Got a burning question about fountain pens, ink, or paper? This afternoon at 2:22 pm EST, Brian Goulet will be logging on to Ustream and doing a live video chat with anyone who’s interested. Last week, about 30 people joined him to discuss Brian’s writing box prototypes, ink flow with cartridges/converters, and his own personal background. He also did a couple of paper tests and comparisons, and discovered that Exaclair packing paper is fountain pen friendly (who knew?!).
This afternoon, Brian will cover some watercolors he’s been doing in the Clairefontaine Graf it sketchbooks, the J. Herbin Creapen, his personal custom pens, and whatever else people are curious about. To listen in or participate, just follow this link.
On another note, unless you’re reading this post on an RSS feed, you’ll notice that things look a little different around here this week as we launch our new design! I’ll call out some of the new features and functionalities in a separate post. In the meantime, if you have any trouble with anything on the site, please let us know.
Karen sent me a few sheets of Clairefontaine DCP paper in the fall. DCP (which stands for “Digital Color Printing”) is a thick, white, glossy, A4 printer paper, and it’s apparently designed for printing photographs and other color graphics. It comes in ivory, too, and can also be used, Karen told me, for bookmaking.
I don’t have a color printer, and I haven’t tried to make a book since the 3rd or 4th grade. Frankly, I found the A4 size a little awkward at first, since it’s thinner and longer than standard American paper and didn’t really fit into any of my binders. So I stuck it in a folder and forgot about it until this weekend, when I needed to customize an old tea box for a present and didn’t have time to go out and get the proper supplies.
DCP, it turned out, was just the thing for the job. I wanted something I could write on (so decoupage was out), but I also needed paper that was thick enough to hide the images on the box I was reusing:
Let me preface this by saying that nearly everyone keeps a variety of different notebooks, made by different brands, in regular rotation. We know that. We endorse that. And we all have different needs/preferences in terms of writing instruments; fountain pen users love our heaviest, 90g paper, while others need nothing more than a few pages of lightweight 64g to receive their gel pens and rollerballs and pencils.
But Karen and I were nonetheless intrigued to see pen maker Brian Goulet’s recent vlogs over at Ink Nouveau. As you may remember, Brian likes to subject the notebooks and stationery that his company sells to various acts of ink-related torture. A couple weeks ago, he put a Habana, a Webbie, and a Moleskine to a head-to-head bleedthrough test with a couple drops of J. Herbin. That video’s embedded above, so you can see the results for yourself.
Brian’s since done more detailed comparisons of Moleskine vs. Habana and the Moleskine vs. Webbie to discuss size, thickness, price, and all the other factors that help determine which notebooks best fit your needs. In a world where you can’t always try before you buy, they’re great tools to aid your decisions.
To learn more about Brian and his pens, check out this profile at Rhodia Drive!
See more of Sophie’s work on her blog and at her Flickr page. Also not to be missed: Stephanie’s vibrantmandalas, and this lovely whisper of a drawing by Gentian.
Stephanie forwarded a link to this terrific post at A Penchant for Paper about deciding what to do with a new Habana notebook.
Should I just keep it for the future? … Perhaps it would be better suited to a pocket-sized, portable sketchbook? Or perhaps I could use it to write poetry in. Or perhaps to keep notes on the books that I am reading, and lists of books I want to read in the future. Or perhaps…
I often purchase notebooks for specific purposes — a Bloc No. 8 to use as a reporter’s notebook (fits handily into back pockets), a Steno pad to keep on my desk for work-related to-do lists (the red line down the center helps divide essential from inessential tasks). But there’s something really lovely about getting a notebook without a specific task in mind. There’s the sky’s-the-limit joy of speculating about potential uses, and the joy of experimentation, then the joy of discovery when you find the use that fits…
Mind you, I’m not trying to endorse mindless consumerism here (buy now! think later!). I just think it’s nice to be open to possibilities.
Today marks the first edition of the Nifty-organized Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper, a traveling monthly collection of the best blog posts about notebooks, pens, pencils, and paper products!
Check it out for an offbeat selection of topics and posts, and to find out about writing-related blogs that aren’t in your personal orbit.
For more information about the Carnival and how it works, click here.
Here’s something I bet you didn’t know you could do with your notebook—sharpen knives. Guest blogger Kenneth Schwartz elaborates…
I met Karen through two reviews I did of a Journal 21 and a Habana notebook (which I use as an ink log book) on the Fountain Pen Network.
I mentioned my interest in knife sharpening, particularly Japanese kitchen knives and how I use fine paper for knife sharpening. She said she had an old Japanese knife given to her by her Father many years ago and I suggested that I would find out more about it. I offered to sharpen it for her, using, among other things, paper for sharpening her knife. I actually felt quite thrilled to restore an old Japanese knife and honored to be entrusted with an old knife which had sentimental meaning associated with it. It is an ajikiri, used as a filet knife for small fish like trout but particularly mackerel or Aji, which gives the knife its name. It can also be used as a sturdy paring knife or for cutting up chicken.
At this point, you might be wondering what knife sharpening and pens have in common, particularly regarding the use of paper.
Thanks to an administrative mix-up, guest blogger Stephanie “Biffybeans” wound up testing our Notor day-per-page planner. Here are her thoughts:
I received a package in the mail today, from Karen at Exaclair. I open it, and it’s a Red Quo Vadis Habana Notor Daily Diary. I scratch my head and think… “Hmmm… why did she send me this? I never spoke to her about a Notor.” I dashed off a quick e-mail to her and found out that it was sent to me in error. Back when she was looking for people to test planners, I didn’t volunteer because I don’t use a planner. I do have one of the tiny Exaplan monthly planners, which I use to jot the most basic of details, but since I journal fairly regularly, I just never even thought about using a diary/planner.
But since I’m such a paper junkie, I just *have* to test it out.
For whatever it’s worth, my “drugs” of choice these days are great little French bound notebooks with lined graph paper (see www.clairefontaine.com) and omniBall rollerball pens. For special occasions, like book signings, I’ve got two Waterman pens—a black fountain pen and a red rollerball.
“My assistant orders them for me in stacks of five so I never have to worry about running out,” he explained.
What does he like about them?
The difference is the paper. If I am spending literally hours with a notebook, I want the paper to be strong and also to hold the ink well, whether I’m using a gel pen or a fountain pen. I want the notebook to be tough and handle weeks of abuse as it gets carted around from my studio to my bedside to my briefcase.
