Notebook Review: Quo Vadis Keith Haring Artist Series

I have a lot of notebooks. I actually have an insane number of them inside my 'notebook cabinet'. While some are from my impulse buys, most of them came from my silent sponsors, as samples for review. I'm fascinated by colorful things, but I have always been fond of plain-covered notebooks. I like using any black-covered ones for journal writing and note taking. I also use a small black notebook for the 'ink diary' that I keep (more on that on the next notebook review). 

When I received the Keith Haring Quo Vadis Habana notebooks that Karen Doherty (Exaclair's USA VP for   Marketing) sent to me a few months ago, it wasn't exactly love at first sight. Late last month, while I was sick and recovering at home, I saw the notebooks again and decided to try them out. That time, though, it was definitely love at first write.

Keith Haring Habana notebooks are the most recent addition to the Quo Vadis limited edition Artist Series that include the art of Pablo Picasso and Henry Matisse. Picasso's "Portrait of Dora Maar" and Matisse's "Icarus" and "The Creole Dancer" are the selected cover designs of their respective series.

Keith Haring's "Earth Day" and "Baby" on small Quo Vadis Habana notebooks.

These Keith Haring Habana notebooks, as with the other notebooks in the Quo Vadis' Artist Series, are made in France, with leather-like cover material which I love because they are soft, not very smooth, and not shiny either. This leather-like material is wrapped on what I assume is thick board, making the cover solid. The firm, solid covers of Quo Vadis Habana notebooks are made to provide writing support. Photo below shows the notebooks' back covers, printed with Keith Haring icons in the middle, while the Quo Vadis logo is etched in the bottom.

Quo Vadis made Keith Haring Habana notebooks in four designs and two sizes. The four designs are: 'Baby', 'Heart', 'Earth Day', and 'La Ronde'. They are available as either small (4" x 6") or large (6¼" x 9½") notebooks. Both Haring Habanas used in this review are small notebooks.

"Earth Day" is only available in small (4" x 6") size.

"Heart", though, comes in small (4" x 6") and large (6¼" x 9½") sizes.

The Keith Haring Habana notebooks have the same features as their regular counterparts: they have the elegant page ribbons/markers and elastic closures in matching colors. Soon I'll be tying the end of the page ribbons into knots to prevent ugly fraying.

Keith Haring's signature is printed in white on the notebooks' front covers. How elegant.

The small Haring Habana notebooks have 96 sheets of very smoooooth satin ivory paper. The pages have 5.5mm ruling, a welcome change from the wide 8mm ruling previously used on both large and small Habana notebooks. The pages have round corners too, which is great. I prefer notebooks with round corners because sharp page corners can sometimes cut into my fingers and palms when I'm writing. Round corners also look more elegant and stylish.

Round page corners of the Haring Habana notebooks.

Another wonderful feature of Quo Vadis Habana notebooks, including the Haring Habanas, is their sewn binding. This ensures more page security and flexibility, and also (again) adds to the notebooks' elegance. Sewn binding is so much better than most punch and bind methods because the pages are more secure and also tidy.

Sewn pages of the small Haring Habana notebooks.

These special Habana notebooks have lovely spines printed with Keith Haring's signature and icon. Definitely a welcome change from the old, plain spines of my previous notebooks.

The Haring Habana notebooks have printed spines.

The Habana's "small" is not the same in size as the "pocket" of other notebook brands, which is always misunderstood by many users who think that the two sizes are interchangeable. "Small" and "pocket" sizes are not the same. Several brands share the same "pocket" size, such as Moleskine and Rhodia, and Scribe here in the Philippines, while Quo Vadis uses the "small" size alone.

Size comparison: Two pocket notebooks on top, Moleskine and Rhodia. 

The two notebooks below are regular Rhodia and Keith Haring Habana.

I mentioned earlier that the Haring Habanas have smooth satin ivory paper. It is really very, very smoooooth but I did not have any difficulty writing on it. In fact, the smoothness made writing very easy and comfortable, compared to other overly smooth paper types that make writing uncomfortable. I also noticed that while the ruling in the old Habana notebook pages went all the way to the binding, it has a certain margin in the new notebooks.

If paper can make people happy, the Haring Habanas' paper will. 

I know because the smooth satin ivory paper made me happy.

Unlike the previous Habana notebooks with continuous lines, the Haring Habanas have dotted lines. But that's fine. The dotted lines didn't get in the way of my writing, or with the readability of what I've written. I actually think this is cool.

Haring Habana page up close. See the dotted lines?

Below is a page devoted to pen and ink tests, and I included gelpens, felt markers, and a permanent marker in the list to fully test the paper. All the fountain pen inks I tested on the Haring Habana fared very well. I did not see any serious feathering or bleed, even with the notorious bleeder, Noodler's Midnight Blue. I also used a couple of pens with broad Esterbrook nibs such as the Transitional J with Private Reserve Black Magic Blue and J pen with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage. This is good news, and it made me very happy.

The "non-fountain pen" pens I used in the pen and ink test include Pilot G2s, Stabilo felt markers, Zebra Sarasas, and a Sharpie Ultra Fine Permanent Marker. All the other pens wrote well without feathering or bleed, except for the Sharpie which feathered and bled like an open faucet. But that's just okay. Sharpies bleed bad on most papers.

Inks on the Haring Habana up close: Waterman South Sea Blue, Pelikan Blue Black, 

Private Reserve Black Magic Blue, and Pelikan Edelstein Jade.

The "non-fountain pen" pens: Pilot G2, Stabilo, Zebra Sarasa, 

and Sharpie Ultra Fine Permanent Marker.

Shown here below is the back of the pen and ink test page. It's almost clean, without any ink bleed, except for the one on the bottom part of the page. which is the Sharpie pen.

Sharpie pen bleeds at the bottom of the page.

Overall, I am a very happy recipient of these notebooks and I am beginning to think of how to use them soon. A small journal? A notebook for my daily notes? Who knows? Being the fanatic that I am, I'm sure I'll find a way to use them sooner than I thought I would. Now you know where to get yours, right? All information about these lovely Keith Haring Habana notebooks are posted Quo Vadis' site here: http://quovadisplanners.com/notebooks, and also at the Quo Vadis blog here: http://quovadisblog.com/

The Quo Vadis Keith Haring Habana notebooks used in this review are from Exaclair, Inc. through Karen Doherty. The pens and inks used in this review all belong to my personal collection.

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A Parker Comes By

Before I got so smitten by white fountain pens, I wished to focus my collection on Parkers, in honor of the maroon Parker Vector which happens to be my first FP. As I read the available literature about Parker pens, I realized the vastness of the sea I was letting myself into. Let me just say that I got very intimidated by the number of pens I must get to legitimize a collection. And so I became enamored with white pens and been like that since I laid my eyes on a white Parker Duofold I saw at my first pen meet.

As pens filled my ice trays (yes, they are ice trays), only 1 Parker made it there: a white Parker Vector. But only because it is white and I feel that my collection will be lacking without it. After that, no more Parkers. Until I saw an ad about a vintage Parker 25 with a 'brushed steel body'. I contacted the seller out of curiosity, and he replied fast. And then we lost communication because I was not interested in the pen by the way it looks on the photos sent to me. It was several days later that he went back to me to offer to sell the pen at a lower price. I wasn't interested still, even if I was told it had a Medium nib. I didn't want a strange-looking pen even at that price and nib (I'm a sucker for medium nibs.). Then the seller informed me that another buyer is eyeing the pen and they are finalizing the sale. Great, I thought. Hours later, he was back to me again.

I felt bad for the pen that I began to pity it. It was like a child that nobody wants to take in and was being passed around. Poor Parker 25! Again, I looked at the photos sent to me, and despite their poor quality, which didn't show the pen any better, I bought it.

UK-made Parker 25, profile of nib.

I got the pen the following day in a pitiful state. It came in its original plastic box with the original paper wrap with the Parker logo, but both plastic box and paper wrap are old, dirty, and about to fall out. Closer inspection of the pen revealed that the nib is gunked with old, dried ink, and though I know that the nib can be removed from the section, it won't even move. It got stuck because of the dried ink. The barrel has tiny brown flecks which scared me because I thought of them as rust. But the worst part is the pen's converter. It came with a squeeze filler, but the metal part that should be squeezed is stuck to the rubber (I'm not sure if it is rubber, though), which is totally unusable.

The underside of the nib.

As soon as I got home, I soaked the nib in soapy water. After an hour, I tugged at the nib and it easily went off. Hurrah! For several hours, I kept changing the water in my soaking tub every hour. I did this until past midnight and I was up so early in the morning to check on the pen. The nib looked a lot better after the overnight soak. While I was airdrying it (using an electric fan), I cleaned the barrel and cap using an all-around metal polish. After two hard scrubbings, the barrel and cap are gleaming. Hurrah!

Parker 25 cap and barrel.

It's obvious that I couldn't wait to test the pen. So I placed a cartridge of Parker Penman Mocha on the pen and tried it. I was very surprised at how easily it wrote after being kept unused and dirty for so long. The Penman looked perfect on it as it wrote smoothly. The pen does not write as wet as I would have wanted it to be, but that's fine. I love its balance now, so there is nothing to worry about. The brushed steel barrel and cap are both very sturdy, I don't need to worry about accidental falls breaking it.

Another shot at the cap and barrel. They definitely look better than in this photo. The pen looks like new!

And here is a writing sample of the pen on a page on my Moleskine. There's feathering and bleed, but that's okay.

There is a lot written about Parker 25 and other Parker pens, but I didn't want to rewrite what has been written. For more reading, ParkerCollector.Com has a lot of valuable information, and there is a long conversation and review of Parker 25 at Fountain Pen Network. Check them out!

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January's New Pens and Ink

New Year spells new beginnings, new hopes, new wishes. I say New Year brought me new pens. *Wink.* Some people welcome New Year with fireworks, 12 fruits, or money in their pockets. I welcomed 2009 with three new pens! While my brothers were busy setting up fireworks, I was busy inking my Schneiders with my new Waterman South Sea Blue and polishing the Hero616 that Sir Butch D. gave me during last December's pen meet.

The Waterman ink is a delight. After using Inoxcrom's blue and Quink's blue-black, this turquoise from Waterman is a new experience to write with that the moment I inked my black Schneider Base, I wrote endlessly on my Moleskine and completed three pages in a flash! (Photos to follow later, including pages of my Molie where I wrote with my PR Copperburst.) But what's also exciting is my Shchneider Base fountain pen. This German pen, inexpensive and so elegant in its design is a joy to write with. Its medium nib writes smoothly sometimes I forget I'm writing with a fountain pen! Here are some photos of the New Year's stash:

Delight, joy, ecstasy. That spells ink, fountain pens and notebooks for me. The bottled ink is Waterman South Sea Blue, and the pens are: Hero616, Schneider Base Medium in white and black barrels.

Ink and pens on the notebook my friend Sonny sent me all the way from Singapore as Christmas gift.

Ink and pen pageantry. My ink stash: Quink black and blue-black, Waterman South Sea Blue, and Private Reserve Avocado and Copperburst. Coming early next week: Noodler's Concord Bream!

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My Missing Pens (Now Found)

I found them!!! Yes, I found my missing Pilot FriXion Ball gelpens. Phew! Remember this post last September? These FriXion pens should have been included in the Pilot pens collection photo, but they were missing the time I was shooting and I could not remember where I placed them no matter how hard I tried to recall. Surprisingly, while organizing my toy truck collection the other night, these pens turned up in one of those small plastic bags holding my Tomy toys. Whew. And all the while I thought I have lost them.

Pilot FriXion Ball pens belong to the large selection of gel pens from Pilot, using the new, clever Metamocolor technology, or what the chemists at Pilot Pens call, thermo-sensitive gel ink formula, which turns transparent when friction is applied to it. A small rubber on its tail serves as an "eraser", and the ink disappears neatly as no eraser dust is produced in the process. Pilot claims that this "erasing" process does not pose any damage to almost all types of paper at all. Because the ink in these pens is easily erased, they cannot be used on legal documents or on any other official papers. The ink on these pens turn colorless when exposed to extreme temperatures (<14°f;>140°F). Their color can be restored, though fading, when placed in freezer to cool.

For practical and obvious reasons, I won't use these FriXions to write on my Moleskine, though. That notebook is reserved for my Pilot G2s. But these FriXions are great, cool pens! Especially when you're around people who get impressed with the idea of erasable gel pen inks. *Wink.*

Yeah, cool. Cool pens, these FriXions are. They're very handy when doing crossword puzzles, or Sudoku. Want more cool stuff about these pens? Watch this promotional video released in the US. Now this is one cool video for one cool pen.

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New Notebooks and... More Pens!!!

Woohoohoo!!! I got new notebooks, and... ta-da! More pens!!!

My collecting habit is currently centered on notebooks and pens. (Rest muna sa toy trucks and shotglasses.) Thanks to my friends who love to spoil me rotten with gifts and pasalubong stuff when they travel within or out of the country. And now here are new notebooks and pens on my stash:

An 'Eagle' notebook, ring-bound with indexed pages and colored dividers. What makes it a winner is the inside pages, which are 250 leaves worth of lined, white, and smooth 80gsm paper.

Coming all the way from Hanoi, Vietnam (left) and Bogor, Indonesia (right), these two are instant favorites. The one from Hanoi has lined (or ruled) inside pages that are staple-bound on the spine. The cute little one from Bogor, however, has plain (unlined/unruled) inside pages and has a cloth-wrapped cover with intricate beadwork. See photo below for a more detailed view.

And here are my Schneider Zippis on my Molie. Whoever bought these for me got all the available barrel designs from Office Warehouse. Schneider pens are affordable and inexpensive but indeed they are very dependable and durable that the green one here instantly went into my pool of "everyday writers" after inking it. The rest of the lot are "uninked", together with my other "virgin" FPs, waiting for their turn to be "inked" and to bleed or glide smoothly on paper.

Here are my Zippis on the Eagle notebook. Now I have green, orange, and pink fountain pens.

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Drool

Remember this blog entry sometime in May? Well, my orders for leather sleeves from Chie Acosta of Creativille arrived in time, I just didn't have the chance to post any photos.

The sleeves were delivered promptly, and they came wrapped in beautifully crafted paper with a wax seal. How nice. My joy was indescribable when I saw the sleeves. When I slid my Moleskine into the sleeve's holder, ah, my joy was truly complete.

The sleeve was lovingly handcrafted by Chie Acosta, who got excited when I told her that the sleeves she will create will be commemorative for a special occasion. So she used two different types of leather to make the sleeves a unique set. The sleeve that Chie created for me is from darkly-tanned, very smooth leather. The other sleeve (which I cannot show because I gave it away already) is an exact opposite of the other, made of scuffed, lightly tanned leather with silver embellishments. Both sleeves have straps created from the same leather material.

Here's how my Moleskine fits into the leather sleeve.

And here's how it looks when it's tied with its strap:

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Now It's Midori For Me

Now that I'm finally using my Moleskine, here's a another product that I'm determined to add to my collection: the Midori Traveler's Notebook.


Midori Traveler's Notebook, or Traveler's Notebook is described as "a simple notebook focusing on ease of writing, with a leather cover in the which the texture gets better as you use it over time." The leather covers on these notebooks, available in black and brown, are especially hand-made in Thailand, while the notebook inserts are printed in Japan, using Midori's original paper materials. Several types of notebooks (refills) are available to choose from: ruled, plain, squared. Enhancements like card files and zipper files are also available. Midori also offers repair kits and binders for the notebook refills.

I'm really drooling over this one, especially after seeing the Traveler's Notebook photoset at Flickr. Now I'm saving up to buy one. Heard that a notebook set costs a huge US$47.95! Woah. But I'll have this, or both. It'll take a while, but I'll have one.

(Photos above are from Midori's website.)

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How I Started Writing on My Moleskine

Early this month, Pastor Joe Thorn wrote about setting up a Moleskine and how he uses these precious notebooks to store ideas related to his ministry work.

I love reading stories like Pastor Joe's because it reminded me of another Moleskine story, this one by Sir Butch Dalisay. I cannot find Sir Butch's article online anymore, but that story introduced me to the elite world of Moleskines. Soon after, I was smitten.

Surprisingly, my journey to Moleskine ownership took longer than I expected. At that time, the notebooks weren't offered locally here, and the only way I could get my hands on a notebook was to purchase it online. It was a frustrating pursuit. Then I got my lucky break several months after. A friend saw an online bookstore selling Moleskines, and the company is actually located in the Philippines! And that is how I got my hands on this precious notebook. Finally, I have my own Moleskine to show off. But I did not write on it until last week, six months after I bought it from Avalon.

I started using my Moleskine by using its last page to test my pens. Yup, the last page is a tester page, and that's what I do with all of my notebooks. I do that all the time to choose the perfect pen for a particular notebook. And for my Moleskine, the perfect pen is the black Pilot G2 0.5mm.

After that, I wrote my name and contact details on the inside cover page. No rewards for me, though.

Now I tied a small knot at the end of the page marker so it won't fray and look ugly.

And I started writing on it, precisely on the front face of the third leaf. To start writing an entry, I used a red G2 to write the date and day of the week. An entry usually takes up a page or two, and with the large Moleskine's 240 pages, I figured one notebook is good for three to four months' worth of letters.

Today, my Moleskine is already five entries full. When I fill it up, I'll get another Moleskine and fill it up again.

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Moleskine, Dear Moleskine...

It felt like Christmas morning yesterday afternoon when the Aboitiz guy knocked on my office door. He's like Santa to me as he has something I had been praying so hard to have: my own Moleskine notebook. And yes, oh yes, I am now a certified Moleskine owner.

I remember a song that my aunts and uncles sang to me when I was a kid. It's an American folk song, but to me it is an unforgettable lullaby. Suprisingly, when my Moleskine arrived yesterday, I was humming the song in my head, unconsciously at first. Now I have my own Moleskine song.

Moleskine, Moleskine,

Oh my darling Moleskine.

You're now here to stay forever,

Never leave, my Moleskine...

The sealed Aboitiz 2GO Quickpack...

... my Moleskine large ruled notebook still wrapped in plastic...

... and finally, my Moleskine is unwrapped! See the stickers and brochure?

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On to Happier Things…

Now that I am slowly getting back into the regular grind of things, let me post my ‘new’ wish list.




1. Notebook.

I want a Moleskine 2008 Diary!!! Woohoo!!! May be a good change from using Starbucks Diaries for three years now. Moleskine is a bit expensive, though. Hmmm…





2. Bag.

A new Timbuk2™ “Track Day Pack” backpack. It is waterproof, has a rubberized bottom, and it’s blue!!! It also has a headphone port. Wow. Not that I am in a hurry to dump my old, reliable Nike. It’s still doing fine and looks as new as it was the day I bought it. But I’d really love to have a Timbuk2™ backpack.


3. Shirts.

Any colorful, unique, comfortable shirts will do to replace my older ones that are beginning to fray and fade. Ehehe. I want the Nike “BALLS” tee I saw last week.

4. Jeans.

I own more than a dozen pair of jeans, but I want to buy one with the “distressed” look. Could be Diesel, Dickies, or Lee.

5. Sneakers.

A pair of Rocket Dog™ “Joint” sneakers. I am drooling at this beauty. Although I will always be a Chucks lover, other sneaks are welcome every now and then.

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