August Miscellany: Rhodia Pads, Waterbrushes, and Fountain Pens

My monthly miscellany is a selection of links that I have enjoyed reading in the past month, as well as thoughts that don't get developed into full posts.  In this month, we explore Rhodia pads, waterbrushes, fountain pens, and some great lists of pens and journals.

• Tammy of the wonderful creative blog Daisy Yellow has shared her favourite pens for writing, sketching, doodling, and drawing and her favourite paper and journals for writing, sketching, drawing, and art journaling.  I was happy to see some of my personal favourites on her list, such as Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens, Sakura Gelly Rolls, Pentel Sliccis, and the white Uni-ball Signo Broad gel pen.  I'm not too fond of Moleskines, and I haven't used any of the other papers or journals mentioned in her second list, but I do want to try out an Exacompta journal or sketchbook at some point.
• Tammy has also written a great review of the Kuretake Waterbrush, an item which I hope to add to my next JetPens order.  I already own the Pentel Aquash waterbrush, which has become one of my favourite supplies and which I absolutely love to use with my watercolour pencils.  The Kuretake looks like it might be even better than the Aquash, so I can't wait to try that one out as well.  I definitely recommend the combination of waterbrush + watercolour pencils to anyone wanting to get started in watercolours.  They make watercolours incredibly easy and non-intimidating, so much more so than a "real" paintbrush and paints - which, frankly, still intimidate me a bit!
• Speaking of items that I want to own, I also really want one of these Rhodia Pad Holders.  I don't really need one, since the only Rhodia pad that I currently own simply sits in my desk drawer all the time and so doesn't need the additional protection of a pad holder, but I do very much want one.  Because they just look so awesome and they have a pen loop!
• And speaking of Rhodia, I really loved the photos of Estivalia's old Rhodia pad next to her new one.  For some reason I always love looking at photos of used notebooks.  They are always so enticing; you cannot help but wonder at what lies inside...  Oh, and this reminds me that I also want to own a Rhodia DotPad.  Again, I don't really need one, it is just that, when it comes to Rhodia, I feel somehow driven to have one of everything.
• Pentorium has posted the first part of their Fountain Pen Guide Series: Nibs, Feeds, and How They Come Together.  This looks like it will be a very detailed guide that will be helpful to anyone just getting started with fountain pens (like myself), and I look forward to future posts in the series.  It even has a glossary!
• Check out these ten tips for writing thank you notes.  I must confess that the only time I've ever written thank-you letters was when I received scholarships and awards in university - but maybe I should do so more often.  Especially since I have stacks of cards and notepaper that I hardly ever use.
• Finally, a reader recently shared this link to a page that describes how to make Origami Pencil Extenders.  I have a few pencil stubs lying around and, while I know that you can buy pencil extenders, it would be fun to make some as well.  And it's origami!  I haven't tried making any of these yet, but if I do, I'll let you know about it, I promise.

That's all for this month!  Stay tuned for September's posts, which include some more pencil reviews and a look into my sketchbook!

Thrift Store Journal from Pierre Belvedere

A couple years ago, I shared with you a calligraphy set that I found at a garage sale.  Today, I'm sharing a notebook that I picked up at a thrift store.  Actually, my mom found it there for me and, knowing my obsession with love for notebooks and all things stationery, brought it home in case I was interested.  Well, obviously, I was interested.  A quick glance at the notebook told me that it was something a bit out of the ordinary.  Now, I just needed to see if I could find out more about it and I'd be ready to share it with all of you here.

Luckily, the notebook was labelled with its name ("Pierre Belvedere - Made in Italy") on the bottom of the back cover, which made it easy for me to find the company's website.  Pierre Belvedere is a Canadian company, based in Montreal, that produces and distributes both stationery products as well as toys and games.  I was glad to discover that my new notebook was from a Canadian company, and I was also able to easily find my notebook on their website: It's an Arabesque Notebook, which comes in their large size and in a number of colours, including the nice teal colour that I have.  Check out Pierre Belvedere's page of journals for information about the Arabesque Notebook and others.

Now, after all of that detective work, what is this Pierre Belvedere journal actually like?  To start with, it's fairly large (at least, larger than I'm used to using), at 6.75" x 9.5".  The cover is thick, with a slightly padded feel, a smooth texture, and a fine line of stitching around the edge, which I rather like the look of.  It is sturdy and relatively stiff, but does have some flexibility.  The arabesque pattern, which is lightly textured and printed in a darker shade of the background colour, is decorative but not too busy.  I usually prefer plain notebooks but this pattern is still unobtrusive enough that I really don't mind it.

Inside, the notebook contains a narrow ribbon bookmark in a silvery grey colour that is not particularly remarkable.  The endpapers are lightly patterned with a symbol that resembles a folded envelope - sure to appeal to stationery fans!  It's a really subtle pattern that doesn't call attention to itself.  Still, I always love it when the endpapers in a notebook are patterned or coloured in some way, so I thought it added a nice touch.  The notebook - when new - contains 320 pages.

The endpaper pattern - can you see the tiny envelopes?

One unusual thing about this notebook - all of the pages are perforated for easy removal.  That kind of thing in a bound notebook like this (particularly one that is being marketed as a journal, which presumably you'd want to be fairly permanent) always seems simply wrong to me (or maybe I'm just weird).  However, in this case, it actually turned out to be a good thing: the previous owner of this notebook removed approximately the first half of the pages (and the front endpaper as well).  If the perforations hadn't been in place, likely the previous owner would have simply thrown this notebook away when he or she was tired of using it and it would never have ended up at the thrift store or, ultimately, in my hands.  As it as, I now have a new-to-me notebook that, although it is not in pristine condition, still has quite a few unused pages in it.

The torn out pages and endpaper at the front of the notebook.

The pages are ruled with grey lines and a thicker line that marks the left margin.  The lines are spaced 0.8cm apart, with a top margin of 2.4cm and a bottom margin of 2.0cm - overall a fairly spacious ruling if you ask me.  It would probably be best suited to wider-nibbed pens and people with larger handwriting.  The lines run right to the edge of the page.  The paper is white, with a smooth texture, and I don't know the weight.

Now, on to the most important question!  How well does this paper perform with different types of pens?

Answer: very well indeed!

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this paper performed very well with all of my pens.  Of all the pens I used, only the Pilot Petit1 fountain pen and the Uni-ball Vision rollerball (both of which are very wet writers and bleed and feather on just about everything) showed even the slightest, almost unnoticeable, amount of feathering.  For all pens, bleed through was almost non-existent, and show through was largely negligible.  Only the Sharpie marker showed any substantial show through and even it didn't bleed through all that much.  Although I don't use many fountain pens or inks (yet), based on my results here, I would suggest Pierre Belvedere if you're looking for a notebook with paper that can cope with them.  This paper performed way better than I thought it would.

Overall, I was impressed with the writing quality of this Pierre Belvedere journal and the overall quality of its construction.  Mine was second-hand, and despite the torn-out pages and a couple tiny scuffs on the back cover, it was still in very good shape.  If you don't mind the perforated pages and wide lines, I would not hesitate to recommend this journal.  I have not encountered any mentions of the Pierre Belvedere brand on other blogs, but I think it deserves wider recognition.  These notebooks are likely not widely available outside of Canada, but at least some appear to be available on Amazon.  As for me, I'm happy with my thrift store find and I'll be keeping my eye out for other products from Pierre Belvedere in the future!

Lamy Safari Fountain Pen - Green Body + Fine Nib

Ever since my first fountain pen, the Platinum Preppy, back in 2010, I've been pining for a Lamy Safari.  I kept looking at them, but every time I did, I thought, "If only they came in green...."  Then, 2012 came around and guess what the new limited edition colour of the Lamy Safari was?  Green!  Yes, there was no doubt about it - this had to be the year in which I would finally have a Lamy Safari of my very own.  I wrote about my excitement over my purchase a couple months ago, and now I'm ready to actually review my new green Lamy Safari fountain pen.

First of all, this green Lamy Safari is a very beautiful pen.  My photos do not do it justice at all, and the colour is so much more vibrant in person.  It is absolutely the most perfect shade of green - not too dark, not too light, not too yellow, without a hint of blue, not overly bright and certainly not muted either - it is just the perfect green in every way.  The pen itself is made of a sturdy plastic with just the right sheen to it - not matte, but not too shiny either.

View of the grip, and the nib.  The nib is not that exciting to look at, but it is exciting to write with!

The grip is designed to guide your fingers into the correct writing position.  This may annoy some people but I appreciate it since I have discovered that I actually hold my pens the wrong way.  Holding the Safari the "right" way still feels a bit awkward, but it does prevent the issue that I was having with my other fountain pens: when I hold my pens the "wrong" way, I actually tend to rotate the pen in my hand as I write, which means that, if I'm using a fountain pen and I'm not careful, I can end up writing with the nib upside down!  With the Lamy Safari, however, this isn't a problem, because I am being constantly reminded by the grip to hold the pen correctly.  Hopefully, this will build a habit and eventually encourage me to use all of my pens correctly.

This is the only branding on the pen (it's hidden when you're writing with the cap posted) and it is just right.

Other features that I like: the unobtrusive ink window on either side of the pen so you can check out the ink supply, the Lamy logo on the end of the pen that appears to be an actual part of the design of the pen and not just some random ugly branding, and the awesome metal clip that can actually be used to clip onto things!  Imagine that... a clip that you can actually clip with.  I'm used to the exceedingly wimpy clips that most (inferior) pens have, so this one is pretty awesome.  And another great feature: the price.  Although I must admit that this is the most expensive pen I have ever bought, it is still very affordable compared to most of the other nice fountain pens out there.  And because this pen is so well-made (and comes with a lifetime warranty from Lamy), I am sure that I will be able to use it for many years to come.  So it is well worth the price!  If you used to buying cheap ballpoints or gel pens, don't be scared to give this one a try.  It may seem expensive compared to those pens, but you are going to get a lot more use out of it.

Awesome clip.  And I love the cross-shaped design on the end.

Now, onto what may be for many of you the most important feature of any pen - the nib.  When I was buying this pen, I had the hardest time trying to decide between the fine and the extra-fine nibs.  I knew from reading other reviews that the fine was not really very fine, but I was afraid that the extra-fine might be scratchy.  So in the end I decided to play it safe and I settled for the fine nib.  I wish now, however, that I had chosen the extra-fine because, although the nib is marked "F", I am beginning to suspect that that really stands for "fat" and not "fine" at all.  Still, Lamy nibs are sold separately and are interchangeable, so I will be able to replace my fine nib with an extra-fine nib if I wish - and I am so absolutely in love with this pen otherwise that the unfine fine nib really doesn't bother me very much.  The best thing about the nib is that it is very smooth.  Seriously smooth.  It is not scratchy at all, and it flows so smoothly that no excessive pressure is needed to write, making it truly a joy to use.

I apologize for having made so many mistakes when I was writing this.  Please ignore the scribbled-out words, and if there are any other errors that I missed scribbling out, please ignore those as well.  Also ignore my messy handwriting.  It looks better in person.

From the written review, you can see that I'm still using the boring blue cartridge that came with my Lamy Safari.  However, I should say that the ink in the Lamy cartridge is actually not that bad.  Feathering is minimal and there is only slight bleedthrough even on poorer-quality paper, while on quality Rhodia paper the combination of pen and ink is simply heavenly.  The ink also has some lovely shading going on, and the colour, although a relatively boring shade of blue, is bright.  At some point I want to buy a converter and some nice bottled inks (green, of course) to use with this pen.  Bottled inks still scare me a bit (I have this totally irrational fear that I'm going to either wreck the pen somehow and/or get ink all over everywhere), so I may be sticking with cartridges for a while yet.  But this pen is absolutely begging me (yes, my pens talk to me - don't your pens talk to you? please say it isn't just me) to fill it with green ink, so I may have to at least invest in some cartridges of green ink!

In conclusion, I am very, very happy with my very first Lamy Safari.  I felt a bit nervous buying it since it was more money than I had ever spent on a single pen before, but I have not been disappointed AT ALL.  My Lamy and I likely have many years ahead of us to get to know each other, and I am looking forward to those years very much.  If I can add an extra-fine nib and some green ink, then I will be even happier, but since this pen is absolutely so gorgeous, and the green colour is absolutely so perfect, I suspect that I would be perfectly content to just sit and look at this pen and not even write with it at all.  Yes.  It is just that good.

Related reviews (probably only a sampling of the many reviews of this pen (in all its incarnations) that are out there): Gourmet Pens, Pentorium (a very detailed and lengthy review), Rants of the Archer, The Bent Needle, Write to Me Often (not really a review, but includes a lovely photo of Safaris in a rainbow of colours), Fountain Pen Geeks, Stationery Review, Writing and Scribbling, Unposted, OfficeSupplyGeek, Coffee-Stained Memos, Spiritual Evolution of the Bean.

Also, check out this look at Lamy's inter-changeable nibs at Planet Millie and this Lamy nib comparison at Peninkcillin (and this one at Write to Me Often), or, for a totally different opinion, check out why Stationery Traffic hates the Lamy Safari.

Comments

I just want to apologize to any commenters whose comments have not appeared on my site lately.  I've just discovered that a number of legitimate comments were ending up in my spam folder.  I'm so sorry for this, and I've since restored the comments to my site!  Hopefully, your comment will now be appearing on the site, and I'll try to reply to it as soon as I can, but if your comment is still not showing up, you may want to try leaving your comment again.

I do have comment moderation turned on as another way of controlling spam, but I typically deal with those comments promptly so that they appear on my blog as soon as possible.  I have no idea why some comments were ending up in my spam folder (and not even showing up as comments that needed to be moderated), but I will now be checking my spam folder more frequently so that this doesn't happen again.

Again, I am very sorry if your comment was one of the ones that ended up in the spam folder, and hopefully it has been published now!

Origami Paper Boxes

The first origami model I ever learned how to fold was this simple box, sometimes called a masu box.  It's a traditional origami model, and probably one of the most well-known.  It remains the only origami model that I can fold today from memory, without looking at the instructions.

In around my first or second year of university, I was really into origami.  I filled every spare surface in my tiny dorm room with dozens of folded paper models.  I stopped after a while, partly because I didn't really know just what to do with the models once I had folded them.  A box, however, is so useful.  You could use it to hold candies, paper scraps, rubber stamps, beads, buttons, or, perhaps, if you were clever, a whole series of folded paper boxes, in gradually decreasing sizes, nested within each other.

A few tips if you want to try your hand at folding this box: Use your fingernail to crease the folds and make them sharp and crisp.  If the inside flaps won't stay down, use a tiny spot of glue to hold them down.  This is technically cheating, but I won't tell anyone.  You don't need to use origami paper; any paper will do, as long as it is thin and cut to the shape of a square (most models start with a square piece of paper).

I recently found myself thinking of origami again so I thought I would fold a few boxes to see if I could still do it, and I could!  And I also had something in mind that I wanted to use them for.

I used them to organize my button collection:

Because everyone needs to have an organized button collection, right?  I folded 2 more boxes than were shown in the first photo, and, by a lucky coincidence, 3 boxes just fit exactly across the length of the button tin.  Seriously, I didn't measure or plan that out at all.  I organized the buttons by colour and type, and filled the empty space at the back of the tin with the plain white buttons.

Have you ever done origami?  If so, what did you make?  What did you do with your models afterwards?  Did you make something useful or was it just for fun?

Pencil Review: Dixon No.2/HB (+ first thoughts on using a wooden pencil)

This is my very first review of a real pencil - that is, a wooden pencil, not a mechanical pencil.  I want to start using wooden pencils more for writing and sketching, so I thought I'd start with reviewing the (few) pencils that I have acquired so far.  This Dixon No.2/HB is actually one of my found pencils and, judging by the numbers of them that I find around the school yards, it must be one of those pencils that gets sold for 10 cents a dozen or some other such ridiculously low price around back-to-school time.  I chose this pencil to try out first because I thought it would be an easy, non-intimidating way to start using wooden pencils.

The Dixon No.2/HB is basically the stereotypical wooden pencil.  It has the classic yellow-orange hexagonal body, basic silver-toned ferrule, and pink eraser.  The name is simply printed on black on the end of the pencil; on mine, the letters are starting to wear off a bit.  Looking at this pencil makes me think that I should be sitting in an elementary school classroom, carving my name into the wooden edge of my desk, brushing eraser dust onto the floor, and watching the boys in the back of the room throw sharpened pencils at the ceiling.  (Did they do that at your school?)

This actually is the first time I've written seriously with a wooden pencil since elementary school (I think I switched to mechanical pencils around grade four or five), so a few things have caught my attention.  First of all, the sharp point actually lasts a surprisingly long time.  One of the main reasons why I switched to mechanical pencils all those years ago was that they they didn't need to be sharpened - a distinct improvement over wooden pencils which, in my memory, needed to be sharpened after every second word.  But I'm now well into my third paragraph of writing this review by hand and the point is still surprisingly sharp.  Another thing that impresses me - the pencil is surprisingly comfortable.  I would have thought that wooden pencils, with their narrow bodies with no grips or ergonomic features to speak of, would be very uncomfortable to write with.  But the hexagonal form of this pencil fits nicely into my hand, I don't feel the need to grip it as tightly as I would with a pen, and the wood feels pleasantly warm.  I also love the sound that the pencil lead makes on the paper - kind of a soft, scratchy sound.  I get that with my mechanical pencil too, but it seems somehow different with the wooden pencil.

Along with writing my first review of a wooden pencil, I've also decided to mix things up a bit by writing my pencil reviews in an unlined Field Notes notebook rather than the Rhodia Pad I use for my pen reviews.  Just keeping things interesting for you all. . . or something like that.

Given that the Dixon No.2/HB is generally just a cheap school pencil, I wasn't expecting anything too stellar from it.  The lead doesn't seem very dark, and it feels a wee bit softer than the HB lead I'm used to in my mechanical pencil - although that last point may be simply my imagination.  Or maybe there is some difference between mechanical pencil lead and wooden pencil lead generally?  The Dixon No.2/HB also sharpens relatively well, although, sadly, the shavings just come off in tiny little pieces and not in one nice curl.

The eraser has a rough feel on the page and leaves a considerable amount of shadow behind.  Even worse, if there is a lot of lead down on the page, the eraser seems to smudge things around more than actually erase.  The eraser feels loose, as though it might pop out of the ferrule if I erased too vigorously - but this is a found pencil after all, so, while it appears relatively pristine, I suppose it is possible that the eraser and ferrule may have received some injuries prior to ending up in my hands.  And I'm sure that most people who use wooden pencils probably carry a separate eraser as well and don't depend completely on the pencil eraser.

I was totally going to leave the eraser dust on the page when I took this photograph - but I totally forgot and brushed it away as I always do.  Oh well.  It wasn't really very interesting anyway.

I'm sure there are better pencils than the Dixon No.2/HB out there, but it still managed to welcome me back to the world of wooden pencils.  I look forward to trying out some more wooden pencils, and to using them more often in my writing and sketches.  I do have a few more wooden pencils lined up to review, but I would definitely appreciate any other pencil recommendations that you might care to offer!  And, because this was my first review of a wooden pencil, is there anything else that you would have liked to have seen me mention?

Related reviews: Stationery Traffic, The Wooden Pencil (this one's a comparison review of a number of different pencils).

Versatile Blogger Award

A while ago, I was awarded a Versatile Blogger Award by Azizah at Gourmet Pens.  I know some people find these kinds of awards silly or even just plain annoying, but I was so pleased at being awarded I decided to accept the award and pass it on anyway!  Many thanks to Azizah for awarding me!

These things always come with rules, so here they are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourself.
3. Send the award on to fifteen other bloggers whose blogs you appreciate and let them know that they have been given the award.  You are not allowed to give the award to any of the blogs that were rewarded together with you.

Seven facts about myself (in no particular order):

1. I am an incorrigible bibliophile.  Reading is one of my all-time favourite activities and I currently own 649 books in my personal library.  No matter how many books I find to discard, this number seems to only go up, never down.
2. When I graduated from high school, I was the top math student in my school.  I even won a scholarship for it.
3. One of the first things I bought for myself when I went to university was a set of 60 Laurentien pencil crayons.  I had always craved a set of these when I was a kid, but never had one until then.
4. I am an introvert.  In fact, I am so introverted that most people who say they're introverts seem incredibly extroverted to me.
5. I hate having my picture taken.  Any time anyone brings out the camera, I run.  That photo that you see on my profile in the sidebar?  It's probably about five years old now (or older) because I couldn't find a more recent photo that I liked.
6. I started out majoring in physics in university, but ended up with a degree in natural resource science.  Despite that, I've realized that what I really want to do is write.
7. I really am as hopelessly nerdy as the above facts have made me sound.

Finally, these are the blogs I'm awarding with the Versatile Blogger Award (also in no particular order):

• Planet Millie
• Paper Lovestory
• No Pen Intended
• Letters and Journals
• My Peacetree
• The Bent Needle
• Miscellaneous Ramblings of a DIYer

The observant reader will notice that that is nowhere near 15 blogs, but... rules are meant to be broken, right?  Actually, I really don't read very many blogs, and I found it very, very difficult to even pick this many out.  Probably I was just making the process of choosing blogs way harder than it needed to be, but... I'm just going to stick with these ones for now.  I should say, however, that all of the blogs listed in my blogroll in the sidebar are terrific and you should definitely check all of them out!

Thanks again to Azizah for awarding me, and I hope you all enjoyed reading my crazy but nerdy facts about myself!  Stay tuned for more posts coming up here very soon!

Rethinking the Daily Journal

Many years ago, I picked up a paperback edition of the Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth at a used book sale.  Dorothy Wordsworth was the sister of the poet William Wordsworth, and she kept a daily journal for several years when she was living with her brother in a cottage in England's Lake District.  Her journals weren't at all what I had thought a journal should be like.  They were straightforward yet lyrical in tone, chronicling Dorothy's walks in nature with her brother, and the ordinary, everyday events of their lives, from toothaches to transplanting plants in her garden.  I fell in love with Dorothy's journals and I decided that reading them wasn't enough - I wanted to start keeping my own journal as well!

So I did.  And I've kept a journal, off and on, ever since then.  Some journals I have attempted to write in every day, while others have been more erratic.  Last summer, I was keeping a daily journal, but it was no longer fun.  I kept forgetting to write everyday, but I was still trying to write an entry for every day.  Writing in my journal had become like punishment for myself - every week or so I would force myself to sit down and rack my memory to find something remotely interesting to write about what had happened last Thursday.  I felt guilty about not writing everyday, but then I hated it when I did sit down and write, so I kept putting it off more and more.  Eventually, I recognized how crazy things had become and I just quit.

I started keeping a daily journal again early this year and, while I didn't have any trouble remembering to write, I still wasn't having fun.  My entries seemed to be full of nothing but complaints and worries and negativity about my life.  I didn't enjoy writing them, and I certainly didn't look forward to the day when I would read over my journal.  Then I remembered Dorothy Wordsworth's journals, my original inspiration for starting to keep a journal.  She didn't do too much complaining.  She stayed focused in the here and now, and found joy in her observations of nature.  Maybe I could do the same?  Maybe I could rethink the way I approached my daily journal?

I returned to my journal.  Again.  I picked a specific time of the day to write so I wouldn't forget.  In each entry, I focused on writing first some simple observations of nature and of the weather.  (Talking about the weather can be an icebreaker in conversation and it can be a great way to started writing a journal entry as well!)    Then, I wrote about the concrete, positive things that I did and thought about during the day.  While I may have mentioned some of the day's challenges and setbacks, I didn't allow myself to dwell on the negative.

It's worked.  I've been writing in my journal nearly every day for the last several months, and, even more importantly, I've been enjoying writing in my journal more than I have in a long time.  Now, I look forward to pulling out my journal every evening.  If I do miss a day now and then, I don't feel guilty about it or try to catch up by writing more the next day, I just move on.

Do you keep a daily journal?  What kinds of things do you write in it?  Do you make sure to write about the positive as well as the negative?  Have you ever had to rethink the way you approach your journal?

Shades of Blue

How about some cool blues for summer?

I've never particularly cared for the colour blue (green has always been my favourite), but because blue is such a common ink colour, I've managed to acquire quite a few blues nonetheless.  And the blues also run the gamut - from drawing pens to gel pens to pencils to cheap ballpoints to erasers and even a stapler!  There's a little bit of everything in this selection.

From left to right: Staedtler Triplus Fineliners in Light Blue, Royal Blue, and Aqua; Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen in Blue Black; Pentel EnerGel 0.5mm; Pentel EnerGel Euro 0.35mm; Pentel Slicci 0.3mm in Blue Black, Blue, and Sky Blue; Staples Gel Mini in Blue; Lyra Rembrandt Aquarell watercolour pencils in Prussian Blue and Light Blue; Staedtler Mars Lumograph 2B pencil; Pentel Aquash Waterbrush; Pentel Fiesta 0.5mm mechanical pencil; Sanford Speederase mechanical eraser; and Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser.

From left to right: Swingline mini stapler; Pilot FriXion Point 04 in Blue; Uni-ball Jetstream 0.7mm; Staedtler Norica HB pencil (a lost and found pencil); Bic Round Stic ballpoint; a rather scuffed Bic Soft Feel retractable ballpoint (a lost and found pen); Staples Comfort Stic ballpoint; Pentel Wow ballpoint; Laurentien pencil crayons; Prang ColorArt crayons; and a handful of miscellaneous clips.