Archive for January, 2010
Billy Idol Catches My Attention on Soundstage
Last night I was sitting and reading (Water for Elephants) in my easy chair with the TV on low in the background when out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of blond and hear an unmistakable voice. The show was PBS’s Soundstage and it was featuring Billy Idol live from his Super Overdrive concert filmed in Chicago in June of 2005. Book immediately was set down and I sat mesmerized for an hour… Continue Readering »
Flickr Friday: Rhodia in Your Bag
Thanks to masukomi for use of the above image. View the original (with notes) here
Once again, it’s time to take a peek into other people’s bags…When I first joined Flickr, (a social photo sharing site) I had a great deal of fun perusing the “What’s in Your Bag?” photo group. People would neatly lay out the contents of their bags to show off what they carry with them on a day-to-day basis. And not only would they show, they would also tell – adding numerous tagged notes to the images to describe each and every item in the photo. (Click through the links to see the notes) After a while, I had to stop looking because I started to want to go and buy things that other people had. Like journals…and art supplies… and a new iPod…. new camera… new bag…
Thanks to metropixel for use of the above image. View the original (with notes) here
Thanks to gyoungphd for use of the above image. View the original (with notes) here
(I just LOVE the pink & orange Rotrings!)
Lined, Blank or Graph?
Carrying over from the recent discussion on the Rhodia Drive Facebook page, (You are a fan, aren’t you?) I posed the question: “Lined, Blank or Graph?” Continue Readering »
Triomphe
Most people associate Clairefontaine with their notebooks, but they also make many other paper products, including stationery.
Pollen is bright-colored stationery in different shapes and sizes, and Triomphe stationery consists of blank and ruled tablets in two sizes with matching envelopes.
Triomphe stationery has been around for about 60 years. Christine Nusse, president of Exaclair and a member of the family that founded Clairefontaine, remembers Triomphe as “the paper used around the house” by her mother and other family members.
Image courtesy of Biffybeans © All Rights Reserved
It was not fancy social stationery, she said, but good quality paper for everyday writing and correspondence. The philosophy behind the manufacture of Triomphe writing tablets was the same as Clairefontaine notebooks: good paper goes with a respect for good writing tools, and both together make writing a pleasure.
Triomphe pads are made with the same 90g super smooth paper as Clairefontaine’s notebooks. The blank ones are especially popular, but not so much for correspondence as for the practice of hand-writing.
One person who helped to make Triomphe pads known among calligraphers and pointed penmen is Michael Sull, who uses them himself and in his workshops to practice Spencerian script and “Offhand Flourishing” for ornamental penmanship.
Michael Sull is a Master Penman, engrosser and lettering artist who is known internationally for his work and abilities in the field of American Ornamental Penmanship. He is considered America’s foremost penman and teacher in the art of Spencerian Script. In 1980-81 he had the opportunity to apprentice with Paul O’Hara, the last living master penman from the America’s Golden Age of Penmanship (1850-1925).
One last bit of trivia: the name “Triomphe” comes from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Read Biffybean’s October 28, 2009 review of Triomphe pads here.
Visit Michael Sull’s website here.
Does anyone have any special uses for Triomphe pads? Sketching? Use the sheets to make your own journal?
Retailer Spotlight: Dan’s Camera City in Allentown, PA
We are proud to welcome Dan’s Camera City of Allentown, PA as a new Exaclair retailer. An iconic specialty store in Northeast Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Dan’s has been serving the Valley’s photographic needs for over 30 years. Continue Readering »
User Review: CopyGuru on the New Rhodia Planner
Image of pocket Rhodia Planner courtesy of Biffybeans © All Rights Reserved
CopyGuru from the Fountain Pen Network recently reviewed the new Rhodia Planner. Continue Readering »
Les Encres de Monsieur Herbin by Tree Riesener
Happy New Year!
2010 marks the 340th anniversary of J. Herbin, a Paris-based maker of inks and sealing wax. Many people use fountain pens with their Rhodia pads, and have an Herbin ink or two in their collection. 
We are honored to begin the anniversary year with a poem about Herbin inks by Tree Riesener, an award-winning poet and writer.
Les Encres de Monsieur Herbin
Encre Authentique, “Lawyers’ Ink,” for orders of execution, though paper crumbles, glowing in the night for three hundred years, enduring black legalese, these letters.
Grise Nuage, grey clouds of 1943 for Irene Sendlerowa, savior of children from the Warsaw Ghetto, for her heart broken, but never broken, of little ease, these letters.
Bouquet d’Antan, please please don’t leave, words in sorrowful faded rose, desolation unremembered, only watching the rain, writing, sorrow without surcease, these letters.
Cafe des Iles, never say you love me, and if we meet, I’ll pretend I’ve forgotten your face. Faded brown written on leaves, let them blow away in the breeze, these letters.
Violette Pensee, I will bury your bottle in fragrant petals, write by the light of candles on turtles’ backs, pen delicate lyrics of love and loss, plus an occasional tease, these letters.
Eclat de Saphir, flashing blue scooped from the sun-glinted ocean, sign room service for two, “Etouffee d’ecrevisses, Pinot Grigio, Mousse au chocolat,” caprice, these letters.
Lierre Sauvage, shadowed green, forest tree, flow as I copy out Akhmatova, “The glass doorbell rings, don’t touch me,” thoughts Stalin’s shadows could not seize, these letters.
–Tree Riesener has published poetry and short fiction in the United States, Scotland and England. Her achievements include semi-finals of the Pablo Neruda Competition; a double first for the Short-Short Story and the Literary Short Story at the Philadelphia Writers Conference; the William Van Wert Fiction Award, and a Hawthornden International Writers Fellowship at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland. Three short stories have been staged by the Writing Aloud Series at InterAct Theatre, Philadelphia. She has two new poetry collections: Inscapes from Finishing Line Press and Angel Poison from Puddinghouse Publications. Her first chapbook was Liminalog, a collection of ghazals and sijo.
To learn more about Tree Riesener and her writing, please visit her blog here and website here.
Thank you, Tree, for the beautiful gift of your poetry to start the new year.
