Mark sent us a video of his trip to Africa this fall, on EcoJot’s Kinderkits mission. I really like EcoJot books largely because they’re well-made and a pleasure to use. But you’re also buying something both green and socially conscious. You’re getting a great book, and you’re helping to do, well, Good. You can’t beat that.
In the packages from Rhodia and EcoSystem that we were lucky enough to receive this fall, there were two semi-large/medium black planners. These are both the variety that start in the summer; so I have given these 6-8 weeks of testing (each!) personally. And now, I am having trouble deciding which to use for 2011(and the Daycraft models we’ll look at tomorrow don’t help the decision).
EcoSystem 2011 “Advisor“, flexible black cover.
This is a great (and green!) EcoSystem notebook, printed with the days of the week on the left and lined note pages on the right. The paper and binding are top-notch, and the entire book is eco-friendly to boot, featuring 100% post-consumer recycled paper, organic cotton elastic and bookmark, etc. There’s the usual information one finds in the beginning of a planner and a nice pocket in the back to boot. I’ve actually beat the heck out of this thing since early November, and it’s come out looking practically new. If you’ve had a Moleskine in the soft-cover variety that’s had the “moleskin” and cardstock cover materials separate, fear not. In my own experience at least, this flexible and matte cover is as tough as a hardcover. And I really like the tacky material of which it’s made.
The printing is nice and unobtrusive, and the binding is tight. Maybe I need to just crack it, but the binding was tight enough that this book’s biggest flaw (which is, to be sure, slight) is that it doesn’t sit quite as flatly on one’s desk as some other books do. Still, the elastic is snappy, and the bookmark is beefy. “2011″ is debossed in the upper right of the cover, and it’s classy-looking. This is definitely a planner that will last through the year intact.
In some ways, EcoSystem’s planner functions like a Moleskine, only, well, better. (I’ll talk more about that when we review the pocket “kiwi” EcoSystem book in the new year.) This might be worth mentioning for some Comrades: this book has the best moon cycle symbols I’ve seen. If you follow the moon (like I do), you might appreciate this. The fonts and inks are definitely a plush for this book.
Rhodia 2010-2011 Academic “Weekly Notebook“, black flexible cover.
This book is actually an academic (summer-summer) planner, but the 2011 model seems to have the same features. This Rhodia planner has the week on the left, and heavy graph lines on the right, on very very very white paper. The 6 x 9 inch dimensions render it rather large, but it’s actually very thin and carries well. It opens completely flatly on the table, all by itself. The elastic even “closes” into a straight line along the back cover when it’s open, helping it to both stay out of the way and help the book lay down well.
If there’s something I wasn’t crazy about regarding this book it’s that all the printing and graph lines are a little obtrusive and darkly-printed. One thing I always appreciated about Moleskines was that the printing inside was grey and out of the way. Using pencil, the heavy lines took some getting used to. This is probably a person thing, though. The colorful inks and well-planned fonts make up for it.
The Rhodia planner has great information about holidays around the world, not merely a mention that there is a holiday in a certain country on a certain day. It also has the best maps I have seen in a planner. We usually find one global map with timezones on it, sometimes even country outlines/labels. But the Rhodia has a total of seven pages of detailed maps! If maps and/or geography interest you, you might agree with me that this is a great thing. With the holiday listings and detailed maps, one might expect this planner to be unwieldy. But, as I mentioned, it’s thin and light and very portable. With the nice paper and great contents, don’t ask me how Rhodia pulled this off.
In the spirit of the holidays and of Hemingway (a pencil champion!), we present A Visit from Saint Nicholas, In The Ernest Hemingway Manner, by James Thurber.
“It was the night before Christmas. The house was very quiet. No creatures were stirring in the house. There weren’t even any mice stirring. The stockings had been hung carefully by the chimney. The children hoped that Saint Nicholas would come and fill them.
The children were in their beds. Their beds were in the room next to ours. Mamma and I were in our beds. Mamma wore a kerchief. I had my cap on. I could hear the children moving. We didn’t move. We wanted the children to think we were asleep.”
(Read more.)
Coming up with new versions of this poem of your own is a favorite holiday pastime. I finished my Raven’s Wing Field Notes book yesterday, with my own version in native Baltimorese. But it’s way too foul-mouthed to post here.
Happy Holidays to all!! We’ll be back after the holiday with a look at a pencil-friendly selection of planners/organizers, a review of the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener and even an interview with the legendary Pencil Hero Aaron Draplin (of Field Notes!) in the New Year.
Best and warmest wishes to you and to yours, for the best holidays yet.
[Today's review comes from Frankie in Baltimore. She is the coordinator of the Community Art Corps (AmeriCorps) program at Maryland Institute College of Art. This and two other lovely books were sent to the Pencil Revolution HQ for review this fall from the good folks at EcoSystem. As always, opinions are those of the reviewer.]
I’ve kept a journal off and on since elementary school. Now that I’m nearing (gulp) thirty, I’ve graduated from the lock-and-key kind to a more minimalist style: a plain notebook, no spirals, easy to stack and store upon completion. About three years ago, my journal of choice became the squared Moleskine. Writing within those gridlines allowed me to fit a good-sized weekly journal entry in the space of two pages – which meant a single journal could cover an impressive timespan, usually more than a year. I love to go back through the same journal and see what I was thinking (or obsessing) about that time a year ago. It reminds me that things can, and do, and must change, and that always gives me hope.
Vitals:
Cover Material: Acrylic-coated paper.
Paper: 100% post-consumer recycled.
Binding: Sewn.
Size: Assorted; 5.25 ” x 8.25” as tested.
Page Count: 192.
Unique Characteristics: Register-able identification number that coordinates with several features on the Ecosystem website.
Origin: USA.
Availability: Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.
I dove into EcoSystem‘s Architect notebook, the graph paper variety produced by Ecosystem, looking forward to a similar experience. I should say that I don’t think the Architect is designed to serve as a journal for narrative writing. The company produces four kinds of notebooks: the Advisor, a planner; the Artist, with blank pages; the Author, with lined pages; and the Architect, which Ecosystem describes as meant for “an environmentally aware person who creates strength and order with lines.” Each is available in one of six hip colors: onyx, watermelon, kiwi, lagoon, grape, and the one I chose, clementine. The gridlines are much narrower and darker than those in the squared Moleskine, and so using the Architect as a journal is daunting at first.
But I got an opportunity to battle-test the Architect one night when my eight month-old daughter had her first fever. The late-night answering service at our doctor’s office called back with advice, and I grabbed my Architect to write down their instructions. My pencil of choice, an orange Palomino, looks even more luscious than usual on the Architect’s smooth pages. The Palomino Blackwing is also a good choice. I would definitely recommend a darker pencil to show up against the Architect’s gridlines. But their tight assembly encouraged me to abandon the compulsiveness with which I am accustomed to writing in squared notebooks. Rather than scrunching my writing to fit between the horizontal gridlines, my pencil ventured beyond its usual boundaries. One sentence took up two gridlines, then three. The flights of freedom were good for the soul. In addition to its surprising potential as a journal, I can foresee using the Architect to sketch knitting patterns and transcribe the free ones I find on the internet. The grid translates nicely to knitting gauges.
Ecosystem stands out among manufacturers for its green practices. “Every component that makes up an ecosystem book has been researched to ensure the most environmentally friendly materials or production methods are being used,” the website explains. Each notebook has a unique identification code that can be entered on the company’s website. What follows is a detailed list of the origin of the materials used for each part of the journal, from the paper (Park Falls, Wisconsin) to the organic cotton ribbon bookmark (from Philadelphia). You can also register your notebook on the site and post to the Lost and Found page for the notebook that goes wandering.
At 192 pages, the Architect feels a bit heavier than other comparably-sized notebooks. But you’ll get your money’s worth. This is a welcome and colorful new addition to my library of journals.
(Text, F.G. Photos, J.G. Used with permission.)
My daughter (eight months old now!) loves pencils. She reaches for them constantly. This can be, of course, a bit of a terror, when the pencils are sharp. She even seemed to know what was in this box.
The contents spread out.
Charlotte scooted around seven feet to chase the box of goodies.
Packaged lovingly.
The pencils are painted brightly.
The pencils are unsharpened. However, unlike any Dixon or Mirado I’ve bought in the last, say, five years, the paint is not overlapping the wood at the end and making it look like it got dropped into something unsavory.
Don’t know what kind of wood this is, but it’s not cedar. Smells nice, though, and sharpens fine.
Okay. I sharpened the blue HB pencil first. It’s really, really smooth! I even asked someone else to verify this because, frankly, I wasn’t expecting such a buttery experience. I’ll get the others sharpened and tested in the near future. The yellow and red ones are very attractive, with the painted bands on the ferrules. I can’t wait to give them a run!
Today’s review comes from Comrade Elizabeth, from Little Flower Petals! (Many thanks to Liz!)
Vitals:
Material: Genuine Incense Cedar.
Shape: Hexagonal.
Finish: Raw cedar with black lettering.
Ferrule: Aluminum — black painted band.
Eraser: Black [rubber?].
Core: Ceramic/graphite composite. Available in B, HB and H.
Markings: “USA — GENERAL’S CEDAR POINTE — #333-2 HB”.
Origin: USA.
Availability: Cedar Pointes can be a little tricky to find. All grades are available at General Pencil’s website. Dick Blick sells HBs in their on-line store, but shipping costs are steep. If you have a Dick Blick in your neighborhood, they may be worth a look, along with any other art stores that sell General’s more sketching-oriented pencils. Also, for the Northwesterners in the US, I serendipitously found Cedar Pointes in the art supplies section (not with the regular pencils) at my local Fred Meyer. They came in a package of ten along with a plastic, but quite decent, pencil sharpener.
General’s Cedar Pointe pencils are made of raw, unfinished natural wood: incense cedar, funnily enough. Some natural finish pencils have a coating or seal — the Forest Choice, for example, seems to have a very thin coat of sealant. The Cedar Pointe does not. The smooth unfinished wood has a pleasantly grippy feel, and it has a tendency to become…seasoned with time. I swear, I do wash my hands, but still, you can see how this particular example has darkened with use, while the well-used Forest Choice remains as it has always been:
I actually rather like the make-your-own-patina aspect of these pencils. Gives them character.
Fit and finish aren’t up to Palomino standards, but it’s decent. There are a a few less-than-perfect ferrules with wood chips overlapping at the at the edges, but it’s minimal. The text imprint is clear. No glittery, glossy writing here: it’s no-nonsense black and bare wood for the Cedar Pointe. I find the austere look very appealing. I’m a big fan of the understated: for example, on the fountain pen side of the fence, I love the stealth greatness of the Lamy 2000 over some of the more flashy pens. The Cedar Pointe is quietly handsome.
Few wood chips at the edge of this ferrule…
The Cedar Pointe writes a nice dark line, not as dark as a Palomino, but blacker than your average Ticonderoga. Taking pictures or scanning such things is always tricky, but hopefully you can glimpse the subtleties. It also falls somewhere between the two on the smoothness scale: more chalky than waxy, and though there aren’t any major inclusions in the lead, it does give you a bit of feedback. Point retention is a little above average for its class, making it a good choice for general writing.
(Click to enlarge.)
The eraser works quite well. It’s not a Mars Plastic, but it’s a decent size, and it does the job.
One last note, which should probably be kept to myself since it reveals just how obsessive I can be: naked pencils sound different on the page. I swear, it’s true! It’s always a little disconcerting for just a moment when I first pick one of these up.
Overall, I really like these. They make my top ten due to the darkness of the lead, the nice feel, and their all-natural good looks.
[Images and text, EH, used with permission.]
(Click to enlarge.)
With a nod to our friends at Field Notes.
A nice Quorum of Comrades got the answer correct and had their names written on little papers (with a Faber-Castell 9000, as it were). The names were drawn from a black Jansport this morning by my better half, and we have a winner!
The show ran during the previous decade on a national American network, possibly in other countries. It’s set in a small town. The character in question is usually found with flannel, a ball cap and a pencil. He will give you coffee if you ask for it. He is curmudgeonly and enjoys stick-shifts. He is a good guy and seems to hate razors.
Who is the character (his name)?
Luke Danes from “Gilmore Girls” (played by Scott Patterson)! Also, on a personal note, I’m glad I’m not the only one who knows so much about Stars Hallow or, ahem, owns all seven seasons on DVD.
Our winner has been contacted: Mimi Ng!
R. Buckminster Fuller is famous the world over for his geodesic dome designs and for his unrelenting questioning that makes him sound more like a philosopher than anything else. When he summed up his search for what one might call “truth,” he uses the metaphor of the pencil.
“Buckminster Fuller never gave up his searh to find ‘Nature’s pencil.’ Like so many geniuses, he was constantly searching for the essence of how things worked best. And when he found such solutions in Nature, he applied them to his projects. Thus, we have his most famous invention – the geodesic dome – modeled after structures found in Nature.
Still, the question continues to be in the quest. Fuller and many others constantly seek the next evolution of ideas, and the really cleaver people always look to Nature first. Were all humans to do that, we would realize that there are enough resources to go around, and what we need to do is be very careful in using exactly enough. Not too much and not too little.
Nature’s pencil is such a sustainable model. She writes and draws with a precision and exactness that humans have difficulty understanding or modeling. Still, people like Bucky and many of today’s great minds continue to search because they know that the search is as important as reaching the goal.” (More.)
This resonates with me, personally, since one of my grad schools was where Professor Fuller taught and worked from 1959 to 1970. He’s still a legend around those parts.
As promised, here is the pencil trivia question for the RAD & HUNGRY Colombia pack give away. This contest is open to anyone with a mailing address, the world over (with thanks to R&H). I was very tempted to include something from literature as the trivia question. But. Well. I can’t resist a good television character with a love of pencils and flannel.
Clues:
The show ran during the previous decade on a national American network, possibly in other countries. It’s set in a small town. The character in question is usually found with flannel, a ball cap and a pencil. He will give you coffee if you ask for it. He is curmudgeonly and enjoys stick-shifts. He is a good guy and seems to hate razors.
Who is the character (his name)?
The contest will close at 11:59pm Eastern US Standard Time on this Wednesday, December 8th. To enter, please use the CONTACT FORM (CLICK) to send your name, email address and your one guess. All correct Comrades will have their names written down and put into a black backpack. One person who is not me will draw one paper, and the winner will be announced Thursday. Hen at RAD & HUNGRY is kind enough to handle the shipping of this awesome and exciting pack!
Good luck!
Karen was kind enough to send us a nice package of goodies to review this fall, and it’s time we publish some more reviews! I thought we’d go with a pad I’ve been especially enjoying: the Dot Pad — especially after the announcement of the Dot Webbie, which might be one of the greatest notebooks available.
Vitals:
Cover Material: Coated cardstock.
Paper: 80 g acid-free; light lilac grid with 5mm intervals between dots.
Binding: Stapled.
Size: Assorted; 6 ” x 8 ¼ ” as tested.
Page Count: 80.
Unique Characteristics: Foldable cover; dot=grid.
Origin: France.
Availability: Everywhere!
As you can guess, the Dot Pad has dots in place of the squared lines regular Rhodia paper has. While this might seem like a small deal at first, I think this means several things. First, this paper photocopies better. Second, one can more easily ignore the dots, easier than ignoring purple lines, anyway. Third — and most important to pencil users — it makes what you write or draw easier to see! I have long loved Rhodia pads, but I have usually felt compelled to use a dark/soft pencil because the graph lines are a little heavy. It never bothered me enough to steer me away from Rhodia pads — to be sure — but the Dot Pad is still refreshing and, well, fun. While I appreciate the orange of Rhodia pads, I like the departure for black, and I really like the graphic/logo work for the Dot Pad.
As as always the case with Rhodia, the construction and design are both solid. The way the cover folds over and the extra cardboard backing are just intelligent and functional. Period. The paper is smooth and wonderful. While Rhodia paper usually wins praise from Comrades who love fountain pens, the pads are also excellent for graphite. (It’s no accident that the first post on Pencil Talk was about Rhodia pads.) Smearability on Rhodia paper has never been a problem for me at all. What’s more, strangely, the Dot Pad seems somehow extraordinarily smear-resistant. Ghosting is not an issue with a Rhodia pad because of the construction of the pad itself. I mean, I suppose one could write on the back. But it would be pretty difficult, at least if you have meaty hands like I do.
Another thing I always like about Rhodia pads are that they are easy to find in person and relatively inexpensive. I’m willing to bet that if you live in even a medium-sized city, you can find them at an art shop or even Target. I can walk to several shops from my office in midtown Baltimore and find them, for instance (though none of these locations sell the pencils).
I’ve been using this particular pad as a bedside reading notebook, and I definitely plan to get more when I fill this one up. Right now, it’s recording all the pencil mentions in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
RAD AND HUNGRY reached out to a number of stationery blogs, and we’re happy to be able to participate in a drawing for a really sweet kit from Colombia, which will ship directly from R&H. Essentially, you get a package of local stationery sourced from the same country, on a monthly basis. How awesome is that? You get:
A – Writing Instrument
B – Paper Goods
C – Mystery Item
D – The Low DownThe office supplies within each kit (A, B, C) are straight up, no fuss exports – everyday items hand picked from a local dealer in the featured country. A random narrative from the trip (D) accompanies the goods. The kit is shipped out to subscribers’ homes on the first Tuesday of each month.
Now. How do we decide who wins this package? Do we randomly select from commenters, from our Facebook group, or subscribers? Do we have a contest? A pencil-themed contest? But, what should it look like? The contest, that is? Any suggestions? (Seriously. I’m only coming up with Hemingway trivia.)
In the meantime, check out RAD AND HUNGRY’s blog. To paraphrase The Dude, I dig their style, man.