Seen in the wild

Raw

 in Seen in the wild  tagged Hobonichi / Kaweco / Kaweco Sport by

Nice to see the Kaweco AL Sport Raw on Hobonichi’s web site. In the past they used Staedtlers and Stabilos.

I have never held a real AL Sport Raw in my hands, but during our Kaweco factory visit last year Sebastian Gutberlet told me that the moment you touch and use the pen your fingers will start to scratch the surface.

The Raw seems to take the concept of ‘beauty through use’ to a whole new level and seems to be a good fit for Hobonichi.

You can read more about the concept of ‘beauty through use’ on Lexikaliker’s blog (Google Translation of the German blog post into English).

Italian Stationery (and Hobonichi)

 in Seen in the wild  tagged Fila / Hobonichi / Italy / Lake Garda / Molho Leone / Noris / Pelikan / Pignastyl / Staedtler / Temagraph by

I hope you’re enjoying the Summer.

Last Summer East…West…Everywhere made me aware of Hobonichi Techo’s 2018 Advance Notice.

Well, this year there’s the Hobonichi Techo 2019 Preview Festival – and it started today. What a nice start for August.

My July also came to a nice end: our family was lucky enough to spend a few days in Northern Italy (to celebrate a special occasion). We were near Lake Garda and it was really beautiful. There were lots of Germans and Austrians in that area. I am not surprised. It’s not that far to drive from Austria or Southern Germany. There was of course also some stationery to see, which I want to share with you.

Once I ordered Cotoletta di Pollo. It came with fries which were served on a reproduction of an old British newspaper. 

Did you spot it? Let’s do a close-up.

There’s fountain pen advertising in the corner. Richt click and open in a new tab to see how much you can save on a Fleet Pen ;^P

In Verona, I also came across a shop selling posh fountain pens. I love the Pelikan sign outside the shop.

You might know that Staedtler’s Noris is my favourite. I was happy to see this Noris stand in Malcesine.

In that shop, they also sold other, nice stationery.

I couldn’t resist and brought these items back from my trip: Turkish paper clips,  Italian paper and German/Chinese pencils. I have covered Lyra’s Temagraph in the past, but now I also have one in 3B 8^D.

In a Pizzeria I managed to see a calendar hanging from the wall, much like the ones shown in the past. The one I saw seemed to be from the tax authority (I think). Stationery-filled holidays are even better than normal holidays 8^)

Lidl UK Supermarket Offer

 in Seen in the wild  tagged Hamelin / Herlitz / Lidl / Pelikan by

When I went to our local Lidl1, I noticed a few nice stationery offers. If you’re based in the UK they might of interest to you.

Amongst other items Lidl UK is currently selling German-made Pelikan fountain pens for under £5 (~<$7; <€6).

They also sell pencil cases (including content) from Herlitz, a brand I mentioned in the past, for the same price..

..as well as German-made notepads from Hamelin, the company behind Oxford paper and other brands.


I did manage to resist, but the offers are quite tempting.

  1. A global discount supermarket chain, similar to their probably better known competitor Aldi. [↩]

Albrecht Dürer in scharlachrot 2

 in Faber-Castell / Pencils / Seen in the wild by

On a recent trip to Manchester, I walked by a Pull & Bear shop. As far as I know, this chain is from Spain. I was quite surprised to see that all video screens in the shop and most printed posters displayed Faber-Castell pencils, specifically their Albrecht Dürer series in scharlachrot. Red = discounted prices, so it seems like a good choice. It’s nice to come across pencils in unexpected places.

There was also a German sharpener, but I am not sure which make it is so will not comment further.

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer in scharlachrot

I came across even more pencils when my employer, a university, had a graduate show next to my canteen. There’s just something about pencils that represents so many different concepts, like creativity, ideas, … you get the (happy) feeling that pencils are here to stay for a bit longer, despite the ‘digitalisation’.