Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera - A Review, Part 2

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Last time, I did a review of Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera but you may recall that I wasn’t done! Sure, I finished the ink review portion but there was more that I wanted to share, so here we are!

In addition to the inks he picked up at the Atlanta show, Brad also got some other fun swatching items from Dromgoole’s. They include the Wearingeul Color Chart Cards, Instant Film Color Swatch cards, and Clear Chart book/binder.

*Clockwise from upper left: Instant Film Color Swatch cards, Clear Chart Book, and Color Chart Cards.*

100 Color Chart Cards cards come in a plastic card case and measure approximately 3.5” x 2” (90mm x 50 mm). They have a bottle printed on the front as well as two dots on the right, one on top of the other. I’m not sure what the dots are for, so I just wrote next to them. On the back of each card is the word ‘Jaquere’, which is Wearingeul’s sister stationery brand that “aims to provide a better writing experience through Quality Writing”. The Color Chart Cards are available in a Horizontal and Vertical orientation; this is the Horizontal version.

The Instant Film cards come in a pack of 50 and are approximately 3.75” x 2.25” (87mm x 53mm). They have this shiny, slightly textured border around the swatch (not the entire card) and feels similar to the edge of a Polaroid picture.

*Shiny but unobtrusive border around the Instant Film cards.*

I compared the swatches on the Color Chart Cards and Instant Film cards to swatches made on Col-O-Ring swatch cards using both the Wearingeul inks from the last review as well as non-Wearingeul inks - Jacques Herbin Violet Imperial (shimmer) and Robert Oster Napa (non-shimmer). The colors were true to the swatches I had made on the Col-O-Ring.

*Comparison with Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera.*

*Comparison with Jacques Herbin Violet Imperial and Robert Oster Napa.*

Now that I had these swatches done, I wanted to see if they would fit in the binder! I’m calling it a binder even though the pages aren’t removable and it doesn’t have rings. It measures approximately 7.5”L x 4.5”W x 0.75”D (195mm x 110mm x 20mm) and has a pliable but firm plastic cover with a button closure. There are 40 sheets (80 pages) of sleeves, each containing 6 slots (3 on the front and 3 on the back), so you can put 240 swatch cards in here!.

*The binder, also made by Jaquere, was designed to hold the horizontal or vertical Ink Color Chart Cards.*

*It can also fit the Instant Film swatch cards, but the Col-O-Rings are a bit too long. They do fit, but I think the ends would start to curl as you put more cards in the sleeves.*

This is gonna get nice and thick once it’s filled!

*These stickers are “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself) because they aren’t pre-cut. You can cut them to any shape/size you’d like and decorate your binder!*

The Color Chart Cards are available for $6, the Instant Film Swatch cards for $5, and the Binder for $6. They can be found in the Wearingeul paper section on the Dromgoole’s website. I’m still going to stick with my tried-and-true Col-O-Rings for all my swatching, but I might use this for all of my Wearingeul swatches!

(Disclaimer: The Wearingeul products were purchased from Dromgoole’s for a discount at the 2023 Atlanta Pen Show. The Jacques Herbin and Robert Oster inks as well as the Col-O-Rings are my own purchases.)

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Posted on July 14, 2023 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Ink Reviews, Wearingeul.

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 572 - A Time of Great Upheaval

*Retro 51 Pan Am Airlines Tornado Rollerball Pen.*

Myke and I went off the rails immediately this week. What was the cause? Social media, of course. We try to wrap our heads around the Wild West we are currently living in. It’s quickly on to the pens from there, specifically, Muji Polycarbonate updates from around the world, a compelling Retro 51, and a discussion on how to review 15 fountain pen nibs.

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code PENADDICT.

Pen Chalet: Click the ‘podcast’ link at the top of the website and enter the password 'penaddict' for this week's special offer, and to get your code for 10% off.

Posted on July 13, 2023 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Podcast.

Endless Explorer Refillable Journal 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 latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

The Endless Explorer Refillable Journal is Endless's take on the classic modular notebook system. It's a minimal design, just a leather cover with a system of elastics to hold up to three notebook inserts. The inserts are Endless's Storyboard notebooks.

The inserts themselves are very nice. They have a sewn binding that holds 64 pages of dot-grid Tomoe River paper. The Explorer pack only comes with one insert, so others would have to be purchased separately to get the full benefit of the system. The set also has the option of adding a pen holder that is also an elastic band that wraps around the cover vertically. It can wrap around the whole cover and serve as a closure strap, or just around the front cover. Either way, I found it mostly got in the way, either acting as an obstacle to getting into the notebook, or as something bulky that made for a lumpy writing surface when using the back side of pages. If you don't write on the back side of pages, it may work well for you.

Tomoe River paper hardly needs further review; it's still the best out there, in my opinion. This is the 68 gsm weight, and it can handle anything, even Sharpie, with just some faint ghosting. Because it's so lightweight, the inserts look slim while still packing a generous number of pages.

The elastics that hold the inserts in place are nicely finished so there are no knots or frayed ends loose in the book, and the elastic has a nice amount of tension so that it holds the notebooks snugly, preventing them from wiggling or sliding out when you don't want them to.

The system comes in a very fancy presentation box with a drawer that pulls out from the side. The box can then be used as an archive for filled inserts, though it's a bit bulky for that purpose. An included paper provides instructions for how to insert multiple notebooks, as well as a way to register your notebook system. It all feels very high-end and snazzy.

The Endless Explorer Notebook system sells for between $40-$50, with inserts that cost around $10, depending on where you get them. That's a very fair price for the quality, and it's in line with similar notebook systems. And there are a lot of similar systems. Where this one differs is in finishing touches--especially those neatly finished elastics. It's also a good size. It's smaller than an A5, but wider than the Traveler's Company notebook, making it a nice middle ground as far as portability and writing comfort. There are a lot of options to choose from in this style these days, but I think this Endless version is a particularly nice one.

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

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