Archive for Interesting
Vintage Flex
Brian Sizemore is the man behind Vintage Flex, a site dedicated to the art of penmanship, the fountain pens and inks ready-to-hand, and the writers who use them. Brian aims to provide high-quality vintage fountain pens with a special emphasis on vintage flexible nibs. (Per Wiki: “Flex or flexible nibs are fountain pen nibs which produce a line which varies in width with the pressure used. A very flexible nib can produce a width variation of about six times.”)
From Brian: ”This art adds a certain character to writing which is lost in the (post)modern age of tablet computation, texting, tweeting, typing, and any other form of digital communication. Something important inherent within communication has been forgotten over time, something borne from patience and possibility. Those of us who know, something special occurs when one puts pen to paper, and we can be invited back into this phenomenon when using a vintage flexible fountain pen.”
You can also find Vintage Flex On Facebook
Watch the videos below to see Brian demonstrate the capabilities of several vintage flexible nibbed pens. Continue Readering »
More Every Day Carry
I just love looking at other people’s tools because it helps me to discover better ones for my own personal use. It was via Flickr’s “What’s in your bag” photo group that I initially discovered the Lamy Safari. The rest as they say, is history. The images in this post are courtesy of Tony Thomas.
07/12 Here is some of what I carry everyday. My usual carry platform is a Maxpedition Jumbo LEO Tactical sling bag. Continue Readering »
Pen Of The Day: Delta Scrigno Secret Fountain Pen
This is a Delta Scrigno- Italian for “treasure chest”
Scrigno is an innovative collection of writing instruments offering a tiny coffer inside the cap which is capable of safeguarding one’s most intimate secrets. Simply unscrew (counterclockwise) the top of the cap to uncover the inner container made of food safe steel. Use of this space is left to your imagination. Continue Readering »
Rhodia on Desperate Housewives
I am a Netflix junkie. Since subscribing about a year and a half ago, I’ve watched every episode of more television shows than I can count. (Mad Men & Breaking Bad being the stand-outs) Recently, I started watching Desperate Housewives and am *thrilled* to know that there are something like 180 episodes which should be enough to keep me busy for quite a while. If you’ve never watched it, it’s like a silly soap opera where anything that can happen, will. (I’m wondering when they might fit in an alien abduction…)
I’m still working my way through the 1st season and the image above is from when Rex is seeks the advice of a marriage counselor. I caught the therapist’s Rhodia pad right away because my brain has been specially programmed to catch anything orange. Continue Readering »
The Original Think Pad
To me, there’s really nothing that gets my brain juices flowing like doodling. At my last office job, my manager would glare at me for my frantic doodling during conference calls. Once I left that job, I was sure to send her a copy of the Time magazine article about how doodling helps you pay attention. Continue Readering »
Karen Doherty visits Bethlehem, PA
Ever since I begin writing the Rhodia Drive blog for Exaclair, Karen Doherty (VP of Marketing for Exaclair) and I try to meet up once a year either in Manhattan, (where the Exaclair offices are located) or in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (my neck of the woods) to discuss the blog. After picking her up from the bus terminal, we took a short drive past the old Bethehem Steel blast furnaces (complete with mini history lesson) then stopped at a local favorite Indian restaurant for lunch.
Our last stop for the day was my art studio, where we discussed the way people were interacting with our content, what kind of improvements could be made to the blog, the potential for new swap projects (ones not requiring a year commitment) and how we could encourage people to shoot and share Rhodia related videos. (Reviews, in my bag/EDC, flip book animations…)
Before taking her back to catch the bus to NYC, I asked Karen if I could snap a photo for the blog to which she was happy to comply.
It’s always too short of a visit. I’ll have to make my way up to the city some time soon.
Orange You Glad That You Asked?
Do you know how our signature orange Rhodia cover came to be? I’d like to tell you a story that includes double agents, high speed car chases, mystery and intrigue, but the truth of the matter is that back in the early 1930′s, it was the only colored paper available in France. Isn’t it funny the way that simple circumstance can create something so well loved?
Now let’s for a moment, speculate on why orange was the only colored paper available. I”m guessing that it was likely something produced for a different purpose – but what could that have been? The first thing that comes to my mind would be food packaging, but I haven’t the foggiest notion beyond that.
Any guesses?
Image courtesy of Drew Valenti - follow drewvalanti on Instagram.
Simon Carr Does This
I know how much you all love the “In Your Bag” and “Every Day Carry” type images with their descriptions. (Me too!) This image is courtesy of Simon Carr via Flickr. You can view the full image here.
Left to right
- Mighty Wallet Airmail
- Leatherman Wave
- Metropass!
- 8GB Eye-Fi Pro
- 2GB USB stick
- Ricoh GR Digital III, best compact for my shooting style, ever
- Rhodia 5×5 squared pad
- Papermate PhD pencil
- Pilot V5 pen (fave)
- Samsung Galaxy II S X
- Gen 1 iPad
- Prismacolor pens for diagrams
What’s in your bag?
Jonathan Gilmour: In Your Bag
“This is what I normally have in my bag. Being a Uni student, I gotta have a big bunch of notebooks, so I have a few Clairefontaine A5 lined notebooks, and a couple of A4 Rhodia Cahiers, grid ruled for Calculus. My pens include a Platinum Century 3776, Pilot VP, Lamy 2000, and Lamy safari blue fountain pen, pencil, and rollerball. I have to have a Palomino blackwing plus variable-length sharpener for graphs and quick notes, and three Rhodia pads of different sizes for planning projects and to dos. My Traveler’s notebook goes with me pretty much everywhere and has all my plans and schedule inside. I’m a diabetic do I have my blood glucose meter and insulin all the time, as well as lollies and a muesli bar! And of course my wallet and keys!”
PS: Check out the staff favorite work bag pics at NoteMaker. Love peeking in people’s bags!
Image courtesy of Jonathan Gilmour. Follow him as jonogilmour on Instagram.
Who guards your Rhodia?
This is Apextaobao, a 12″ Apexplorer vinyl format figure created as a result of a collaboration between TaoBao and Winson Ma. This imposing creature would most certainly keep me from stealing your Rhodia pad.
I once hired Paul Stanley to be the keeper of my fountain pen…
Who guards your stuff?
Image courtesy of Alex Comacho. Follow whubbsie on Instagram.
Bag Dump – What’s in your bag?
I’ ve always been a big fan of bag dump/What’s in your bag type photos. It’s actually how I began my addiction to fine writing supplies.
Keithgb’s Work bag dump: #whatsinyourbag #bagdump Monday – Friday #everydaycarry hand lotion, purell, #bayrum keys, pelican mini light, thumb drives, iPad, monster headphones, charging cords, work phone, airplane adapter, easy reading, tissues, matches , kabar, #revo sunglasses, pens, markers, laser pointer, umbrella, #420jar (nothing illegal, my friends own the company) #420science, Lego business cards (figures), #raybans, first aide kit homemade, advil migraine, throat drops, trusty #Zippo, Business card holder #bosca, multi tool, cheapo knife, #lenovo, #rhodia notebooks
Image courtesy of KeithGB via Instagram.
Vector Doodle Symbols in a dotPad
Petr Vlk is from the Czech Republic and creates hand-made vector doodle symbols which he sells in a kit on his website http://doodlekit.imagiag.com. These symbols can be used for presentations, brainstorming sessions, flow charts, etc.
In the image above, Petr is working on rough ideas for some custom vector doodle symbols. When he granted me permission to use his photo, he told me that the Rhodia dotPad was his daily tool.
Image courtesy of Petr Vlk- follow imiag on Instagram
Fisheye Rhodia
People are taking their smartphone photography quite seriously these days. Hundreds of apps (software applications) are available to tweak and modify the digital images taken with the built-in cameras on our phones. With the ever increasing quality of these cameras seemingly never ending, (My 1st digital camera was 1.4 megapixel and the built-in camera on the iPhone 4S is 8 MP.) it’s not surprising that people are spending real money to further expand the abilities of these cameras with the addition of external lenses. Continue Readering »
Exaclair Giveaway at Life Imitates Doodles
Sandra Strait is a member of our Rhodia Journal Swap and an avid Zentangler. She recently reviewed on her blog Life Imitates Doodles, the Exacompta Pocket Portfolio which she turned into a beautifully decorated sketchbook. In the same post she is also offering a giveaway of one of the portfolios, a small Rhodia dotWebbie and also a set of 6 Spectrum Noir alcohol markers – be sure to visit her blog for your chance to win!
Memories from Fourth of July
We were standing on the bridge connecting the north and south sides of town last night waiting for the fireworks to begin when I looked up towards South Mountain and said out loud to no one in particular, “Aunt Evelyn isn’t home any more.”
Aunt Ev was actually my great aunt – my grandmother’s sister. There were ten children in their family and the house where my aunt Ev lived until she passed earlier this year was where they all grew up. Everyone in the family affectionately referred to Ev’s house as “Up Home” as in, “We are going up home for a 4th of July picnic.” Continue Readering »
