fountain pens ink paper

Perhaps a couple of weeks before the year ends, we start shopping around for next year’s planner. Over the years, I’ve learned to be guided by experience and instinct on what format suits me best, based on my working style.

After having used many different types and sizes of planners – Franklin Covey, Starbucks – and because I tend to carry everything and the kitchen sink with me wherever I go, I’ve tried to minimize weight and mass by choosing “pocket” versions of things, including planners.

And the winner is…the Moleskine Pocket Weekly Planner, Horizontal Layout!

I got this one way back last September at Diesel Bookstore, Oakland, California. As is usually the case with such goods, I got it cheaper there than for what it was later sold here in Manila.

Cover of Moleskine Pocket Planner. The artwork was outsourced from the Moleskine community. -> See the artist draw. Draw, draw, draw.

Back cover. -> See the monster. He is waiting for the artist to finish drawing. Wait, wait, wait.

Cover spread. -> See the monster and the artist. Look at the weird art all around them. Look, look, look. And run away. Far, far away.

Inside front cover.

Inside spread with horizontal week-at-a-glance layout. The Moleskine’s ribbon bookmark is always useful.

For fountain pen users, I recommend using an extra-fine or fine FP with Moleskine paper to minimize show-through. Ballpoint and gel pen users should have no problem at all and will find Moleys a joy to write upon.

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Well, hello, there. What an interesting way to start the year, fountain-pen-wise – meeting a Montblanc I’ve never come across before.

This is a Montblanc Noblesse. It was available from the late ’70s to ’80s.

The pen has a slimline design popular during that period.

The Montblanc white star is on the cap, as usual. The nib of this particular pen is an 18k Fine. The gold cap band is engraved with the words “Montblanc Noblesse”.

The filling system is a converter. As you can see, this one’s pristine. Never been inked. *heartbeat*

It came with a bottle of Montblanc Emerald Green ink, a color that has been discontinued.

Filling this vintage pen for the first time is a fantastic way to start the year.

The nib is a nail without a hint of spring, writes buttery-smooth, and simply glides over paper.

This gem of a Montblanc is not mine, but I am glad to have met it and been the one to fill it and write with it for the first time. A distinct honor, I must say.

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A Nakaya fountain pen, no matter the price, comes beautifully packaged in a simple pauwlonia wood box with a pen wrap. It’s just one more instance of the company’s attention to detail, their commitment to giving their customers not only quality products but also a satisfying experience.

Every Nakaya fountain pen comes with a pen wrap like this one – its own kimono, if you will.

I prefer my Nakayas without clips. They have a tendency to roll on flat surfaces, but I find the sleek uninterrupted line true to the aesthetic, the finish gleaming unbroken along its length. 

The kuro-tamenuri finish is black lacquer upon red. In time, the lacquer will become more translucent, and more of the red underneath will start to show through. This pen is about four years old; its color was darker when I acquired it over two, maybe three, years ago from Leigh. 

The parts of a Piccolo: cap, barrel, nib and feed, and converter, filled with ink. See the ink bubble inside.

Writing sample with the stock flexible fine nib. There is good line variation, and I’d probably get more if I were better at calligraphy. As it is, it’s a modern nib that flexes much like vintage ones.

“Love is a Memory” is the title of an essay simmering on the stove (it’s what I had workshopped at this year’s University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop last April). Excerpts from the essay are here, here, and here.

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While I use fountain pens exclusively for note-taking, signing documents, and making lists and checking them twice, there are situations when only a ball-point will do – filling up carbon-copy bank forms, doodling on napkins, and poking things to see if they’re naughty or nice.

But of course it can’t just be any old BP. It’s got to be special, blingy, and blindingly handsome. Like this one.

It’s a Swarovski BP in White Pearl.

 The lower part of the barrel is metal painted a pearlescent white, while the upper part is clear plastic filled with Swarovski crystals. They are fixed; they do not move within the barrel.

The brand name is engraved on the clip. Seen up close, the crystals are shaped like faceted diamonds.

The fill system inside is unusual. I have no idea how I will replace the ink refill later on.

The combination of white and crystal is elegant and timeless; this is a pen to treasure and use often.

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The Nakaya Piccolo Cigar is a triumph of understated design. It draws on the Japanese aesthetic – simple, clean, minimal. Its lines are sleek and elegant. It is a zen koan brought to life.

Nakaya calls this model the “Cigar” because it is sans clip; their model with clip is called “Writer”.

The black lacquer finish on this one gleams subtly, an inky pool that laps up light.

The Piccolo is Nakaya’s shortest size.

Uncapped, it’s just right for my hand. I try not to post the cap when using it so as not to scratch the barrel finish, though urushi wears pretty well.

The nib is, as all Nakaya nibs are, reliable from the get-go and doesn’t skip nor railroad.

The 14-k gold medium stock nib is firm with a hint of spring. It is perfect for note-taking and daily use.

This pen was rehomed from bleubug two years ago. I’d put it away for safekeeping, but lately I’ve been thinking, Life is short. Let’s use the good china – and the fountain pens.

So I took it out of hibernation and let it rock.

Nakaya Piccolo Cigar, black Wajima urushi nuri finish. It poses at the Senate of the Philippines (Senate seal in the background).

“Wajima” is the area in Japan where world-renowned lacquerware – urushi – has been produced since the 16th century. Nuri means “coating”. Nakaya Fountain Pen Company artists work with a Wajima-based company for the urushi finishes for their pens. The lacquer work is a painstaking, labor-intensive process. It takes a couple of months of expert craftsmanship to build up the urushi finish by hand on the ebonite base of a Nakaya fountain pen.

The Piccolo Cigar rests on a Pocket Moleskine on my lap. Since the pen does not have a clip, it has a tendency to roll on flat surfaces. One of these days I might get a roll stopper for it like this one. I’d like a horse or a cat.

More than a functional object, it is a work of art. It is a marvel of Japanese engineering and design. With my Nakaya, I feel I can take over the world. Or, at the very least, stylishly make notes on how to get it done.

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Thanks to Scribe Essentials for bringing J. Herbin inks to the Philippines! I got these from the wide assortment at their stand in Power Books at Greenbelt, Makati.

As I’ve already written before, J. Herbin inks are among fountain pen users’ most coveted ink brands, not only for the smoothness of their ink formula, but for the beauty of their bottles and packaging.

The brand goes back to 1670, and is still popular among stationery enthusiasts today.

These color swatches are as close to true-color as I can get them to show on a computer screen.

The radiant rainbow hues will inspire anyone to reach for a pen and write a love letter, a poem, or a story, or reach for a brush and paint the images  in their mind’s eye to share them with the world.

Je vous le désir.

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From a small selection of notebooks similar to those beloved of writers and artists in the past to its present wide range of stationery products, Moleskine is engaging buyers with things that evoke the artistic lifestyle.

The Moleskine Memo Pockets lets you keep receipts, notes, tickets, and other little bits in a stylish case that looks exactly like one of their notebooks.

The same elastic as in their notebooks runs down the right side.

The case has six pockets made of acid-free paper.

The pockets open wide to provide lots of space. The edges are reinforced with red ribbon.

Moleskine Memo Pockets also come in black. They have a larger version in black of a notebook full of pockets, called the Folio, for papers, drawings, and such.

Moleskine seems to be developing a one-stop system for organizing your paperwork. Notebooks are for jotting down your thoughts and other information – let’s face it, it’s still easier to write something down than take out an iPad or a Galaxy Tab, boot it up, and do the touch-pressing on the virtual keyboard. Planners help you keep to a schedule.  The cases like the Memo Pockets and the Folio help you sort and stash your bits of paper, the journals help you store information specific to a certain topic (books, wine, recipes, etc.). I’m looking forward to what they’ll come up with next.

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Thank you to my friend Thomas Overfield for sending me this lovely Lamy Safari Aquamarine fountain pen! I must have been a very good girl the past few months to deserve this coveted limited-edition writing instrument.

Lamy is a  German brand established in 1930 that pioneered in the use of molded synthetic plastic to make their products.

The Lamy Safari Aquamarine with box, wrapped in a note.

The popular Safari, made of ABS plastic, was designed by Fabian and Spiegel and has remained in production since 1980; new colors have been rolled out at intervals since then as limited editions. The standard colors are red, yellow, and blue.

The Lamy Safari Aquamarine parts – cap with stainless clip, barrel with ink view window, nib-and-section with ink converter. It’s ready to be inked with J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche, the color in my stash that comes closest to the color of this pen.

Safari is also available in clear plastic (called the Vista demonstrator) and aluminum (the AL-Star line).

The Safari comes with a stainless nib; a black extra-fine nib was substituted for my pen.

A writing sample on a page from a plain pocket Green Apple notebook (available at National Bookstore branches across Manila). The paper is a bit thicker than Moleskine’s, with minimal show-through on the reverse side – great for fountain pen use.

J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche ink with the Lamy Safari Aquamarine on a Green Apple notebook. The notebook cover is waterproof printed rubber; note the elastic band placed horizontally, minimizing the slippage usual to vertically-placed elastics like on the Moleskine. A notch on the sides of the cover holds the elastic in place.

The Lamy Safari Aquamarine (fountain pen and ballpoint) will be available at National Bookstore in July; they are now taking reservations.

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Moleskine was the pioneer of the luxury “writer’s notebook” market, positioning its product as something that traces its origin back to the old-fashioned journals used by writers and artists like Hemingway, Van Gogh, and Picasso, that until the mid-80s were still being peddled in obscure bookshops in Paris, as rhapsodized by Bruce Chatwin in his book Songlines.

Fast-forward to 1997, when a Milanese publisher revives the product and launches a trend.

Today there are many imitators and rip-offs, and Moleskine has to keep several steps ahead by coming out with interesting designs.

This is one such limited edition design – Moleskine Le Petit Prince.

Inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s self-illustrated 1941 novella, the line features pocket and large ruled and plain notebooks with covers engraved with drawings from the book.

Pocket notebooks, ruled and plain.

The back covers are plain black, but the paper label has all the information on product specs.

Detail of front cover of pocket notebook showing an engraved line from the book – “What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”

Detail of the front cover of the other version of the pocket notebook.

I haven’t opened my pocket notebooks yet, but I got these images from other sources to show you what they look inside.

The inside front cover and  first page have more drawings from the book. The text says: “If found, please return to planet _____. As a reward, my secret about ____.”  Image of large notebook here.

This limited edition line comes with cut-out and stand-up scenes from the book. Image cropped from here.

Sunset scene above comes with the pocket notebook, flower scene below comes with the large. Image here.

For lovers of the Little Prince, literature, and fine notebooks, here’s a product that combines all those for you.

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