Quick review: Baron Fig Confidant

Remember my stack of notebooks? Well, thanks to a chunky package from Personalised Stationery that arrived today, and my latest Spotlight Stationery subscription box, I now have an even bigger pile of blank paper to work my way through. Woe is me, eh? Fortunately, I started a new job last week so I've had plenty of …

Radio silence…

A brief note is in order: I've just started a new job (two days in!) and it's leaving little time or energy for posting right now. But I've got some great stuff lined up, including: The second half of my notebooks for work comparison (incidentally, I'm currently powering my way through a Baron Fig Confidant …

Introducing kids to fountain pens

Any pen addict wants to spread the love of pens and inks to others. Being a parent seems like the perfect opportunity: you've got a captive and highly impressionable audience, after all. But of course you shouldn't just let your three year old loose with your Montblanc 149. And you don't want a load of pigmented …

Behind the pen: Tom Oddo of InkJournal

This is the second in my interview series, now grandly rechristened 'behind the pen'. Today I'm proud to present Tom Oddo of InkJournal fame. I've been following Tom and InkJournal for a while. The InkJournal is a genius idea — pads of quality paper (mmmm, Tomoe River), pre-printed with the info you need for logging …

Inky fingers: ’twas a dark and stormy night…

One of the things I love about inks is the names. A good ink name is an opportunity not just to describe the colour in literal terms, but to use metaphor: to evoke a mood, to capture heritage, to describe a place or event, or to have a little fun. You immediately know what colour …

Roundup: notebooks for work, part 1

In my last post, I talked about what you should look for in a good notebook for work, if you're ready to step up from the random notebooks in the office stationery cupboard, or the old familiar Moleskine. In this post, I'm going to compare five notebooks on paper (if you pardon the pun). In …

#6penchallenge #winning

#6penchallenge is going really well for me. In fact, I'm down to #3penchallenge right now. I wrote the Pilot 91 inked with Tsuki-Yo dry in just a couple of days. It was a lovely combination — reminded me why I like this ink so much. And there's something almost mystical about the feel of the …

Choosing a notebook for work

Most office workers do their daily writing in whatever notebooks or notepads happen to be in the stationery cupboard. Conference freebies, cheapie Staples or Rymans wirebound books, or maybe a Moleskine if they're lucky. When you start to take an interest in writing with fountain pens, you discover that a great writing experience depends on …

Interview: Nib & Muck

InCoWriMo has a lot to answer for. For starters, it found me a new penpal, the inestimable Laura of potty-mouthed pen blog, Nib & Muck. She's "volunteered" as my first victim interviewee in a new series about pens and writing. Here goes. PART 1: You and writing 1. Let's do the twitter/speed-dating introduction. Tell us about …

The Six Pen Challenge: Accepted

Note: I've been at home for the past few days due to a bit of a family crisis, and I've been trying to keep myself busy with non-taxing things. So it's quite possible that I've beanplated my decision here — but enjoy nonetheless! It's no secret that I have Far Too Many(TM) pens. Despite my …