The Pen Addict 592/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 592 |
| Title: | Holiday Gift Guide 2023 |
| Release Date: | November 29th, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | Ana Reinert |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 592 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 592 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 592 |
| Length: | 7575 min <br />1.25 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode number 592. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Factor. My name is Brad Dowdy, and I'm joined today by the unofficial third host of The Pen Addict Podcast, the one and only Anna Reinhart. How's it going, Anna?
Just fine. How are you today? I feel like it's been too long. It has been a whole year. I know. It's like you're definitely the unofficial, official third host of the podcast, but you got to be on more than that, right?
I think so. Let's see what we can do next year. Yes, yes. So thank you for being here. We'll make this happen more frequently because every time you come on, even if it's a year between appearances, which it was this time, I get yelled at that Anna should be on more.
And I'm like, listen, you're right. Like, you're not wrong about any of this. If only to keep down the comments that I text you after I listen to episodes. Exactly. Exactly. So thank you. I hate that it's been a year, but yet here we are.
We did get to see each other a couple of times throughout the year at Pen Shows, right? Yes, we did. Yeah, at least once. I can't even remember which ones, but it's been a whirlwind year. It doesn't seem like a year since we've been on the podcast.
So I got to know, what have you been up to? Any big changes? I know the well-appointed desk is cranking along with you and everyone that writes over there. So give me an overview of what's going on, and then we'll get into some gift guide stuff, which is what people want to hear today.
Absolutely. So things, yeah, you're right. It's kind of more of the same since last year. I still have a jobby job, so I do that 40 hours plus a week. And then the blog is moving along swimmingly.
Jesse and Laura still write regularly. Tina comes in about once a month now. And our fifth, Jacqueline, has been busy moving and doing some hard work out in Indianapolis, so we haven't seen quite as much of her in the past year on the blog. But hopefully next year, as she gets a little more settled, she'll come in because she takes beautiful photography and has such a great perspective.
Yeah, I love all your writers. I especially enjoy giving Jacqueline a hard time because it's so few and far between. And then she'll come up with this great piece that makes me really think. And I'm like, okay, finally, Jacqueline, geez.
Yeah, she's great. She's great. So yeah, that's what's been going on in the blog. And yeah, my kittens are all grown up. Nice. Okay, give me a count. What's the count? Ugh, do I really have to say it out loud?
It's embarrassing. It's like crazy cat lady territory. Well, just to set this up before, as Anna and I are talking in the green room before the show, Kat knocked her microphone offline. So yes, you owe me a number for that. Okay, there are eight presently that live in my house.
Okay. So we're going out of town for Thanksgiving. And we had our pet sitter come over and get the tour of the house and the head count and everything. And while she was here, she saw like two. She's like, really? There's really eight here?
And I'm like, yeah, yeah, there really is. But yeah, they all do their own thing. Our house is big enough that they all have places they like to sleep. A couple on the couch, a couple on the bed, a couple in the basement.
So yeah, it's really... It's really... It never feels like that. I mean, if they were, you know, German shepherds, it would be real noticeable. But you know, they're a little smaller than that.
It's not so bad. Exactly. That doesn't sound bad at all. In fact, it sounds awesome. Sounds... Yeah. It sounds perfect. Pretty fun. Yeah. Well, we're about to have some fun and do this annual gift guide that we do.
And this is honestly, and you know this, but I think we might have some new listeners, maybe even since in the last year, since you've been on. This is actually your fault that we do this. Because Mike and I did a gift guide the first year that we decided to do it.
I don't remember which year. And you yelled at me so much. 2011. 2011, I think. Yeah. Or 2013, something like that. Probably 2013, because I think we started in 2012.
Yep. It was pretty early on. Yep. And you got like super mad at me. Right? I didn't get mad. I just thought you forgot things.
So I think I was basically at the point, well, why don't you come on and do it? And here we are, like a decade later, where you've done many, many episodes. Not always could we coordinate it for you to be on the gift guide episode. But my preference is that you were always on the gift guide episode.
So thank you for this being your fault. I appreciate it. Thank you for letting me come on and do this. It was a big change for me. I'm pretty introverted. So getting in front of the microphone for the first time was absolutely sweat inducing.
And now you helped me get out of my shell and do the podcast really helped sort of my confidence. I haven't gotten brave enough to do video yet like you do, but maybe someday. That's awesome. That's awesome. It's tough stuff. So I appreciate anyone that jumps on the mic and talks with me.
I've been fortunate to do it a lot of times, so I guess I'm used to it. But I'm still a nervous wreck before we start. But once we get going, I can't wait to get into it. So that's what we're going to do this week.
In the past, we have had some very strict rules, guidelines, like let's try to pick specific categories. And over the years, I think the more general, the better, to where we try to cover several different areas of the stationery world for a gift guide. And so I just made a few topics that we're going to give our best picks for forward gift guide.
And then later on in the episode, Anna and I have taken some of your questions from the pen addict feedback form, and we're going to go through those. So I figured I would kick us off to ease you back into the gift guiding. And we went with a pretty common category.
And it's favorite pen gift under $50. And I did specify in this one pen only, because we will have an opportunity to build kits or do other things later. But I was thinking of this category as this is a this kind of falls in the beginner category, or I don't want to spend too much money category, like I have a budget of like 20 to $30.
You know, can I fit that in here to someone I know is a stationery fan, or someone that's like a stationery super fan? Is there something cool that I'm missing that I could surprise them with, you know, some a very simple, straightforward category, but I did kind of keep it to a single pen.
And one of the pens and this is going to be a recurring theme for me throughout this episode, I'm using a lot of these products currently that I talk about because I love them so much. And the first one, my pick for this one was the Kaweco Perkyo Infrared, which is just a knockout of a fountain pen, as far as style goes, right?
I think it's really cool for a fountain pen user. It's great for a beginner. It's great for an experienced user. It's got a fun style.
It looks kind of like the perfect gift. I think it runs about $29. So it's a pretty decent price point. And it's just fun and functional and neat.
And I get a lot out of the aesthetic for this. And I think for the right person, this type of pen would be a pretty cool gift. It is very bright. It is. I think infrared is actually selling it short.
Like I. Yeah, it is. It is fluorescent red. Yeah, it is. It is. And it's great. I will say one tip. And this probably wouldn't fall under the gift recommendation guide.
If you're buying this pen, they're probably not going to put shimmer ink in it would be my guess. But you don't want to put shimmer ink in this pen because it has a number five size nib, which this is something I've been doing this for a long time.
I was like, I want shimmer ink in this. We're going to make this pen look even weirder and wilder. And it just clogs it up because it does not have as much room to roam as with it like a number six or a larger size nib. So that's a that's an advanced tip for this pen with the smaller nibs.
Shimmer ink is probably a bad idea because the feed is smaller and there's just not as not as much room for the ink to get around the shimmer to make it flow good. So I cleaned it out, put in regular ink and it works perfectly. So there you go.
Excellent. Good. Good tip. It hadn't occurred to me that the the size of the nib would affect that. Because I never put shimmer ink in a small nib, right? I usually want it in a big wet nib and that usually tends to be a stub or a number six size nib.
And I was like, no, let me try this. And once it didn't work, I was like, oh, this makes sense. This is probably why it's not working. Dummy. That's pretty funny. So for my picks, I couldn't be kept to just one.
I picked three and they're sort of slight at slightly different price points. So for the very, very inexpensive, I picked the Platinum Preppy Special Edition. So it just looks a little more special than the traditional Platinum Preppy. These have printed designs on the barrels.
The one that I picked, the Yaga Suri, has like little gold triangles. It's about $8. So it's the kind of thing that it's like if you have a niece or nephew or something that you want to give a little gift to and kind of get them excited about fountain pens.
They write beautifully at $8. Like it's a good gift. You don't feel like it's not precious. They can play with it and have a good time.
This one looks like you designed it. Like this is great. It's really pretty. I really like them. So for a slightly higher price point, again, we're going Kaweco.
But Cult Pens just released an exclusive sport that is transparent silver glitter. It is so pretty and so sparkly. It's perfect for the holidays. And it's about $29.
And I mean, you know, if you're going to pick like a starter fountain pen for somebody, Kaweco Sport almost always makes the top five list because they're small. They're not very expensive. They live up to a lot of abuse. But to your point, don't put glitter in them.
Although, I mean, this one's screaming for it too. I mean, it's shiny and sparkly. This one looks amazing. I hadn't seen this before you put it in the show notes.
This could not be a more perfect choice for a gift guide, right? It's ideal. It's a perfect holiday gift. You can get it with silver trim or gold trim. So, you know, dealer's choice.
It's just gorgeous. And I'm super excited. I will probably – Santa will probably get B1. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And then the last was if you have someone in your life you want to get a pen for that you don't think is going to be a fountain pen person.
Taren Dosh just released a series of 849s with Keith Haring designs on them. So they're super cool. They look amazing. There's the one that I put in was the red and white that has his little people all over it. But there's another one that's mostly white and it's just his little character with the heart sort of all over it.
And I saw it on the Karen Dosh website, but I could not find it listed anywhere else. But they have one that's all silver and then etched with his little characters, which I'm sure would be way out of the under $50 price point, but was stunning. So if you are a Keith Haring fan, this is definitely something to look into.
So I played a trick on you and it worked. So let me see if you can hear this. I'm not sure. Are you clicking? I am clicking the sound of the silver one in my hand. Oh, no way. Seriously? So jealous. This was one of the few times where I ran a treat yourself purchase and being the big Keith Haring fan that I am, I was hoping this, I mean, this was definitely gonna be one of my picks in the gift guide.
I was like, I have faith that I, that Anna will put this in there. And sure enough, you came, you came through perfectly. But I have, I have the silver one for myself. I bought the black one to give away on the blog soon.
So yes, these, these are awesome gifts and perfect timing for these. Yeah, that was my mistake in words. The one I put in is, is all black with little white characters. The other one is red and white.
Yeah. My mistake. I'm doing some of this from memory because I don't want to click too much over here. Exactly. Nah, no worries. And yeah, the, the, the silver one is in their Ecuador lineup, which is, it's, it's not silver like material, it's silver in color, but it's, it's, it's priced almost like silver.
It was like $200. It is not cheap. So that was, that was my treat yourself for the end of the year pin. That is, that is what I got there.
So I'm very much like that, but could not be a better or more perfect gift idea. Absolutely. All right, so let's ramp it up a little bit. And we have a few, just like these pin categories, because I think a lot of people that are listening to the show or like into fountain pens or want to ask for fountain pen gifts for themselves and what can they think about or what can they buy other fountain pen friends.
So this is a favorite pen gift under $100. So even though we did under 50, we can still kind of squeeze in a little bit more and a little bit different price point. And I just kind of put the idea in here, pen, combo set, you know, pen, ink, paper, whatever you wanted to do.
However you wanted to set this up. But, you know, it could just be one pen, but it could maybe be a few things. What do you have for this one? Well, I ended up finding one specific pen that I had not seen until recently, which is the new Opus 88 Pink Coloro.
I put the pink in the show notes because it's pink, but it is also available in a blue and a yellow, I think. So if you're familiar with the Coloro, they had been done in sort of like clear and solid material, like translucent and solid. And like there was a teal and a red and a yellow.
These ones, the solid parts are white resin, it looks like. And then the translucent parts are color. And they're just really pretty. And Coloro's or the Opus 88 Coloro's are some of my favorite pens.
And this one comes in, I think, around $90, $95. So it's like right at that $100 price point. But it's new. It's different. Thought it'd be kind of fun. Coloro is my favorite Opus 88 size, right?
Because it's, they make some big, big pens. And this is a standard pen, which is still like very full sized and normal. But this is like one of the smaller pens. They make some pocket sized ones.
But this is great. I hadn't seen this color either. I'd seen the blue one. I definitely hadn't seen the yellow one.
So this is a pretty cool color. I really like that. I like that a lot. Yeah, they're just different.
The colors are different. If you've never had an Opus 88, it's a really good place to start in terms of getting used to their filling system. Yeah. So it has an eyedropper filling system that is, that should not intimidate anyone. It's dead simple to use.
Like it's as simple as popping a cartridge in really. It's, it is nothing to be afraid of whatsoever. No, no. It's there's, once you've, once you've used their, their eyedropper system, you will wonder why other people have not implemented a similar system. You're like, oh, this is great.
And it seals and it's, I don't have to worry about it. It's, it's just, it's really well done. That's exactly right. I kind of went like in the same ballpark. Twisby really fits a lot of the category here.
And I think the VAC 700 is the iris trim, which is the anodized rainbow parts. It's a clear demonstrator barrel. It's just a striking pen. And it's been one of the pleasant surprises for me to use over the past year or two.
This has been out for a little bit. And I, I was hesitant at first because this is a little bit of a larger pen, but like the Opus that you have, when you're stepping it up a little bit, why not get a little interesting filling system? Right. So the Opus has the eyedropper, the Twisby VAC 700 is a vacuum filler.
So it's kind of neat to experiment with these types of things and realize again, like you said, with the Opus, like why don't more pens have this as a filling system? Because it's so nice and so fun to use. And I just think it's a cool looking pen. it's got that, that rainbow anodization, in a few different places.
I think it runs about $85. Yeah. Like $83, $85, something like that. So I threw in a, I was thinking what ink color do I want to go with this? And Waterman's tender purple is, looks like a bright traditional purple that I think would just be striking in this pen.
So little combo with, this VAC and, And you know, Waterman tender purple also sheens. Oh, nice. People don't know this. It has a wonderful gold. Yeah. It's a greenish gold sheen. yeah, it's gorgeous ink.
It's, it's highly underrated. This is one of those things when I was adding products to the list is like, I should put that in my cart because I don't have it. I was like, really? Yeah. I was like, how have I missed this?
This looks spectacular. I have this pen too. Why don't I use the sink for it? So yeah, I will probably end up buying that myself. So there you go.
Brad's, Brad's gift guide to himself. He's, Brad's already bought like two of the three things we've, we discussed so far. So. Yep. I think we've, previously described this, titled this episode. this cost me so much money every year. So this is part of that as well.
I, I had a late addition here as I took out my notebook and I was like, okay, what pen am I going to use to write show notes with? You know, if I need to mark down some timings or edits or whatever. And I grabbed my CWNT pen type C and I was like, oh, that will make a good gift.
It's such a weird little pen. And then I clicked over to the page. So like the standard CWNT pen type C is like 60 bucks and it's this real unique little flip design. They have a composition notebook, one on there now, which I had not seen before.
So they have like a marble finish that matches your composition notebook. So I thought that might be kind of a neat, a neat thing, but there, there's all kinds of different prices ranging from like $60 to $140, depending on how they finish or etch or however they do, all kinds of weird things that they are known for over there at CWNT.
So I threw that on the example, the example that they show on the website with it on the composition notebook, like that is, that's just asking to lose it. I would totally lose it. It's almost like they, they like snipped out that pattern, like mimicked it exactly. And you like, you put it on the notebook.
It's like completely camo. I think they actually call it composition camo because you probably could lose it. So that was a, that was a neat thing. I just, I just stumbled on.
And that's, that's one of those odd things that you, that's something that I would ask for for Christmas. Like it's weird, right? Like I don't like, I don't ever ask for stationery myself, but like, this is such, so weird and specific. Like I would feel very comfortable, asking for that for, for, the holidays.
All right. The next level, we're going to level this up one more time. So favorite pin gift in the $100 to $200 range. This is actually like pretty hard. I thought, out of the categories, this is one of the more difficult ones.
Until I saw it and knowing that I'd used, have used them before. But the, Navalur Nautilus and Ebonite. I don't know if you've ever gotten the chance to use one of those. They, any, actually anything in that, Nautilus shape, which is the long cylindrical, almost like a cigar looking shape.
And it's got the little portholes in the barrel. They're Ebonites. And the way this pin feels, I really, really enjoy the, so this is like that special gift to like the super fountain pen nerd in there. It's a piston filler. Oh, so you'll need a bottle of ink to go with that.
But I love Ebonite. I like this Nautilus shape and design. It's unique. It feels great. It's fun to write with. So that's what I went with if you're looking for, a more expensive pen as a gift.
I really like these. Yeah. The, the little portholes on the, on the Nautilus is sort of just like the sort of flagship design for Navalur. Yep. Yep. So they really kind of, continue that on through the lineups. And they've done some interesting materials, some interesting acrylics and some swirls in that shape before.
But I really like the Ebonites. They've done, they've done some really neat colors with those. I like those a lot. So, I picked, a shown design pocket six.
Yes. Like it's the standard anodized aluminum ones come in at right about $165. And the, I mean, the shown design pens are so amazing. all of the different color patterns are so cool. And, it's just a great pen. Like it's, it's unusual.
It's different if you haven't had one, it's definitely worth putting on your wishlist. and it would definitely convince someone that fountain pens are not just for, you know, the stodgy old dudes anymore. Yeah. Look at our choices so far. We have definitely lived up to that. Yeah. And on that shown design page, I clicked on it while you were talking about it.
Just for those who may not be familiar with this pen, there's 40 different anodization choices on this page. Oh, wow. I didn't even realize there were that many. Yeah. I had to do some quick math. I was like, whoa, look at all these.
And so there are 40 different options and all you got to do is click on them. And at no point will you stop saying, whoa, like every time you click, you just go, whoa. And then you click the next one. Whoa. It's just over and over again. They're great.
I mean, it is a full rainbow of color options. So everything from a very low profile, just anodized black all the way up to sort of like paint splashes. And, you know, they just, you know, the paint splash ones look totally like 1980s splash shirt kind of designs.
There's some that have like twisted, like just sort of two tone. There really are beautiful in it. You would be hard. The biggest problem you're going to have is to pick which one.
Yeah, exactly. That is always the challenge. So, oh, oh, I had one more. Yeah, you have one. I'm going to make you talk about this because I think it's important.
I forgot. The other one I picked was the Leonardo Memento Zero. And it's a finish that I think I've gone back to a couple times and gone, oh, that's really pretty. Like, I think it's the the Aloha version, which is just it's just beautiful aquas and blues. It's just so pretty.
And I've I've had Leonardo Memento Zeros in the past, and I think I had one from very early on, which was sort of a solid color. It was lovely. But like this is stunning. Yeah, this is a knockout color. I have seen this in person and it might even better be better looking in person than the pictures and the pictures are spectacular.
But this is a great pen. And not only that, it's just not only does it look cool, like the way they manufacture their pens, the quality of Leonardo's. I'm a super fan. Yeah, they write beautifully.
Like this is this is that gift that, you know, the product is going to be good. You know, hopefully the person, you know, likes the color or the design. But I guarantee you, like, it's going to be like a wonderful writer and just a fantastic pen for someone for a very long time.
Absolutely. Yeah. You know where you can get a lot of these pens that we're talking about today, Anna? Where did that Leonardo come from? Leonardo, Novelor, Kaweco, Opus Twisby. You can get them at Pen Chalet.
So this episode is of the pen addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all your favorite brands like I was just discussing. Plus, Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco.
And are, of course, an authorized dealer of all these brands. They have very fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. And they're always adding new styles of pens every single month.
As well as the brands I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens and all the pen accessories you ever need. Like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They have free shipping on orders over $75 in the United States. And they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates.
Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com and click on the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code, you need to save 10% off on anything at Pen Chalet.
So they always have a great selection of products. You go over to the podcast page, put in our code, get the code. And Ron always lists a huge array of awesome deals for the penaddict community. So you all need to go check these out.
This will be right after Black Friday when this episode launches. And there are sure to be a ton of great deals over at penchalet.com. So thank you so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and the penaddict. So yes, thank you, Ron.
Did you know you can also get coloring there? Nice. They have coloring. We need to put that in the ad copy. So an authorized dealer of the coloring. As far as I know, there aren't any unauthorized dealers, but who knows?
Yet. I'll work on that. So yeah, we'll have links in the show notes to a lot of these products. And of course, if Pen Chalet carries it, you know we're going to send you over there because they're such great supporters of the show. All right. Let's change a little bit from pens and keep it in the stationery world, but for desk accessories.
And I think these are the best categories for gifts. Like if you're buying, you know, for pen friends, stationery friends, a lot of them are pretty particular on their pens that they like. So we gave you some good ideas for that. But you can almost never go wrong with accessories and other ephemera and related items for stationery.
So what do you have for desk accessory types of gifts? So for this one, I am a huge fan of ink sets as gifts. I don't, there's not a ton available right now. There's a couple. Some of them are like Colorverse occasionally has really nice sets.
But I just think it's kind of a fun way to do it. People get a couple different bottles of ink. It's usually lovely packaging. It's the one place where I kind of enjoy good packaging.
Everything else I want it to be like super environmentally friendly and recyclable. But with a set of ink, I often keep them in their boxes and just kind of keep it as a little treasure. But one of the ones I really like, which I actually discovered, I think, when I was helping out with Dromgul's this year at a couple pen shows, was they had a set called the Wearing Gull Becoming Witch ink set.
Is that how, yeah. So it's a single bottle of ink, but it comes with four, I think, different glitter powders that you can then mix in. And it will change the quality of the ink because like one of the glitter powders is red. One of them is blue.
One of them is gold. And one of them is silver. And so just by adding that into this like really dark, like blue-black ink, it takes on these very different looks. So it's definitely, it does feel like you're sort of, you know, crafting a magical spell when you're like mixing these together.
It's just a very unusual set. It's not cheap, but it is really cool. And because it's a set, they are often limited. So it's kind of one of those things where if you see it and it's something that you really like, you should definitely like make a point to go ahead and like order it or get it on your wish list right away.
Because once they're gone, they're usually gone forever. So that's one that I put on there. I also put the Diamine Inkvent calendar for this year, which if you haven't gotten, I recommend going ahead and getting it. It's just so much fun to do the advent.
Pretty much all of the retailers I've seen have them, but some people are already starting to sell out of them this year. And I think it was Joe over at Gentleman Station or said he'd been holding on to his one from, or he was planning on using his one from last year or something.
But then they're all sold out and he can't get it. So he really, so it's like, even if you don't open it this year and you hold on to it for next year, totally an option. I've done that in the past where I just get too busy at the holidays.
And so I have Christmas in July. Exactly. I open them then. But they're just a lot of fun. And the Diamine sets have ended up, they've ended up releasing the inks usually in June or July, all of the colors.
But it's kind of fun to get to see which ones you might want to buy a whole bottle of later. It's really cool. I have yet to break down and do the ink vent because I know me. Like I would be like you, I'd be holding it for like months.
And it's like, oh, it's a little bit intimidating. But every time I see them online and people opening them and sharing them, I'm like, oh, that's, I'll like just like sit here and judge all the inks. Oh, like they did get on that one. Oh, that one's stinky.
And oh, look at this one. Ooh, what is, you know, what is that? And will they make that one a permanent one? So yeah, it's Diamine knocked it out of the park with that.
So who knew, who knew that this would be such a thing and they kind of crushed it. Yep. They're very cool. And then the last thing, like if you are not a big ink junkie like some of us, I still go back over and over. To the high tide 30 minute sand timer as a desk accessory.
It's so pretty. It's like your classic glass hourglass, you know, timer, sand timer. And they come in a couple different colors of glass. So you can pick a color that you really like. They're not very expensive.
So even for someone who may not necessarily be a big pen person, this sand timer is great if you're just looking for something to maybe like, I'm going to take 30 minutes to read this afternoon or I'm going to spend 30 minutes meditating or that kind of thing.
Something that doesn't beep at you and just looks beautiful sitting on your desk. Exactly. I have one. I love this. I recommend them so much. I bought them as gifts. I bought them to give away.
They have small ones. They have like five minute ones. I have a mine on my desk is a 15 minute one. And it's just really cool.
One of my favorite products, just period. And just to have around and I've had it for years. And I definitely love that. That's a great, great call.
So what I picked for my choices, I tend to like things on my desk where I can set my pens down and just not have them just all kind of randomly all over the desk. So first thing I picked out was the BSC Trio from Amarillo Stationery. So this is a set of three different sized trays that are for your desk.
So there's a there's a long skinny one and then there's kind of a medium size wider one. And then there's like a teeny tiny one. There's this whole little set and they come in different materials, different patterns. And they're just a really, really cool display set.
I definitely use them. I use them for photography. I use them for setting things on my desk. I just like having them around and looking at them because they're so cool.
So you can check those out from Amarillo Stationery. Those are stunning. Yeah, they're wonderful. They are definitely they make whatever object you put on there like look like, you know, it's being displayed at a museum on a museum cab, you know, countertop or something. It's very like definitely elevating.
Yeah. Your pen. Yeah. And I it's like I don't know. I think it's almost like a dark walnut base. And then the different fabrics they use on the interior are all different like in each little set. They're very, very cool.
I highly recommend this. I love this set at all. I think. So, yeah, there's a set called the 80s, a set called a lot Aladdin, a set called sunset. So come with three different little sets.
Yeah. And the fabrics inside look really nice. Like they're like like almost like a suede fabric. Yeah. They're really pretty. The other the really big ones have it looks like a jacquard sort of print patterns. They're really nice. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. And then I just saw a Johto release these earlier this year and I keep forgetting to pick one up for myself.
But they have it's called the Amari crown rest and it's like a disc, but it has like different ridges built throughout. It's looking at the description. It's inspired by the chrysanthemum flower. And it has like these petal shapes to where you can hold different things.
You can hold like a single pin all the way across or you could set several things around the edge. And it just looks like a beautiful desk accessory and also something very, very functional and very neat to have. So that's something that's on my list. And they're very, very cool.
Because I work in ceramics at my job. I'm looking at it and I'm like, oh, that's a rub off glaze. It's an indigo base. It's beautiful. Yeah. Nice, nice, nice. It's probably porcelain, but I can't I can't guarantee it unless I have it in my hand.
Yeah. It's got that look to it, though, doesn't it? Yeah. Porcelain. It has a different sound when you tap on it than other types of clay. Yeah. Very cool. All right. So that's desk accessories. And I also thought we would mix in some carry accessories because the pens and notebooks don't always stay in our desk.
Sometimes they go with us. And one of my favorite things that I found this year was Rickshaw's collaboration with Sugar Turtle Studios. They have this wonderful rainbow fountain pen pattern that... This is so cute.
I love this. So I have the Sinclair Model R. What? Do you have it in the Sinclair? No. Shocker. Shocker. But you can get a single pen sleeve, a two pen sleeve, a three pen sleeve, or the larger koozie case, which is more of a pouch-like case.
So there's several different size options. So if you're like getting someone a pen and you wanted something to put it in, you could buy like a single pen holder, like these single pen sleeves. And they're just so cool. Like I just love this pattern so much.
And yeah, I think that's been one of my favorite things. One of my favorite things for the year. And I think it's definitely a perfect gift option if you have a stationery lover in your life. And they can always use something to carry their stuff around in.
And so that was my option for that. What do you have? So I picked two from Galen Leather. And one, I'm hoping that Jessie isn't listening because this is probably her Christmas present.
But the Galen Leather EDC wallet. Yeah, this is sick. I have not seen this. So it's designed so that it's just about the same size as your like a Kaweco Sport or another, you know, small pocket pen.
Will fit into a loop on the outside of the case. And then on the inside, you can fill it with your, you know, credit cards, bank cards, that kind of thing. But there's like a little flap in the middle to protect. So like if you wanted to keep a couple of small pocket pens or a pocket knife or a little flashlight, you could keep that in there as well.
So it's just a really cool little set. And it had to be purple if it's going to be for Jessie. I am fascinated by this. I have not seen this.
I am critiquing the design as I go through the images. And I love it. The way they did the external pen loop is kind of perfect. And I am just, yeah, I'm enamored by this.
Great pick. I love this. So you even showed me something today. And it looks like it, so the purple is awesome, but it does come in like six colors total. So. Absolutely. Yeah. They have them in a lot of their other colors. So if you want, like they have several of their Crazy Horse finishes, which are my favorite.
Like they're green, they're Crazy Horse Brown. Which brings me to my second piece, which is the, if you are looking for the perfect pen case, the Galen leather three pen zip case. I have been carrying mine with me every day since I got it like three, four years ago.
And at every pen show, I pull it out and show it to somebody so they can see what it looks like when it has been entirely mistreated nonstop for like five years. And it's beautiful. And now the leather is super soft and they're just great. And they say they hold three pens, but I managed to cram five or six in there.
Don't ask. Well, before you said that, I was going to say it's the perfect, perfect, just right size, right? It's like not too big, not too small. It fits the right amount of stuff. Three pens looks great.
Then you're like, oh my gosh, I put in six. Although I know some of the narrow pens that you like to carry would probably work. Yeah, I carry much smaller pens most of the time. But, you know, like the extras tend to be things like right now I have a platinum preppy just sort of slid in there.
If it falls out when it, because it's not in one of the slots, it's a platinum preppy. It'll be. And oftentimes like I'll stick like if I need a highlighter or whatever, I can just slide it in next to the good pens that are in the loops. But yeah, so I recommend it to everybody.
And they just came out with a new color, which is this ocean, the crazy horse ocean blue, which is gorgeous. And I'm just, I don't need another one. Mine works just fine. But this color is really pretty.
Yeah. So I got that color in DC. They were there. I got the six pin hard sided case in that, in that blue ocean blue, which is spectacular. So if you're not familiar with Galen, they make really high quality goods and the prices are outstanding. Like this case that Anna's talking about is $39.
The wallet case we were just talking about $35. It's like, yeah, no brainer type of stuff. It's really, really good. And obviously lasts for a long time.
And if Anna's had it for several years and it's still going, I know she put it through the ringer. Yeah. I could probably look up when I wrote the review for it to give you, but I'm pretty sure it's at least five years old. Oh, wow. Awesome. That's great.
That is wonderful to do. Speaking of articles you already wrote, you cheated. You cheated on me. And, but it was actually a good topic.
Like this actually, once I saw the article, I went and put it in my notes. So small gifts for stockings, gifts, exchanges, et cetera, was what I called this category. And throw it over to you. You wrote an article already.
Tell me about your stocking stuffer ideas and I'll have a link to the article in the show notes. Sure. That's great. So last week I had been noticing like Black Friday sales and deals are already starting to roll out in my inbox and on every website I click on.
And so it got me thinking about, you know, what can, you know, like all these places are having these great deals. Like what can I buy to sort of, you know, check things off my Christmas shopping list? And one of the things that kind of got into my head was just that even for people who are not stationery lovers, we all end up having to take notes.
We go to school. We have a job, whatever. Like eventually you need a pen for something. So this is where these like stocking stuffer style gifts really come in handy.
And there's so much stuff available now that, you know, like will appeal to everybody. So they're not just using a yellow sticky pad that they picked up at Walmart. So I just sort of ran down a list of like mini notebooks, like the kind that fit into a wallet or a pocket.
Like the little Apica set that they have a four color set for $7.50 of jet pens. But I'm like, you can either give one to each of your cousins or, you know, if you need to do gifts in the office, give everybody one of those. And then, you know, pair it with a gel pen or something.
And you've got gifts for everybody in your office or all your kids' friends or whatever. Done and done. Washi tape. Yeah, for sure. Like there's all kinds of, you know, and the cool thing there is just figuring out like, you know, your kids love, you know, Totoro. There's Totoro washi tape, you know, like, you know, somebody loves music.
There's washi tape with musical notes or with musical instruments or whatever. Like you can kind of find, you know, and most washi tape is under $6, you know, so it's just a great little gift. The same thing with like rubber stamps. Like if you know somebody who has an interest other than, you know, fountain pens, which horror, who doesn't love fountain pens?
But like I found a set of rubber stamps that had like sea life on it, you know, like whales and all sorts of things like that. So it's like you can still shop on jet pens and find stuff for everyone in your family. You know, you can go on some of these websites and find different things.
So that's my long and short. You can look at the post and there's a little bit more, but there's a lot of self-promotion too because I'm shameless. Oh, we're getting there. Believe me, both you and I, we're getting ready to get shameless here in just a second.
Tell me about this other link you put in here for Curiosa Society in Toronto because I've been, while you've been talking about that, I've been scrolling through these notebooks and I'm in love. So this is actually a place that when we went to Toronto, oh, those many years ago, I actually got to go into this store.
So if you are anywhere near Toronto and have not been to Curiosa, I highly recommend it. But it is, it's basically like walking into something that would be on Diagon Alley in a Harry Potter movie. It's all like just all that kind of like dark and spooky, but sweet and just darling.
And like I put in the journals and notebooks because I'm like, you know, there's a lot of people who just don't get super excited about Christmas. Bob's employee, Michelle, is just not a Christmas person. So like this is the kind of thing that I will pick out for her.
So there's like journals with covers that say things like creative ramblings for a restless mind and obsessive lists. Yeah, I'm looking at ledger of perceived slights. That was the one I saw too. I was trying to scroll to it.
Strange ideas and impure thoughts. I have no idea the quality of the paper. These may be like, you know, ballpoint and gel pen only, but they're like, there's one that says I regret nothing journal. I'm like, yes, let's more of this.
So hopefully they're delightful. They're not very expensive. They're like $15 a piece. They are up in Canada.
So if you're in the US and you're ordering, it might take a little while and you may pay a little bit more for shipping. But really, it's totally worth it. And if you live in Toronto, please go tell them that you heard about them from us. Exactly. Exactly.
Exactly. So the first thing I picked was a very specific and I don't know. I kind of goes for like stockings for like someone who's artistic or is into this a little bit. And it's kind of hard to find right now. I was having trouble finding links of it in stock, but I was kind of enamored with the Sailor Dipton and Horkoro Dip Pen and Shimmering Ink sets that they came out with.
I don't know. I was going to have a month or two. I was going to have a month or two. I was going to have a month or two ago. I was going to have a month or two ago.
I was going to have a month or two ago. I was going to have a month or two ago. I was going to have a month or two ago. I was going to have a month or two ago.
I was going to have a month or two ago. I was going to have a month or two ago. I was going to have a month or two ago. It's this Sailor Fude nib, which is the upturn nib.
So you can, it's great for drawing and artwork and line variation and getting a lot of ink on the page. And it comes with a little 10 milliliter bottle of ink, this shimmering ink that Sailor just makes for these little sets. And there's three different colors and it's just all kind of packaged like a little neat little gift set.
It's really small and tiny and compact and it looks pretty cool. It'd be pretty cool in a stocking or as a gift or something like that. The only kicker is like, can you find them right now? If this is something you're interested in?
Yeah, I'm not sure. Have you, have you checked these out? It's, this seems like something right up your alley. You might've even reviewed it.
I have not used the shimmering ink yet, but I have used the dip pen. I want to say we've done, cause they, Sailor released their dip pen. I believe Latinum or Pilot released one as well. Pilot. Yeah. And then there've been a couple of other smaller manufacturers who've been introducing a whole, a holder and a nib.
So like in the case of the Pilot one, it's basically a standard Pilot nib just in a plastic holder, which is, I think the Sailor ones are similar. It's probably their low end nib, but they've been making modifications and offering them with like, you know, like a wider stub style as well as the food day style.
So there's, I mean, you know, if you're somebody like me who samples a lot of inks, these sets are great. Just to be able to have the nib holder and nib to use to do your, your writing samples, to test out inks, that kind of thing. Exactly. Exactly.
I was going to say it if you didn't. And the second thing I put, which probably maybe fits the category better and is probably more along the lines of your stocking stuffers article. I just listed anything by Eric Small Things, which is a wonderful, wonderful designer, makes all kinds of cool stationery items.
I love the washi tape where the designs are literally all small things hand drawn and printed on the washi tape. And like, you can get like different series. There's lots of stationery. There's like one with a bookshelf and one with your desk accessories and things like that.
Then there's other stamps, little notebooks and all those types of things. Those are just great little additions to a stocking, to a small gift exchange, to your stationery friends that you see hanging out, you know, in your local pen club. If you want to just give them something, you know, really small and neat.
I love anything Eric Small Things. I think they're super, super cool designs. Yeah. They have these, these little like self-inking stamps that are, I've purchased two of them so far, so far. And they're just really cute.
They're just, they're not very big. They're maybe at most an inch by an inch size. So they're great to like sort of stamp in your planner or whatever, just sort of fill some space. Yep. Yep. All right. Last category. We're going to get a little self-promotional here.
What's in our shops this holiday season? So I'll, I'll put myself on the, on the spot first and we'll, we'll let you finish this up. But I just wanted to point out the, the Bennu 15th anniversary additions. I made some special additions that I got nib grinds on from my friend Damien and all on the nib.
So I did about 30 of those to test out. I have about 10 left of those. So those have been really, really popular. So you can get a fine medium or broad size.
I think we're just have stub grinds left. All the cursive italic ones flew off the shelf. So that's a really cool one. And then the Opus 88 coloro in orange, the, the pen we talked about earlier that Anna and I both like the shape of.
I have a pen addict shop exclusive orange one that has been a really, really popular item there at the pen addict shop. So yeah, go check those out. And, it's a, it's a halo, not a coloro. Oh, sorry. I halo. Gosh, I always do that. Coloros and halos.
I get them mixed up because they look kind of the same, like the same shape, the same clip, things like that. So yes, thank you. You would think I would know better. That's okay. All right. What you got going on?
Okay. So, the first, the first advice is if you're looking for holiday specific letterpress product, to visit Skylab letterpress on Etsy, because that's where we keep most of that strangely enough, not a lot of it trickles over into the well-appointed desk. but there's always the option. You can always message me or Bob and say, Hey, I want something that's only listed in the well-appointed desk shop, but I also want this other stuff over here and we can put an order together for you.
It usually only takes a day. but the one that I really wanted to list is that we have updated the Santa letter writing kit, which, is specifically designed so that, you can write a letter to your favorite child on Santa's stationery and let them know there's only a couple of days till Christmas.
Are you being good? Or to reply back to letters that they've written. And the, kit has been updated so that there's instructions included now so that if you actually want to send your letter to, I believe it's, North Pole, Alaska to get it, hand canceled so that it looks like it came from Santa.
There's instructions on how to do that and put it in the right envelope and then it can be forwarded on to your favorite child. but it's a kit we put together a long, long time ago. And every holiday, we get a little bump. People buy several of them and it's super entertaining.
I actually had a friend who sent me a letter on that paper from Santa and it was very charming. I, it's so, I mean, listen, like the Skyline Bladder Press does such good work and like, I don't need to tell you that. but yeah. They work hard. I love all the stuff.
So yeah. Wonderful. all right. So that's kind of the main gift guide, our ideas. So up next, we're going to take your questions and go through there, but, and see if we can help you out with any advice that you have for your holiday stationery gifts. before that, I want to tell you about our good friends over at Factor.
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That's code pinaddict50 at factormeals.com slash pinaddict50 to get 50% off your first box. Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. All right, we have questions. So I think what we're going to do here is I'm going to read them and then I'll let you, I'll let you answer them and then we can, discuss if we need, anything else there.
But, you did such a good job prepping for this. Unlike me who copy and pasted the questions into the show documents. So here we go. From Mark, gift guide question.
Advice on an EDC five-ish pin case. I have a rickshaw Sinclair, but always overfill it. Shocking. A lot of us do that. Wondering what five to six hard capped case would be recommended.
So what do you have for this one? And I think we're on the same page here. So I did, I did a little research, but luckily I had been on the Galen leather page and they actually, you can even search on their site when you go into like pen cases and specifically say, I'm looking for a five pen case.
And it'll show you everything that they have. And they have a five pen hard case that has like a flip top. that if what you're looking for is a five pen case, you don't want to squeeze in anymore. They do have six pen cases as well. Or, you know, you can just buy a three pen case and jam five of them in there.
Yeah. So these are great because they have individual slots for the pens, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And that sounds like what, what he was looking for. Yeah. like I, I couldn't come up with anything better. So I, like I mentioned earlier, not knowing this question was here, I have the six sided Galen one, right?
And it's just a, it's a hard sided case, individual dividers. Mine's a little bit different, in shape and that you can pull out the tray that's on the interior. They do have, I think they have that available as a five pen case as well, where you pull out the tray, but this seemed more like an everyday carry where it was more likely to get softer on the exterior.
So the pens are separate, but, the case wouldn't be like super rigid. Yep. All right. This next question from Michael, as someone who has bought a few pens, inks and accessories, what are good gift recommendations to pass along that are easily found online in the U S for example, when asking for Lamy limited edition, all-star in a fine nib is too complicated.
And I feel that Michael, this is exactly why I don't necessarily ask my non-stationery, loving family to buy me a pen because you have to get very specific, but you also want stationery stuff for the holidays. So what would you recommend that they do? Sadly, this is a case where really I would recommend, a website or, a shop that offers a gift card.
Say, Hey, you know what? If you really want to get me a pen gift, you know, a gift card to pen chalet or something like that would be great. if that seems weird to ask for that, then maybe there's something simpler, like a notebook, maybe saying the dime, the diamond ink vent set, which may sound complicated, but they can't get that wrong.
There's only one of them available. So they can type that into Google and find it for you. but yeah, so oftentimes just a gift card or at a certain point, like, Hey, maybe get me something that has pens on it, like a fun pair of socks. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. You would be surprised at how many like themed socks I have because I like, I will be asking again for socks for the holidays. So since I'm not asking for stationery, I do like your notebook idea. because you can get some, that's usually easy to purchase. it's like a no, no confusion.
Even if you're saying, you know, a five grid, you know, hardcover, you can send the link to that and they're not going to screw it up. Right. It's just going to be, it just is what it's going to be. And, I think that's, that's a pretty good, you know, thing to do or, you know, something like, you know, a pack of field notes or a field note subscription or something like that.
Those, those things are pretty easy. Oh yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah. Field note subscription would be great. So yeah. All right. Via Anonymous. I like this. Because I'm undertaking your 100 pen challenge.
I guess this is referring to my pen act 100 this holiday season. My pen wish list is about less, not more. Do you have any advice on how to make downsizing jolly? Thank you. What a great question.
It is a great question. And I feel like that's also one of those things that like as pen enthusiasts, we, we get so much joy when other people discover how wonderful fountain pens are. So I think the way to make it jolly is to share your wealth. Like if you have pens that you're, that you're willing to, to part with, give them to someone as a gift.
And, you know, I was like, I was thinking about like, how can you do that? I'm like, if you're having family over for dinner, put a pen on everyone's place setting, you know, wrap a bow around it. It doesn't have to be in the box or anything. Just put a pen on everyone's place setting.
And that's their place setting, you know? You can, after dinner, you can show everyone how to fill them up with ink, you know? Or, you know, give them to friends. Host a pen testing cocktail party, you know?
Have your friends over, your coworkers, whatever, and have all the pens, you know, that you've been trying to get rid of. Just let them try them. You don't have to give them to them or anything like that if you feel like you, you know, need to sell them or whatever.
But let people play with them. Have your own little pen party. You know, maybe pull a couple of the pens aside for the end of the evening and have everybody, you know, put their name in a hat and you draw a couple names and they get to pick a pen to take home with them.
You know, I just think it would be fun. And I am someone who I don't even have to be drinking before I start giving away my pens. Oh, you love it? Here, you keep it.
You just take it. You know? So that's a joke for Jacqueline. She's the one who like, get her drunk. She gives away all her pens.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm the same way. I just like to give people stuff because we're super fortunate that we get a lot of stuff. Like it is nothing for me to just hand over a pen if you say you like the pen. So having them having like different pens out like at the holidays is super smart if you're having people over.
It's just this random conversation item for people who like it's funny when people ask like, what do I do? It's hard to explain, but then if they show up at the house and you're having dinner and you can have these like the pen place settings idea, you can actually talk about this stuff and you'll get a lot of, if nothing else, entertainment from it, from people going, this is ridiculous.
Like I would never use this. And like, that's fun. And I think that's funny. And then maybe you find that next little fountain pen friend that really gets into it, wants to know more and starts asking you questions.
And then maybe they go home with all the pens instead of one for everybody. So yeah, super great question, super great idea and something, you know, that we can all have some worthwhile time exploring. So really, really cool. Yeah. Bob went to a, like a printmaking event a couple of weeks ago and found out that the, the gentleman who was hosting the event was carried his grandfather's fountain pen with him.
And so he came home and they were meeting again the next day and he's like, do you have any pens I can take with me? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I had a couple of boxes of the shark pens, the Genhouse shark pens. And I just sent him off and I'm like, share the wealth.
Exactly. Love it. All right. Next up via Julio. Hi guys. Love the podcast. Made me reconnect with my love of writing with fountain pens. Nice. I'm in the market for a new edition of my collection. My budget is $300, but I'm looking for a great presentation and a great nib.
I recently bought a platinum Maquillet, but found the packaging underwhelming. I love the feel of it. Some of the choices I found are Visconti, Tabaldi, and Leonardo, but I haven't written with any of them. I'd appreciate some recommendations.
Keep up the good work. Julio. So my take on this one is the, the one I have the most experience with is Leonardo, as we've mentioned earlier. So I, I definitely, there, the pens are beautiful. Unfortunately, I do not remember what kind of box it came in. Do you remember?
Yes. So they do a pretty decent job at packaging. They have like the interior black box with like just the, like the, you know, the, it's a little coffin, little ledger, like not ledger. What am I talking about? Like the, yeah, the little coffin opening.
Yeah. And then they have a sleeve over that and then they might, they might actually be inside of a box on top of that. So they like, they, they have a couple layers of packaging there for Leonardo. They're, they're well done, well made. Visconti, I think it's the same way from the ideas.
And if, if the presentation is that important to you, you, you have like the best recommendation, which I wouldn't even thought of. But now that you've said it, what did you put in here? I'll let you say it and then I can elaborate. Sure. My best recommendation, if you want a beautiful fountain pen, that's in beautiful packaging, the Y studio line come in beautiful balsa wood boxes. the pens, are either metal or painted metal. there's the one that comes with a stand and then there's one that comes with a little leather cord so that it runs through.
They're just gorgeous. so they're great pens. And then the packaging is stunning. I've kept the boxes for Y studio, specifically because they're lovely balsa wood boxes that can then be used to keep on my desk with, you know, assorted pens and ink cleaning tools and stuff like that.
So yeah, that would be my vote. If you're looking for something that looks really beautiful and finished and they're wrapped beautifully in the whole thing. So yeah, I'm nodding my head vigorously because I have a Y studio box on my desk as well. Like, like when is the last time you've had like a packaging that you've kept and put on your desk and that's what Y studio does with those fountain pens from the pen perspective.
I think out of that list, your list and budget, $300 and you were looking at Visconti, Tabaldi and Leonardo. I think Leonardo is heads above the other two, not because Visconti or Tabaldi are poor, but I think Visconti's value comes in at a higher price point. Like, I think I would rather have like a Leonardo Memento zero first and then like a Van Gogh or Rembrandt Visconti, set as a secondary option.
The Tabaldi's are very good writers. I think the fit and finish of the Leonardo's is more impressive. So like, I don't even think it's a question which out of those three I would choose at that price point. Then if we went to a different price point, I'd probably have a different order. but I, I, you can't go wrong with the Leonardo pretty much across the board.
And you have two votes for Leonardo. Yep. All right. Next up via Tim, I'm on the hunt for the perfect five-year journal. Currently eyeing the Hobonichi five-year Techo Japanese books for 2024 to 2028 in A5 size. Are there others I should be considering?
How do you handle days when you have much more to say than what the five-year format allows? Do you have any experience with this? no, not specifically with the five-year. I, we've reviewed lots of them.
I just, my brain doesn't process like that. Yeah. So go ahead. But I use like page a day planners and some days I need more than a page. So I solve for that by actually, just taping in another sheet of paper. So it'll get, I mean, it can get bulky over time, but to the point of like on a five-year journal, there are going to be weeks where you have very little to say, you know, yep.
Went to work, took the kids to school, you know, like same old, same old. And then days where you're on vacation and you did all these things and you went to museums and, you know, whatever, like, and those are the days where maybe you stick an envelope in with, you know, a, a sheet or two of all the other things that happened that particular day. or you can cross-reference and just say, you know, like on vacation, see, you know, journal dated 2025, for all the details, you know, that kind of thing.
So it's because, you know, maybe for in a five-year journal, you just need to remember, like we were on vacation in Mexico that week. And that's enough to remind you that like the year before you were, you know, it was January and cold and you were miserable.
And this year you were in Mexico and then the next year, something else, you know? So, but my recommendation to look for at other ones would have been the Midori five-year. Right. I know a lot of people really like the five-year diary from Midori. So if you were just looking to compare, that would be the only other one I could think of.
Yeah. So the only difference that I see, I use the Hobonichi five-year, but I use the A6 size, but that's because I'm the opposite, of Tom that I want to, write less or Tim that I want to write less. so I don't need a bunch of pages for that.
But what the Hobonichis do is the, they allow the right side of the page to be open. So you do have an overflow spot, for anything extra you need to write. Whereas I don't think the Midoris do. I think you have your five days for say like, you know, November 20th on the left-hand side.
Then on the right-hand side, you'll have the five, excuse me, five-year spots for November 21st, where in the Hobonichi style, you'll have your five years for November 20th on the left side, and then the right side of the page will be open. So maybe that's just in particular.
It's either that, or like Anna said, you're going to be comfortable adding in some pages, here and there. And, I, like, I think that's a perfectly acceptable idea to, to work with. So yeah, that'd be good. All right. Via Tom, I have, I have a newly minted pen lover on my holiday gift list this year.
I want to share a couple of pens I currently own, but sit unused much of the time that I know will deepen their appreciation as they did for me. I will tell them they were mine, of course, but I don't want to feel like I'm handing down unwanted items.
What are some ideas to package and or compliment used pens in a way that makes it clear you're passing on a cherished item to a new home and budget under $50 is a good point to add in there. So great idea. Another way to share the love of stationery.
What do you think about this question? Do you have any answers? I think it's a great idea. And I have acquired many pens that were handed down to me from someone who, you know, their advice to me when they gave it to me was, was, you know, when, when you have grown past this pen for whatever reason, or maybe you don't pass it along to someone else, like, or pass a different pen.
If this has become your favorite pen, pass one that you're not using onto someone else, you know, it's that share the love thing. But in terms of how do you pitch it to someone who may think just, did I get a second hand pen? Like honestly with a fountain pen, once you clean them out, it's real hard to tell it's ever been used before.
So, I mean, unless it's got dings and dents and things like that in it, for the most part, they wouldn't really know that it, but all of that aside, I think just by adding, you know, a bottle of ink, a notebook, and maybe like a pen rest, to sort of make it a whole package and say, I hope that this can, you know, write, you know, do that little message on the inside of the notebook that's like, I hope this, you know, furthers your love of writing.
Yeah. I, I think, you know, I, I agree with, with all of that. And I think it's important to have that storytelling aspect to this on why you're doing this, right? Which will kind of not hide, but like, it'll kind of like take over, like, here's the gift.
And this is why it's important to me. Not that it's, oh, I got to use pen or a second hand pen, you know, but like the importance of the gift is what's the gift was what the gift is. And then you can add in like on a saying the, you know, a notebook and an ink is just like a complete, complete easy thing to do.
And then maybe, if they're new to fountain pens, maybe give them like a little bit of a cleaning kit as well with that. Like you can find, I'll, I'll put some links in the show notes where you can find just like a little cleaning, small cleaning kit to kind of help with, you know, the maintenance of the pen, because a lot of new pen users kind of need help with that as well.
So something to think about, but I would definitely, you know, basically be sure to share your story with the gift and then, give them some new things to use with it as well. Like the ink notebook and pen rest, things like that. So, there you go. Based on what you just said, Brad, I put the link in for the make your own pen flush.
Perfect. That would, that's a great gift, like an, an, an add on to like, if you're doing this, like perfect for Tom, right? To say, Hey, you know, here's the story while I'm giving you this pen. And then you can hand make like the pen flush to, to add on, put a little bow on it and, it'd be great.
Some people, some people get jam. Other people get pen flush. They both come in a jar. So it seems, seems legit to me.
All right. Last one for this year's gift guide via gem. What's a good pen to give someone who's nib curious. That is someone who has some of the standard size nibs, extra fine, fine, medium, broad, double broad, maybe even a stub 1.1 millimeter, but wants to try out a flex nib or a cursive italic or reverse architect.
Those less standard nibs are likely to be Bach or Yovo number six nibs. So what's a good starting place for someone who wants to try out some new nibs? That's a great question. This is, this is actually a pretty tough question.
So, what do you have? Well, I thought about it for a long time and I thought, well, I mean, is it a case where you actually just buy them a, you know, a, a number six nib that they could then take and have ground. And then I thought, you know what?
I bet if you reached out to somebody like Gina at custom nib studio and said, can I buy a gift card for someone so that they can send you a pen and have it ground later? that that would be a great way to do it. I've actually done that specifically from Gina at custom nib studio, bought a gift card for someone.
Yes. Yeah. I looked on her website and I didn't specifically see a link for a gift card, but I, I suspect if you reached out to her or if there's another nib grinder that you work with, I'm sure they were, I've, I've never worked with a nib grinder who didn't want work.
So I'm sure you can find somebody, but yeah. And just say, Hey, I bought you a nib grind, you know? Yeah. And that'll give them a good chance to experiment, figure out what they want. some nib grinders or some companies will sell loose pre-ground nibs. Franklin Christophe at one point had this, I'd have to double check to see if they list them as an individual option that you could buy, but you could buy.
They don't. Okay. They don't have that anymore. Not anymore. I think they, they were, over, overworking their nib grinder. Yeah. I was probably part of the problem for that. cause I would just, I would buy a pen and a nib and then I would add on another nib.
And so it was like, I was always buying nibs just without buying pens. but other nib grinders, let me check out, Damien and all in the nib who did, as I mentioned before the, yeah, pre-ground nibs. So Damien has a pre-ground nib link that I will add into the show notes to where you can buy a Yovo number six or Bach, nibs to, to go check out.
So I'll put that in the show notes for you, Jim. So that might be a way to just have the nib and then, swap it into a compatible pen. I'm, I'm wondering if Matthew Chen would do that as well. I would not be surprised.
I would not be surprised. So we'll check into that for sure. All right. I think we did it. I think this was a fun episode. it's always great talking with you.
Any last, any last minute gift suggestions? Are you asking for any stationery? I never asked for any stationery. Like I said, I already treated myself this year.
I'm, I'm covered. How about you? Do you do the same thing? Yeah. I, one, it's so hard to find something that I haven't already used. So like, I mean, the, the example is like, I could theoretically ask for a custom, like one of the new, Kaweco sports. Yeah.
Because it's just the same pen that I already have in a different color. not a big deal. My, my Kaweco stack is getting taller by the day. Yep. but yeah, no, I, I tend not to, I'd rather, I'd rather spread the wealth. You know, you and I have both been doing a little bit of, sort of calling the herd as it were.
I've been getting rid of ink. You've been getting rid of pens, but just trying to like, a little less overwhelming, a little more focus. and they, we know they all go to good homes because we have such lovely, listeners and readers who get an opportunity to acquire these things from us.
So. Yep. And I think that's the best tip for this holiday season or really anytime during the years, just spread the love of stationery any way you can use your stuff, share your stuff. And like it, it, it's too fun not to write. We get, we get a lot out of it.
So thank you, Anno. Can you tell everyone where they can find you these days? Should they head over to the wellappointeddesk.com? Yep. Wellappointeddesk.com. And there are links down the side for, a very unused Instagram.
I killed my Twitter account. I'm sorry, my ex account. Yeah. I have recently joined blue sky, but again, not super active yet. There's not a lot of people, but again, well-appointed desk.
That's me pretty, pretty much everywhere. So here's me handling business and what I should do in the post show. Me and you need to do a friend of the show podcast about the social, social media and, and how are we using it these days? And that should just be like a topic because yeah, I, I'm giggling at all the things you're saying because it's like, yes, it is just maddening right now.
It's very, it's very, very challenging. So, yeah, if you need anything, come to the website. I have a contact me at the top of the page. Feel free to come and yell at me about something happens all the time.
Yep. And when things change, guess what? You can still find it at wellappointeddesk.com, right? That's just where people need to go. You'll find wherever I'm at right now.
All right. Where can people find you? Yeah. That was going to say, and that's where you can find me pinaddict.com. I link all the things I do from there. So, you can find my Twitch feed there. you can find me over on Mastodon, mostly on social media, on Instagram, somewhat at pinaddict everywhere.
I'm at pinaddict now. you know, my, my ex account may have, up and vanished recently too, Ana. So, feels, feels pretty good about that. So doesn't it? Do you TikTok yet? I do not. I do not. Yeah. I don't either. Yeah. So yeah, again, we're going to have to have this.
I'm going to get you to pencil me in in your calendar for a 30 minute social media, come up between the two of us. So great. Sounds great. I'm sure people will be riveted. Oh, I know. Thrilled, thrilled just to yell at us for it. So there you go.
That's, that's what social media is for. It's for the yelling. So yeah, all the yelling, just send it to Brad. Yeah. This podcast is for the pins and we're going to wrap it up there.
Thank you so much for joining us this week. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for Ana. Thank you to Ana for joining me this week. until next week, say goodbye, Anna. Goodbye, Anna.