Happy Halloween!

I have always wanted to write something for Halloween but didn’t know for sure what to blog about. For an Addams Family fan and an aspiring mortician like I am, it should be a comfortable topic, but I'm still left scrounging for ideas. I don’t have happy childhood trick or treat memories to write, or incredible Halloween parties to rave about. I have never even put on a Halloween costume or carved a pumpkin. But a Halloween post must be written and so here is one.

Before proceeding to read the rest, a warning should be made that this is an incredibly 'orange' post, but definitely has nothing to do with Halloween except that it is filled with a lot of 'orange' stuff. The idea for this post came to me after I received my first Rhodia notepad, and while I was waiting to get my Caran d'Ache Saffron ink from Singapore to ink two of my orange looking pens, a laque copper NOS Parker Rialto with a medium nib, and a copper Esterbrook SJ fitted with a 1551 firm medium nib.

Now let's get the reviews done. :)

Rhodia No. 14

I got this staple-bound Rhodia notepad No. 14 as part of Exaclair's Bastille Day giveaway in July. I was surprised and happy to find other Exaclair products in the package, apart from the two bottles of J. Herbin inks they promised to send. When I took the notepad out of the envelope, it wasn't exactly love at first sight for me. Because of its orange covers. :) I preferred the Clairefontaine spiral-bound notebooks and Quo Vadis Habana that went in the package. I tried the Rhodia when the Saffron ink arrived, and I instantly fell in love with it.

For my Halloween post, I thought I'd draw bats on my Rhodia pad. Seen here with two of my Tomica toys. I got orange toys, too! :)

The No. 14 notepad measures 4.3 × 6.7 inches, and has 80 sheets of 80gsm high-grade vellum paper. The paper on Rhodia pads is very smooth, and it's a pleasure to write on it. The one I got is the lined version, and it is perfectly resistant to ink feathering and bleed, the two common problems faced by fountain pen users. The pages are microperforated so it's easy to tear a page off as needed. Rhodia notepads' covers have an almost water resistant, shiny, smooth paper/board material. I had difficulty drawing the bats using an ultrafine retractable Sharpie - the ink erases itself! :) I'd like to guess that the ink from my Sharpie pen simply dries up on the paper's surface instead of being absorbed by the paper. The front cover is scored on the exact places where they will be creased due to repeated use. The back cover has a thicker chipboard aside from the orange cover, and this gives excellent support when writing.

Writing on the Rhodia notepad is an experience. The smoothness of the paper is overwhelming. Below are writing samples of my inked pens, most of which come with medium nibs letting off wet and wide strokes.

It will always be a joy to write on Rhodia notepads. And to claim my full ownership of this little gem of a notebok, I wrote this on its first page, using an orange-colored ink.

Pens: Esterbrook and Parker

Again, this is an orange-themed post, so here are two copper-colored pens from my collection.

Pen No. 1: Esterbrook SJ with a firm medium 1551 nib.

Esterbrook pens are a fascination not only to me, but for a lot of other fountain pen enthusiasts. My Estie (that's their nickname) is a transitional pen and a double jewel demi (SJ). According to the site http://www.esterbrook.net/j3.shtml, the double jewel models came out around 1948 and were produced in vast quantities, with many showing up in the wild with perfectly pliable sacs and in perfect writing condition.

My copper Estie is from fellow Pinoy FP collector Cindy Trinidad. It has a firm medium nib, that I love but which has a remarkable scratch that almost broke my heart until I realized I must align the pen at a certain angle to comfortably write and get rid of the scratch. It writes very well in that angle, and it's among my favorite writers now. :)

Pen No. 2: Laque copper Parker Rialto with a 23k gold plated medium nib.

How do I call this pen? I got it from an office supply store in San Pablo for a price way, way below its current worth. This pen, together with a matte navy Rialto and silver Place Vendome 88 were in the glass shelves of that store since it opened business in the late 90s. I've always seen the pens but never tried them, but once when I was already into FP collecting, I asked the irritated sales clerk if I could try them, and she let me hold the pens for a while. The laque copper Rialto with the 23k gold-plated nib won my heart, but not my purse. Every weekend after that, whenever I have the chance, I'll pass by the store and look at the pens. Until that one Sunday when the store manager asked me if I'd like to buy the pens. She said she's seen me a couple of times looking at the pens, and since they've been sitting there gathering dust for the longest time, the store will give me a discounted price. Oh, boy. That afternoon, I went home with an NOS Parker Rialto.

It took me months to use the pen because I waited for any orange-colored ink to fill it with. When that opportunity came, oh, wow. The pen's medium nib is just so smooth, it's like writing with the softest butter in the world! The barrel's laque finish is excellent, and its 23k gold plated trim doesn't look cheap to me, contrary to what some people say. And though some frown at the Rialto for being a 'spruced up' Vector, I cannot find anything bad to say about this pen, except for its snap-on closure which like the Vector may wear off with time and use.

This pen is a dream come true for me. Not only it is a valuable addition to my collection, it is also a great reminder that, after all, dreams do come true.


Caran d'Ache Saffron Ink

The first time I saw bottles of Caran d'Ache inks was during my second pen meet last March. Leigh Reyes brought a couple of bottles of CdA inks and some of the pens I tried had Caribbean Sea and Saffron in them. I lusted over them since then and when C! Magazine EIC Carl Cunanan went to Aesthetic Bay last month, he kindly bought a bottle of Saffron for me, sent the bottle through our Makati office, in a black Borders bag filled with copies of their swank and hip and cool magazines. :)

Another dream come true for me: Caran d'Ache Saffron. Orange ink!!!

CdA Saffron is a beautiful orange ink. It's a happy orange color, and yet doesn't hurt the eyes when a page written with it is read. The tints of bright yellow, orange and red of the ink really looks like dried saffron stigmas dissolving in hot water. CdA Saffron reminds me of summer sunsets, of flames in my father's furnace at home and of ripe, glossy clementines.

This ink has an excellent flow, and I didn't have any problem with all four pens I tried using it. It dries fast and doesn't stain the converters of my Lamy Joy pens. On the Rhodia notepad, there was no feathering and bleed through at all. CdA Saffron is part of Caran d'Ache's nine-color Colors of the Earth line of products. CdA inks comes only in bottles, no cartridges, and a bottle contains 30ml of ink.

Here is a writing sample of CdA Saffron using all the nib sizes on my Lamy Joy set. Paper is Kokuyo loose leaf, very fountain pen friendly, very sturdy paper. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

And so ends my orange reviews. I didn't like orange before, never liked bright colors. But notebooks and inks and pens changed all that. Thanks to Rhodia, Esterbrook, Parker and Caran d'Ache, I see orange differently now. :)

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P for Preppy; P for Petit

... Or P for Platinum; P for Pilot.

They say that a newbie's collection is forever incomplete without a Platinum Preppy or a Pilot Petit. I drooled over them because they're really colorful pens. But though I want them so badly, I could not have any because they're not available here.

Pens uncapped. 0.3/Fine Platinum Preppy Blue Black. (Preppy pens are very unique - their nibs are colored as their ink colors!) Fine Pilot Petit with purple ink. (Petit pens, on the hand, have barrel and cap color accents according to their inks!)

When I started my collection, I got a couple of inexpensive plastic pens, including the colorful Schneider Zippis and M&G Joy Box. But the talk about ED'd Preppies and colorful Petits continued to haunt me.

Nibs up close.

Sometime in early September, I had a conversation with a pen seller from Taiwan, and after exchanging a series of email messages, two pens were sent on their way to me. Hurray!

Writing samples of the two pens. Better views below.

I got the pens in a couple of days and I was very, very surprised at the Preppy. It wrote very, very smoothly and despite bearing a fine nib, wrote as comfortably as my medium-nibbed pens. But the biggest and most awesome surprise with the Preppy is that, of all the pens I've tried on my Moleskine notebook, this one has the least bleed through! It actually doesn't have a remarkable bleed through, and the writing on the paper's backside is still visible and comfortable to read.

Writing sample of the Platinum Preppy, blue black ink, fine nib.

The Petit, though did not fare as well as the Preppy did. I was very excited about it because it is purple and has purple ink, but not only did it show excessive bleed through in my Moleskine and on most papers, it had bad feathering issues, too. A page written with it is somewhat difficult to read, and writing on backside is out of the question. Both sides written with it would be difficult to read. Another feature of this pen that I am uncomfortable with is its length. I am not used to posting my pens as I write, but it becomes necessary to post this one to comfortably write. Despite all these, I still love my Petit. It's a cool pen to carry around, not to mention that it's got purple ink. I'm dying to get my hands on any purple ink, and if this is the closest I can get to purple, then so be it. *Wink.*

Sample sample of Pilot Petit, purple ink, fine nib.

There. Two pens. Great members of my newbie stash. Great pieces to lend to my nieces when they like to tinker with my pens. :) 

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B is for Bold

And we're now back to regular programming... Err, pens. Yes, we're back to the topic of pens.

As a newbie FP collector, I read (and heard) a lot about Pilot 78Gs as being excellent starter pens. I thought the pens looked simple and unpretentious but I liked that because it made them look classy and neat.

During my first pen meet, I saw my fellow Pinoy fountain pen collectors getting their 78Gs from Sir Butch Dalisay who brought a couple of the pens for them from his Shanghai trip (I got a black Hero 616 from that giveaway, though). And then I read about 78Gs from the FPN forums and good reviews from a lot of pen and paper blogs, but the best are from my good friend Tom and Paul David Krishnan's Phase Ignition.

My Pilot 78G B rests on the rim of my Cusco, Peru shotglass. Another opportunity to mix the stuff I love to hoard: pens and shotglasses. :)

After months of waiting, I made it to Cosmos Bazaar in Binondo, a store recommended by Pidoy Velez, another Pinoy FP collector, and found a couple of 78Gs with medium and fine nibs among a vast selection of other Pilot pens. Typical hoarder that I am, I bought all available colors with medium nibs: black, teal, green. A medium maroon was not in stock so I wasn't able to complete the four-color set, but that's okay. I inked the black pen as soon as I got home, and I was disappointed that despite being a medium, I was not satisfied with how it wrote. I realized that in nib language, Japanese medium becomes a Western fine (or even extra fine). I don't have anything against that, a lot of FP users prefer fine or extra fine nibs, but I am a medium nib user. I always find my writing to be uncomfortably ugly when I use thin nibs. I want wide strokes using broad, bold and wet nibs.

I knew Pilot 78Gs are also available with broad/bold (B) and double broad/bold (BB) nib, yet I couldn't possibly think of a way of getting one. But I had to get one. It's amazing that while chatting with Tom one time, I asked him if he happened to have a 78G with a B nib. And he has! :) Tom kindly sent the pen to me right away. Hurray! Applause!

The black broad/bold 78G did not look any different from the black medium pen I inked earlier, except for its nib. The pen is made of plastic, yes, but still looked classy to me. I don't mind the gold-plated metal clip and the two gold bands near the cap rim. Who cares? I got a classy pen that writes smoothly and that's all that's important, I guess.

The Pilot 78G B. Above: Barrel with the Pilot sticker on, and section with the converter. Below: the pen's cap and barrel.

The name Pilot is imprinted downwards on the clip, and Japan is printed on the back side of the cap, breaking the wider of the two gold bands. The nib is almost a stub, and looking at it through a 10x loupe shows its tines properly aligned. This pen, like the ones before it, has an aerometric filling system, but further reading says it can also be inked using international cartridges. The pen is very light owing to its plastic body, and that makes it easy to hold when writing. Cleaning it is a breeze because the nib assembly can be removed from the section with a slight but firm tug. (Thanks to John Raymond Lim and Mona Caccam for the useful information.)

The section when I fully diassembled it. The pen part on top is the converter. Parts below, from left: nib, feed, and section barell.

Oh, what more can I say about this great pen? I'm happy to have it now that I'm learning to write italic and script. Below is a writing sample using the broad/bold/stub 78G inked with Lamy Black.

And again, as my small token of gratitude for the help extended to me so I can get and enjoy this pen, here's to you, Tom! :)

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For Now, It's Siku for I

I'm back to my first love: toy fire trucks! I'm not leaving out pens and inks and notebooks, no. I just want to go back to my previous fascination before I got so enamored with fountain pens, inks, and notebooks. It's a coincidence, perhaps, that my treasure of fountain pens and toys come from the same places: Japan and Germany.

I love fire trucks. Real fire trucks, toy fire trucks, it doesn't matter - as long as they are fire trucks. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about a big, red truck with sirens and flashing lights that always fascinates me. I tried to get my hands on a remote/radio controlled fire truck, but that plan did not work, and I was left wanting and pinning for a red toy truck. Until I found a couple of small, shiny, die-cast models called Tomicas. Tomicas are die-cast toy vehicles that are produced by Japan's Takara Tomy Company.

I bought a lot of Tomica trucks, not only the fire trucks, but also those of the construction, trucking, and farming series. I even got myself taxis and police cars. Other toys caught my fancy, like the Fire Saver from Matchbox's 50th Birthday, part of the 9-toy package I got from Leo Sajonas sometime last year. And then there's Siku.

I have always wanted to add European toy fire trucks into my collection. And research pointed me to Siku, which has, more or less, similar selection to that of Tomica's. I've seen them in toy stores, but couldn't get them because I didn't like trucks that are bigger and larger in size than my Tomica trucks. But Virra Mall's Toy Kingdom made me a very happy collector when I found out that their Siku selection now includes the Siku Super Series. Hurray!

And now, here are my Siku toys.

Here is Siku No. 1068, a Unimog fire engine, scaled at 1:87. It is cast in metal, and its high-quality design has fine detail engraving. This piece has been offered since 2006, but was only available here in the Philippines last year.

This is Siku No. 1345, a 4x4 version of the Panther airfield water cannon by Rosenbauer. It is designed for use at smaller airports, with the No. 1889 scaled at 1:87 meant for big airport action. Introduced in July 2009, I'm very happy to get it here now.

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Inks on Review: J. Herbin Rouge Opera and Bleu Pervenche

When I started using a fountain pen, I only had one ink color in mind: black. After I found a bottle of old washable black Parker Quink at a brick and mortar shop here in Los Banos, it worked fine for me. The fine-nibbed maroon Parker Vector and bottle of Quink worked okay for a long time. Until I found a bottle of Quink Blue-Black in a box of sale items at an NBS branch. It was an important discovery for me, one that opened up to a huge Pandora’s box of endless possibilities in the world of fountain pens.

These endless possibilities include inks, ink colors, and ink brands. I wanted to learn more about them and so I read. And read. And read more. As I read more, I learned more. As I learned more, I began to want to own more pens, and inks, and more ink colors…

While blog hopping last July, I read somewhere that Exaclair, the exclusive distributor of Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Quo Vadis, G. Lalo, Exacompta and J. Herbin products in North America is giving away inks for review in celebration of Bastille Day on July 14. That is how I got these two bottles of wonderful J. Herbin inks. Though it took me longer than Odysseus to get these inks, the wait is worth every second of it. (The story about the Exaclair packages is here.)

When I sent the email to Exaclair, I did as they said. I chose one red ink and one blue ink. I was hoping to get the most coveted J. Herbin orange ink, Orange Indien, but I kept by the rules. I was torn between Rouille D’Ancre and Rouge Opera for my bottle of red; and between Bleu Azure and Bleu Pervenche for my blue ink. I finally settled on Rouge Opera as my red, because it looked so blooming and alive; and Bleu Pervenche for my blue because it’s a turquoise, and yet looked solid and strong.

And now, the reviews.

J. Herbin Rouge Opera

Did I say this ink looked blooming and alive? Well, it is. When I got the first package that Exaclair's VP for Marketing Karen Doherty sent me, Rouge Opera was the first bottle I opened. I'm not one to smell inks, but the scent of Rouge Opera caught me by surprise. It's like taking in the scent of wild flowers and that makes it even better to use. I filled one of my Schneider Base pens with this ink and tried it on my Moleskine. Uh-oh. In my excitement to try the ink, I forgot that Molie paper is the big time ink sucker. I then tried it on my Scribe using my Lamy Joy’s 1.5mm italic nib on my white Safari. It was amazing. It was beautiful. Rouge Opera clearly shows off the beauty of its shading and color when used on pens with broad nibs.

Rouge Opera is my first pink fountain pen ink. It is a lovely pink that leans towards dark fuchsia and burnt red. Though it shows more traces of red, I know that I can use it for everyday writing because it is not as bright and glaring as other red or pink inks. While wet, it has a certain sheen which gives it a glossy, slick appearance. When it has dried, it loses the gloss, but retains the same color intensity. The shading is very evident, especially when used with broader nibs, and I like that with my inks. While I’m more of a blue and black ink user, this pink ink is a keeper on my stash.

J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche

My all-time ink favorite is Waterman South Sea Blue. It’s an attractive turquoise ink that is wet and friendly to all of my pens. Then Bleu Pervenche comes along. I filled another Schneider Base with this ink as soon as I opened the bottle and tried it on the Scribe. Wonderful. The next pen I tried was my new Lamy Vista with my Lamy Joy’s 1.1mm italic nib. It was magnificent. It was beautiful.

Bleu Pervenche is my not my first blue or turquoise ink, but its clarity lends it a unique softness. I like it better on ivory-colored than bright white paper, because it looks softer in the former. While wet, it appears lighter than SS Blue, but looks very soft and readable as soon as it dries. Shading is very evident, as it is with Rouge Opera, and again, that is something I very much like with my inks. I like Bleu Pervenche a lot and right now, I got four pens already filled with it.

And for writing samples, I present my attempts to learn Chancery Italic Script. I wanted to present something worthwhile with my ink tests, and inspired by my Speedball textbook and Ann Finley's instructions at FPN, here are a few samples of my new addiction.

Below is one of my better attempts to Chancery italic script using my Schneider Calligraphy pen with a 1.5mm italic nib.


And finally... a small token of my gratitude to Karen and to Exaclair for being so generous in giving away so many of their products not only for review but also for long-term use. I will forever be grateful to Karen for sending stuff all the way from New York to the Philippines so I can review, use and enjoy these wonderful products I so dearly love!

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My Rhodia No. 10s at Play

I love my Rhodia No. 10s, and my toys love them, too!

It's obvious I had fun with my Rhodia pads when I did the photo shoot last week. Winks. :) I used the ChoroQ initially for size comparison, then I thought of my Cararama VWs. If only the other VW is orange and not red! It would have been a perfect Rhodia combination, right? Well... maybe it's time I go back to the toy store and find myself a black and orange combination...

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Christmas in September

My first Rhodia: Rhodia No. 10, from Exaclair's Bastille Day inks offer. Oh, sure, it's that small, and that's a regular teacup. :)

September has been another hectic and trying month for me. A lot of things went on at the same time, and all equally required the same attention and care from me. Ondoy and Pepeng came and went, we got flooded, and yet, there is so much for all of us to be thankful for. And here's my share.

First is this package of heavenly goodies from Exaclair. In July, I read from the Quo Vadis blog that Exaclair is offering J. Herbin blue and red inks as part of their Bastille Day offer. Though hesitant, I still signed up for the offer, but added that I'm in the Philippines and if they won't ship the items here, that's no problem. To my surprise, Exaclair's VP for Marketing, Karen Doherty, replied to me a few days later, saying that she has already sent me the inks and notebooks and that I should receive the package soon. I have to admit that I almost fell off my chair when I read that message. I got excited to see the notebooks, but more than excited to get my hands on the inks I requested: Bleu Pervenche and Rouge Opera. Oh, who wouldn't be?

J. Herbin inks from Exaclair: Rouge Opera and Bleu Pervenche.

And after the excitement came the painful wait. July went to mid-August. Then August ended. By early September, I lost hope and convinced myself to never trust the postal system again. It's simple: the package got lost or stolen along the way. And I was so embarrassed when I told Karen about it. Then again, she said that she will send me another set of goodies. Oh, wow.

Towards the end of September, I got a big surprise when our mailroom guy called me up even if it was after 5pm already, to let me know I got a package from Exaclair. Hurray!

Aside from the Rhodia No. 10 pad and the inks, Karen also sent me these wonderful notebooks. From left: Rhodia Pad No. 16, reporter-style Clairefontaine Basic pad, and wirebound Clairefontaine Basic. It's a surprise that all these goodies came intact...

... when this is where they all came from!

It's obvious that the package got wet somewhere, and it's a miracle the items inside were not destroyed, if for some minor damage on the notebook covers. But the J. Herbin catalog did not survive the water that seeped through the envelope. (Photo below.)

A week later, the second package was delivered to me.

This time, the envelope is intact, and all the notebooks inside are in pristine condition, including the inks and their boxes. I got a black 5x5 No. 10 Rhodia pad, a black 6x8¼ clothbound Clairefontaine Basics, Rhodia No. 16, a large Quo Vadis Habana notebook, and the same two J. Herbin ink colors I requested before. Great! I can't wait to tear the plastic off the Habana and try writing on all the notebooks. So far I've tried the No. 16 and it's just great! My reviews will trickle in beginning next week. :) Oh, the toy is one of my Tomica ChoroQs. :)


And then...

Right after the 2nd Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper was published, I sent an email to Marian Ong of Scribe Writing Essentials to inform her that my blogpost about the red Scribe journal I recently got made it to the top editor's choice. A few days later, a bag was delivered to me all the way from our Makati Office and here, behold, are the contents: all pure notebook goodness in red and black. The pen on top, is my Rotring Core Rubidium. I'll use the red large notebook for my fountain ink tests, the black one as a spare to follow my current journal. The Pocket notebooks will be used for my GTD stuff. But more on that later. :)

But the Christmasy feeling doesn't end there. In between the packages from Scribe and Exaclair, there is definitely more! :)

Sailor Kenshin, a fellow member of Fountain Pen Network was giving away some of his pens. I emailed him to ask for a burgundy Hero 616 and a Stypen. He sent the pens free of shipping charges, and suprised me when he included a mini Daiso fountain pen. Great guy. Cool gifts. When I emailed him to say thank you, I inquired about the pens he wanted to trade away. I don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but he said he'll send the two pens to me. So I got myself a clear/white Waterman Kultur and a red Pelikano Junior. What he doesn't know is that he gave me my first Waterman and my first Pelikan pens.

My Hero 616 with the Chinese Terracota Army

The Stypen with American Indians on the battlefield.

The mini Daiso fountain pen in Angkor Wat.

The Waterman Kultur in Anatolia, Turkey's Çatal Höyük

And the Pelikano Junior on an Aztec temple.

I'm overwhelmed! How can I fully say thank you to Karen, Marian, and Sailor Kenshin for all the goodies they sent me? My reviews of all these stuff will come next week, and I'm hoping that somehow, someday, I'll be able to return their kind gesture...

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