Archive for Tips & Tutorials
Our dotGrid is good for…
The other day when I asked what you thought about our dotPads and dotWebbies, we heard you loud and clear that you loved using them! Many of you shared with us your reasons for liking this format by way of how you use it. One suggestion was to use the dots as a guide for pasting things onto the pages. As in Halstead’s image above, “no more crooked tape!”
I keep a special blank book (glue book?) for pasting images which I use for art inspiration – colors, textures and the like. I’m not too particular with how I paste them in, but I can imagine that it would look even better and become more of a work of art in itself if I were using dot paper.
Do you tape/paste things into your journals?
This video shows an inspiration book similar to what I make:
Setting goals and intentions for the 2nd half of 2011
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. It is also the first day of the 2nd half of 2011. Today I decided to set a very specific intention for the rest of the year. Having felt burdened for the 1st half of the year by an emotional heaviness, I am first and foremost consciously choosing to let go of that which isn’t serving me and focusing on that which will nurture my growth. I find whenever I mindfully attach intention to any project or situation, it significantly increases the quality of whatever I’m looking to achieve. Continue Readering »
Rhodia and Clairefontaine Paper Colors
Taken on a sunny day with slight editing for contrast. From left to right these are, Clairefontaine 90g, Clairefontaine Triomphe 90g, Webbie 90g, and “R” 90g.
A closer look at the Webbie paper and the paper in the new “R” premium pads. (Note – Webbie 2.0 paper is the same color as the 3.0. 3.0 version removed the Rhodia logo at the bottom of the page.)
Do you prefer white or off white paper for writing?
So I can remember A4
The metric system never really caught on in North America- though I can remember my elementary school teachers in the 70′s doing their best to confuse the heck out of us with it. (A meter stick? Whaaa?) This means that anytime someone writes to me with a request that a particular Rhodia product expanded to include A4 or A5, I have to scurry to Wikipedia for a refresher on what the similar US sizes might be. If you yourself are not sure, I am attaching these handy charts (courtesy of Wikipedia) that I should probably print out and slip into my Exaclair catalog for future reference. (For the record, A4 is roughly 8 1/4″ x 11 3/4″ while US letter paper is 8 1/2″ x 11″. )
Fountain pens: Sailor Sapporo or Pelikan M200
Someone recently asked me about which was the better fountain pen- the Sailor Sapporo or the Pelikan M200, and whether or not it was cumbersome to utilize a pen with a screw cap.
In my opinion, there is no best- only what works for you. The Sapporo is a cartridge/convertor pen which holds less ink than the piston filler M200 and will need to be refilled more often. This could be a good thing if you like to frequently change ink colors in your pen. The M200 (for me) takes longer to flush/clean so I usually leave the same color ink in these pens (I have 2 M200′s) to avoid cleaning them until I absolutely have to. Continue Readering »
Portable Flag Carrier
I have a mild obsession with Post-it flags. I have them in several different sizes and colors and it’s hard to keep me away from the Post-it aisle when I go to Staples. I really don’t need any more, but there I am once again, like a kid in a candy store- Is there a color or size I don’t already have? How could I use the ones with an arrow printed on them?
In my experience, the smallest flags often come loose from their packaging and get scattered all over the house. One day I noticed some sitting near this candy tin and realized the size and shape to be just right. This is one of the Altoid “Smalls” tins and is the perfect size to hold these flags. Pop them in your purse or briefcase and off you go! (Sometimes I think I buy these candies just to get the tins…)
Do you have any re-purposed packaging tips that you would like to share?
On notebooks and randomness
Leah from Quo Vadis here, coming to you from Karen’s account to blog about my new favorite product, the so-called “Clic Bloc” mousepad-cum-notebook by Rhodia.
I thought I’d worked out a pretty decent system for keeping track of work-related tasks: my planner holds my appointments, while a Steno pad on the side of my desk houses a running project to-do list. Various other notebooks are dedicated to specific projects or assignments, like interviewing sources or jotting down story ideas. Continue Readering »
J. Herbin Glass Dip Pen Tutorial at JetPens
Image ©Biffybeans All rights Reserved
Curious on how to use the J. Herbin glass nibbed pens? JetPens has put together a quick and easy tutorial on how to use them. I have one (that’s mine in the image above) and I love it for dip testing inks and I also use it for drawing. I was at first afraid that a glass pen would be extremely fragile, but having had it accidentally hit the kitchen linoleum, I was quite surprised when it did not shatter into a billion pieces- in fact, it survived unscathed.
I seem to have some sort of artistic blockage when it comes to metal nibbed dip pens – I know how they work but just can’t get them to work… and so the glass dip pen is my friend.
Have you tried one yet?
User Requested: Bloc Rhodia Pad list of Numbers and Sizes
One of our Rhodia Drive Readers had asked us if there was a list of Rhodia Pad No°s along with their measurements for the ones that Exaclair imports into the US. For your convenience I present: Continue Readering »
