Editing The Pen Addict 656/transcript (section)

== Collaboration with Esterbrook and Helen's Aesthetic ==

* So rumor had it a few months ago that Helen was collaborating with Esther brook, uh, not just for a pen, but for like all the things like pen ink accessories, like, you know, washi tape and you know, Helen's aesthetic. Like if you're not familiar again, I'll have a link in the show notes, a lot of journaling type goods. You know, she sells a lot of stickers, planner goods, uh, washi tape. She even has like some custom found penings. She's done with Robert Oster, things like that. So she's collaborating with Esther brook. And I got to see the pen at the California show. Um, and I came home with a couple of, uh, I didn't get to come home with the pen, but I got like the blotter paper and washi tape and stuff like that, that I've been having to like not show on camera. Yeah. Until someone finally spilled the beans. Well, Helen getting ready for like a big anniversary, uh, launch. I think it's the ninth anniversary I think was the plan. So to, so she launched it a month out. So she launched it like on March the 5th or 6th, I forget for an April 5th launch. She's doing a pen with Esther brook. It's a knockout. I like what they did with this. What do you, what do you think about this pen? And then I'll definitely get into it. It's so good. The color is insane. It's, it's something that is really pretty. And then there's a section of, um, uh, well, you probably have those details. I don't know what it is, but it looks like PM, right? It's a Brooks, um, resin and I forget the exact name of it. Uh, it does have its own name, but the resin. So the barrels like, um, creamy, like a milky coffee color. Um, I don't have the specs up in front of it. She listed out what the spec color is, but then, so that's the majority of the barrel, right? Then it's got a cap band and a grip section or that are this swirled Brooks, you know, like a darker mocha caramelly, like very like full coffee themed. It looks like an iced coffee, right? To me. Yes, it does. Like with like cream in it or something like that. And then the, her, um, character, a Modi, which is featured on a lot of her hand-drawn work is the nib engraving on the pen. And yeah, it's just kind of like a perfect combination. This is one of those pens. That. That.
* The challenge was restraint, right? Like it could have been like way over the top, like the materials could have been reversed or something like that to where it's all swirls or all sparkles, but they flipped it completely around. And like, that's something I super, super appreciate about this. You are so right. That could have gone completely the opposite way. And yes, I very much appreciate how they tackled it this time or what it looks like now. So yeah, they really did a great job. Yeah. Because honestly, when you look at Estabrook, when you, if like I was, if I was Estabrook and I came to Eric, I would pretty much tell you, you have free reign, right? Because Estabrook has shown they'll make just like whatever. Yes. Like they could have done. And then to, to like have this choice, I'm not going to say it's pared down because I actually think it's really like dialed in for exactly what it needed, but it's not, you know, it's not like a glitter explosion or, which I love. Like a perfect example is the, the, the bunga box pen that they released. Um, the cracked pink, uh, like cherry blossom looking, holy cow, what a knockout. Yeah. That was really good too. But like, that's like a, like a design challenge. There's a lot of difficulty in getting that right. And there was, but it's equally as hard to do something more simple, but have all these little details in it. And like, I super appreciate that. Yeah. It's well balanced. I think if you think of like a coffee cup, like the entire body is, you know, all that liquid underneath, under that marbly surface. So I think it's perfect. Yeah, it's great. It's great. So this doesn't come out till April 5th and it's a limited edition. I have no idea how many they're going to make. Well, I'll probably talk about it later. If we get some more details, uh, the price was good. It was like, I think it was one 95. Um, I don't know right up in front of me. Totally fair price. You know, Helen's goal with this and talking to her about this, she has a lot of traditional journaling customers who may not be into fountain pens. Right. So it was a goal to have something that's approachable to them, even though it's probably more than they've ever spent on a pen, but at least trying to make the story of the pen, not like overly complex and scare people away from fountain pens are scary type of situation. So, uh, I think it's great. So. Knowing that I see the thought behind it. And then also seeing that she kind of teased the pen a month before it comes out, she's almost giving you that chance. Like, Hey, here's this product. And if you really like it, how about you start maybe saving up for it? You know, at least that's how I'm tackling it because do I need another SD? I don't think so, but this is an SD that I think I need. Yeah. That's I'm exactly right. And she did mention that in one of her comments. I was reading all the, I was like, I want to know, it's really interesting for me to follow someone like Helen that we're in the general, same general, you know, arena, you, me and you, Eric, and then, and Helen, we all love like these things about stationery, but we all kind of go about things in different ways. Everyone's an individual. They have their own likes and tastes. And Helen's built a business on not really fountain pens, although she's used fountain pens for years, right? She's all of her videos or her, a lot of them are with her handwriting with fountain pens. She mentioned in one of the comments about, I am doing exactly what you said, giving people the opportunity who are not used to this to start saving that. Like if you're, if you want to try this, like I'm giving you the opportunity to start saving now. It's like, it's just really, really smart and fun to, fun to see. So yeah, I look forward to that. I actually, I usually don't do like crazy FOMO setting the alarms, getting up at a time. I might have to on this one. I kind of want this. I mean, I don't kind of want this one. I a hundred percent want this one. So we'll figure it out. So. And then if you pair it with like a Gina journaler nib, which I hope is one of the options. It is. So that is the one, that's the one specialty nib. Again, like she thought of everything, right? Yeah. So you have your few standard nibs and if we're going to do an Estherbrook specialty nib, what will it be? Well, this very approachable creative nib, right? In the journaler, which is my favorite SD specialty nib. So like, yeah. To the shock of no one that knows Helen at all, just nailed everything, nailed everything. Agreed. Last one, before we get into all the fun stuff that you're, you're up to, I wasn't going to put this in here, but as I was scrolling through Instagram, you know, and following Uniball and I saw their one P. So their new Uniball one P is the short kind of stubby version of their gel ink pen that has somehow become really popular in this. So they did a release called cider and raspberry. So these are two translucent barrel colors, you know, fairly priced, you know, they're like three, $4. I think they're like a $4 pen. And then I saw heart by Eric Gama over there. I was like, Oh, I'm going to ask, I'm going to ask. Do you, do you like, do you like these, these style of pens and do you use like gel pens generally, like on a daily basis? I use gel pens occasionally. I'm starting to journal more this year and I'm using a different brand of gel pens, but I do have actually in front of me, I have a, I have a Uniball one. Yes. So just the regular one, the regular one. Yes, the regular one. And it just, it's beautiful. It writes perfectly. I love the line it makes. Um, and I actually do have one, a, a small one P in the, like, it's, I forget the exact color way, but it's the orangey, like rusty color that came out maybe last year or so. Yep. Um, it's just so cute and I love the design. So yeah.
* And these two right here look pretty cute too. Yeah. I like the, I mean, all companies need to do is just make something translucent and colorful. And they have me, like I'm hooked. Like you don't have to, your pen could be terrible, but Brad's going to be taking a second look and, and probably buying it. But I, yeah, I was using the one I did not, I'll admit, I did not completely love the regular one when it came out. Um, I couldn't quite, I, as someone who uses a lot of gel ink pens, the standard Signo ink I preferred over the one, the one was a little bit glidier, a little bit darker, like all like features. Right. It was made for a reason. And then they've had a couple other different models. And I was like, well, let me keep trying because I really liked the shape. Right. It's got like a Lamy clip, which is hilarious. Right. Right. Yeah. Raving about Lamy and people will look at this clip and go, Oh, that looks like a Lamy clip, but it's really nice. And then they, it must've done well enough. They just leaned into it and started making all these colors, all these different shapes, um, different style. There's like one that's weighted with like a metal tip towards the front of the barrel. So, uh, yeah, I'm in, I don't love the short ones as much because like I'm fine with one of, like I, in that same series that you bought the orange one, I bought the purple one. So that was in that same group that you bought last year. And it's like, I'm fine with this just for like one pen. Um, but like, I, I like the standard ones, but I'm a hundred percent getting cider and raspberry.
* They're just, they just look so adorable. Like, like you would stubby little pens and like the material, the frosted. Yeah. You got me. Do you ever, I was thinking about these pens in particular. Do you ever just buy a pen just so you can take pictures of it? Like with other stuff, like it's in your layout or your spread. It's like, Oh, let me throw this cute little pen in there. I have done that before. A hundred percent. Yeah. So yeah. Then they've done that.
* All right. Well, we need to get it. That's a, that's enough news. You know, this was a big news week, uh, for, for all the things that we like to talk about here on the pen. A lot of brands that I, uh, enjoy wanting to get your perspective, but now I want to talk about you. But before we do that, we're going to take our first ad break and talk about our good friends over at Pen Chalet.
* So Pen Chalet sells authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, and Kaweco. And are of course, an authorized dealer of all of these brands. They have very fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. They're always adding new styles of pens every single month. As well as all these brands we 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 ship internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to pennchalet.com slash penaddict to get 10% off anything at Pen Chalet and to see this week's exclusive offers for listeners of the show. So I popped over to the Pen Chalet page. And the first thing I noticed is that Ron has changed the layout. He has updated the layout to match more like the regular pen layout over there at Pen Chalet. If you go into a product page, they're more laid out in the square boxes and things like that. And it's really, really cool. I love seeing all this. You can see more pens per square inch on your screens, Eric, which is what I like. I get to see all the things at once. So they have some really, really cool stuff. They have a mystery box up now, which I haven't seen them do before. It is, gosh, I need to go look at this. Pen Chalet, Pen Stash mystery box.
* Let's see what it gets in there. One fountain pen, whoa, featuring Brooks resin. A leather pen case, a bottle of ink, a journal, care pack, sticker. Wow, value of over $300 for just $124.99. Wow, that's super interesting. So we'll have to check that out. So that's on the Pen Attic page. You can go check that out. There's a bunch of ink samples on there, which I haven't seen Pen Chalet make available on the Pen Attic listeners page before. So if you're into ink, they've been putting a lot of inks out there into the world. Lots of cool samples to check out. And if you like the samples, you can go buy your bottle and go find them over there at PenChalet.com. So thank you to Pen Chalet for this wonderful section of special products this week. You can head over to PenChalet.com slash PenAddict and find all of this good stuff for yourself. So thank you so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay and the Pen Addict. All right, Eric, let's get into it.