Welcome to the first instalment of Noteworthy OFP!
I’ve had some people send me emails recently to tell me about their websites or companies. Since I’ve paused blogging a year ago, it seemed that a few more stores and services have popped up online. It’s great to see that the world is still being interested in fountain pens and everyday carry.
Galen Leather
Image Source: Galen Leather
The first mention I would like to make today is Galen Leather. Here is a short description snippet of them:
Galen Leather is an Istanbul-based leather studio.
Mostly making leather covers for popular notebooks, all items are handmade by two persons: Zeynep and her brother Yusuf.
Their journey started as a hobby, making a very simple journal cover, and now it is their regular job. Also they are personally interested in fountain pens and stationery, and are members of the Turkish fountain pen community (writetomeoften). They love working with all natural ageing materials like leather, brass and wood.
Galen is the name of their favourite precious stone. Also, Galen is the name of a famous philosopher name Claudius Galenus, who was born in Pergamon (present-day Bergama, Turkey – the city of leather).
They are focused in making leather journal covers compatible with Moleskine, Rhodia, Leuchtturm 1917, and Field notes.
Galen Leather is interesting to me because I like leather products for my stationery. I used to have a cloth wrap, followed by my Penvelope, and between the two, I always chose my Penvelope after all. I went to browse Galen Leather’s website and saw that they have a nice variety of leather products of different shapes and sizes – take your pick! If I could only choose one that I am the most interested in, it would have to be the Traveler’s Notebook Covers. All those colours! And the brass charms! They look really good and are sold at a decent price too. I have been thinking about setting up a Traveler’s Notebook for myself, so these covers are definitely something to consider. Here is a pretty balanced review of Galen Leather’s Traveler’s Notebook Cover by The Gentleman Stationer.
Have you ever tried Galen Leather’s products? Share your thoughts about it in the comments below this post!
Wonderstreet’s Analysis of Calligraphy Pens
When I first came across their article, “The Best Brands of Calligraphy Pens“, I was pretty impressed by the amount of work that has gone into comparing a whole range of calligraphy materials, ranging from fountain pens, to dip nibs, to brush pens, to even markers. Wonderstreet has listed a variety of calligraphy pens, and mentioned the pros and cons of each pen. This gives a pretty balanced appraisal of the pens which we can refer to very quickly. The list is, of course, not exhaustive. I would have liked to add a bunch of vintage calligraphy pens, as well as modern flexible nib pens, but I imagine that this would make the list pretty endless!
In their final notes, they also provide specific recommendations on products to use based on different needs. The good thing is that the products they have selected to talk about are also relatively easy to obtain, which is important. It looks like a resource that I can point a beginning calligrapher to, if they have questions about “what pen or nib should I use”.
After seeing this article, I had thought that Wonderstreet might be a site dedicated to pens, or writing, or even a webstore. When I checked out their About page, I was pleasantly surprised that they are an art platform for artists in the UK. I’m glad that there is such a platform, and that they did not forget to include calligraphy as one of the notable skills.
Seen any of your favourite calligraphy pens listed? Tell me about it in the comments below!
Letter Writing: The Traditional Way
I’ve seen a few letter-writing blogs, but Anchored Scraps is pretty new to me. But a baby it is not, as it has a whopping 925 blog entries on it, and counting! The creator, Helen Rittersporn, has been diligently making a post a day about a variety of topics, for 900+ posts, and is on her way to achieve her 1000 daily posts milestone. Talk about perseverance and commitment! Topics cover all, if not most aspects of traditional correspondence. You’ll see posts about envelopes, stamps, cards, letters, organisers, and more.
Helen herself is one who is very passionate about letter-writing. In fact, she has approached me to be pen pals, but I unfortunately had declined it for now – sorry, Helen! However, I myself like very much the feeling of receiving something in the mail (except bills and advertisement flyers!), so I might look into taking up correspondence again in future.
I used to participate in InCoWriMo, which is short for International Correspondence Writing Month. The next InCoWriMo should be coming in February 2018, so you can start preparing your letter-writing materials soon!
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Et voila, that was the very first Noteworthy OFP post. I hope you have enjoyed it and learnt something new today!
Want to be featured or share an interesting article or product via Noteworthy OFP? Send me an email!
I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.
