Review: Diamine Florida Blue Fountain Pen Ink

Diamine Florida Blue fountain pen ink tested in a medium nibbed Sailor Sapporo fountain pen. Paperblanks off-white ruled journal.

I had to re-write this review because I had previously stated that it was too thin and causing this nib to be scratchy. NOT TRUE. I found that the nib tines were out of alignment. When I flushed and filled this pen, I had unscrewed the nib to clean it better and I believe I must have screwed it back in too tightly because the nib was being mis-aligned by the feed. I unscrewed it just a smidge and viola! Now its writing as smooth as can be.

This ink has tremendous flow. A nice mid blue similar to Mediterranean Blue. Great shading. Fairly well saturated.

Only thing is that this ink is causing tiny blood spots on the back of the page in this Paperblanks journal and also in the Rhodia Webbie. It bled and feathered quite badly in a Moleskine. Herbin's Perle Noire, Bleu Pervenche & Rose Cyclamen sometimes does that as well - pushes just a bit through any paper. My first time seeing a Diamine ink do that.

No, wait... looking back through this ink book I see it again with Royal Blue and Steel Blue. I didn't use those colors in the Webbie so I can't compare. Maybe it's the inks because they are in the same color family, maybe it's the paper. Though I find that to be strange since I tested well over 60 different FP inks in this and two other Paperblanks journals with no ill effects.



Buy Diamine Inks in the UK at The Writing Desk or directly from Diamine and in the US from The Pear Tree Pen Company Ink is sold in 80ml glass bottles, 30 ml plastic bottles, and selected colors are available in cartridge form.

Review: New Clairefontaine DCP Digital Color Copy Paper

(Blueish cast to paper in above image due to my shooting in direct sunlight.)

People looking for individual blank sheets of Clairefontaine paper (for art, writing or bookmaking, etc.) will be pleased to know that Exaclair will begin importing Clairfontaine's Digital Color Copy Paper into the US in the spring of 2010. Intended to be an alternative to expensive glossy paper for color prints, DCP is A4 in size, 8 1/4 by 11 3/4".

Specs are as follows:





While I typically do not print photos from my computer printer, I was very interested how this paper might work for various art applications. I also know that there are people that have been looking for single blank sheets of Clairefontaine paper for making their own journals and I think people will be quite pleased with the results.

I first tested several different permanent markers on the DCP paper: Sharpie, Staedtler Lumocolor and Bic Mark-it. Each of the markers were quite vibrant on the paper.



There was some bleed through with the permanent markers - but truth be told, I've yet to find a paper less than watercolor weight that didn't bleed. Even my Borden & Riley marker paper bleeds through like this.



Each fountain pen ink I tested flowed smoothly & effortlessly on this paper. It's similar to the Clairefontaine Triomphe in that aspect. (Mandala drawn over top with a Pitt Brush Pen.)



Faber Castell Pitt Brush pens POPPED on this paper and I'm willing to guess it would be like that with most markers, solvent based or not.



I tested three different kinds of colored pencils on this paper. Regular Prismacolor, Derwent Inktense & Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor pencils. Whatever the Prismacolor pencils are made of, they did not go down smoothly on this paper. As the surface of this paper is super smooth, the pencils didn't have anything to grab onto and it was not a pleasant experience to work with them on this paper. I also tried one of the Rhodia pencils, (HD lead) and the results were similar.



The Derwent Inktense pencils went down on the paper a little better than the Prismacolor. In the above example, I colored in the design and then went over the pencil with a Niji Waterbrush. This paper does not love water - in fact - the less used, the better. (It gets a little crumbly when too much water is used)



The Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils worked quite nicely when doodling on this ultra smooth paper - much better than the Prismacolor or the Inktense. In the above example, on one half I tried coloring in the design & then washing with the brush and on the other half, I touched the tip of the wet brush to the pencil & then painted with it. That method worked better than running the brush over the color on the paper.



My Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble crayons went down on this paper as smooth as silk. Two similar doodles but on the second, I washed over the doodle with a waterbrush.



Keeping in mind that this isn't specifically a paper to be used with water based media, (some resistance to water and buckling occurred) single strokes of a light wash seem to do fine. Artist grade watercolor paints were used in the example above.



Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks - same results as mentioned above. Colors are really vibrant.



Testing to see if both sides of the paper react the same when water is applied and the answer was yes.



I wanted to see of there was any liquid substance that this paper would really agree with and painting with J. Herbin China/India ink worked like a charm. Filled in with J. Herbin Rouge Opera fountain pen ink that I have in a Niji Waterbrush.

Of note, looking at a sheet of this paper next to the Triomphe, (which is a bright white) the DCP has a very slight bluish tinge to it. I'm guessing this has something to do with how the colors are able to pop on this paper. It is not a distraction to me and unless you hold it against another paper, it may not even be noticeable.

To the best of my knowledge, it appears as though 100 sheet packages of the DCP will sell for around $12.00. Once again, this product is not currently available, and is expected to arrive later this spring.

49 Songs from my Roller Disco Days or 1980-81's The Soundtrack of my Life

Perhaps you remember the post I wrote about a year ago about my return to the roller rink of my childhood. The image above was taken sometime around 1980-1981 and this time around, I'd like to talk about the music from that time that stays with me to this day.

I grew up primarily listening to AM radio and Mom's record collection- which at the time included Barry Manilow, The Bee-Gee's, Barbara Streisand, Sonny & Cher, and the soundtracks to Saturday Night Fever and Grease. (Some other time I'll tell you about how I threw out my Dad's old Santana and Jimi Hendrix 8-Tracks because the music scared me... D'oh!)

Around 8th grade, I started to spend an excessive amount of time at the local skating rink courtesy of neighbors who were there 4 days a week. While these days, my iPod is filled with extreme diversity such as heavy metal, ambient, world music, rock, jazz, swing, etc., the music below is what's really in my blood. It's why I can skate, dance, drum & shake the hell out of a shekere. Let me send out a big huge THANK YOU to the rink's DJ (I wish I knew who they were!) who helped create the soundtrack to my life.

I've always held the theory that the music from your early teen years, that time before high school and when things start to get all pubescent & wonky, is the music that stays with you forever.

Let me first preface that I have been working on assembling these songs for YEARS...... Many were only available on 12" EP's and later on compilation tapes. (Which I would later replace with CD's) iTunes helped tremendously to fill in the final missing pieces with the exception of one song which I could never find, (one of my all-time favorites) "On the Beat" by the BB&Q band which I finally found on You Tube - a tinny mono version but a version nonetheless that allowed me to stop thinking it was a figment of my imagination.

These are the ones that I specifically remember skating to. (or at least I think I did.... cut me a break, I'm old.) When one of these songs would come on you'd suck up the last bit of Pepsi from the cup, toss it in the trash and skate like hell to get out on the floor and feel the beat.

Oh heck. I just realized that I don't have a copy of "Always & Forever" or "Superfreak" or "17" or "Double Dutch Bus" arrrrgh!!!! I thought I was done! How could I forget those? iTunes, here I come! (I guess the more time passes, the more I recall though I can't seem to remember what I did 5 minutes ago...)

And so here you go. 49 songs from my roller disco days. There were 50, but I had to cut Michael Jackson's "Wanna be Startin' Somthing" because that came later.

Ai No Corrida	Quincy Jones
Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now	McFadden & Whitehead
And the Beat Goes On	The Whispers
Apache	The Sugar Hill Gang
Boogie Oogie Oogie	A Taste Of Honey
Boogie Wonderland	Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions
Brick House	Commodores
Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)	The Gap Band
Celebration	Kool & The Gang
Circles	Atlantic Starr
Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)	Chic
December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)	Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Disco Inferno	The Trammps
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough	Micheal Jackson
Donna Summer - Bad Girls	Donna Summer
Early In The Morning (12" Version)	The Gap Band
Fantastic Voyage	Lakeside
Forget Me Nots (12" Version)	Patrice Rushen
Get Down On It	Kool & The Gang
Got to Be Real	Cheryl Lynn
The Hustle	Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
I'll Be Around	The Spinners
I Got My Mind Made Up	Instant Funk
I Will Survive	Gloria Gaynor
Instant Replay	Dan Hartman
It's a Love Thing	The Whispers
Knock On Wood	Mary Griffin
Ladies Night	Kool & The Gang
Let's Groove	Earth, Wind & Fire
Let's Start the Dance	Bohannon
Mama Used to Say	Junior
Never Can Say Goodbye	Gloria Gaynor
Off the Wall	Michael Jackson
On the Beat	BB&Q Band
Que Sera Mi Vida	Gibson Brothers
Rapper's Delight (Long Version)	The Sugar Hill Gang
Rock The Boat	Hues Corporation
Rock With You	Michael Jackson
September	Earth, Wind & Fire
She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)	Carl Carlton
Stomp!	The Brothers Johnson
Take My Heart (You Can Have It If You Want It)	Kool & The Gang
Take Your Time (Do It Right)	The S.O.S. Band
Too Hot	Kool & The Gang
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)	MFSB/The Three Degrees
Vertigo / Relight My Fire	Dan Hartman
Working My Way Back To You	Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
You Dropped A Bomb On Me	The Gap Band
8th Wonder	The Sugar Hill Gang

Note: There of course were a few quintessential disco songs such as Chic's "Le Freak" and Lipps Inc's "Funkytown" that I really didn't care for which is why they don't live on my iPod.

Please enjoy.

FYI - Amazon often has music (MP3's) cheaper than iTunes. I'll give you one to get you started.