I'm A Sad, Pathetic Stationery Junkie.

June 27, 2020

From the mini-tour of the Midwest, my Field Notes have arrived. No stories about their adventures in Akron, Cleveland, and KCK. They could have taken photos!

July 6, 2020

Correct - I can remember my disappointment with the original paper. Bad choice. Look for the 80gsm Taiwanese Milled Maple Paper. They are all that now. Very nice FP paper - no bleed or feathering with my pens. It is cream which I don't particularly like - much prefer white. If you get to try one let me know what you think.

I came across a large and fancy newsagent yesterday, which is selling off 432-page Milligram "2020 A5 Non-Diary Dot Grid" diaries (as well as ruled and line-grid equivalents) in "Subtle Daily Diary Format" forA$5 apiece. It has the 80gsm "Taiwanese milled Milligram maple paper", so I thought why the hell not spend a fiver to try the paper out?

The paper is certainly fountain pen friendly. No feathering or bleed-through from Platinum Carbon Black, Hero 234 carbon, Sailor kiwaguro, Noodler's Aircorp Blue Black, Platinum Classic Ink Lavender Black, and Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz inks. However, the level of show-through is not insignificant; even the middle-grey markings printed on the recto side (e.g. month-view planner grid on the other side of the dot-gridded page for the first day of the month) are quite noticeable from the verso side. I'd say the 85gsm paper in the Paperblanks journal I've been testing has exhibits significantly less show-through. I have now ordered a 368-page Paperblanks 2020 day-to-a-page planner with 80gsm paper (for A$6.56), just to do more of a like-for-like comparison, not that the "non-diary" Paperblanks journals these days ever use

July 10, 2020

Finished off my last Made in Brazil composition book earlier this week. Now to venture out and see if I can find more - or something that is at least close to its equal. I use them for scratch type paper for work, so inexpensive is good.

Anyone have any experience with any of the others? Vietnam, Egypt seem to be the ones I have seen most recently.

July 11, 2020

5 notebooks and 1 pencil case arrived! 4 Rhodia and 1 whitelines. Derwent Artpack pencil case

July 12, 2020

Well, I paid a visit to my local Office Depot. What I found was a huge stack of the Made in Brazil composition books. All were College Ruled black marbled. But every one I saw was Brazil. So I grabbed ten. (10!) Price was just ok ($1.99 each) One of the few times I didn't have a pen with me, so I gambled on the paper being just as good as other Made in Brazil books I have had in the past. So far I have just done a few scribbles, but with wet inks and or wide nibs (up to 1.1) and it has performed well.

The few colored ones (plain colors) that I looked at were Vietnam. And they were more expensive than the black ones. Ten will last me a while.

July 21, 2020

No post in this thread for 9 days. I am worried. Do we all need a little encouragement?

July 21, 2020

I'll play, although my stash is (so far) fairly small. I've been writing letters using Rhodia lined paper, and have wanted to switch to unlined and free myself from the (annoying) difficulty of cleanly separating the Rhodia sheets from their captivity, so I ordered and just received a Clairefontaine Triomphe A4 tablet and small envelopes.

July 22, 2020

I've just started using a Whitelines notebook.

Initially I was excited by the accompanying phone app which does a great job of photographing the page and correcting the perspective. A really convenient substitute for a flatbed scanner. Then I discovered that the phone's built-in software will do almost as good a job with any kind of notebook.

Anyway, the Whitelines ruling does as it claims: it's easy to see when writing, and doesn't distract when reading. I don't think it'll usurp Lamy as my favourite brand of notebook (ideal for impromptu diagrams and tables), but it's a distinct improvement over ordinary line-ruling.

July 23, 2020

Travelers notebooks for Midori leather journal. Have 10 inserts on hand but with so much "craziness" going on I had the feeling I should stock up more so 7 more have arrived. I still have stacks of other types of notebooks to use. And Blackwing came out with another limited edition pencil I dont need. Already have a huge collection of Blackwings, and received more Herbin ink too. Sad...and then there is a new Rite in the Rain pen I recently saw in bright orange I might need to pick up. I could find it if dropped in the weeds, which is where I'll be living if I buy one more of any of this.

July 23, 2020

No post in this thread for 9 days. I am worried. Do we all need a little encouragement?

I was embarrassed to post more of my insane collecting.

July 23, 2020

I was embarrassed to post more of my insane collecting.

You are amongst friends here and nobody knows who you are.

July 23, 2020

I write 3-4 A5 pages a day. At that rate I have enough journals to last three years. I think it's time to stock up.

July 23, 2020

I write 3-4 A5 pages a day. At that rate I have enough journals to last three years. I think it's time to stock up.

I recommend urgent action. In these current unsettling times I believe you must have 5 years supply of your fave notebook and then a backup of alternatives. You then need to have a few 'one of' purchases that you tried, didn't love but kept in the back of the cupboard as they weren't bad enough to throw out but not good enough to become a daily use, hopefully with a page removed for testing that is not obviously missing so you can gift the notebook at a later date.

July 23, 2020

The sad reality is that products tend to change or disappear once enough time goes by. So I understand stocking up now, once I find something I really really like. Particularly if there's a good sale on those products.

July 24, 2020

[quote name="inkypete"

You are amongst friends here and nobody knows who you are.

Had to go get this. (Difficulty posting one image. Hopefully not prophetic. Two is one, one is none.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Studio97

July 24, 2020

No post in this thread for 9 days. I am worried. Do we all need a little encouragement?

I already overspent my allowance and fear I am being watched by my captors. Maybe I'm imagining it.

July 24, 2020

No post in this thread for 9 days. I am worried. Do we all need a little encouragement?

I've been spending the pandemic writing postcards to friends and family. I've been writing one a day since around March 13th, and have been enjoying it immensely. And, of course, it means that I have all kinds of excuses to buy postcards.

Mostly, I'm hooked on Zazzle -- specifically, their semi-gloss postcards. Smooth, show off shading, take ink quite well. And, unlike other print-on-demand outfits, there aren't any minimums -- if I only want one of a particular postcard design, I can get one. Best, though, is the ability to edit (most) card designs -- I tend to move the note/address divider a touch over to allow for more note space, and I remove their oversized "PLACE STAMP HERE" box because (1) it's almost always bigger than the stamps I use and therefore ends up looking awful, and (2) I know where the blasted stamp goes.

I spent $10 on a Zazzle Black membership, which gets me free shipping on any size order -- which saves me money, but also means that I can pretty much buy postcards on a whim: "Oh, my friend Andy would like that." "Hey, I could use some more of that whimsical plague doctor design." And if Zazzle runs a sale -- which they do a lot -- cards tend to be 50% off, and I go completely off the rails and get stacks of them.

Speaking of which, there's a sale that ends this Sunday, and I've been meaning to get a few more of the Cheshire Kitten postcards I found...

July 24, 2020

I already overspent my allowance and fear I am being watched by my captors. Maybe I'm imagining it.

I walked into the library and asked the librarian - do you have any books on paranoia? They're right behind you, she replied.

July 24, 2020

I ordered 6 notebooks from an Etsy shop. Two have Tomoe River paper. The shop has a size that fits the Midori Pouch Diary. I had to buy the pouch diary when it was on sale. But I already have a Travelers Notebook Weekly plus Memo calendar insert. Didn’t need a second version, so I figured multiple notebooks. I need to see if the connecting band will work to fit a third notebook.