@MilligramStore Notebooks from Marc Martin Kaleidoscope Jungle & Melbourne Museum

Thank you so much to Milligram for sending these beautiful notebooks for a review!

Milligram x Marc Martin Limited Edition Artist Collection Kaleidoscope Jungle Notebooks

Size: B5/25 cm x 175 cm
Ruling: Dot grid
Page count: 80
Cover: flexible card cover
Paper weight: 80 gsm
Price: ~ $23 USD
Where to buy: Milligram

Marc Martin is a Melbourne-based illustrator and artist! This collaboration features one-of-a-kind artwork, which brings to life a tropical jungle with hidden creatures. There is also a stunning limited edition set of tow notebooks, with a light and dark version to reflect day and night. - Milligram

PACKAGING

Each pair of notebooks is plastic wrapped and secured by a paper belly band. It has details about the notebook design and notebook specifications.

APPEARANCE

I love these notebooks. The designs used are the type of art I really like - colorful, watercolor-like, somewhat whimsical. LOVE. These are B5 notebooks with covers that look and feel like canvas. They are semi-flexible with pointed edges. Each notebook has stitched edges, colored endpapers, and silver- and gold-embossed foil cover details. There are colorful plants and hidden animals. Did I mention I love this?

The paper is cream colored with small, solid grey dots. Dot grids are my favorite so these notebooks are basically a match made in heaven for me. They are slim and lovely! The highlight of these notebooks is certainly the adorable artwork.

PERFORMANCE & FEEL

Have I mentioned I love these notebooks? They are slim, convenient and portable to carry, and definitely convenient to use. They open easily and lie flat so it's so easy to write on all parts of the pages without discomfort. The covers have a semi-flexible feel so while they protect the pages, they are all so easy to pop in a bag or folio. I really like the texture of the covers - not quite smooth, they feel a bit like thin canvas. The thread binding is robust and tough but are loose enough to manipulate the notebook.

The paper is a treat. First, it really smells like paper - sort of like Tomoe River and I have buried my nostrils in the pages to inhale its perfect and seductive scent. Consider me wooed! At 80gsm, it is not particularly thin but I do find it lovely and fountain pen friendly. It does not look, feel, or behave coated to me.

It works well with pencils in a range of hardness but I found it too smooth to be my preferred pencil paper. Ballpoints and gel pens were easily tolerated - no feathering or bleedthrough but not so much that I could not use both sides of the page. Brush pens were okay but markers did bleed through, which is not unusual.

As I mentioned, the paper is fountain pen friendly, handling a wide range of inks and nibs. I experienced very minimal feathering, often where my hand oils had smeared on the page. Wet writers did bleed through here and there but show through was not terrible. I tested with pretty heavy ink application and I think it held up pretty well. For normal writing, it works great. I enjoyed the writing experience and I found inks showed nice shading, sheen, and particles were also visible. Overall, very pleasant.

The dot grid is easy on the eyes, and I love them!

OVERALL

LOVE. While these are not inexpensive notebooks, I think they are worth a splurge. Beautiful covers, so handy to carry and use, fountain pen friendly. Yay!

Milligram x Melbourne Museum Notebooks

Size:  A5/21 cm x14.5 cm

Ruling: Plain & Ruled

Page count: 80

Cover: flexible card cover

Paper weight: 80 gsm

Price: ~ $20 USD

Where to buy: Milligram

The Archive & Library collection notebooks come in a set of two. The designs of each notebook draw from the Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria and William H. Harvey's Nereis Australis. The designs bring museum works to life, with gorgeous foil work and adorable endpapers. Such simple and beautiful designs, perfect for lovers of nature, history, and stationery. Well, they're also perfect for museum lovers, explorers, and writers. Love these collaborations. 

The paper performs the same as the above notebooks!

I received these items free of charge for a review. I was not compensated monetarily. Everything you have read is my own opinion.

Sailor 1911 Large Royal Tangerine Fountain Pen Review @PenChalet

Ah, another Sailor North American exclusive color. Royal Tangerine! Who can pass up a juicy orange pen?? If it's you, then keep that to yourself.

ABOUT

Body material: Plastic
Trim: Rhodium-plated
Cap: Screw on
Posts: Yes, friction
Filling: Sailor proprietary cartridge/converter
Nib material: 21kt rhodium-plated gold
Length (capped): 141.0 mm/5.55"
Length (uncapped): 123.1 mm/4.84"
Length (posted): 153.5 mm/6.05"
Length (section): 16.8 mm/0.66"
Diameter (barrel): 11.2 - 13.3 mm/0.44" - 0.52"
Diameter (section): 10.5 - 11.7 mm/0.41" - 0.46"
Weight (all): 26 g
Weight (cap): 9 g
Weight (body): 17 g
Price: $320.00USD
Where to buy: Pen Chalet

 

Discount Code: GOURMETPENS for 10% off

PACKAGING

The Sailor 1911 fountain pen has straightforward packaging. There is the classic blue hard case box with the Sailor logo printed on the top in gold lettering. Inside the blue box, the pen is held in place by an elastic and ribbon on a felt bed. The bed is removable. There is also a cartridge, a converter, as well as a little pamphlet about the Sailor Pen Co. and your pen. Little wasted space with this packaging. It's plain packaging, but I don't feel bad about not keeping it. It also doesn't seem (depending on how you feel about packaging at all) too wasteful. It's not my favorite packaging though.

APPEARANCE

The Sailor 1911 Large fountain pen is not a huge pen, but it is the larger of the two 1911 sizes. It is a torpedo shaped pen with rhodium-plated trim. The center band is wide and is engraved with Sailor Japan Founded 1911. The finial is unmarked. The clip is plain, coming to a rounded off end. It has no branding on it, so it isn't particularly unique. Near the end of the cap, there is a raised center band and a thinner, flat band just a small space above it. The larger band is engraved with: Sailor Japan Founded 1911. The section is round and tapers ever so slightly towards the nib, and ends in a flared ridge. The cap threads at the back of the section are the same color as the pen so they blend in.

I love the Fresca Blue but I think the Royal Tangerine is a strong contender for the best color... I'm not sure which I like more! The resin does pick up micro scratches over time, but if you don't let it rub on other pens and keep it in a sleeve or something when you tote it around, it'll look pretty good. My Fresca is still looking pretty good.

NIB & PERFORMANCE

The hard extra fine nib is a single tone 21kt nib. It has a single slit, a round breather hole, and is engraved with: 1911, 21K, 875, Sailor and H-EF on the side, the Sailor anchor and some flourishes. I specifically picked the extra-fine because I had heard from friends that the Sailor EF nib is one of the best. It really is. I actually really enjoy the writing experience for those times I need an extra-fine! It's smooth with a touch of feedback, quite wet for an extra-fine, and fairly firm with a touch of line variation possible. It puts down clean, precise lines and I think it's an excellent daily writer.

As I have said before; of the standard nib selection, my favorite nibs are the Music and Zoom nib - they offer the most variation and feel the best for my writing preferences.


The cartridge/converter system works without issue, as usual. Not a huge ink capacity from the cartridge but I don't mind as I like to change my ink colors and it reduces the chances of the ink drying out before I use it up.

IN HAND

The clip has moderate tension - it can be lifted but it is snug - quite practical. It has a reasonable length so it will clip on safely to papers/pockets.

The section is small but comfortable - no sharp ridges or anything. The cap threads themselves are a bit sharp but they are well out of my grip space. If you have large fingers, they might get in your way, but even so, it's not too sharp. They're not so bad that I wouldn't want to use the pen.

I think this is a great pen in hand - it's extremely comfortable, great weight, great balance. It writes well unposted but it's perfected posted because it posts deeply and comfortably. Writing for extended sessions is no problem. If you have larger hands, you'll likely prefer the 1911 Large size as it can be used unposted as well as posted. If you prefer the 1911 Standard, then using it posted might be ideal. I prefer the Large size.

Top to bottom: Sailor 1911 Large Royal Tangerine, Sailor 1911 Standard Peacock, Aurora Optima Flex, Lamy Safari.

PROS & CONS

OVERALL

As I said at the start, I am biased. I specifically picked this pen because I am a fan of Sailor. Sailor pens are solid. I love them and think they produce some great stuff. Some people have objections about the little converters but to be honest, I kind of like it because it means I get to change my inks around more. They're simple but comfortable pens with really nice nibs, available in a heck of a lot of colors and a couple models - there's surely something to please everyone. I love them. It's fairly expensive but I am not looking for the best value fountain pen here, I wanted it because it's fun and I like the color and model and writing experience!

The extra-fine nib is an excellent writer, and that's coming from someone who doesn't even love fine nibs all that much. It's fairly smooth, wet, and puts down clean, precise lines.