Month: August 2009

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Move over Moleskine

Congratulations to Canadian stationer Papterie Nota Bene for being prominently featured on two pages of today’s National Post.

By Nathalie Atkinson, Move over Moleskine is a richly illustrated leisurely look at the fine notebooks and writing implements that many of us enjoy.

What the online article doesn’t show are the photos and prominence that the print edition gives to the article.

The front page of the “Weekend Post” is covered with seven photos and the caption, “Never too cool for school”. Shown are a Roots saddle bag, Hermès Ulysses notebook, Field Notes notebooks and pencils, Erinzam notebooks, Rite-in-the-Rain notebook (with Ticonderoga pencil), Faber-Castell Textliners, and Whitelines notepads. I was certainly surprised and delighted by the prominence given to pencils.

The fourth page of the section has a near full page article, and shows some more photos of stationery items: A Kikkerland Endangered Species eraser, Globus pencil sharpener, Rhodia pad, Very Best mechanical pencil, and Reused News colour pencils. Pencils clearly rule!

The article is a tour of today’s stationery trends, guided by an interview with Russell Hemsworth of Papterie Nota Bene. I’ve never been to his store, but I’ve spoken with Russell on the phone and via email, and can personally vouch for his great service.

We get the scoop: Moleskine has officially jumped the shark, with Field Notes being the new hipster favorite. Longstanding brands like Canteo, Rite-in-the-Rain and Rhodia are also in high demand. And pencils, pencils, pencils!

Thanks to the Post for the article and congratulations to Russell.

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Urban Gridded Notebook

Urban Gridded Notebook

This might be the world’s only Urban Gridded Notebook. By John Briscella, it was sold by a print-on-demand publisher. Though I doubt it, I might be the only person to have ever purchased a copy.

Urban Gridded Notebook

The notebook has city grids, and no text aside from a list of cities on the last page.

You can study urban planning, or realign major cities with your doodles, or just use it as a notebook.

Urban Gridded Notebook

The paper is like thick newsprint, so there is some see-through with dark ink or graphite, though a Lamy fountain pen with F nib didn’t feather for me.

Urban Gridded Notebook

It’s a great product. Do you own one?

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Felissimo 500 Colour pencil set launches worldwide!

Felissimo recently relaunched their amazing set of 500 colour pencils in Japan.

This news was already exciting, but Felissimo recently contacted me, and told me about their plans to make these pencils available globally by monthly subscription! 25 pencils are sent from Japan each month for 20 months. The subscription price is $33.00 per month, inclusive of all costs.

I congratulate Felissimo on embracing the market beyond Japan, and wish them well. I hope other pencil manufacturers will follow.

Kossy has some photos of the second set here if you want a non-PR photo. They look amazing!

There is more. I’m happy to say that pencil talk has agreed to participate in the product’s promotion. There are a few reasons for this: I think it is an extraordinary offering that supports the creative use of pencils; I support the efforts of Japanese stationers to offer their outstanding products globally, and think a direct offer via the web is an excellent decision. And yes, they’re sending some pencils this way!

We’ll take a look at the actual pencils in September!

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Pencil news

Some more pencil news:

  • American Executive magazine has a wide ranging interview with a Fila VP, touching on many aspects of the future of Dixon and Lyra. An upcoming IPO is probably a surprise to most of us. Moving even more manufacturing to Mexico and China probably isn’t.
  • Congratulations to Caran d’Ache, whose Prismalo watercolour pencils were pronounced a classic of everyday design by the Guardian.
  • Staedtler is closing their Malaysian factory, laying off 200. The story is unfortunately very brief. Staedtler has made huge investments in Mayalsia, and do quite a bit to talk up their forest practices. I’m not sure how their forest assets are affected.
  • Is the Eberhard Faber label ending? Staedtler is apparently taking over products in the Eberhard Faber line. I’m not quite sure how Staedtler has come to control this name. The former US Eberhard Faber is now part of Sanford. Eberhard Faber has released new (and well received) pencils quite recently, so this move is a surprise.
  • And – I’ve previously mentioned curiosities such as Pelikan and Rotring woodcase pencils. Here are two more: From Sailor and Ohto. There must be other writing equipment manufacturers out there who’ve tried making pencils, even if pencils are no longer among their current offerings. Do you know of any?
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    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    Let’s navigate away from Lewisburg and head over to Mumbai.

    The Hindustan Pencil Company was founded in 1958, and is now India’s largest pencil manufacturer. They state that they manufacture 5.6 million pencils per day! That would be over two billion per year. This would put them in the elite league of Faber-Castell and Staedtler.

    Despite these enormous numbers, their pencils are unavailable in many regions of the world, including here in Canada. My thanks to hemmant for kindly sending me these pencils, and some other Indian pencils that we’ll soon see.

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    The pencils are red with black stripes, a black cap, and white cap ring. They ship unsharpened, and are marked:

    HPL * Nataraj * 621 * HB * Bonded Lead

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    They sharpen easily enough in either desktop or handheld sharpeners.

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    What I first notice is the wood’s appearance. It appears to have the striations typical of jelutong or pulai, yet is also quite reddish. I’m curious if anyone knows what wood species is being used?

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    The lead seems quite strong – when I sharpen a pencil in the Carl Decade DE-100 using the acute setting – the point often breaks after ‘first contact’ with paper – but that didn’t happen with the Nataraj. The pencil seems average judged by smoothness or line richness factors.

    The pencil box mentions the official price – 3 Rupees per pencil. That is $US0.06. Quite impressive.

    The box also came with a sharpener and eraser. The sharpener boasts “with Japanese Technology”, and seems fine for a plastic sharpener. The eraser is a “Plasto 711”, and while creating a lot of crumbs, did a good job with this pencil on Rhodia paper.

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    Nataraj 621 Writing Pencils

    Overall, the Hindustan Pencil Company seems to be doing a good job with this product.

    Link: Official Product page.

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