Pebble Stationery Co. Glacier Edition Pocket Notebook: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Pebble Stationery Company was founded by Lois Ho and Joohn Soh. Both founders originally did corporate work in Australia, but they decided to leave the world of meetings to create products that are useful, minimalistic, simple, and beautiful.

The Glacier is Pebble’s first limited edition notebook, inspired by the glaciers of Antarctica. Thus, the linen cover is an icy blue with the company’s logo in silver.

The pages are edged in silver foil as a special touch.

Each pocket notebook is sewn stitch bound with silver thread.

The notebooks are 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches with rounded corners.80 pages of 52 gsm Tomoe River Paper are printed with 4mm dot grid in light gray ink.

The inside cover includes a space for the owner’s name, contact information, the inclusive dates for the notebook, contents, and location.

As you would expect, Tomoe River Paper works extremely well with fountain pen ink. I tested the paper with a variety of pens and inks, and none of the bled through (although there’s definitely show through).

I also did several ink swabs. The paper handles all of the inks well, showing off the shading with no bleed through. I didn’t notice much (if any) sheen, however.

I also tested the paper with various gel pens, rollerballs, and ballpoints. The paper tolerated all of these quite well. Even the Sharpie ink (fine point) did not bleed through.

The paper is thin enough that when you write with sharp nibs or press down hard enough with rollerballs, the page underneath bears the imprints. But, those imprints will be obscured by any writing you do later.

The notebook is the perfect size for capturing to do lists, swabs, and short quotations.

My only criticism is that the dot grid is quite light and hard to see. I had difficulty keeping my lines straight because of this.

The Pebble Stationery Glacier Pocket Notebook is an example of outstanding craftsmanship. I love the attention to detail--the silver gilded page edges, silver thread, and silver embossed branding.

You can purchase the special edition Glacier Pocket Notebook directly from Pebble Stationery Company. For $12.00 you receive a pack of two beautiful notebooks. Get them while they’re still available!

(Pebble Stationery Company provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Colorverse Apollo 11 50th Anniversary First Moon Landing Limited Edition Ink Set Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

There have been so many fun moon landing anniversary editions in the stationery world this year, and the Colorverse Apollo 11 Ink Set is certainly no exception. It's a fun theme, a great celebration, and this is probably the most drool-worthy ink set I've encountered.

The first thing you can't help but notice about this set is the amazing packaging. The spacey looking grey box unfolds to fun facts and illustrations about NASA's mission and the spacecraft. Then there's a layer of wee cute ink bottles nestled in formed foam. The cardstock has more fun facts. Beneath that is another layer of ink bottles and yet more educational nuggets. The set comes with napkins and info cards and stickers. It's clear a lot of thought went into what would be inside this box besides the fun inks themselves.

I love the color choices for this set. It's the essentials--every color you really need is here, yet they're all still wonderfully within the theme. And somehow they've used common colors and still made them unique. Of all my sample cards, I could not find any that looked like a clear duplicate of any of these five colors.

Best of all, I love the tones. The blue-black, called Apollo 11, has a lovely smoky blue shade that pools to a deep navy. The grey, called One Small Step, is a perfect moon dust color. It seems cool in its lighter tones, and warm where it's darker. The teal, called Eagle, is fresh and bright but still readable. The green, Tranquility Base, is a lovely, earthy, matcha green. And the red, Columbia, is sometimes pink, sometimes orange, and sometimes deep red with a gold-green sheen.

The chromatography tests for these inks blew me away. The teal and red were fairly straightforward, through it did bring out the pinks in the red. The green left a lovely smoky line behind as the brighter neon green crept away. The blue-black had some lovely hidden pinks and purples that I hadn't been expecting. But that grey? Holy cats! Bright orange, pink, and teal. There's clearly some sort of alchemy afoot at the Colorverse laboratory. As I watched the colors climb the paper, I felt like I was watching some sort of spell unravel. And it also explains that dual warm/cold look to the ink itself.

I'll do a part two of this review where I talk about all of their behaviors in actual pens. But for now, I can easily say that this is the most fun I've had with inks in a long time. The only downside to this set? The price. The $100 cost is a bit high, even for all this magical fun. While I think the packaging is unbeatable as far as coolness goes, I wonder how much it has driven up the cost of this set. There are only 125ml of ink here. And while there's a good color variety, and the bottles are adorable, I'm not sure I'd have splurged on this. I think the audience for this package requires a very specific overlap in the Venn diagram of ink buyers: People who are drawn to practical colors, who are space fanatics, and collectors of limited editions. I'm sure there are plenty of pen addicts who fit into those categories, and I do hope that this limited run will all find good homes. I can't help but love it, myself. More fun with these inks to come next week!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Yookers Metis Felt-tip Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Every so often, you come across a product that seems so obvious and you can hardly believe that it hadn't already been done. While a refillable felt-tip pen may have been done before, I doubt it was done with the style and high-quality materials of Yookers.

I've been using the Yookers Metis pen for the past few weeks, and I'm honestly surprised by how well it works. It's a nicely-built pen that will last forever, and you can also use your own ink and swap out the grip section when the plastic tip starts to wear down or split. Even better, you can order several different size tips so you can easily swap them out in the same pen body. It's an ingenious system and one that I can imagine felt-tip aficionados will adore.

The materials used in this pen feel well made and are also quite a statement. The version of the Metis I have is called "black grid," and it's easy to see why. The black grid is separated by a satin chrome finish on the body, and the accents of the pen are a shiny polished chrome that really catches the light. The clip is sturdy and features some intricate scroll work along the edges that adds to the overall Art Deco aesthetic. The cap is hefty and screws/unscrews from the body with ease. You can also post the cap, but I've found that the extra weight throws off the balance of the pen. Given the dense metal materials used in the pen, this isn't surprising.

Under the cap, you're greeted with more of the same shiny chrome on the grip section, but there's also a unique black cone that houses the felt tip. The black cone adds a sense of precision with the bold white lettering that indicates the tip size. In my case, the "1.4" is unmistakable. Similarly with the other tips you can purchase, you'll never have to squint or wonder what size tip you're using.

One of the headline features of this pen is the ability to refill the pen with ink when it runs out. Additionally, you can also use any fountain pen ink, which opens up the color options exponentially. To make it even better, the grip sections accept a standard international cartridge or cartridge converter as long as it will fit in the body. This is a fantastic feature that gives you the ability to use your favorite colors in a felt tip pen. I currently have mine inked using the converter with Callifolio Pacifique. It's a great combination, and it's great to know that I can easily clean it out and swap in another color.

Writing with this pen is also exactly what you'd expect from any felt tip pen. It makes crisp, smooth lines, and moves effortlessly over the page. You have to be careful to only apply light to medium pressure in order to preserve the plastic tip, but that's the case with any felt tip pen. The bonus here is that you can choose a premium body to house your favorite ink colors and tip sizes. It's a complete dream when it comes to customization.

I've really enjoyed writing with the Yookers Metis over the past few weeks. I don't consider myself a felt tip fanboy by any means, but I can certainly appreciate a good writing experience. This is exactly what the Metis affords, and I'm sure you'll love it if you pick one up and use it for a few minutes.

There aren't really any downsides aside from price and longevity. Obviously, felt tips break down and become unusable over time. You can buy replacements, but the new tip is part of a new grip section assembly, which drives up the cost a bit. At $17 per section, you have to be really invested in this pen platform to make the price work. Disposable felt tip pens are very affordable and available in a wide range of colors, so this might be a hard sell for some. Another consideration is that Yookers has to be around in order for you to purchase grip sections from. If they fold or decide to refresh their product lines, you won't be able to buy any replacements, turning your nice pen into a fancy paperweight after your last tip dies.

Another thing to note regarding the converter filling system is that you can't treat this pen like a regular fountain pen when filling! Instead of dipping the tip of the pen into the ink and drawing the ink up by retracting the converter plunger, you have to add the ink directly to the converter. The tip doesn't allow ink to pass through it quickly enough to draw it up through the converter. I've been using a syringe to draw up ink, fill the converter, insert the converter, and then wait for the ink to soak through to the tip. This waiting process only took a few minutes to reach full saturation. The same wait time would apply if you opted to install the included ink cartridge or another cartridge of your choosing.

At just under $50, the Yookers Metis is certainly a luxury item. It's made well, is a joy to use, and offers great customization for felt tip fans. The ability to choose your own ink color and refill the pen is unique in this category, and it will certainly speak volumes to some. If this pen doesn't speak to you, then you're probably better off with the multitude of disposable felt tip pens available today! And hey, if the Metis doesn't fit your aesthetic, Yookers offer several other designs to choose from. I'm personally a big fan of the orange 751 and the red Eros.

(Yookers provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!