As I was auditing my giveaway stash this week, I found this great Yamamoto Paper Tasting sampler I built at the 2022 San Francisco Pen Show. It contains 5 packs of papers of my choosing - Sun Sun Kent, Soliste, Ok Fools, Yamamoto Bank Paper Takasago Premium, and Passepied Cream - all 75 mm square in size. And the winner is:
Congrats Jeremy! I’ve sent you an email to collect your shipping address.
(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!.)
Up for review is the Sonic Utlim Sma Sta Canvas Bag in Bag in Ivory. It is a zipper pouch that doubles as a stand for your accessories.
When closed, the Utlim measures about 7.5” wide by 7” tall and 2.25” deep (19 cm x 17.5cm x 6xm). The back of the case, which houses a pair of magnets, is fairly stiff. It is primarily canvas with a “leather accent stripe”, though I could not tell if it was real leather or not.
Some potential uses for the Utlim: stationery and phone, cables, plugs/chargers or toiletries.
It looks a little strange from the back.
It is a bit of an odd shape as it isn’t exactly rectangular since the sides kind of bulge out - I’m not sure if it’s the design or the zipper or what. The base isn’t very wide, so it doesn’t stand up very well when zipped; in fact, it worked better upside down, probably because the top is 0.25” wider.
Unzipping the Utlim from the front, where there is some elastic on the front and a zipper on the other side.
After you unzip the front, you need to push the back side down so the magnets stick together, forming a stand/mini pouch, then you have to turn it around to use it. I found that kind of weird
This is a front view of an unzipped Utlim with the magnets engaged on the back.
Insert earworm: “Turn around….”
I was able to fit a Traveler’s Company passport size cover & inserts, a couple rolls of washi tape, and a glue stick in the main compartment, as well as some washi tape samples and a couple of pens in the elastic. I was also able to fit two rolls of washi tape in the zippered pouch.
This particular Utlim is marketed as an A6 case, and I was successfully able to fit an A6 Hobonichi (with cover), along with the above accessories.
A6 Hobonichi A6 with my iPhone 13 Pro in the pouch.
I was able to zip up the Utlim with the phone in the pocket with minimal issue, but the phone ends up in the upper portion of the pouch, making it top heavy.
You can also put your phone in portrait mode, giving you a little more room for items you want handy.
Side profile of the Utlim with the phone in the stand. As you can see, the angle is pretty vertical.
If you want your phone to be more angled back, you can separate the magnets, but whatever you’re carrying in the main pouch or the flap itself, will likely get in the way.
The 2” bottom also means that you can’t really fit anything wider than that in the lower part of the pouch. I was able to fit a small bottle of vitamins (phone was removed) but I wasn’t able to fit two Hobonichis. The vitamins made the pouch bulge forward a bit as expected when I zipped it up.
Even though the Utlim tag suggests a possible use as a toiletry bag, I did not try to get it wet or dirty, so I don’t know if the canvas would stand up to the inevitable moisture and stains.
It doesn’t hold a lot and anything I’d put in the “stand” portion would likely fall out as soon as I zipped it closed.
Here it is inside my Bellroy Tokyo Tote that I use as a journaling bag (along with a regular size Traveler’s Notebook, an A5 PLOTTER pouch, a binder of clear stamps, some ink pads, vial holders and washi tape.)
That said, it does its job of holding various products in a zippered pouch that converts into a stand. It could be handy for someone who needs a little organizer pouch in their backpack/tote and isn’t looking for something with a lot of capacity. And the stand is a neat feature, as long as you don’t need to store anything in that space.
The Sonic Utlim Sma Sta A6 Canvas Bag sells for $35 on JetPens and is also available in Gray. There is also a standing pen case that is also available in the two colors for $25.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
(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 her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
As much as I would love to, I can't turn a handwritten manuscript in to my publishers. Maybe I could if I were super famous, but alas, I am not. When I worked in publishing, we had one author who could get away with that. She didn't own a computer, so all correspondence happened through snail mail, and her pencil-on-notebook-paper work would arrive on my desk for me, of all people, to type up and edit. I was deeply annoyed, but mostly I was jealous. And I was glad to do it. It was more work, yes, and not my favorite sort of work, but her voice and perspective were valuable. I didn't want her left behind just because she'd hopped off the technology train. Heck, I'd probably follow her, if I could.
Even though I know I'm going to have to type all my writing in order to turn it in, I still love to hand-write all of my first drafts. I think better on paper, the project is fully portable, and it creates an instant physical media backup copy.
I make edit notes in a contrast color as I write, then do more edits as I type up the draft. After two rounds of digital edits, I print a paper copy and edit again in ink on the page. I input those changes in the computer, do one more digital pass, and then the manuscript goes off to the editor/publisher/agent.
The first round or two of editor edits are usually also digital, more because of time constraints and deadlines than any other reason. Then, when all the edits are done and the layout is complete, the proof is sent, and that one I prefer to print out and edit on paper, if I have time. The change in perspective helps the eye, and seeing the book as it will appear in print, where it looks like a real book more than a document, tricks the brain into the "last chance" panic mode.
We are just wrapping up Last Chance Panic Mode for my new book, Root Rot & Other Grim Tales, which releases in three weeks. Everything is done. Donsies. Finished. Finito. And can I say there is no part of this process in which I want to edit more than I do right now? If the first phase, the handwriting, is my favorite part of the process, the stopping is the hardest part.
Every story in this book started as ink on paper. Almost all of them were written in hotel rooms or on park benches, in coffee shops, or on beaches. Most of their earliest iterations live in the Seven Seas Writer notebook that was my story draft book for years, but some predate that notebook. One, Pelts, was written entirely with a dip nib and an inkwell on the back of my college homework almost twenty years ago, in the basement classroom where I taught a section of an APA paper writing course. I had an hour between my own class and the class I taught, and I used the quiet time to write.
One of my favorite things about short story collections is that I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing for each piece in the book. I don't think I'd have that same connection to the work if I was always sitting at a computer. And someday, when I'm old and famous, I can put my hand drafts in an archive. And get away with being quirky enough to turn them in to publishers, with a bottle of wine for the afflicted editor.
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