Notepad Review: Rhodia dotPad

Sometime in spring last year, Rhodia introduced a new addition to their line of notepads, and they called it the dotPad. dotPads are "functional black stapled notepads with a dot grid." Yes, the dotPad has dots – not lines, just dots – tiny, subtle purple dots spaced 5mm apart. According to Rhodia, the dotPads are brilliant alternative to traditional lines and boxes found in other notepads, including some of Rhodia's own, and the dot grid is a favorite for graphic designers, architects, artists and everyone looking for a subtle grid.

When Exaclair VP for Marketing Karen Doherty sent me the J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink last November, she included a No. 19 Rhodia dotPad which I called Dottie.

The dotPad's ruling system is new to me. I have never tried paper with dot grid before as I always used lined/ruled paper. My Journal is ruled, the notebooks and notepads I've used in my ink reviews are either lined/ruled or squared. The reason why I've always avoided blank paper is that I find it uncomfortable to write on. Now with Dottie, I can write, do calligraphy, and even draw (and color!) without worrying about my handwriting going to wrong directions, or with lines getting in the way of my calligraphy and drawings.

dotPads, like other Rhodia pads, are staple-bound. But unlike its siblings, dotPads have black covers instead of the traditional Rhodia orange. The top of the inside cover is scored so that it will fold back easily towards the back cover, but what it reveals once folded is something so cool to me - the Rhodia logo. A thicker board is placed at the back of the pad, aside from its back cover, to provide it with stronger support.

Dottie has the same smooth, white, acid-free, ph-neutral 80gsm Clairefontaine paper that I have enjoyed using in my previous ink reviews. The pages are microperforated and very easy to tear off. Like many fountain pen users, I prefer using Rhodia pads and notebooks as they are very, very friendly to fountain pen use. It's the perfect paper to use in my ink reviews!

The photo below shows all of the J. Herbin inks I got in my ink stash right now. I used an Herbin glass dip pen to test all 14 inks on a page off my Dottie.

Below are more pen and ink tests on Dottie.

A selection of fountain pens and inks...

Some of my gel pens...

A pencil and a Sharpie.

Look! No bleed! Except for the ultra-fine Sharpie that bleeds on almost anything.

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Below are some macro shots of different inks on the dotPad's paper. I realized that this is the perfect paper to test inks because most of the 'featherers' and 'bleeders' on my ink collection behaved beautifully on this paper.

Lovely Herbin inks! See how smooth Rouge Opera and Vert Pré are on the dotPad.

I'm happy to see the red undertones of Diamine Majestic Blue here because it does not always show - my guess is that the paper/pen/ink combination determines such.

Caran d'Ache is sooooo smooth.

And Noodlers too! I told you they all behaved well - no feathering, no bleeds! Yay!

The dotPad that Karen sent to me is the No. 19, measuring 8¼ × 12½. It is available in four sizes, though: 3 3/8" × 4¾", 6" × 8¼", 8¼" × 12½" and 16½" x 12 ½";  in a number of Rhodia and Exaclair retailers worldwide. Coming up in 2011: a dotted Webbie! Can't wait!

And now for a bit of experiment and fun. Here is a Stegosaurus I drew and colored on a page of my Dottie. I got it from About.com's cartooning for kids section for my niece. I just love the cute smile on this dino's face that I drew one myself. I used a Sharpie ultra-fine pen for dino's outline. Though I have not tried any of my inks for coloring, I used J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche for its body, Orange Indien for the first row of armor plates and tail spikes, and Terre de Feu for the remaining armor plates and its toe nails. I enjoyed coloring this cute dino so much! I felt like a kindergarten kid again!

Rhodia dotPads are available in different sizes to fit everyone's lifestyle. Use it for note-taking, writing lists, doing calligraphy, sketching, drawing, painting, and so on. The possibilities with these pads are endless!

Ink Review: Diamine Majestic Blue

When I haven't any blue I use red.

- Pablo Picasso

Imagine Picasso running out of blue while painting the Old Guitarist. Or the La Vie. I wonder how his masterpieces would have turned out had he ran out of blue. Interesting, isn't it? But could it be Picasso who inspired the chemists at Diamine to put together blue and red in one ink color they called Majestic Blue? I wonder.

Being a huge fan of blue inks, I have read (and tried) a lot about them and came about Diamine's Majestic Blue long before Phil Davies sent me the box of sample inks for review. I've been curious about Majestic Blue for long and filled a number of pens with it as soon as I received the samples. Since then, I've been a huge, huge fan of this ink!

Diamine Majestic Blue is a deep, dark, saturated blue that is almost blue-black, but it has a reddish undertone that simply amazes me. Before the J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink, I have not seen an ink with an undertone such as this one. While wet, Majestic Blue appears to be a deep blue-black -- almost black -- but dries off a beautiful and unique dark blue.

Diamine Majestic Blue reminds me of the blue skirts I wore to school when as a precocious 6 year-old attending Mrs. Avanzado's Grade 1 class, I proudly read stories and poems from books, and wrote and drew on the blackboard using a dusty chalk. My favorite story then was "Henny Penny". Incidentally, the Henny Penny book had laminated dark blue covers like Majestic Blue. Oh, the memories of those days!

Below is a written review of Diamine Majestic Blue. Like the Woodland Green review, I wrote on Kokuyo paper using two pens: a Platignum calligraphy pen (from fellow FPN-P member Eilu) with medium italic nib (blue pen on the left), and a white Parker Jotter with a Pentangeli stub nib.

Diamine released Majestic Blue in late 2009. It is a moderately saturated ink like other Diamine inks, but  flows well on most of the pens I used for this review, especially on the Platignum calligraphy pen. Shading can be seen in the strokes made by the Platignum pen, probably because of its broad calligraphy nib, and the reddish undertone against the blue shade is visible at the beginning or end of a stroke written using my Parker Jotter with a stub nib.

And here's Diamine Majestic Blue up close. Note that it behaves differently when dry on different paper types. 

On Kokuyo paper, written with the Platignum calligraphy pen. Lovely shading, though not as obvious as I would have wanted it to be.

Again, on Kokuyo paper with the Parker Jotter with stub nib. Note that the comma has a different (reddish) tone.

  

This is on Eagle notebook paper. The letters l and u both have the red undertones.

Here's Majestic Blue on Saizen notebook. No red undertones on this one.

On Scribe squared notebook. There is minor feathering, but no bleed. Again, no red undertones.

Lastly, this is on Venzi notebook paper. Look at the letter l. See the red?

I don't have much blue inks to compare Diamine Majestic Blue to, but here it is with Noodlers' Bad Belted Kingfisher and Midnight Blue. It appears more of a dark blue than being a blue-black beside the Noodlers' inks.

Like Woodland Green, Majestic Blue takes a longer period of time to dry, mostly because of its saturation. But still, it dries a beautiful deep blue, so it's worth waiting for a page to dry.

Founded in London, Diamine has been manufacturing inks since 1864. Diamine is one of the largest producers of a large range of fountain pen inks as well as the famous Registrar's Ink for permanent records. Diamine fountain pen inks are available from the Diamine site or from the Writing Desk in the UK. In the US, they are available from the Goulet Pen Company or the Pear Tree Pen Company. (I have no affiliation with any of these companies.)

(The glass boots used in this review are shooters (a type of shotglass) from the UK, gifts from a Lovely friend. I had fun trying to find stuff that will go into my review -- in this case, the English ink is complemented by English shooters and English pens. LOL. The paper and blue cloth are both Asians, though.)