As of 10th September I have moved my blog to a shiny new website:
This means that if you follow this blog on an RSS feed, you’ll need to update it.
Thanks for reading so far and I hope you’ll join me over at the new site!
Tessa x
Author: Tessa (All Things Stationery)
Stationery Organised Neatly: Brown & Brass
Here’s the second in my Stationery Organised Neatly series, and this time I’m looking at Brown & Brass.
Items from top left:
- Wooden HB Pencil, £1.45 for 6, Muji (as featured in What’s The Best Everyday Pencil?)
- Tout Simplement Magnetic Pencil, £3 (as featured in National Theatre Bookshop Haul)
- Vintage Wood & Brass Extension Rule (as featured in Flea Market Finds #3: Wooden & Brass Extension Rule)
- Field Notes, Original, £8 for 3, Fred Aldous
- Bullet Pencil, Huckleberry Woodchuck (as featured in Huckleberry Woodchuck Bullet Pencil)
- Vintage Cotton Spool (from my late grandmother’s sewing box)
- Midori Brass Stencil Bookmark, £13.50 (as featured in National Theatre Bookshop Haul)
- Bicycle Card, £2.50, Kate Broughton (as featured in Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside…)
- Carta Pura Brass Double Sharpener, £5.50 (as featured in National Theatre Bookshop Haul)
- Kraft Parcel label/tag (as featured in Parcel labels, and lots of them…)
Previous posts in this series:
Stationery Organised Neatly: Turquoise
An old pen I’m not sure what to do with…
On a drive back from Shropshire this weekend, we ended up stopping off at a little village for lunch. The village were having a summer fair and there were stalls of bits and bobs all out in the street. We were in a bit of a hurry but I just had time to find this pen, which intrigued me, pay the man 50p, and be on my way.
It says:
The “Unique” Pen
Made in England
I can’t find a huge amount of information about Unique, but from what I have read, they were around from the 1920s to the late 1950s.
The thing that really intrigued me was this lever on the side, which I now know is the way you fill it. The pen has a sac inside, and in order to fill the sac, you lift up the lever (which depresses the sac) and dip the nib in ink. You then let go of the lever and the extra room created in the sac is filled with ink. That’s how I understand it anyway…
I had a little explore around the inside of this one, but unfortunately when I opened the pen up, it became clear that the sac had disintegrated and pieces fell out, along with lots of ink powder.
I found some instructions of how to replace the sac but then it all started to go a bit over my head and I knew I’d never bother to replace it.
It has an Osmiroid 35 nib:
It’s not the prettiest pen, it has a plastic body which is a little beaten up and the clip has come off the cap:
Anyway, it needs a bit of love, and I’m probably not going to give it, so if anyone fancies a restoration project or just wants to challenge themselves to replace the sac and get it working, I’d be happy to post it to you (anywhere!), just let me know!
Stationery Tatts
Like me, you’re probably pretty into stationery. Perhaps enough to thinking about getting a pen or pencil tattoo? But you’re still not 100% sure and you’d like to test the water? Well, I’ve got JUST the thing for you!
These temporary tattoos are by Tattly who, in their words, are a “temporary tattoo store for design-minded kids and kids-at-heart”, created by Swissmiss.
They are $5 for a set of 2, so pretty reasonable. They’re made in the US but designed by designers from all over, and these particular ones are by the brilliant, UK-based, Peagreen.
Cute, fun, cool and wouldn’t cost hundreds of pounds to remove if you change your mind… You can check out the full Art Supplies collection here.
All pictures courtesy of tattly.com
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Ok, there’s no Rock… Or Paper… But this post is all about Scissors!
Maybe this is strange but I think there’s something really beautiful about scissors. Plus they are incredibly useful. I’ve just scoured my favourite websites for the best ones I could find. In fact, these are all so good, I need to seriously up my own scissor game.
Phi Scissors by Hay, £27.50, from Haus
CDT Scissors by Craft Design Technology Scissors, £55, from Goodhood Store
Brass Scissors by Hay, £10, from Present & Correct
Clear & Copper Scissors, £15.50 from Pentreath & Hall
Gold-plated Dressmaking Scissors by Ernest Wright & Sons, £85 from The New Craftsmen
Steel Scissors, £13.75 from Smug
Heavy Duty Paper Scissors, £18.50 from Labour & Wait
Hermès Nautilus Pen
I’ve been squirrelling away, getting my new blog ready to go, but have just squeezed in time to share this Hermès Nautilus Pen, which I saw on Dezeen.
Hermès have teamed up with Japanese pen gurus, Pilot and Australian designer Marc Newson to launch the first item in their upcoming stationery line.
It’s a capless, retractable fountain pen, made of aluminium and stainless steel. It has a rhodium-plated white gold nib, and will come in 6 nib widths.
The idea is that it looks very simple from the outside, but is hiding a very complex mechanism that allows the nib to be retracted by twisting.
Now, if I’m completely honest, I don’t really like the way it looks, I think it’s kind of bulky and not very sophisticated. However, I do think it’s a positive thing that luxury fashion brands and famous designers are concentrating on stationery.
Anyway, I’m probably not the demographic they’re trying to impress as it’ll be retailing at about £1000, so…
Mark’s Inc. Tous Les Jours ballpoint pen
I was recently buying a couple of things from Bureau Direct and needed to add something else to my basket for free shipping so I thought I’d get a wild card item… I chose the Tous Les Jours ballpoint pen by Mark’s Inc. 
It’s a very lightweight 0.5mm ballpoint pen. It’s USP comes in that it has the days of the week listed around the side, each with a suggested activity.
Spending the last 2 years doing evening classes in French has finally come in handy!
It translates as:
Monday – watch a film
Tuesday – listen to a CD (bit old school…)
Wednesday – Read a
Thursday – Write a poem
Friday – Buy a ticket
Saturday/Sunday – Go on a little trip
As I said, it’s very light, and actually, as you can see in this picture the body of the pen is a pencil casing. I really like how it writes; the line comes out incredibly thinly, and feels precise. I don’t generally like to use ballpoint pens very often, but this one could change my mind. The only negative thing about it is that it’s kind of noisy. The actual pen part rattles around inside the casing.
At £5.95 it’s actually extremely expensive, for what is essentially a biro. But I do like it and it’s a bit different, so maybe it’s worth it. I also recently reviewed another Mark’s Inc product, the Pensée sticky note rolls.
Pencils you meet in the pub: Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil
Please forgive the AWFUL picture (it may have been taken at about 1am, after a few wines…) but I met a guy in the pub last night who had one of these:
A Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. It has a protective cap (which also serves as an extender when posted on the back of a short pencil), with clip, a changeable eraser and a built in sharpener.
It is a thing of beauty. He was given it as a gift and mentioned it was pricey, but that still didn’t prepare me for the £200 pricetag!! Even a pack of 5 refills is £36!
Here’s a much better picture (from Cultpens.com):
As you can imagine, a tipsy Tessa was quite excited to discover this, and it is something you’d treasure forever. Even so, i don’t think I’ll be getting one any time soon…
Now… A Millionaire’s Pen that You can Afford to Carry: 1930s & 40s Parker Pen Ads
How cool are these old Parker adverts?!
A guy on eBay is selling loads of ads from old Life Magazines and I found a couple of Parker Pen ones that I thought would make good prints to put up in the house. I’ve scanned them so I can share them with you.
This first one; “Now… A Millionaire’s Pen That You Can Afford to Carry and Can’t Afford to Miss” is for the Parker Vacumatic fountain pen, from 1937. The wording is all so brilliant; “It holds 102% yet is Slenderized for Restful Balance”. I especially love the picture of the “noted Millionaire’s pocket” with Parker Pens in it. Do open up the pictures and zoom in so that you can read it properly.
This second one; “This is proves pen failures can be avoided!” is for Parker Quink, from 1944. The selling point of this ink is that it contains “Solv-x… cleans your pen as it writes!”. Again, do zoom in and read it properly, there are some real gems in there – proper Mad Men stuff 🙂
This makes me wish advertising was still like this – they REALLY worked to sell it to you!
Huckleberry Woodchuck Bullet Pencil
I’m definitely not the first stationery blogger to talk about Huckleberry Woodchuck’s bullet pencils, but now that I have finally got my hands on one, I couldn’t not share it.
It came all wrapped up like a present, so extra brownie points from me already:
And the message: “enjoy a small piece of US history” is lovely – and so true! This feels like a real gem. For those that don’t know, Huckleberry Woodchuck restores vintage bullet pencils. Bullet pencils – a bullet, hollowed out and repurposed as a holder for short pencils – were used as promotional giveaways in the US, I think often by farming companies.
The one I got is SO GOOD! I’m very pleased with my choice:
The silver part is the pencil holder and the rest serves as cap.
You then take off the cap and post it on the back, so you have a longer, more comfortable pencil to use.
I always carry a pencil in my handbag, as I prefer to write appointments in my Hobonichi planner in pencil, and then go back and decorate in pen (on the rarity I have time). Anyway, my pencil always end up a. blunt and b. writing on everything else in my bag, so this is a great solution. Plus it takes up less room than a full-sized pencil.
The one I got is particularly special as it’s interactive. As it was described by Huckleberry Woodchuck:
“On the outer label it lists common problems along with a number that corresponds to a bible verse that is revealed when you twist the outer label. Really neat and perfect for your sunday school or sermons.”
I must say I’m not remotely religious, but this doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the messages it gives, and the fact that this is a really unique and quirky item!
Here are the problems it lists:
So for example, it says:
When you are feeling lonely turn to no. 1
You twist it so that No. 1 is showing and the message reads:
Lo, I am with you always. Matt. 28:20
Pretty cool, huh?
They are beautifully restored, with new erasers, and everyone’s favourite pencil – the Blackwing 602. And of course, every one is different – always a good thing. Check out the shop here. Plus mine came with a little spare pencil stub, which seems to be a Musgrave 100 (and actually, this was an introduction as I’d never heard of this company before).
At present, Midori seem to be the only company making new bullet pencils, however, I know that there are a couple of companies looking to produce new (and improved?) versions. There’s currently this kickstarter by Metal Comb Works – which also has the option of a stylus on the end, and I have heard that Huckleberry Woodchuck is in the process of developing one too. Episode 10 of Erasable talks about bullet pencils this week too.
Strange that such a great things stopped being produced, but I for one am glad bullet pencils are back.
All Things Stationery 