Posted August 4, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »
The New York Times had an interesting feature in Sunday’s “Week in Review” where they asked Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk to describe the view from his window. One sentence stood out in particular:
When my mind is busy with words, all by itself my eye moves away from the page and the tip of the fountain pen.
Also, isn’t this a great way to describe the interaction of a writer with his or her physical surroundings?
But I know some part of me is always busy with some part of the landscape, following the movements of the seagulls, trees and shadows, spotting boats and checking to see that the world is always there, always interesting and always a challenge to write about: an assurance that a writer needs to continue to write and a reader needs to continue to read.
Posted June 28, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | 1 comment »
With all our recent talk of writing boxes and file boxes, I thought I’d share this photograph I took on a recent trip to Philip Johnson’s Glass House… Sitting on his immaculate, leather-topped desk (designed by Mies van der Rohe, we were told) was this pretty wooden box; apparently, it was something he’d owned since his childhood in Ohio:
The Glass House served as Johnson’s weekend retreat — during the week, he lived in an apartment above New York’s Museum of Modern Art — and according to our tour guide, when he arrived, he would empty the contents of his pockets into the box so as not to lose track of anything.
Posted June 23, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 4 comments »
Many writers keep idea notebooks — myself included — to catch the random thoughts that cross their minds all day. One savvy reader has an intriguing method for keeping things a little more organized; in an email exchange, he explains:
i use planners to keep notes and ideas. i find it’s easier to refer back to the notes and ideas by just flipping back through the days or weeks. it’s much more organized than if i just kept an ‘idea’ notebook. that was just chaos.
Afterwards, our correspondent uses a Habana notebook to elaborate on the ideas he wants to develop. Pretty cool system, huh?
Posted May 5, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Editorial | 8 comments »
Image via (((o.kvlt)))
I am one of those people who is constantly misplacing pens… I put them in my bag, in my pocket; I take them out, put them somewhere else, and pretty soon they’re gone. It’s one of the reasons I’m hesitant to let my fountain pens leave the controlled chaos of my desk, because it’s one thing to misplace an inexpensive Pilot V-Ball, and quite another to lose my pretty Waterman Phileas, or one of my Pelikanos.
For environmental reasons, however, I’m trying to cut back on the number of disposable things in my life, and there’s no reason pens shouldn’t be a part of that effort.
Generally, I believe that when it comes to organization, it’s best to work around your habits rather than trying to overhaul them all at once. But then I think about umbrellas. I used to lose them all the time, too, until I spent a year in England and decided that enough was enough. So I went to a department store and bought a pretty black-and-red umbrella for the princely sum of £18. I was a graduate student at the time, and it wasn’t an easy decision. But it’s been 8 years since then, and I still haven’t lost that umbrella.
Anyway, I’m going to start small, and keep one of my less expensive fountain pens in the pocket of my bag. If that goes well, maybe it’ll be easier to use them in other non-deskbound settings. Here’s hoping!
Posted April 27, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Announcements, Beautiful Creations | 2 comments »
Exciting news this morning: We’ve just launched a new feature on the website of our parent company, Exaclair, to celebrate writing, creativity, and the tools and minds that make it all possible.
Called the Writers’ Project, it includes interviews with authors from around the world who share tips and techniques and talk about their latest projects. Australian author Damon Young is our inaugural feature; visit the Writers’ Project homepage to learn more about Damon’s writing habits, his new book, Distraction, and the “tangible, intimate quality to the marriage of pen, ink and paper.”
Posted April 15, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 4 comments »
There are a lot of things I enjoyed about that Lapham’s Quarterly chart I blogged about last week — for instance, the discovery that Victor Hugo fought procrastination by giving his clothes to a valet and telling him not to return them until he’d finished writing.
Another point that got me thinking was the fact that several authors wrote while standing up. Ernest Hemingway stood at his desk, Thomas Wolfe used the top of his refrigerator, and Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens composed poetry while doing chores and walking. And then there’s Jonathan Lethem, who’s jury-rigged a system that involves a treadmill and a cordless keyboard.
I have a normal desk and can’t imagine replacing it, but if I had some extra space I would love to get some sort of supplementary stand-up system… What do you think? Do you write standing up, or want to?
Posted April 13, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews, Videos | Add your comment »
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.
Posted April 6, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »
Very cool chart in Lapham’s Quarterly about writers and their working habits… for instance, John Cheever wrote in the basement, Edith Wharton in bed, and Friedrich Schiller in a study (with his feet sometimes submerged in cold water!).
Do you have any eccentric writing habits?
Posted April 5, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 7 comments »
Like many writers, I often fantasize about having a physically active job — something like carpentry or construction, where I’d use my hands to do more than type and scribble, and end each day with an actual object I’d created. If you break it down, I suppose those are two very different dreams: the first about just being able to get off my bum more often, the second about creating something that’s not so maddeningly conceptual. I don’t know if visual artists share the same anxiety (it probably depends how you work), but if you spend an entire day writing, it’s quite possible you’ll have literally nothing to show for it when you’re “done,” or not until much, much later.
Of course, the grass is always greener, and the reality of a physically demanding job is doubtless very different than I picture it to be — for one thing, the exhaustion. From where I sit right now, elevating a sprained ankle on my desk as I work (dark porch, one too many steps), writing is a pretty great occupation, at least until I have to hobble downstairs to make my coffee.
Do you fantasize about having a less deskbound career?
Posted April 1, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 8 comments »
Anyone else see Brian Goulet’s recent post about antique writing boxes? Also known as “lap desks,” these boxes were used in the 18th and 19th centuries to house writing supplies (actually, as Brian explained to me in an email, lap desks seem to have been smaller and thinner, as opposed to writing boxes, which were too large to use on your lap). They were also beautiful, with ornate detailing and odd fold-out compartments and drawers in which to stash pens, ink, and paper. Karen has her great-grandmother’s lap desk, which is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A big step up from those laminate boards with the bean bags that I picture when I see the words “lap desk!”
Brian is thinking about using his woodworking skills to create some contemporary lap desks, which would, of course, be awesome. “They all fit right into that period when writing was not only practical, but a highly valued artistic skill,” as he pointed out to me in an email.
Image via Svadilfari.
