University Stationery on E. 12th Street and University Place is another great old-fashioned stationery story with what looks like miles and miles of notebooks, pads, and journals. It's been around for decades, serving the New York University community. So it stocks quite a lot of pens and paper, as well as a great supply of fine pens kept on the right side of the store (which is quite small). On the left side of the store is the paper, about 45 to 50 feet of shelves worth of paper but only a few brands. The first half of the store is loaded with Clairefontaine and Rhodia. I've seen some Clairefontaine notebooks there that I haven't seen anywhere else, a quite unusual occurrence (such as the flowered notebook on the second shelf to the left in this picture).
Then comes some miscellaneous office supplies, which leads to about 25 feet of shelves filled with Miquelrius notepads: four-colored notebooks, one subject notebooks, three subject notebooks, large, small, medium, paper covers, poly covers, solid and plaid covers. I didn't know Miquelrius made this many notebooks! The upper areas of the wall carry various office supplies, planners, and other stationery supplies. The owner of the store was very helpful when I was looking for a Lamy Al-Star converter; he had plenty for the Safari but none for the Al-Star, but he called his warehouse and then sent his son for it. Took about 15 minutes, which unfortunately gave me more time to find a few more things I hadn't seen before to add to my purchase. Definitely another place you could spend lots of time (and $).
I was reading through the Pen Addict's blog on the Japanese Zebra, an intriguing animal that comes in many varieties and shades, and read his review of the Zebra Sarasa Stick 0.3m with its interesting needle point. Then off to do some shopping, ending up the afternoon at Kinokuniya looking over their large pen selection. I spotted the Zebra Sarasa Stick pen section, with a large amount of the 0.3m in 8 to 10 different colors. I finally went with blue black, spruce green, and bright blue, then decided to add a Stick pen in 0.7m in blue black as a comparison. The two are so different in both looks and writing that I'm surprised they are both labelled Sarasa Stick pens.
The 0.3m pens are all needle points, and feel funny to write with when I'm used to a much wider tip or a rollerball. The blue and green wouldn't write at first, and I spent a good few minutes on each trying to get the ink to flow. When I finally did, I almost couldn't see what I was writing. They were great for making lines, although the blue black is the best color to use just because it is dark and can be seen. Then there is the Sarasa Stick 0.7m, a different pen altogether. It has a ball point ink refill and writes smoothly, with a nice wide line. I enjoyed writing with this pens, didn't feel like I was scratching into the paper. I'll stick with the wider point and put the 0.3m pens aside for further thought.
I hadn't given much thought to customizing a Rhodia pad until I saw this great job by Gentian, so I decided to give it a try. I don't draw, and my Sharpies were out for an afternoon stroll, so I made a color copy of a favorite portrait I had commissioned a few years back--a miniature of my two cats, Bast's Gift (left) and Pywacket (right). Taped to my current Rhodia 16 pad so there won't be any scratches or marks, and framed with black marker. I found a few other markers to color in the trees, and I have to say I kind of like how this looks.
