PEN REVIEW: Edison Nouveau Premiere Autumn Harvest (Fall 2014 Special Edition Fountain Pen)

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Edison Nouveau Premiere
Fall 2014 Special Edition Fountain Pen
Hello Fall!!!

Edison Nouveau Premiere 
Fall 2014
Screw Cap

They are calling it Autumn Harvest.

I was thinking the fall edition might be conservative and concerned that could mean that it wouldn’t have been. . . uh . . . as wonderfully special as those two.  CraZy!

Shades of brown mixed with hues of gold – light mixed with dark – flecks and flakes mixed with discreet swirls.

This is a fountain pen that can go anywhere with anyone and fit in comfortably. It can be dressed up with a business suit or go casual with jeans.

Gold-tone trim (fancy people call this the pen’s “furniture”). Two-toned steel nib (mine is a broad and I think you should go broad, too).

Convenient Converter Fill

It has an almost vintage feel to it, yes? Vintage, but not old. The design is so modern.

This isn’t your grandpa’s fountain pen (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).

OK, so it’s pretty handsome, but how does the Edison Nouveau Premiere Autumn Harvest (Fall 2014 Special Edition) Fountain Pen write?

Swoooooon

Click here to see the full-sized handwritten review.

Things to know . . .

. . . . Goulet Pens graciously sent me this pen in exchange for my honest review. As a special edition, they are predicting that the pen will be available through November 2014. If sales are greater than expected, they could be out of stock sooner. You can get yours for $149 right here.

. . . . I have a giveaway (and more pictures of this beauty) coming up on Wednesday – hoping you’ll come back and check it out.

Your turn . . . love it? hate it? Does it make you look froward to fall?

FOUND AROUND FRIDAY: Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Edition

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Waterman Expert c.1980s

After tossing all of the wonderful entries up into the air, Onder C was randomly selected as the big winner of the $50 gift certificate. As you probably remember, Onder can choose a $50 gift certificate from either Amazon or Goulet Pens.  Thank you for playing and keep an eye out for future giveaways!

Some small news items for you . . .

I’ve owned Pentulant.com for quite sometime, but only recently got it set up. This means that instead of going to the Blogger URL, you can just come directly to Pentulant.com and see everything. Go ahead, check it out, click the link. Fun, right? My hope is to have a redesigned site sometime around the beginning of January – we’ll see how that goes 😉

I’m listed on Pennaquod. It’s a search thingy powered by Google just for pen nerds and their blogs. My stuff doesn’t come up very often – sounds like it’s a Blogger thing and hopefully that will be fixed when I move to my own site.

TWSBI has re-released their Classic Fountain Pen. Gorgeous pens and now able to be posted. I asked on Instagram and I’m told that there will be a kit available for those of us who bought the unpostable (it’s a word!) version. I’ll be first in line for that kit, yo.

I ordered a Hobonichi 2015 Planner and cover earlier this week. I’m not 100% sure it’s going to work for me – doesn’t the show-through of Tomoe River Paper make it difficult to use? Brush Dance Planners (120 gsm paper!) and Date Books (not as fountain pen friendly) are super-nice and I use them all day, everyday. (I’m the president of Brush Dance, but they are really terrific items.)

Annnnnd here’s what I’ve been reading this week . . .

Mr. Mike Dudek of The Clicky Post shows us the Pilot Murex with an integrated nib.  Love.

FP Physicist reviewed a Quiver – she wasn’t crazy about it.

Gourmet Pens took an in-depth look at the Taccia Savanna. It’s made of BUFFALO HORN! Who knew!

Inkdependence shows off the Franklin-Christoph music nib. I want. I don’t like stubs. I want. I really thought it would be more – it’s $35.

Annnnnnd….I’m still fascinated with The Impulsive Buy. It’s just so…wrong.

Some of my most recent posts over on Instragram for your viewing pleasure . . .

Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium . . . 
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Montblanc’s newest inky release – Daniel Defoe – Palm Green . . . 

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Hanging on to summer with some sweet Lamy Safari Fountain Pens . . . 
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That’s it from me this week!

What have you been reading?

ALMOST WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: GraphGear 500 Pencil Review

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On our last trip to Maido in San Francisco’s Japantown (I like this location so much better than the location in the San Francisco Centre), I sent Mr. Pentulant off to find me a pencil. My only direction was that it must be something that MrMikeDudek would use.

Did he nail it with the GraphGear 500 from Pentel?

I don’t know if Mr. Mike would use it – but I know that I’m digging it.  For a pencil, anyway 😉

Happy Labor Day!

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It’s Labor Day here in the US and like many Americans, Mr. Pentulant and I have the day off. 

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, as a tribute to the many contributions workers have made to our country.

Labor Day has also become the unofficial end to summer.  It’s been a nice summer here – we had visits from out-of-town friends and family members, a few lazy days, I traveled to New York, Mr. Pentulant started his fancy new job, and we’ve resolved to enjoy a slower-paced, more mindful life.

Today, picture me kicking back with fresh-squeezed lemonade.

How are you celebrating today? And what was the best part of your summer?

FOUND AROUND FRIDAY: Leisurely Stroll Edition

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Did you see the giveaway?  
There’s still time to enter right here.

I mentioned in the giveaway post that we should take a leisurely stroll through some older posts and then ended up just getting right to the point of the giveaway – ha!

So, let’s take that stroll through some posts of yore now . . .

I wrote about J Herbin Gris Nuage way back in 2012. I finally got my bottle of it a couple of months ago.

My first Lamy Safari.

I loved this now-discontinued ink.

One of my most-read posts was this review of Diamine Grey. It was also the beginning of spam posts for me. I saw it as a positive thing – at least someone was reading!

Swoooooooooon.

I’m so glad that this post about fake Montblanc Starwalker Fountain Pens at Costco has seen so much traffic. Buyer beware!

I love this pen. Seriously.

I didn’t think I’d like Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium, but I ended up loving it.

Earlier this year, I met Susan Wirth at the LA Pen Show. She complimented my handwriting!

Diamine Flamingo Pink shades from pink to orange. How do they do that?

I sometimes look at this post and even pull the original sheet of Tomoe River Paper because it makes me that happy.

And finally, one post from Instagram . . .

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In closing, I want to thank you. These last two years of blogging have been wonnnnderful. I’ve made some good friends and have learned so much.  Thank you. Thank you.

I hope you have a wonderfully lazy weekend filled with lots of things you want to do.

xoxo

TWO YEARS of POSTS & A PENTASTIC GIVEAWAY!

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Today is my two-year blogiversary!  
Let’s celebrate with a leisurely stroll down memory lane and a fantastic giveaway . . . 
Have you read the story about my first fountain pen? That’s it above. The Waterman Expert. Swoon!
OK, that’s enough strolling for one day – let’s get right to the giveaway!
Here’s the scoop . . . 
One randomly chosen reader can choose either a $50 gift certificate from either Amazon.com or GouletPens.com.
Use the Rafflecopter widget thing below to enter. 
Follow me on Instagram for an additional entry.  (If you’re already following, that counts – just be sure to enter your user name below.)
And for an additional extra entry, post a picture of one of your favorite pens on Instagram, tag @pentulant and use #pentulantgiveaway. Whew…that’s a lot. 
This giveaway isn’t sponsored by anyone. Amazon doesn’t know who I am and Goulet Pens didn’t know I had this up my sleeve.
I’m trying out Rafflecopter (see below) for contests because I hear it works great.  (If the widget below isn’t visible, please be patient while it loads.)
Thursday, September 4 is the last day to enter.  Go, go, go!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

SAN FRANCISCO PEN SHOW 2014: Review and Haul

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Mr. Pentulant and I decided to head down to the SF Pen Show over the weekend (Saturday) and I thought you’d like to hear all about it.

The show was held at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City. It was a bit south of SFO, but easy enough to find – just look for the Oracle campus and take a right on Twin Dolphin Drive.

There were probably 50-60 vendors. I’m wondering if some who were expected didn’t show up? There was a large empty area to the right as soon as we entered – as in about 10-15% of the floor space.

I wasn’t too surprised at the small size of the show. The DC Pen Show was just two weeks ago, after all. The crowd was decent Saturday morning (we arrived around 11:00) and it looked like money was changing hands – all good news.

The SF Pen Show is a on/off thing – meaning that some years there isn’t a show.   I’m so glad it was on this year and definitely wanted to support the vendors who showed up to sell.

There were many familiar names and faces. Susan Wirth was there, Franklin-Christoph, Nibs.com, Mike it Work, Wahl-Eversharp, Bittner, Arizona Pens, Carmen Rivera, Steve Curnow, and many familiar faces even though I don’t know all of the names.

Here’s what I ended up with . . .

I’m a huge fan of my friend Steve Curnow, what he does, and how he does it. These handy notebooks (think Field Notes, but better) are filled with Tomoe River Paper.  Three notebooks for ten bucks, yo.

Steve also had a sample of ink waiting for me. It seems he found a GALLON of vintage Skrip Washable Blue.

1. How does someone “find” a gallon of ink? (Maybe he wasn’t being literal?)
2. Do I trust this old old ink in one of my fancy pens?

Mr. Pentulant scored this sweet Sailor Pro Gear Mini. He loves a cap that screws to post and this one has been on his wish list for quite awhile.

At the LA Pen Show earlier this year, I was so tempted by George Butcher’s Arizona Pens, but ultimately decided to pass.  I didn’t pass this time!

I want to tell you all about George and his pens, but will save that for when I review the pen. I can’t wait.

Carmen Rivera has very good taste in pens. This is the smaller and slimmer version of the Pilot Vanishing Point – called the Sesenta.

I don’t know much about this pen, but I’m definitely willing to learn. I love the pattern – it almost reminds me of a leopard print, but not nearly as tacky as that could be on a pen 😉

Wahl-Eversharp has an interesting history and it was difficult to choose just one.  I’m really excited about this pen – and so many others in line.  Can’t wait to talk more about them and Syd Saperstein.

I ultimately decided on the clear demonstrator (look at that packaging!).

I picked up two bottles of ink.  Above – Sailor Jentle Grenade

Below – J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage

Lierre Sauvage (and Lily Tomlin) is responsible for one of my most popular Instagram posts ever. At the time of that writing, I only had a sample. Excited about writing a complete review of this one for you.

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Rhodia makes yellow paper! I’m oddly excited about this because I’ve never seen it available.

Annnnd….I have no idea what I’m going to do with the paper below, but I had to have it. It’s huuuuuge – that’s a box of J Herbin ink sitting on top of the paper.

So! That’s it.

Bottom Line:  It was a good time, lots of super-friendly people selling some really beautiful items. I only wish the show was bigger.

Were you there?

FOUND AROUND FRIDAY: Copic Marker Set Edition

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On a recent “shopping trip” to Jet Pens, I picked up four packs of Copic Markers. Each set has four pieces.

I’m a total newbie when it comes to Copic Markers. If you read something somewhere else and it sounds better than what I’m saying here, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.

Copic Ciao markers are alcohol-based. This is good. The alternative is water-based. Alcohol-based markers will not react with the paper – this means that no how many time you go over the same spot, the paper will not become saturated and tear or pill like more traditional markers.

Copic markers are refillable, the tips are replaceable, they have a long shelf life, and the colors can be blended quite easily. They also come in about a zillion different colors.

Let’s explore….

Above and Below: The Blue Doodle Pack contains two Copic Ciao Markers (B24 and B12), one Copic Multiliner (.3mm in Cobalt), and one Atyou Spica Glitter Pen in Baby Blue.

Above and Below: The Brown Doodle Pack contains a similar assortment  – two Copic Ciao Markers (E31 and E35), one Copic MultiLiner (.3mm – Brown), and one Atyou Spica Glitter Pen (Chocolate).

The Copic Marker MultiLiners are “Copic Safe.”  This means that they will not blend with the colored Caio and Sketch Marker.  Nice because sometimes, you want a darker outline and you want that outline to stay put.  (Sketch Markers are the bigger better sisters of the Caio Markers.)


Below: The Copic Marker Cool Gray MultiLiner set. The set contains the same color ink in the following widths: .005, .1, .3, .5.

(Why do they put the UPC sticker on each marker when it’s sold as a set? Rhetorical. I know why; I just don’t have to like it.)

Below: The Copic Marker Broad Black Multiliner set. This set contains markers in the following widths: .5, .8, small brush, medium brush.

But how do they write?

They really are terrific. And while I’m usually not a fan of brown, I adore the brown set – you just don’t see markers with such terrific colors anywhere else.

I posted this picture on my Instagram feed awhile back. This is my entire collection (except these new ones). I found the holder at Bed, Bath & Beyond – it’s for make-up brushes.

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What do you think?  Do you have Copic Markers? Are you addicted and have all of the colors? Maybe you think it’s silly and the world should stick with fountain pens?

Have a great weekend, everyone!
xoxo

INK REVIEW: Private Reserve Arabian Rose

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I have a zillion ink samples and sometimes I know exactly which I want to try next. A couple of weeks ago, though, I was in a funk. I knew I wanted to try a new (to me) ink, but I was feeling ambivalent about exactly which ink to try.  Reaching my hand into my samples, I pulled out Private Reserve Arabian Rose.

The color is nice. It reminds me a bit of Yama-budo, though not as bright.

Lots of good shading.

Flow from the pen is great. No feathering, bleeding, or ghosting on the various decent-quality papers I’ve used over the last couple of weeks.

Water resistance isn’t a big factor in choosing an ink for me – if it is for you, you may want to look elsewhere.

My bottom line?  I like it quite a bit.  Preferring Yama-budo, this ink isn’t one that I would normally choose for myself, but I will almost certainly use the entire sample without complaint.

All of this makes me wonder – do you prefer the super-bright, in-your-face colors, or something a bit more dusky like this purply color?