If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me. - William Shakespeare
Archive for January, 2008
Clairefontaine celebrates 150 years
January 28th, 2008 04:01:26
Founded in 1858, Clairefontaine, the makers of Rhodia notepads and writing materials, is celebrating 150 years of fine paper-making.
From the website of Exaclair (exclusive US distributor of Clairefontaine and Rhodia products):
Located in the Vosges region of France, Clairefontaine was established on the site of a paper mill built in 1512. The Clairefontaine
mill has been making paper since 1858 and stationery products since 1890. The company is best known for making the first school notebooks in France.
Clairefontaine is famous for its exceptionally white and ultra smooth notebook paper. People love Clairefontaine notebooks for the quality of the paper, and the pleasure of writing they experience when they use them. The notebook paper weighs 90 g, and has excellent opacity and a perfect satin finish for maximum smoothness in writing.
Clairefontaine products sold in the United States include its famous notebooks and pads, Pollen and Triomphe stationery, and art paper for painting, pastels and sketching.
Papermaking requires a lot of water. Clairefontaine’s respect for our natural resources began long before public opinion made it law.
Clairefontaine has received several environmental awards for developing an innovative clean papermaking technology.The River Meurthe is the source of the water supply for the Vosges mill. The water is so clean when it leaves the facility local people can fish, swim and boat downstream within sight of the mill.
Made only with pulp from sustainable forests, Clairefontaine paper has been certified according to recognized international standards and independent third parties such as the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and others. These certifications as ensure the protection of endangered wildlife habitats.
And more Clairefontaine trivia:
What makes Clairefontaine paper scpecial?
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Work and Play
January 23rd, 2008 06:01:11
You can judge a lot from a person’s desk. I bet you could judge just as much from their home entertainment system. So I decided it would be fun to try and track down some pictures from the work desks and home gaming set-ups of the people who work in and cover the video game industry. Simple right? Not so much.
Turns out that many of the people are either too busy or too private to want to participate in such a project. To make matters worse, there’s always fear that something sitting on someone’s desk, that ends up in a photo, could actually be news worthy. Like a secret project or the next big thing. But I didn’t give up and about once a year I’d harass a bunch of game developers for photos. Finally, this year, the harassment paid off.
Illustrated notebooks of travel
January 22nd, 2008 06:01:11
Genevieve Marot
Muriel Lameignere
Anne Steinlein
These “illustrators-reporters” have a culture of their own, a passion for voyage and a desire to document their tours by relevant and significant images in the form of illustrated notebooks.
A4 paper
January 18th, 2008 07:01:20
I’ve started using A4 paper for my note taking. I fell into it almost by accident. I found a cool Rhodia pad to take notes on. Good paper, and it felt good on the nib. Eventually, I found an article that explained how the whole ISO paper system worked, and it is really quite cool. Given to like cool things, especially those that are easy to do and impact no one else, I’ve decided to use A4 for all my personal note taking.
The whole ISO series of paper, and, for that matter, most things in Europe, is based on the metric system (a cool thing we should use (save for measuring Guinness (always measured in pints)) but don’t). A4, the paper that most closely maps to US letter sized paper, is 29.7 cm tall by 21 cm wide, or 11.7 by 8.3 inches.
Back to school faceoff
January 14th, 2008 05:01:52
Back to school shopping is a big deal in our house. We all love buying new pens, pencils, folders and notebooks. A new semester starting this past week meant new classes and gear for those courses. Going back-to-school shopping in France was an experience us office supply geeks were clearly made for.
The French take the organization of their words very seriously and you can find hundreds of stores devoted to all manner of pens, pencils and notebooks to help that process. The small, individually owned shops are called “papeterie” and sell a wide assortment of things that go beyond just paper.
Beautiful wrapping paper, cards, Paris maps and leather goods are just a few of the fun things you might find. In your travels you certainly should try and spend some time in one if like me, you enjoy these things.
There is an on-going debate for individuals and students we ran into holding very strong opinions as to which notebooks are the best. Even in my household we are divided on this topic, with me on one side and everyone else on the other.
Read the full story at The Paris Traveler
Curious and curiouser
January 12th, 2008 05:01:20
Having only a few days of shopping left before the holidays and several difficult people still on my list, I ran over to The Curiosity Shoppe, one of my favorite little (truly– this place is tiny) stores in the Mission. I knew that even if I didn’t score gifts there, I’d be sufficiently inspired and motivated to find that perfect little something somewhere else.
Rhodia presence in the Middle East
January 11th, 2008 12:01:14
UAE - Rhodia, the French corporate stationary brand, was recently presented in a duty free concept format at the Middle East Exclusive (MEE) in Dubai last month.
A representative from the local distributor, Enthusm’s Pradeep Parmar reported that key buyers from all the duty free operators in the region appreciated the concept and confirmed their interest in testing the range at their operations. Rhodia is known as a cult brand for notepads, pad holders, meeting books and other paper products.
Travellers in the Middle East will soon see the Rhodia range at the duty frees and will be able to buy for their personal use or gift. This range for now will be exclusively available only at the duty frees in the UAE.
Read the full story at Business Intelligence Middle East
Photo by Altaf Hussein/stock.xchng. All rights reserved.
A notepad drama
January 7th, 2008 06:01:15
I had to stumble upon it in a café, when some chick left a notepad behind and I was this close to stealing it before my conscience got the better of me and I left it with the group of people nearby who were with her, as evidenced by the fact that they moved her coat and scarf to free the seat for me. Unless, of course, they were stealing her coat and scarf, in which case, NICE. But I’m not gonna lie–while I didn’t give a lick about taking her outerwear, I WOULD jump her in a dark alley to wrench this pad of thick, glossy graph paper from her ungrateful fists.Instead, in one last ditch effort to save my soul, I held back on this impulse and called Flax, the one art store on my way to Japantown tonight. There were two sizes in particular I wanted and CUE THE CHORUS OF ANGELS, they had them! I had them held under ‘Sharon,’ as that extra ‘a’ on the end of my name was really pushing them over the edge, and sprinted over straight after work to score my bounty.
And–thanks to calling ahead–I TOTALLY nailed the last ones of the sizes I wanted. If that’s not proof in a loving Baby Jesus, I don’t know what is. Ten minutes later, with new pads and micron pigma pens (.35mm line width) in hand, I beamed about me, knowing that all was right in the world again.
Read about Rona’s Paper Cure