Summer Mail - Birds and Cats

Enjoying a warm summer evening on the balcony, penning a letter to a dear friend with my Pelikan Fantasia. My tomcat Chaplin quietly relaxing next to me.

The Fantasia, currently with a BB italic nib, has been inked since I got it last winter (with Herbin Stormy Grey, though many inks will look nice with this pen and nib). Pelikan M1000s are just great writers overall.

If you'd like to know more about the pen you could check out my post from back then with more infos and photos.

To Feast One's Eyes

The days are growing shorter, the nights chillier. All the kids have gone back to school. Fall is nearing.

What I loved about going back to school when I was a kid? Not too much obviously, but going to the paper store and getting a stack of new and shiny school things had a certain appeal. I was really untidy back then (in fact sometimes I still have a hard time tidying up) and the wonderfully smooth, clean and crisp covers of my composition notebooks never stayed that way for long.
Every now and then my watercolor paint-box was so beat up I needed a new one and the rows of perfect, smooth and shiny paint pots were a marvel, made complete by a tiny tube of gouache. Each time I made a resolution to keep this one clean at all times. I even remember trying for a little while; cleaning the casing, wiping out the pots after mixing colors. I didn't manage for long though. Soon everything was back to normal: color all over the casing, the tube of gouache lost etc.

When I got another watercolor paint-box last year my approach had changed a bit. I had learned to appreciate signs of use and see their beauty. What has remained though is a love for color palettes.

These are ribbon pagemarkers and end bands for bookbinding. The end bands go at the top and the bottom of the book block, near the spine. It makes the book look nicer and to a degree hides irregularities in the binding. 

An eBay seller offered a selection of those in various color ranges. I love ideas like these, you can try all the colors but don't burden yourself with huge quantities. 

I'm not sure if I'll ever use the fuchsia. Silver and white are no-brainers I guess.

Sometimes I just love organizing these things and getting ideas for projects to come. I cut some scrap cardboard into makeshift bobbins so I could store them neatly wrapped and sorted instead of stuffing them into a plastic bag.

I should order more orange, it's almost gone.
Also I need to use turquoise, petrol, white, cream... sheesh.

Also my bookbinding yarns were all over the place until this perfect glass jar showed up in the kitchen. 

That orange yarn is one of my favorites for coptic binding. It's about 1 mm thick and very pleasant in looks and handling alike.

Do you like color palettes and do you like to organize your stuff? What exactly and why?

Notebook Giveaway - The winners

Thanks for your interest in my giveaway! 

For lack of competition the winners are clear:

Verba Volant, Scripta Manent & Semikolon: Gwen Beau

Whitelines Lined: drasir

Italian leather journal: Nomad60900

Some of you have already PMed me on other platforms. I don't have any contact data from Gwen Beau yet so please PM me on FPN, FPGeeks (elderberry) or Penexchange (Holunderbeere) or leave a comment (I know you have already but then removed it) as I will need your shipping data! 

I will ship the notebooks next week and hope you'll all have lots of fun with them!

Paper love - A rose is a rose leather journal

Had weird weather for the last weekends, so much time for crafty stuff and here's a another notebook bound in camel brown calfskin. My first attempt at a full leather binding. With that book I hadn't started to pare down the leather near the corners so those look a little bulky. Also the spacing between spine and front/back cover should've been somewhat larger. I'm still OK with the overall result. It has a very rugged, solid feel to it.

I picked that postcard up at a small tattoo convention, it's advertisement for a Giessen tattoo parlor. Very nice design I think!

The postcard sits in a slight indentation to give some protection from wear and tear.

A while back a bought a selection of end bands and ribbon bookmarks in all kinds of colors which was a really great find. I chose something in pale pink to match the roses.

Goes well with the pink Caran d'Ache Leman!

Not much to say about the paper, ready made book block with 144 chamois blank pages, slight laid texture, very nice paper and overall quality. Just can't go wrong with those but they become a bit boring. Some books with handmade book blocks are coming up!

These Beautiful Pens Notebook Giveaway

I love paper and notebooks and I've bought a lot of them in the past. Now that I've started to bind my own books and choose exactly what paper and covers I'd like the time has come to admit that some of them will never get any use from me. I thought about giving them to goodwill but then giving them away via the blog might be much more fun!

So if you'd like to receive a free notebook, have a look at what's on offer.

All notebooks are in good condition, occasionally have been tested with fountain pens on one page. That page has been removed.

from left to right:

• Italian leather notebook: dark red sheepskin cover with heraldic embossing, cream lined pages., slightly smaller than A5 size, quite thick. Very ink friendly.
• Whitelines Lined: A5 size. Did not work with my fountain pens.
• Semikolon: ca. 12 x 17 cm, quite thick (2,5 cm), ribbon bookmarks, elastic closure, pocket in the back cover, pencil loop with matching pencil. Lilac velours cover. Blank cream paper with a a laid texture, Semikolon uses awesome paper usually

• Verba volant, Scripta manent: A5 size, coptic binding & glue, filled with blank paper in white, grey, ochre, green and blue. 160 pages. Ink friendliness not tested but paper feels nice.
• Rannenberg & Friends "Kladde": cahier style A5 size notebook, blank pages. Not for fountain pens, feathers!
• Christian Lacroix notebook: ca. 12 x 17 cm, lined paper, ribbon bookmark and printed flyleaves, very smooth, coated. Works with most inks, others just won't stick to it, like writing on glossy paper.

Caution: Due to shipping cost I have to limit this giveaway to recipients within Germany! 

If you would like to receive one of these books, just leave a comment and tell me what you like about this particular one! You can also choose more than one but please bear in mind that Büchersendung shipping should still be applicable. Especially the thicker books are rather heavy.

The giveaway will stay open until August 16th or til all notebooks are gone! 

A few lines a day - 5 Year Diaries

I intended to publish this post way back in January when the timing would have been perfectly suited and also took the pictures back then but then I didn't get around to it - and I don't plan to wait another 4 months so here you are!

A few years back one of my friends told me about a 10 year diary she was keeping and I found the idea intriguing. If you haven't heard of these before: They're books with one page for each day of the year, the years are lined up underneath. That way whenever you make an entry you'll be reminded of what you were up to the year(s) before.

Then in spring 2013 I bought a tiny 5 year diary by Ice Plant at RSVP Berlin. (It was this one: https://rsvp-berlin.de/de/online-shop/5/kalender_und_planer/971/-Kalender-5-Jahres-Tagebuch-5-year-diary ) I used it until 2015 but never got totally comfortable with it, A 6 size is just too tiny and the paper didn't like fountain pens much either. So despite the 5 years being far from over I got myself a "Jahresweiser".

Jahresweiser in dark red leather

That name is a little awkward even in German and would roughly translate to "year guide", though it also hints at growing wiser with the years. In contrast to the Ice Plant book it's a true calendar - in my case for the years 2015 through 2024 - and it also tells you what weekday it is and whether today's a public holiday. (So far it's only available in German though)

The differences don't end here, the Jahresweiser is also pretty large and heavy - somewhere between A5 and A4 -, bound in leather with gilded edges and features very smooth and ink friendly paper. It even comes with an extra sheet of paper to test with your pen.

It's definitely higher quality than the Ice Plant (more expensive too as it's hand made) and clearly made to keep at your desk rather than lug it around on your travels.

The only thing I don't love about it is the leather, it's okay but the finish is not to my liking. You can also buy a Jahresweiser without covers and bind it yourself and looking back that's probably what I should have done. Back then though I couldn't foresee that I would be able to tackle such a project!

You can get one at http://www.jahresweiser.de. If you prefer cloth over leather you could check out Manufactum, they sell a custom version bound in grey bookcloth.

Nice golden embossing. Can also be had in silver. There's also a cover in furnished wood.

5 year diaries are perfect for people like me who just can't manage to journal every day. For me most things run in streaks and so does keeping a journal. At times I write pages and pages, then nothing for months. It's still a nice enough pastime but the documentary value is somewhat meager. With a 5 year diary you are neither able or obliged to write a lot about your day - there isn't much room - and I usually manage to jot down a few words so blank pages are few yet.

Jahresweiser from the inside: holidays and weekdays are visible at a glance. The paper is very smooth.

If nothing in particular happened there's always dreams, books, movies, food or the weather. Weather milestones (first snow etc.) can be astonishingly interesting over the course of years.

By reading forums I found out about another type of 5 year diary and started one last winter along with the Jahresweiser: The "Q&A a day". The page setup is quite similar to a regular 5 year diary but every day asks you a question. They range from existential ("What makes you 'you'?") to trivial ("List 5 things you ate today") and plain weird ("Are you the original or the remix? Why?"). I'm far less disciplined with that one than with my regular 5 year diary but I'm still on it.

I also have to note the very nice design: embossed Kraft paper covers and gilded edges. The paper works really well with fountain pen ink.

The paper is not as smooth as in the Jahresweiser but still very nice. Haven't had any bleed through or feathering since. I exclusively use Rohrer & Klingner Salix and a very wet pen for both journals.

Do you keep a 5 or 10 year diary? If not, do you find the idea appealing?

Urushi in the attic

I've had a few days off work and while I was mostly relaxing (I also visited a Hamam bath which was very interesting) and/or bookbinding one day I grabbed some pens and took them to the attic to take some pictures on those old wooden floor boards.

Nakaya Portable Cigar tame-sukashi "a feather"

Danitrio Mikado and Genkai. The Mikado has been in use for ages now and I clearly prefer it over the Genkai. Maybe because of the nib (the Mikado has a rather crisp 0.8 italic) or because it's slightly shorter?

Both somewhat wabi sabi.

... this one isn't my fault however! Nakaya Portable Writer "Negoro".

Paper love - bookbinding

High time for a post as I haven't been here in a while, I've had a rather stressful time at work and in my free time I've been playing The Witcher 3 (which I can fully recommend btw) - so less time for pen related things! However I've had some fun with a closely pen related hobby: bookbinding. One of these things (like making soap) I'd always wanted to try and after a few attempts I have to say making soap is somewhat easier! :D

I'm not showing the very first attempts as those are more than a little embarrassing but here are some recent ones (still very dilettante I'm afraid):

These rather neat looking specimen are made with ready made book blocks. I've only made and decorated the covers plus end bands and ribbon bookmarks. It took one failed attempt to work out the right measurements for front and back covers but after that it went pretty well.

The book blocks are really neat by the way, 144 chamois colored pages with a slight vergé texture and very fountain pen friendly (they also come with lines and grid). They come with end papers so all you need to do is glue them into place. If you are located in Germany I recommend the shop Buch-Kunst-Papier! They generally have a huge range of bookbinding and general paper goodness to browse.

However for me working with ready made components is not as satisfying since I haven't made the whole thing from scratch! So I've also done some coptic binding.

All these books are A5 size by the way as this is my favorite format for journalling.
I've been fascinated by coptic bindings since I first saw them on FPN (in one of TMLee's threads I believe) as those books open completely flat. These are truly handmade books from folding and piercing the paper and decorating the covers to stitching the whole thing - including all the flaws.

There's still so much to learn, I've yet to produce the perfect coptic binding - one is wobbly, another one has irregular stitching, the third has a glue stain somewhere (in fact almost all of them have glue stains somewhere - I'm really not made for handling icky, sticky paper, also makes me remember my kindergarden days more vividly than I care for!) but whatever. It's still fun to experiment.

As boyfriend has been working with leather for quite a while (see the leather notebooks he's made for me) and we still have a rather large stockpile I've started experimenting with leather covers last week. I like leather for book covers as it's obviously more sturdy than book cloth and less prone to staining and the general grubbyness that comes with use - most varieties anyway. For this black and orange notebook - again with a ready made book block - I've used some scraps of kangaroo leather. It's amazing, super thin but firm with a super glossy surface.

It was only after taking the picture I'd noticed that the orange endband was missing - I've managed to fondle it in place by now!
The cover is from a paper pack pad I found at TK Maxx called Steampunk Florals. These papers can be pretty great for bookbinding, especially for use as flyleaves and such, because they are quite sturdy. Also this one has a glossy surface which is pretty neat for a cover, especially combined with the high sheen leather.

This is my latest attempt in coptic binding: black horse leather, bright orange yarn and ribbon bookmark. I got this postcard with the leaf lady from a dear friend several years ago and have always love the motif. The postcard sits in a slight indentation which gives some protection from wear and tear.

My go to paper for bookbinding is the System Inkjet paper by Karstadt (I believe I've referenced it several times in the past) as it is a nice ivory color, fountain pen friendly, firm and smooth at 120gsm. Also it's inexpensive which is important as I'm experimenting all the time and need at least 30 sheets for a journal.
For the leaf lady notebook I've printed a light grey 5 mm dot grid.

I love marbled paper and journals with marbled covers can be hard to come by or super expensive. However the papers per se aren't that pricey - especially when compared to Japanese Katazome - and I really like being able to use them to my heart's content. I believe the above is my favorite, especially together with the the dark red book cloth.

I've seen videos about how the marbled effect is achieved but I'm still no less than amazed by it. Maybe I'll try that myself some day too!

What have you been up to this summer? Is there any hobby stuff you've always wanted to do?