to the Philadelphia Pen Show last weekend and came back with a gorgeous antique Waterman. If you’re not jealous after reading her description, check out these photos on Flickr.

So it’s probably been well established that I like fountain pens. Me + fountain pens = TRU LUV 4 EVAH!

I’ve almost always stuck to modern-day pens until last week at the 2012 Philadelphia Pen Show, when I stumbled across a Waterman pen so old that it was probably around when Edward Cullen was still a human. I’m not quite sure what made me stop and notice this relic of the Woodrow Wilson era — was it the oxidation of the black hard rubber? The Waterman No. 2 nib with its jaunty, heart-shaped breather hole? The clear and crisp imprint stamped in the middle of the pen’s chasing? The ringtop cap, which may or may not be original to the pen? Who knows, but at the end of the day, I came away with a black hard rubber Waterman No. 12 PSF pen in reasonably good condition, and my contemporary pens all felt slightly jealous that they were still 60-odd years away from collecting Social Security benefits.

After doing some quick research on sites like Fountain Pen Network and Richard Binder’s website, I learned that my 12 PSF was the precursor to Waterman’s famed Ideal No. 52 fountain pen (still in high demand on the vintage pen market). The thing to remember about flex nibs is, they aren’t magic like unicorn horns. They won’t automatically turn one into a professional calligrapher any more than a new…scrub brush…will turn a someone into a master…scullery maid…whatever, there are a lot of analogies that could work here. But sometimes, a nice flex nib can add a certain “je ne sais quoi” to a person’s handwriting, because the nib responds to changes in writing pressure. Plus, the idea of writing with a 97-year old pen is pretty cool. My great-grandparents (or maybe even my grandparents) could have used a Waterman No. 12 back in the day. What sort of adventures did this pen’s previous owners get into during the past nine decades? How did the pen finally wind up among Susan Wirth’s wares at the show? Most importantly, what might the future hold for it?

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The propeller pen

Posted January 25, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

Here’s another item to add to the list of things I don’t need, but would love to have nonetheless: the propeller pen. This refillable ball-point pen balances on a stand when not in use, and you can spin it, too! I’m not a doodler by nature, so this seems like the perfect thing to fidget with during phone calls.

The downside: according to a reviewer, the refills aren’t easy to purchase.

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