Ever since I discovered the Flickr photo group “What’s in your bag?” I’ve loved seeing what kinds of stuff people carry around with them. I do believe it’s how I came to buy a Lamy Safari as my 1st fountain pen – everyone seemed to own one so I had to get one too. This image was submitted by Ann Elkington for our photo page: “In Your Bag” where Rhodia fans can show off their goods. (Psst…. send me yours!)

Our friend Julie sent us this image to be shared on our “Favorite Pens” photo page and speaking of which,  have you sent me a photo of your favorite pen yet?

“Right now my favorite pen is the Pilot B2P (Bottle 2 Pen). I’ve been using it with my journals now for about three months. I came across them by chance one day when buying supplies. They are made from recycled water bottles, and are refillable, so, I feel a little more earth friendly & minimalist when using them. They also write pretty smoothly. The B2P’s don’t have the sleek look of the metal or aluminum, but they have their own unique look. The cool thing is, no one else carries them at my job, so if i misplace my pen, it always finds its way back to me. Same with my notebook, because no one at my job rocks Rhodia Webnotebooks, either!”

Have you tried the R pads yet? Our friends at Writer’s Bloc recently decided to put these products side by side to show the difference between the two. (If you don’t already know, it’s mainly in the paper – which people are *loving!*)

Read the full review at Writer’s Bloc

Need further convincing? Here are a few more reviews of the “R.”

Gourmet Pens
Note Booker, ESQ.
Life Imitates Doodles
East… West… Everywhere
Missive Maven
Pocket Blonde
Spiritual Evolution of the Bean

 Image courtesy of Writer’s Bloc

Sandra Strait, author of the popular Zentangle inspired blog Life Imitates Doodles recently reviewed our new Rhodia WebPlanner.

(The WebPlanner) “has Rhodia’s signature silky smooth paper, and the overall look aims at elegance rather than flash.  You’d think elegance would be difficult when some of the print is orange.  However, combined with gray print, it has a surprising sophistication.”

Sandra – we just love your tangle designs in our Rhodia products! Please visit her blog for the full review – maybe even stick around and peruse her amazing tangle designs which are all accompanied with step by step patterns on how to create them.

Much thanks to Melinda for taking the time to send us these kind words after winning one of the dotWebbies in a recent contest.

I am one of the lucky ones that “won” a dotWebbie on the Rhodia Drive giveaway. That was so fun to see my name as a winner; the only thing better is now I have it on my desk! Had I not won, I intended to purchase one. Now that I have seen it “live”, I know I’ll be buying more in the future. It’s perfect for me!

I started my obsession with paper products many years ago and collect it from all around the world. One of my first international buys was a Clairefontaine notebook in Paris. I continue to buy them there whenever I have the opportunity to visit that wonderful city.

Rhodia products rank up in the top 1% of my favorites, as well. I purchase them at our local art supply store, University Arts in Sacramento. They do not have a great selection so whenever I have the chance, I also purchase them at various stores in San Francisco and Berkeley. Can’t get enough!

Again, thank you so much for the gift!

A paper lover and then some!
Melinda

Sandy Strait sure did! She tested the R Pad with her amazing tangle designs – read her full review at Life Imitates Doodles.

Another review can be found at East… West… Everywhere “I like the ivory colored paper.  Not only it causes less strain to the eye, but it also has a warming effect on me.”

From the Missive Maven: “Again, though, it’s all about the ink. And this is where this paper really excels.”

From Pocket Blonde: “The paper is an amazing ivory color…”

From my personal blog Spiritual Evolution of the Bean: “This paper is actually smoother than the paper in the Webbie, which is pretty darn smooth to begin with. I tried it with fountain pen, pencil, gel pen, felt tip pen…  it most certainly made me want to write more!”

The following video is from Ink Nouveau. See the original post for more info on the R Pad and other new Rhodia products.

Have you tried the Clairefontaine Graf-it pads yet? Leslie from the art journaling blog Comfortable Shoes did – and she loved the paper! “I have to say that this paper is amazing. Though it’s only 90g (41lb) it’s super sturdy and accepts a lot of media without issues. It takes some serious effort to get stuff to soak through. When I say stuff I mean ALL the stuff I’ve tossed at it.” (See picture above.)

Leslie did not however, love the staple bound pad with it’s perforated pages and even went as far as to suggest that this paper would be warmly welcomed in a bound version – like the Webbie. (Hmmmm, SketchWebbie? I wonder…) You can read Lesli’s full review of the Graf-it pads here.

Kate Marshall writes today’s guest post about how she is able to tell all of her multiple Webbies apart:

“At some point, I realized I had multiple Rhodia Webnotebooks around: ruled pages, blank pages, black cover, orange cover, generation 2.0, generation 3.0, etc. My favorite Webnotebook (“Webbie,” as Rhodia Drive has started calling them) are the large, black ones but I needed a quick way to tell one Webbie apart from the other. Labels don’t seem like much fun, especially since I can’t sketch or paint, or even draw competent stick figures. Enter…stickers! My current diary is a large, black Rhodia Webbie with unlined pages but I have similar Webbies scattered around my room, in various states of completion. So the “diary” Webbie has a Tomato Nation sticker on it, while the “school” Webbie sports a cheery “Timmy the Monkey” from Think Geek. I’m sure there’s a Webbie emblazoned with an Ink Drop sticker around here somewhere too.

So what will I do when I get my hands on a Webbie in Rhodia’s new DotGrid pattern? Ooh, stickerbooks!”

A short while back when we were looking for bloggers to review Exaclair products, David from the blog David-Wasting-Paper responded that he would like to try one of the 8×8″ Clairefontaine sketchbooks. (One of my favorite Exaclair products because the round mandalas that I draw happen to fit nicely into a square page.)

“I really like this sketchbook and look forward to filling it up. The paper takes a nice smooth pen line even though it is medium toothed and also handles watercolors well without much buckling. The heavy back cover is definitely a plus.”

David’s review struck a chord with me because I am partial to product reviews which a ton of photos. Especially ones that showcase a plethora of art supplies. You can see David’s review in it’s entirety, here.

We gave Cynthia from the blog Coyote Underground the opportunity to try a Webbie. Did she like it? Did the paper respond well to fountain pen ink? Would she buy the Webbie in the future? Click to read her review.

I have been discovering new bloggers who have been reviewing/discussing Rhodia products. Take a look!

…take note of this on Candia Style

Rhodia dotPad Reverse Book on Pocket Blonde

Rhodia Pads on Office-lib.com

Rhodia dotPads and pencils on Surfbits

Bloc Pad No 11 review at Pens ‘n’ Paper

dotPad review on Office Supply Geek

Notepad Review: dotPad on Rants of the Archer

Bloggers looking to review Rhodia (or other Exaclair products) read this!

The 1st time I ran this post I didn’t fully realize the logistics of soliciting requests via the comment section. Results? Information compilation overload.  Because I know how much you would like to try our products and how much we’d love for you to review them, we are going to try this again with a few guidelines and a form for submitting requests.

1.While you are welcome to submit blogs on any subject, we are looking for established blogs with regularly updated content.

2. We need you to be specific with which products you wish to receive. When choosing up to 3 products from Rhodia, Clairefontaine, G Lalo, or Quo Vadis -  please review the catalog and tell us which size, format (as in lined, blank, etc.)  and color you are interested in. When choosing, just think about what items you would most likely use.  *Note – We are currently only offering products from the above mentioned 4 brands.

3. If chosen to participate, you will receive an e-mail from me.

Please fill out the form below (one per person please) and hit the submit button.  If you have any questions, please contact me via e-mail at stephanie@rhodiadrive.com. You may also post your question in the comment field below.

If reading this post via e-mail subscription, please visit the blog at http://rhodiadrive.com/ to fill out the form.

The Rhodia dotPad.

80g white Rhodia paper with a pale violet dots in lieu of lines or graph. Soon there will be a dotWebbie (Webnotebook) available with the 90g off-white paper and pale gray dots. If haven’t yet tried a dotPad, here are a few reviews to help guide your decision:

On Writing and Scribbling: “It is very easy to use the dots to practice your letter spacing and shaping, better than a lined pad would and MUCH better than graph as the dots do not detract from the script.”

On Spiritual Evolution of the Bean: “an extremely unobtrusive way to practice my calligraphy”

On Pencil Revolution: “it makes what you write or draw easier to see!”

On Seize the Dave: ”I’m not certain who originally created dot grid paper, but whoever it was should be knighted, beatified, and inducted into the Awesome Hall of Fame.”

On Ink Nouveau: ”This pad would be PERFECT for kids in the car for long car trips”

On Crystalline: “Check out those sexy dots. Those are where it’s at.”

On Lung Sketching Scrolls: “works nicely as a drawing tablet with a bit of optional reference guidelines for writing in a straight line should they be needed. Good choice if you find the classic grid lines too distracting.”

If you weren’t aware, the famed Rhodia Webnotebook (the “Webbie”) has gone through a few transformations over the years – in part to our fans giving us feedback and suggesting ways to make subtle improvements upon the design. Our friend Brian Goulet at the Goulet Pen Company recently wrote a detailed post on the history of the Webbie on his informative blog, Ink Nouveau.  Click here to read Brian’s post about the Webnotebooks.

Karen sent our friend Gentian Osman  a bottle of the J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink to play with & review on her blog, Drawing with a Squirrel. Please take a few moments to admire the beauty that she creates with pen and ink. Her full review is on her blog- which is filled with amazing art and additional art supply reviews. I am particularly partial to her watercolor swatches.

Our friends at the Pencil Revolution blog recently reviewed the Rhodia pencil in which they said “The quality more than meets the standards of the Rhodia pad” and “The shape of this pencil is just plain comfortable.” They go on to say “The design, quality and attention to detail we see in the Rhodia pencil are definitely in keeping with Rhodia’s other products. “

We are very glad that you liked them!  Click here to find a retailer for the Rhodia pencil.

Image courtesy of Pencil Revolution.

Alberto Lung reviews lots & lots of art supplies… which is why I love his blog – Lung Sketching Scrolls.

He recently reviewed the new Rhodia dotPad and had this to say:  “The pale violet dots with 5 mm interval provide pretty effective guidelines for more technical drawings  and architectural renderings, yet they are unobtrusive enough for general sketching. Thus the dotPAd works nicely as a drawing tablet with a bit of optional reference guidelines for writing in a straight line should they be needed. Good choice if you find the classic grid lines too distracting.”

I have to admit, I may not have thought about using the dots as reference points while drawing – what a great suggestion! Click here to read his full review, which includes lots of pictures (which I love) in typical Alberto style!

Knowing my friend Alberto’s fondness for brush pens, I was eager to see his take on the Creapen, a refillable ink brush pen from J. Herbin that I had tested on two previous occasions.  Per Alberto:

“I tested the Creapen on 24 lb Xerox bright yellow paper and some 110 lb Georgia Pacific white card stock I had lying around. The brush nib glided smoothly on both supports and felt quite soft allowing for good variation in line thickness. It felt softer and more flexible than my old Pentel Pocket brush pen and quite similar to my Platinum and Kuretake brush pens.”

I tried it on several different kinds of paper and the brush worked really well until it started to run out of ink. Inverting the pen (for a while) allowed the remaining ink to flow towards the nib and I was able to use as much of the ink as I could in that cartridge. Though it may not be possible, I’d prefer to use a product that flowed perfectly and then just died, rather than have the ink start to run thin because it can really wreck a beautiful piece of art.

“Given their thin plastic construction, the components can feel rather delicate. Thus I would recommend exercising due caution when assembling the pen or changing an ink cartridge. Mindful not to over tighten the barrel to the pen nib, I also made sure the cartridge and the pen brush nib were properly aligned before firmly pushing them together. I feared excessive force or a careless fit might had easily damaged the slender cartridge port.”

I hear you Alberto. I myself have not had the greatest experience with this pen. The 1st one I tried, I couldn’t get the ink to flow no matter what I did. The 2nd one, I had a really hard time inserting the cartridge and ended up cracking the body where the brush section screws together. This has somewhat limited my ability to use it.

You can read Alberto’s product review in its entirety on his blog, Lung Sketching Scrolls.

Image courtesy of Alberto Lung.

Answering our call for guest bloggers, Alex Thornber sent me a message to tell me about how he recently bought his new Bloc Rhodia No. 11 pad at one of the giant Paperchase stores in London, and how it quickly became his new everyday notebook .