There she goes, my beautiful world
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. I’ve moved out of my studio at the Third Street Art Explosion and I have been rearranging my cottage to dedicate the downstairs to my new studio. In addition to moving everything from the studio here, I’ve had to move pretty much every piece of furniture I own either from downstairs to upstairs or from upstairs to down. Let me tell you: moving furniture by myself ain’t easy.
It’s not easy but it’s gone … Read the rest
Possibly the biggest disappointment in my review of notebooks over the last couple years has been the Piccadilly Essential Notebook. Piccadilly’s Essential line of notebooks is almost indistinguishable from the Moleskine, but at a third to one-half the price. When I say indistinguishable, I mean in nearly every detail. The oilskin cover looks like the Moleskine, the paper is the same cream color with the same 6mm ruling, there’s an elastic enclosure and a pocket in the back. … Read the rest
I was excited to see Gallery Leather’s entry into the journal/notebook realm for a couple reasons. First, it’s a handsome notebook of a reasonable size for carrying, and second, Gallery Leather does a lot of business creating and customizing handcrafted products directly from Maine. In other words, I was hoping to find some good old fashioned American craftsmanship.
The notebook’s cover is indeed well-crafted and the paper is of excellent quality (more on this in a moment) but the … Read the rest
First my apologies for a late post. It’s already Monday on the East Coast and it wouldn’t take much more delay for this to become The Monday Papers even here in California.
This week’s notebook is the Canteo, from Swiss maker Biella. The Swiss have spared no expense in putting together an elegant and full-featured notebook, and for those who keep their notebooks at their desks the Canteo may be ideal. If you want a notebook that is portable and … Read the rest
Of all the notebooks on the market, none is so celebrated or debated as the Moleskine. Loved by many, there are at least a half dozen websites devoted solely to the iconic notebook, and a Google search on the keyword «moleskine» produces (at this writing) over four and a half million results. No other brand of notebook has achieved the same level of repute or notoriety.
I’m not here to say that Moleskines are the best notebooks, but they are … Read the rest
Regular readers of Monochromatic Outlook may recall mention of the Waterman Edson Diamond Black fountain pen. It was the pen I wanted dearly but thought I would never own because it was indeed too dear. At a MSRP of an even thousand dollars, its lovely platinum trim and inset nib seemed out of my reach.
I had a chance to write with one at the Flax pen fair, and its smooth writing cemented its place as the pen that I … Read the rest
I’ll give away a hint at the results of my experiments by saying this: round two ended up being the final round of testing, and the theoretical winner in the contest of iPad2 WiFi versus first-generation iPad with 3G and WiFi is: the first-generation iPad.
More details about my constraints and decision criteria can be found in part one, but the basic rundown is: I want to know whether an iOS device without 3G or GPS could … Read the rest
With the iPad2 out this weekend, I’ve started to consider an upgrade from the original iPad to the newer, lighter model. Money is a factor, so if I were to get a new one I’d have to sell the old one, and that would still leave me short of a replacement.
I’ve started to consider whether I could get away with a plain WiFi version of the iPad, which would knock $130 off the price of the model … Read the rest
On Fountain Pen Network there is a topic started by the user watch_art (also known as the printmaker Shawn Newton) who called for drawings of coffee mugs. The one rule he stated was that the drawing be done with each person’s favorite pen.
Well, I’m not really sure which pen is my favorite, but I know which fountain pens I’ve most enjoyed drawing with so I opened up my sketchbook and set myself up with my Philz Coffee… Read the rest
I’ve never done a site of the day before, so it may as well be site of the year. Don’t expect a new website to be showcased every day. I think someone else already had that idea.
Remember back when the Internet was full of wondrous sites that captured the imagination and made us think, «wow, this World Wide Web thing is really great?» People came up with new ways of presenting and sorting and filtering content and therefore … Read the rest