A Timex watch in a digital age.
When I look back over 2020 I’ve written about a lot of different things and I’ve been very impressed by all of them from the Classiky Desktop Toolbox to the Harry Potter notebooks from Primark. So, it was very difficult to pick one out of the many that really surprized me and stood out as something different. But after much deliberation I have chosen the Opus 88 Demonstrator eyedropper fountain pen. Continue reading “Surprise Of The Year 2020 – The Opus 88 Demonstrator”
As the year 2020 was coming to an end Montegrappa finally released their range of six Harry Potter inks; one for each of the four Hogwarts houses and one for the Knight Bus and one for the Threstrals. Continue reading “Ink Of The Month – January ‘21 – Montegrappa Gryffindor Red”
This is a first for me as I’ve never written a proper review about a role of washi tape before!
I’ve bought washi tape in the past and have a few roles in a box somewhere but it wasn’t until I saw the Magical Castle washi tape by Kookie & Rookie that I started to take an interest in washi tapes and I bought several roles of Magical Castle.
Then I saw this tape and I thought “this is something special”, and it is.
The design on the tape is based on the Fairisle scarf Hermione is wearing when she and Harry visit Godric’s Hollow in the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Fair Isle designs are traditionally knitted by hand and the designs are quite complex and whilst much of what is now called Fair Isle does not follow the original patterns knitted on the island it is, at the very least, inspired by them. And Kookie & Rookie have done an outstanding job replicating the pattern of the scarf and scaling it down to fit on a roll of tape.
The next questions I faced was how to test the tape; especially as washi tapes can be used for all sorts of things from marking pages, decorative crafts and gift wrapping.
So, with this in mind, I decided on some very basic tests, cutting and tearing to see what happened. And as you can see it cuts and tears easily without any snagging or fraying and I suspect it would also work well in a tape dispenser. Which is ideal if you are like me you often end up trying to secure wrapping paper by holding it in place with one hand and trying with the other to cut the necessary strip of tape, which never ends well.
On the subject of gifts, I would suggest, as Christmas is literally days away, that you order some rolls of both the Fair Isle tape and the Magical Castle tape as they will make excellent stocking fillers and whilst there is still time to order check out the rest of Kookie & Rookie’s Etsy site and stock up on Harry Potter gifts; either for you or the Harry Potter fan/s in your life.
Disclaimer: All of the washi tapes were 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.
This month it is the turn of a wonderful blue ink, Diamine Sargasso Sea, to be the Ink Of The Month. Continue reading “Ink Of The Month – December ’20 – Diamine Sargasso Sea”
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. Continue reading “Made From Coffee Cups, Seabright’s A4 Landscape CupCycling™ ECO Sketchbook”
As a person with an ink collection that could politely be described as ‘substantial’ you wouldn’t think that there would be much on the market that I would want to add to it. Continue reading “Ink Of The Month – November ’20 – Diamine Red Dragon”
We live in a world where you would be hard pressed to find a material that has not been used to create part or all of a fountain pen and design is only limited by the imagination. And over forty years ago the imagination of Haruo Umeda (aka Mr Fountain Pen) created the Platinum 3776 Gathered and since its creation it has stood out as a truly unique fountain pen; if it wasn’t most of us would probably never have heard of it. Continue reading “A most unusual fountain pen, the Platinum 3776 Gathered “
With Hallowe’en fast approaching its pumpkin time again and therefore it is rather fitting that this month’s ink is the wonderful orange ink, Pumpkin Patch by Ferris Wheel Press. Continue reading “Ink Of The Month – October ’20 – Pumpkin Patch By Ferris Wheel Press”
About a week or so ago I was in my local Muji and I had found nothing new when, as I was leaving, I looked up and spotted some very neatly stacked boxes. Continue reading “Boxes By Muji”
Choosing Keeping is an independent stationery store at 21 Tower Street not far from Covent Garden who sell some of the most wonderful stationery you can imagine; and for a long time, they have been on my list of places to visit. So far, though, I have only managed to visit them online and I do this every so often to see what is new and indulge in a little window shopping and it was on one of these visits that I came across their own brand inks.
Continue reading “Blue Art Deco Fountain Pen Ink by Choosing Keeping”
