Writer's Bloc Blog

Did you know Compendium makes a series of inspirational and interactive books that are intended to help us draw close to our families? Wow! Who would think that a company would actually care about the things we want to remember about our families. The things they said. The lessons we learned.

This book series is meant to serve as a collection of interview journals. We all know what a normal journal is but what really is an interview journal? Well, have you ever conducted an interview yourself? No doubt the purpose was to quench your growing curiosity and gather information you can both use and keep. Possibly even pass on. If you've been through this, you probably also found that at some point you run out of questions! What if you're still thirsting for more knowledge but you just don't know how to proceed? Well this is where these carefully thought-out journals come to save the day. They have the questions already printed and waiting for your answers. You ask the question on each page and write down the answer. It is that easy. Who better to learn about than our own family and its history? What better information to hold onto and guard as irreplaceable?

Each book is tailored and special from the others. Let's talk about grandpa's book first: Grandpa His Stories His Words. The cover has a fine texture to it like all of the books. The pages are a nice cream color and have a regal design that decorates each page. The questions cover topics ranging from favorite foods and pets to growing up and who his favorite president was. Ask about his parents and what they were like; if and when they immigrated to this country. We think of grandpa as a hero. Every hero has a journey that made them that way. Find out more about his journey.

My Grandma Her Stories Her Words, beautifully crafted in cream and wine red, gives us a chance to tap into grandma's wisdom. Ask her about her recipes (if she'll let you in on her food secrets) and how she got through the tough times in her life. Our grandmothers offer us so much comfort and joy along with great laughter. She'll no doubt have as much fun answering as you will listening. The cover is adorned with dainty light blue foliage for a nice feminine touch. Light blue would be great as an ink choice to complement the wine ink lines and white paper. I recommend using the Leuchtturm1917 self-adhesive pen loop in blue to hold your interview pen. This color matches perfectly!

Now on to mom's book, My Mom Her Stories Her Words. The cover is reminiscent of red lipstick we have often seen our mothers put on. The inside is decorated in baby blue/turquoise with varying embellishments from page to page. These pages are white with attractive blue lines. Now you can find out exactly how dad met mom and which of her parents' rules drove her crazy. Our moms taught us the most about life. Don't miss your chance to hear about hers. 

My Dad His Stories His Words is for Dad. His mind may be the hardest to penetrate sometimes. You would be amazed at what you can learn from your father. The book contains white pages that are adorned by jade green lines. Fathers are often the quiet ones of the bunch. This is a great way to really get his thoughts and opinions and see what experiences shaped who he is and possibly what he wanted for his children. 

The family interview journals are all the same size and look quite attractive next to each other on a bookcase. The pages are all very smooth and great quality. Just a bit larger than a photo, these books are not heavy or cumbersome but fit nicely into any bag or purse.

You will love the stories you hear and the things you possibly never knew.

If you are giving these books as gifts, I recommend getting cute, small matching pens and a self-adhesive pen loop. There aren't always colors that match the books exactly so try contrasting colors that pop and complement. I would also consider ink colors and how they will match or contrast the actual lines in the book. There was so much thought that went into creating these books. You can make them even better by perfecting and customizing your presentation with great ink and a great pen. For example, mom's book has a red cover that would contrast nicely with a nice purple pen loop (of course with a purple or red pen) and a surprise tangerine ink. Or dad's book would do well with a black pen loop and a regal sepia ink to keep the look simple and sharp. 

We really want to hear from you on this one. What do you think about using a family interview journal?

My Dad: His Story. His Words
My Mom: Her Story. Her Words
My Grandpa: His Stories. His Words
My Grandma: Her Stories. Her Words.

Posted by Tatijanna at 07:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The J. Herbin refillable rollerball pen is a welcome addition to Exaclair’s new products for 2012. The feature that distinguishes this rollerball pen from most other rollerball pens is that J. Herbin’s pen can be filled with colorful fountain pen ink!

With its transparent body and simple design, the J. Herbin refillable rollerball has a modern minimalist appearance. It is accented with a chrome clip and trim and has “J. Herbin” printed in red on the snap-on cap. The pen has a “soft touch” feel to it – kind of similar to the “soft touch” feel of the R by Rhodia notebook covers. No doubt this helps to keep the cap securely posted while you are writing. The clear barrel comes in handy to keep track of how much ink is left in your pen.

(J. Herbin Refillable Rollerball Pen alongside an R by Rhodia Bloc No. 12)

Without its cap on this pen is a very compact 3.88”! It has been cleverly designed to be 5.5” when posted, a comfortable length for writing. With it’s cap on it’s about 4.75” in length which is a good size for carrying in a purse or pocket.

(J. Herbin Rollerball and Exacompta's Forum Journal with a Club cover)

The J. Herbin rollerball writes in a medium line and is refillable with short international ink cartridges. J. Herbin ink cartridges are a great choice since they are available in 20 different colors! Most ink converters will be too long to fit inside this pen, but at only 2.25” long the Monteverde Mini Converter seems as if it could possibly be adjusted to fit. I haven’t tried it personally, so if anyone gets an opportunity to check it out let us know. There are small holes on the end of the barrel so this pen is not suitable for conversion into eye-dropper fill.

(J. Herbin Rollerball alongside a previous version of the J. Herbin Rollerball)

We’re having a great time using the J. Herbin refillable rollerball pen! Do you like the idea of using fountain pen ink in a rollerball pen? What refillable rollerball pens do you like to use?

(J. Herbin Refillable Rollerball Pen Writing Test - with a Rhodia Webnotebook & custom mixed green ink)

Posted by Cheryl at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

If you own a fountain pen that has a cartridge filling system, you can easily refill your empty ink cartridges or ink converter using a blunt tip needle bottle.

1. Put some ink into the needle bottle – a small funnel can be used to make this easier.
2. If you are changing ink colors it would be a good idea to clean your fountain pen and rinse out your empty cartridge with water first. A blunt tip needle bottle filled with clean water is a good way to rinse out ink cartridges. You may want to let the cleaned pen and ink cartridge dry overnight before you refill them.
3. Insert the blunt tip needle through the small opening on the end of the cartridge down towards the bottom of your empty cartridge. This way as you fill the cartridge the air will naturally come out the top and not form too many ink bubbles.
4. Gently squeeze the needle bottle and fill the cartridge or converter not quite to the top with ink.
5. Put the refilled ink cartridge into your fountain pen and you’re finished!

I’ve heard that some people use a dab of glue from a hot glue gun to reseal the cartridges so they can take extra ink cartridges with them. If you decide to give this a try, be aware that it’s not foolproof. You may want to carry the ink cartridges in a plastic zip top bag to prevent any accidents.

There are many advantages to using a blunt tip needle bottle to refill your empty fountain pen ink cartridges:

• Bottled ink is much cheaper to use than ink that comes in cartridges.
• Since the empty cartridges can be re-used many times before discarding them, there is less plastic waste going into the environment.
• Ink cartridges usually can hold more ink than a comparable ink converter.
• The needle tip bottle can hold lots of ink and it doesn’t need to be cleaned after each use like a syringe does.
• The blunt tip needle is safer to use for refilling than a sharp tip syringe.
• The plunger on a syringe can be hard to control leading to small ink explosions, but the bottle yields to very gentle pressure.
• You can fill the needle bottle with your own custom ink color and use it to create your own custom cartridges.
• You can fill cartridges with ink that isn’t available in cartridges such as Noodler’s and Pilot Iroshizuku.

The little wire in the cap of the blunt tip needle bottle isn’t completely necessary, but it does serve a couple of useful purposes. Since the wire goes into the needle when the bottle is capped it helps to prevent any clogs and it also helps to prevent leaks if the bottle tips over. If the little wire in the cap comes out, you can gently push it back in.

Do you ever refill empty fountain pen ink cartridges? What method do you use? Do you have any tips that you’d like to pass along?

Posted by Cheryl at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

If you’re like me and you enjoy notebooks, pens and other kinds of stationery, no doubt you have some extra supplies laying around your house. You know what I mean, the notebook or pen that seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase, but just didn’t work out as you expected it to because it was too big or too small or too whatever. Or maybe you just didn’t get around to using it for some reason. By now you’ve lost the receipt or it’s too expensive to return it by mail or it’s too late to return it. Sometimes these extra supplies are gently used, for example I’ll have a notebook that just sits around forever with only a page or two that have been written on. If you don’t want these supplies to clutter up your living space forever, what can you do with them?

1) The first thing I think of is kids. Most kids love to draw, doodle or write with just about anything you give them. They often don’t care if you’ve already used that pen for a week, or if a few pages have writing on them. Even if it’s an inexpensive fountain pen that’s laying around gathering dust, think about introducing a child of an appropriate age to the world of writing with fountain pens. Chances are they won’t get that opportunity at school. Children love to express their creativity with paper and writing instruments so why not find one to donate your extra supplies to.

2) Schools everywhere seem to be suffering from a lack of funding these days and many teachers would be thrilled to get their hands on donated items such as paper, notebooks, pencils, pens, and other office or art supplies. Many of these things don’t even have to be brand new to be appreciated by a needy classroom. If you’re wondering how to donate you can call a local school or Google “donate school supplies” for suggestions.

3) Friends. I usually get an eager, positive response when I offer extra notebooks or pens to my friends. After all, they like to try out new things too. I’ll usually tell them if I’ve ripped out a page or two from a notebook or used a pen for a few days, but they don’t seem to mind at all.

4) Be creative yourself and start a new project. Why not do a drawing a day for a month? Or a year? Perhaps spend a few minutes each day and jot down positive thoughts in a journal or notebook to help you to develop a more positive outlook on life? Sure, these projects won’t use up a large stash, but they can help with the odds and ends.

5) You could donate your extra supplies to a charity to help people in need. I’ve heard of food banks delivering school supplies along with food to needy families. Or there are many second-hand stores around that accept donations that benefit a cause.

What do you do with your extra or unwanted notebooks, paper and writing supplies? Do you have any ideas for interesting projects? How about a Mercedes car covered in pens? Any other ways you can think of to benefit others?

Posted by Cheryl at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

It has already been about a year since the Quo Vadis Habana Journals containing ivory paper were introduced to us here in the USA. How do these new Habana journals compare to the original Habana journals with white paper? It seems that the original Quo Vadis quality has not been compromised and many writers are still very happy with the performance of the new Habana Journal.

Things that remain the same:

• The cover design and materials
• Elastic closure
• Ribbon bookmark
• Pocket inside the back cover
• The sewn binding
• Sizes
• Number of sheets (80) in the large Habana
• Small Habana is still narrow ruled
• Lined and blank paper options
• Paper is still acid-free, pH neutral
• Paper is still made by Clairefontaine and has an exceptionally smooth satin finish

Things that have changed:

• Paper color is now ivory instead of white
• Paper weight in the large Habana is now 85g instead of 90g
• Paper weight in the small Habana is now 85g instead of 64g
• Number of sheets in the small Habana is now 80 instead of 96
• Paper is narrow ruled the large Habana
• Lines on the paper no longer go all the way to the edge
• Lines are now dotted so they are more subtle
• New for 2012 – black, blank paper Habana in A4 size (approx. 8.25” x 11.75”)

It’s nice to see that the small Habana got an upgrade to 85g paper! I really like the new dotted lines that don’t go all the way to the paper’s edge since they don’t dominate the page as much but are more of a subtle guideline. The narrow rules in the large Habana allow you to get a lot more writing onto each page. It’s exciting to have the option of a new large A4 size Habana Journal. Depending on the size of Habana Journal you use and the pen you like to write with, you might either see more or less writing that shows through to the other side of the page. Writers who love bright white paper are sad to see the change to ivory paper, but I personally like variety and like to have a mix of paper colors in my notebook and journal collection. Too bad we don’t have the option of choosing either white or ivory paper for our Habana Journals!

For those of you that prefer white paper, we still have a small selection of white paper Habana Journals left in stock. Get them while they last!

Do you use a Habana Journal? What do you think of the new Habana Journals with ivory paper? Would you use a Habana Journal in the new large A4 size?

Posted by Cheryl at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

We’re big fans of disc bound notebooks and the flexibility that they allow, so we made a special effort to import from France some notebooks from the Clairefontaine Clairing collection. If you’ve never used disc bound notebooks, what makes them so special is the ability to easily add or remove pages and creatively re-order and organize your notebook pages whenever and however you want. All of the Clairefontaine Clairing notebooks that we have on hand at the moment are A4 size, and each one has a different type of rule – graph, graph with margin, lined with margin and French ruled. I think it would be fun to get a few Clairing notebooks with different kinds of rules and create my own custom notebook such as one with alternating graph and ruled pages, or even a notebook that has one section of graph paper, another section of French ruled paper and a third section of lined paper. I’d probably share one of these custom notebooks with a friend that has never used French ruled paper or experienced the smoothness of Clairefontaine paper.

Instructions come with each Clairing notebook showing the best way to insert and remove the pages. The copy below shows the wrong way to do it - taking the paper off the rings by pulling it sideways out of the notebook. This can cause the punches that hold the paper onto the rings to tear.

The next photo shows the best way to remove pages – by pulling them up and towards you, you can remove pages gently without tearing the punched side of the page.

To put a page back into the notebook just reverse what you did to pull them out – starting with either the top or bottom of the page gently push each punch back onto the plastic rings.

Ta-dah! Your notebook has been refreshed and reorganized.

We’re expecting to have an expanded selection of Clairing notebooks in our store sometime in May. Do you use disc bound notebooks? Why do you like them? Are there any other Clairefontaine Clairing notebooks you’d like to see available in our store? Please feel free to share your thoughts and requests!

Posted by Cheryl at 07:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to the STAEDTLER website the purpose of the STAEDTLER Mars Draft 924 Technical Ballpoint Pen is for “professional use with rulers, triangles and templates.” However, you don’t need to be an engineer or draftsman to appreciate this pen.

The super-fine 0.2mm needle tip is much smaller than what you would normally find on most pens available in the USA. I wasn’t surprised to discover that the super-fine tip ink refills for this pen are made in Japan where good quality fine tip pens can readily be found. The waterproof oil-based ink is available in black only and the refills come in packs of two.

Since the needle tip on the STAEDTLER 924 is so fine I wondered if the ink flow could keep up with rapid note taking and I found that it didn’t skip a beat while I took notes. After four months of use I have not had any trouble with dry-starts or ink skipping, but it does occasionally leave little ink blobs behind as is typical of most ballpoint pens.

The light-weight body is slender and is made from a grey plastic that is somewhat metallic looking. The grip is non-slip and made with a comfortable grooved grey rubber. It has a stainless steel pocket clip and tip. This pen is retractable and is about 5 5/8” long with the tip extended. If you like large or heavy pens this pen probably isn’t for you. My hands are rather small so I find that it’s quite comfortable to write with.

What’s your favorite super-fine tip pen?

(Staedtler Mars Draft 924 Technical Ballpoint Pen Writing Test on Leuchtturm1917 Paper)

Posted by Cheryl at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)