Not a fountain pen: Pen Addict

If you are into writing implements, and don't restrict yourself to fountain pens, Pen Addict, is a really good blog to check out.

I've learned quite a bit about pens either new on the market or that I haven't tried.

But with as many pens (fountain pens and otherwise) I own, discretion is the better part of my purse.

I did, however, buy two disposal Kuretake
brush pens to experiment with from Jet Pens although I am a big fan of Tomboy ABTs, among others and have quite a stash of Copics.

For the longest time Kuretake was hard to come by in the States, and I put them on the back burner until now.

When I don't use a fountain pen, or a Pilot Vball, I use brush pens. I love the way they make broad flourishes and I think I've agreed to participate in a new project last night and brush pens will be put to good use as they generally work well over acrylics.

Hiromi Paper

In the quest for the perfect journal, I followed the Black Cover review, and wrote to Awagami in Japan asking them for US sources for their notebooks.

Aya Fujimori sent me two sources, Hiromi and Kates Paperie.

I've bought fine paper from Hiromi in my bookbinding days, and know they have some of the finest stock around.

Curious why there was such a big difference in price between the two sources, I asked Aya in a follow up email what distinguished one journal from the other, and she replied, "The difference among the Yuzen Spring, Yuzen Autumn, Syuro journals is the cover paper. The Yuzen series is hand printed papers and Syuro is made of rice straw."

Frankly, I like the Syuro variant better as I am not inclined to buy floral covered journals.

So for $12.00 I think I may try this journal as I suspect it could be of a similar quality to Apica--a wonderful paper with a simple cover.

And when I get the Syuro, I will probably also buy one of the Kuretake brush pens that are being offered for a very reasonable price.

PS - Here's a review at Amateur Economist of the journal.