Rhodia Large Blank Webbie and a Giveaway!

Many, many thanks to the fabulous Stephanie for inviting me to review the new Rhodia Blank Webnotebook and offering an extra for a giveaway. As always, the incredible Karen Doherty made this possible.

One of the new orange Rhodia webnotebooks to play with. Hmmm. A new blank orange Rhodia webnotebook to play with. Hmmm, hmmmm. A new blank large orange Rhodia webnotebook to play with. Can life get any better than that? How about one webbie to review and one for a giveaway!

The New Rhodia Blank Webbie seems pretty much the same as the Classic Rhodia Webbie, just blank paper--but don't let that fool you. There is one major difference and a few minor ones that make this a different writing experience.

Among the minor changes (at least to me) is the blank paper--I love my Classic Webbie but the lined paper somehow seems inhibiting. I've been writing away in it for months now, and something seems to be missing. When I doodle, it's as if I'm constricted in my movement. Now, the blank paper lets me write or draw any way I want to, and that's a big plus.

A second minor (to me, that is) change is the removal of the Rhodia logo on the bottom right pages. I never minded that too much, but it does give the webbie a cleaner look and feel. It adds about a half inch or so of writing space, and there's no more distraction (I guess--I actually liked it, but I seem to be in the minority on this).



The really important change is this: the pages now lie absolutely flat, as the above picture demonstrates pretty well. On the left is my Classic Webbie with pages sticking straight up no matter how many times I bend the spine and smooth the paper down.

On the right is the New Webbie: just one bend-and-smooth motion and the pages lay perfectly flat on the table and never moved at all. Congrats Rhodia, you just made an excellent journal even better!



So what about the writing experience? Well, it's the same fantastic Clairefontaine paper, 90gsm silky smooth ivory vellum that's fountain pen friendly. I did notice a heavy shadow on the opposite side, but no bleed through at all. Overall it's a truly delicious writing experience.

Two journal sizes are available as with the lined webbies; the larger blank journal pictured above clocks in at 5.5 x 8.25 (available at Goulet Pens) and the smaller, blank pocket webbie which measures 3.5 x 5.5 (and available at JetPens).

If you want more New Webbie pics and a very thorough review then check out Peaceable Writer's post and (enter her Webbie giveaway as well).

UPDATE:
For another review (but no giveaway, lol), check out The Pen-Guin.

Vicki Holdwick of Faint Heart Art is also reviewing and giving away a Webbie 3.0, you can enter here.

Here's Madame Purl's review and giveaway, do take a look!


THE GIVEAWAY:

One (1) orange Rhodia large blank webbie will be given away to one lucky winner who leaves a comment by Sunday, August 15 by 5:30 pm EST.

A winner will be chosen using a random number generator; the format is as follows: first post is #1, second post is #2, third post is #3, etc.

I will ship internationally, so do leave a comment and don't worry about the postage.

The winner will be announced on Monday, August 16, and you will have one (1) week to send me your mailing information. In the event no one gets in touch with me, a new winner will be announced.

Good luck!

Noodler's Aerometric Fountain Pen

TAO at Bleubug.com recently rocked the twitterverse with his amazing review of Noodler's fountain pens, both piston filler and aerometric with all the colors they come in lined up for inspection. I'm definitely not in his league, but I thought I'd just give a few observations on my Noodler's aerometric fountain pen.

As background, Noodler's fountain pens are available from JetPens.com and come in two flavors: the piston filler with ink windows available in five different colors for $14, and the aerometric/eyedropper with rounded edges that comes in two mottled colors for $24. The nib is a fine-medium, a good choice I'd say as it can be hard to decide on a nib sight unseen (at lease for me, YMMV). As the mottled brown was the only one available at the time, I ordered that one and waited for my Noodler's fountain pen to arrive.

I seem to recall some buzz at the Fountain Pen Network about these pens, and I was really looking forward to getting one. The mottled colors didn't thrill me; they don't look antique or vintage so much as old and cracked and dirty. But again, that's just me. As I wasn't really interested in the piston filler (for some reason just didn't like the way it looked), I went with the big aerometric pen.

So when the pen arrived, in a catfish-covered box, I was really looking forward to trying it out. The first surprise I had can be seen in the above picture of the section where the sac is glued on. Couldn't someone have wiped off the gobs of glue so it didn't look so sloppy and amateurish? I've only done this once myself, but I took the time to wipe away the glue that was on the outside so it didn't look so cheap.

You might also be able to see in that picture the grooves around the section where it screws into the barrel. They are badly cut, with lots of the debris still attached to the plastic. Again, this just makes the manufacturing process look cheap and amateurish.

The nib is quite nice, and I do like the fine-medium point. It's probably my favorite part of the pen, as I'm the ultimate Libra and can never decide on a fine or medium nib. This reminds me of my Pelikan 205 clear blue fountain pen with a medium nib, it's actually more a fine-medium nib and I love the width of the line. As I'm using Noodler's ink, there's ink creep and a very dry nib to deal with, as well as small drops of ink all over the place from shaking the pen to get the ink to flow.

Several websites, like The Pen Addict, have a list of "best 5 pens" or "worst 5 pens." I'm thinking of doing a "mediocre pens I might either recommend or trash, or both." Pens that I want to like but really can't get more enthused about other than a "maybe yes, maybe no" attitude. Noodler's aerometric fountain pen will top the list. I realize that given all the very expensive pens I've purchased a $24 stinker isn't that big a deal; but it is a lot of money for many, many other people who would like a nice, "branded" fountain pen. This isn't it as far as I can tell, and that's a shame--because I so wanted to love this pen but really don't.

UPDATE: Check out Note Booker Esq.'s extensive and excellent review as well, with great pictures and additional comments on the Noodler's pen experience.

O'BON Wildlife Pencils

One product Kevin from O'BON sent me was this triangle pack of Wildlife Pencils; all O'BON pencils are made the same way with a graphite core wrapped in recycled newspaper. This set contains 10 2B pencils in animal prints and patterns and their signature "Save Wildlife" phrase.

I think these recycled newspaper pencils are a lot of fun, starting with the different patterns (I chose a tiger print but could have gone with a snakeskin, giraffe, bear, parrot, or grass prints to play around with) and then the really cool sharpener effect. The recycled newspaper doesn't easily break off when you sharpen the pencil, so you're left with one very long whirl of newspaper that for some reason I enjoy (rather than yellow and graphite shavings).

The 2B graphite is fine for writing, hard enough so I can press down without shattering the point but soft enough for some shading in my letters. No smeary writing, a "green" pencil, and a cute theme make this O'BON a winner.

Sleeping Isn't Easy

But someone's gotta do it, so why not Mally? Glad she's picking up the slack for all the insomniacs out there.

Daydreamers Welcome: Carnival of Pen, Pencil, and Paper!

Hey, the Carnival is here already! Take a trip over to Daydreamers Welcome: Carnival of Pen, Pencil, and Paper! for some really great posts!

The September Carnival will be hosted on September 7 by OfficeSupplyGeek, and submissions can be made here.

The Girls

Mally is on the left, and Seranne on the right sitting on the windowsill.

Introducing Mally

A new addition to the household is this little girl, who I've renamed Mally (from Mambo). She's a stray picked up by the ASPCA and made available through their adoption van. Of course I was going to Staples for some Sharpies, but the bus never showed up and the adoption van was right across the street.

She's 19 months, a combination of tiger stripe and pale tortoise shell. The other two cats have really taken to her, which helps when the lights go out and territories may be inadvertently breached.