3 Takes on a Carta Fiorentina Notebook

This post is going to be picture heavy but I just had to take a lot of photos!

"Carta Fiorentina" is a range of traditional Italian paper patterns. They all have this cheerful but nostalgic vibe and I especially adore the floral patterns.
Also in my opinion they go really well with almost every shade of brown. To enhance their air of nostalgia I chose leather for spine and corners. They are approximately 21 x 13 cm - this is because the paper had an unusual format to begin with. They have about 140 pages.

I used two different leathers, natural tan calfskin dyed with ink (Diamine Chocolate Brown) and sealed with Fiebing's Acrylic Resolene and reddish brown sheepskin. Also I made some "fake nerves" for the spine.

Those two have hand sewn book blocks made of 110 gsqm grey-brown laid paper. It has nice deckled edges so I chose not to trim the edges. (Also I still don't have a good paper cutter so I'm having trouble getting straight and smooth cuts).

It was my first attempt at dying leather and if not for the Acrylic Resolene the color would bleed and rub off a lot. Since then I've tried another way to dye leather which worked out much better.

There are so many colors in the Carta Fiorentina pattern it's easy to pick one for endbands and ribbons.
The paper is a little on the rough side but it tolerates fountain pen ink pretty well.

The third take on Carta Fiorentina is somewhat different. I made a debossed design based on the floral vines and lined it with red book cloth.

It took me quite a while to finish the intricate details of the vine.

For the book block I used some Neusiedler Japan Post paper I had dyed and distressed using strong espresso. The paper is usually high white and now has a brownish tinge and some stains here and there.
The book is A5 size and has matching Carta Fiorentina endpapers. It has about 200 pages.

The bookcloth is red but with a layer of green underneath. You usually just see the red but near edges or when looking at the book from different angles you get a flash of the green from time to time.

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!

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?

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?

Happy New Year everyone! Also: time for a new diary.

After having recovered from the New Year's Eve celebrations now is the time to prepare for going back to work and starting a new year. It's also the time to retire last year's diary (discard or keep - what's your approach?) and start the new one.

For me it's going to be my second Bomo Art diary as I've been really happy with the one I used in 2014. 

For the cover I chose the balloon motif again but with a dark green leather spine instead of the dark red I had last year.

The daily diary is A5 sized with a thick whiteish book block and ribbon bookmark. Like last year's specimen it feels like solid and durable work and indeed my old one has held up to daily use very well.

On the inside, besides one page for every day of the year there are all sorts of useful additions like international holidays, a register section for contacts and even a world map. For a closer look check my post about it from 2013.

 Like all Bomo products it has the "BomoArt Classic" embossing on the back cover.

 Seen here with my currently favorite writer, a Danitrio Mikado! The balloons really don't get old for me. I've had them on last year's and this year's diary, a notebook and my kindle cover, all with different colored leather spines which seem to enhance different aspects of the design.

 The paper is still very thin, my guess would be 60-70 g/m2 but amazingly ink friendly. For the smoke test I wrote a few lines with my Delta Dolce Vita medium with 1.1 steel italic nib which gushes like crazy since I've given the feed a good clean with dishwashing liquid (guess I didn't rinse it well enough) so even with dryish Rohrer & Klingner Salix there is a LOT of ink flow.

The picture was taken a few seconds after writing the words but as you can see the ink is still glistening. No feathering though.

 Also no bleedthrough on the back side. Quite impressive! At work I mostly use pencils to jot down notes and appointments - quick and convenient - but also my fountain pens if I have time. No problems with the paper anyway!

 That's the pen by the way! It came with a very dry 18 k fine nib which I didn't enjoy too much so I exchanged it for a Monteverde 1.1 steel italic and it's getting a lot more use now. The exchange was easy as the nib and feed pull out with very little force needed.
The original nib was full rhodium plated so I like to think pen and nib still look nice together though a closer look will of course reveal that there's some frankenpen-ness going on here!

Which daily diary will you be using this year? Do you have an all time favorite you buy every year or do you like to experiment? Do you have a specific pen to use it with?

Next year's diary by BomoArt

It's time to make the first appointments for the new year and so I made sure to order a nice daily diary a few weeks ago which now arrived - along with two other goodies from Budapest as well as orders for two members of the German pen forum Penexchange.

I apologize for the pictures which are just quick shots but I'm so happy about these books I'd just like to share them!

An address book (with gilded edges) and daily diary with red leather spines on top of an A4 notebook which belongs to someone from the board. The A4 journal looks very impressive, it reminds me of a book with fairy tales I used to have. I think it might intimidate me as you come to expect great things and beautiful magical worlds on its inside - but maybe it would also inspire the writer? I don't know.

The address book's letter tags are made of genuine leather with gold print! I wasn't sure about the gilded edges but then I thought, what the hell. It's such an unusual thing to have an address book these days, I might as well go for the gilded edges as well! It's beautiful.

And the diary...! I have to say I might be easily impressed with diaries. I've only started using a paper diary a few years ago for work, before that it's only just been my phone or scraps of paper. My work diaries were leatherette bound ones supplied by my employer so maybe my expectations have been low. Anyway the diary definitely lives up to the standard I've come to expect from BomoArt!

Each day has its own page of ivory colored, thin and smooth paper, printed in red and black, thus perfectly matching the ribbon bookmark, spine and end papers. It's in all kinds of languages but I've noticed a certain emphasis on Italian so maybe that's where the calendar book block was printed.

Despite being so thin, the paper seems to take fountain pen ink very well. So far I've tried it with a B italic nib using Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris which produced neither bleeding nor feathering. I'm definitely impressed, the diary I've been using performed much worse on much thicker paper.

Some show through but no bleeding at all.

There also is a weekly diary with all sorts of international holidays in it and a register section. What I love most though is this:

There is a map - or to be accurate, to of them - just next to the back cover! Now I feel like I could go exploring with it. It goes nicely with the overall vintage vibe of their products. As usual it all feels very sturdy and well made with thick cardboard covers. The leather has a smooth yet open surface which allows for natural scars and blemishes to remain visible, making it unique.

And it has balloons on the cover! Just like this one below, but with red spine.

Boyfriend says they're kitschy, but really, how could you not like those? <3

Come, thou tortoise! Pelikans M800 and M600

Are you already bored with warm colors for fall? If so you might want to skip this post because I'm definitely not!

Pelikan M600 Tortoise & White and M800 Tortoise & Brown

Pelikan M600 Tortoise & White and M800 Tortoise & Brown

I know fairly little about Pelikan's history but there is something special about the tortoise celluloids. They've been around a lot in the 1950s and many of those look very nice to this day. What I didn't know until the M800 brown tortoise came out is that there are indeed two different tortoise colors, brown and green.

Pelikan M600 Tortoise & White and M800 Tortoise & Brown

The green tortoise on the M600 is much brighter, more transparent and looks warmer in combination with the white resin. It goes really well with the yellow gold accents on the cap, section ring and nib. Overall the M600 has a much more striking appearance.

Pelikan M600 Tortoise & White and M800 Tortoise & Brown

The M800 brown tortoise is somewhat more subtle and "serious". There are a lot of greyish brown hues with only a few warm coppery highlights in between. Section and cap are a very dark brown that looks almost black.

I guess the Pelikan Souveran series is so well known I don't have to take any measurements. ;)

Pelikan M800 tortoise brown

Now housing an OBB nib, sharpened up by John Sorowka. (The M600 is fitted with an OB nib which has undergone the same treatment but I didn't make a writing sample of that one).

Pelikan M800 OBB writing sample with Diamine Ancient Copper

Pelikan M600 Tortoise & White and M800 Tortoise & Brown

Diamine Ancient Copper seriously is one great ink color though it has its flaws. If you look closely at the pictures above you can see that it already started building up some crud on the nib while exposed to air for the photos. This is a common issue with this ink especially with caps that allow a lot of air circulation. The M800 cap closes tightly enough so this usually doesn't happen in this pen.

Also these days I tried the 120g/sqm paper by Karstadt "System" (a chain of large convenience stores here in Germany). The paper is available in various colors and weights in wads of 50 or 100 sheets. I forgot about the exact price but it was between 5 and 7 Euros for 50 A4 or 100 A5 sheets.

I tried some 120g/sqm in A5 and 160g/sqm in A6, both ivory colored. It's awesome with fountain pens, not too smooth, doesn't eat up all the shading and feels very nice and crisp. Great for composing a letter on it.

Besides: Have a very happy fountain pen day everyone! A great day to write a letter, make a review, take some photos, organize your blog or ink up some pens. Are you planning any fountain pen related activity today?

Beautiful notebooks by BomoArt, Budapest

Today I'm reviewing some really great notebooks from a small and, I think, relatively young workshop in Budapest, Hungary. As far as I could see they don't have any blogger's reviews at all so far so I'd guess it's high time!

I think I found them via another online shop carrying a small range of their products which looked very interesting, especially their notebooks They're combining a range of nostalgic/romantic/steam-punkish prints with leather spines of various colors to mix and match after your fancy (their web shop is pretty well made too!) Among others I picked this blank A5 notebook with dark brown leather spine and prints of a nostalgic aviary.

BomoArt A5 notebook dark brown leather & aviary print

BomoArt A5 notebook dark brown leather & aviary print

The brand name is embossed at the back of every journal. Looks pretty classy in my opinion!

BomoArt A5 notebook dark brown leather & aviary print

You can choose ruled or blank paper with various page counts. Each book has a ribbon bookmark and bright red end papers.

Below you can see one of their thicker journals with 280 pages. Some of their motifs are quite kitschy for my taste but others are simply adorable like the balloons, the aviary or those roses. I love roses! I like to wear rose perfume or use rose incense, though I think this is my first notebook with roses on the cover:

BomoArt thick A5 notebook with black leather & rosa centifolia print

BomoArt thick A5 notebook with black leather & rosa centifolia print

BomoArt stationery box "balloons" with 10 A4 sheets and 10 DL envelopes

I also ordered a small stationery box with 10 A4 sheets and 10 Din long envelopes. The box is a bit larger than the DL format - which is a pity because the A4 sheets come folded to fit into the box -, but beautifully made with some leather details. The envelopes are lined with the same balloon motif you can see on the box. The sheets are unprinted.

BomoArt lined paper: writing sample. Pretty nice, isn't it?

The notebooks feel sturdy and well made. The covers are made of thick cardboard, the leather has a nice feel and isn't dyed to death. The paper doesn't disappoint either, it worked well with any ink and nib width I threw at it. (Especially that Danitrio and Diamine Asa Blue are a super wet killer combination)

The blank books are A5 format whereas the lined ones are a little slimmer. Lines are light grey and unobtrusive.

 BomoArt lined paper: writing sample, back side. No bleeding, hardly any show through. 

Beautiful products and at a rather low price point too (€17-20 for a half leather journal size A5). They also offer diaries, address books, giftwrap paper and all kinds of other papeterie stuff. They also have journals with 100% leather cover if you're not into these motifs. I'm determined to get my daily diary for 2014 from them, probably with the balloon design.

All books are handmade in Budapest and were made to my specifications. Communication was good and friendly.

What do you think about these? Do you like their designs? Which one would be your favourite?

Their web shop: http://www.bomoart.com