Bringing you Pen and Pencil News, Reviews & Tutorials
This is the place to find out what the latest news is from the wonderful world of pens pencils and stationery. It’s also where we will include anything interesting that grabs our attention such as did you know that the head of Mi6 signs documents with the letter C in green ink and is associated with what is fondly known as the loony brigade. Or how far will a ballpoint pen write? and which ones write the furthest. You would be amazed to find out the crazy things people do with sharpies.
There is also the answer to questions such as can I get ink poisoning from a pen? or lead poisoning from a pencil? Speaking of poison do you know where the phrase the poison pen comes from? We all know that the Brits are a little bit quirky, but do you know why they call a ball pen a biro? Or have you seen the hilarious Bic Crystal pen reviews on Amazon? Which are rivaled in hilarity by the spoof ads for Bic’s complete and utter marketing disaster the Bic for Her range of pens?
Other things that may be of interest that you can find in this category are what you write and the way you write it. Have you ever wondered about what your handwriting says about you? or when you are writing your signature does neatness count? With tablets and smartphones taking over the world is handwriting now obsolete?
Have you ever heard of a Skerple marker?
Neither had I until the other day when I ran across an article by a college professor about a Chinese knock-off of the Sharpie marker. Turns out, the Skerple looks like the Sharpie in almost every regard, even using similar font for the name, and can be found in many discount stores, as well as on eBay. [Read more…]
Sharpie has a brilliant new ad campaign highlighting its Ultra Fine Point permanent markers by displaying tiny artwork on what looks like red blood and bacteria cells. [Read more…]
We get a fair number of people coming to this blog for the answer to the question of whether or not you can really get lead poisoning from a pencil. so we thought we’d address it briefly. [Read more…]
Regular readers know that we’re big fans of Sharpies – I even carry a Sharpie mini on my keychain – so it was with some disappointment that we recently came across a blog post explaining how transient that supposedly permanent ink can be. Although after carrying out some more research we found that regular Sharpies are indeed notorious for fading but not all Sharpies fade easily. They have brought out an extreme fade-resistant marker and also their oil-based paint markers are very resilient, making them ideal for surfaces such as wood and ceramic mugs.
The American headquarters of the Pilot Pen company is located in a middle-sized city in the far northeast corner of Florida, called Jacksonville.
While it’s becoming more modern – it has its own NFL franchise now – Jacksonville is still very much a mix of old Deep South and Navy port town. Not exactly the kind of place you expect to find runway models and fashion shows.
But, apparently, Jacksonville hosts its very own Fashion Week, an event designed to “establish Jacksonville as (a) fashion destination in the Southeast and ultimately, by discovering talent, be a major contributor to the industry itself,” according to the JFW site.
Pilot is one of the event’s sponsors. And, at this week’s show, Pilot plans to debut a dress by designer Bobby Kelley that is made of nearly 500 red FriXion erasable pens. (There’s probably a joke about an erasable dress in there somewhere.) [Read more…]
