The number of products being made from recycled materials is growing all the time but it’s not often you find something made from discarded take away drink cups. In fact, many people still believe that these cups cannot be recycled; how wrong can you be because today’s review is a sketch book made using the CupCylcling technology of James Cropper.
I had no idea when I picked up the sketchbook that it was made from recycled coffee cups; I saw that it was a recycled product but that was all and decided to try for ink sampling.
The sketchbook is A4 landscape and is double wire bound on a shorter edge allowing the cover to fold over and lay flat; it contains 50 sheets/100 sides of 140gsm bright white cartridge paper and has very solid board covers that are a light Oxford Blue.
To find out how good this paper is I have used it to test Diamine Red Dragon for Ink Of The Month (November ’20) and since then I’ve tested it using a 2B pencil, a Schneider ballpoint and a Sharpie. In the case of the latter I know nothing is really Sharpie proof it’s just the extent to which it is not that matters.
As you can see I was very liberal with the Red Dragon and nothing came through the paper and naturally nothing came through from the pencil or the ballpoint but as expected the Sharpie did produce some ghosting on the reverse; enough to be noticeable but not enough to make the reverse unusable.
Whichever writing instrument I choose to use, writing on this paper is a very pleasant experience and whilst the paper has some texture it is not enough to interfere with point/nib. I am not an artist so I’m not able to pass expert judgement on this paper as art stock I would dare to say that it would be very suitable for most artistic pursuits.
What really impresses me is that this sketchbook was once a pile of discarded take-away coffee cups; it just goes to show where ingenuity can take us.
I do recommend that if you are in the market for a sketchbook then this one, at approximately £6.00GBP, should be on your shopping list. Not only is it a good sketchbook, it’s well priced and its origins mean it’s good for your karma.
Disclaimer: The sketchbook was purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
*** the Cup Cycling and Sketchbook images are the property of ‘Seawhite of Brighton’ and has been borrowed to illustrate the process. The coffee cup image was provided free of charge by Unsplash; my thanks to Unsplash for their generosity.
The Indian Marmalade Company 