Currently inked

Something new (and short!) - Currently inked.

These days I'm leaning way towards blues, or inks with some component of blues in it. The other colours inked are for contrast purposes

Notes on Double A Paper

Whew! It's the end of a very busy month!

And as an added bonus: my pens came back after the CI treatment! :D

Let's celebrate with a short note on paper.

Today's post will talk about Double A paper! I bought a ream hearing that it was FP friendly, and boy, it did not disappoint!

Two pictures to show this:

Front of page

Back of page - slight showthrough

Friendly indeed!

Pelikan Hub Singapore 2016

The event that's been on the pen enthusiast's mind this past week are the Pelikan Hubs.

Pelikan Hubs is a yearly event, where pen enthusiasts meet up at a venue on a date specified by Pelikan. The meet up is organised by someone chosen by Pelikan, the Hubmaster, who will find a venue and inform participants about it. Pelikan send along some door gifts for participants who come and shares a presentation. Then everyone has fun talking and playing with pens, inks and paper!

This year's Hub was held this past Friday, 16 September at 1830 local time. It was done at Pelikan Singapore's office!

Now what's an event without photos? So here goes!

Waiting for the event to start!

Food setup!

Food setup!

Door gifts

Ink Pyramid

The M10000! <3 It's actually a lamp

The night started with a short speech from the Hubmaster, after which a slideshow that was prepared by Pelikan was shown.

Slideshow time

Slideshow time

After that, we had a break for dinner!

Nice flower layout

Food, glorious food!

Food, glorious food!

Socialising over food

Then came the star attraction of the night - the interactions!

Ink swatches done by Hubmaster

And lastly, the group photo!

Souvenirs from the night - paper pad, pen pouch, Aquamarine ink and post card

I enjoyed myself tremendously on Friday - I hope you had some fun too!

See you in 2017!

Noodler's Pacific Dawn at the Golden Gate Review

They say the early bird catches the worm.

Well, I guess I was one today.

How early? How about first in Singapore early?

I am the first in the country to get my hands on this Pacific Dawn at the Golden Gate! ;)

This was launched at the 2016 San Francisco Pen Show that ran from 26-28 August. The Singapore launch was today (2 September)

The background story to this ink is this:

"Pacific Dawn refers to the same Sun starting its journey across the Pacific from San Francisco to Singapore. This ink is a distinct blue like the dark blue one sees in the ocean at Dawn. When dried, a few drops of water like the morning mist will show red at the borders as if dawn has arrived

Noodler's Pacific Dawn at The Golden Gate is the Straits Pen Exclusive for the San Francisco Pen Show. A Bulletproof Blue ink with the Halo of Dawn, this includes a double sided label of Fort Mason on one side and the Golden Gate Bridge on the reverse. (Note that the Blue is bulletproof but the red element is not)"

(Extracted from http://aws.straitspen.com/shop/inks/noodler-s-ink/noodler-s-pacific-dawn-at-the-golden-gate.html)

So my first thoughts, hmmm an interesting blue black (some call it a blue grey)... bulletproof somemore!

The first ink that popped into my mind for comparison was 54th Massachusetts. But that has green in it. Pity I don't have Bad Belted Kingfisher or Bad Blue Heron to compare it to.

It's definitely wetter than 54th though, which is a welcome. I found 54th too dry, which is why I don't use it despite the nice colour!

This picture shows the red halo (I got ink stains while I refilled my pen and lo and behold, the red stain)

Red halo? You betcha!

It's not a cut! That's the halo!

Lest you think it's only on the hand, I did get it on TR paper... Here are the pics!

Halo around the word 'fountain'.

Yes I know, it's the wrong spelling. It's late kay! ><

Here it's really obvious where the halo is....

The ink is used on three types of paper - 100gsm printer paper, Rhodia Grid and Tomoe River White

The first two is what I do my ink review on. The last showcases the halo (refer to previous two pictures).

So to the review proper...

Review sheet, 100gsm paper

Review sheet: Rhodia Grid

Strange, when it's wet it looks like a blue black to me, but once it dries, it's more of a blue grey...

Noodler's Pacific Dawn at the Golden Gate is exclusively available at Straits Pen and is priced at USD12.50/SGD18.

PS. It does cause quite a bit of nib creep though - just be diligent in wiping it!

Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine Mini Review (Ink of the Year 2016)

As promised, the new post on my favourite brand!

This one is about IotY 2016 Aquamarine.

I would call this the ink version of Lamy 2000.

What do I mean? I mean Aquamarine wasn't love at first sight, but upon the continuous use of it... it just grew on me.

Love at second sight <3 <3 <3

I've put it in the Danitrio (refer to previous post for more info on the Dani). I find Aquamarine a good match for the body!

My personal choice for Aquamarine would be something a tad brighter than what Pelikan has produced. However, having said that, I still like this ink. It pushes me to explore a different shade from my usual repertoire of rich bright blues.

Here are the pics!

Danitrio Cum Laude (Blue Grey)

It's been over four months since the last post! Life's been quite busy these days... also I didn't get new stuff so nothing to talk about :P

Today's piece is on the Danitrio Cum Laude. Yes again. It's not deja vu kay!

I lost my original one and the replacement came in yesterday, hence the post.

Which is a little strange. Why? Because I had originally wanted the blue grey version, but my first Cum Laude was a brown one. It slowly grew on me, but I lost that, and now here I am, with the colour I've wanted all along. Strange how fate deals out its cards huh?

Currently it's being filled up with a blend I came up with. I was looking for a grey that wouldn't be too light (not going for the pencil effect here!) and so I mixed grey with a touch of black - the exact ratio is 4 to 1.

Pictures pictures of this beauty! Did I tell you I was in love?

Look out for the next post.... on my favourite brand!

From the Stacks: Highlights of the National Library Exhibition

Today's post is to talk about an exhibition that's currently being held at the National Library in Bugis!

It's called "From the Stacks: Highlights of the National Library", and showcases the best of the library's many years of collections!

They range from WWII comics, the Malaya/Singapore newspapers, maps of harbours, and my personal favourite: the letters of Raffles.

Here are some pics! (They're all from the letters of Raffles section. I'm bias as always)

I highly recommend a visit! It runs till 28 August, so lots of time to go! In fact, I'm definitely going back again!