Comfortable Shoes Studio

Bookbinding

I’ve been working on some bookbinding. It’s a perfect task for a cold rainy day. I put together a few journals, not all are listed on etsy yet.

These have a thick coverstock paper that is perfect for sketching, light watercolor washes, collage, pen and ink work, as well as pencil. You can throw a ton of material at this paper and it just keeps on going. There are a generous 240 pages to these journals. They are FAT and can expand even more to take in all of your collage work.

They are bound with tough hemp, which can take a beating. I’ve omitted the use of beeswax, which makes these journals 100% vegan! The covers are made of old vinyl advertising signs stitched to cardstock advertising signs. These signs are tough and ready to take anything you throw at them. Don’t like the colors offered? This vinyl takes acrylic paint like a dream, so go ahead, decorate them.

These journals have all the same attributes as the above, but instead of heavy coverstock they are filled with 18# vintage IBM green and white dot matrix printer paper. One side of each sheet has green and white lines and the reverse is white. These journals fare best with rollerball and gel pens but can still handle items being glue sticked to the page. Again, they are filled with 240 pages of this lovely vintage paper.

10 of 30 in June

This page was started by creating gray lines with a pentel pocket brush pen in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. The lines are J. Herbin Gris Nuage Ink in a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen .

I then used a pale pink Derwent Watercolour Pencil to write an entry. I was reminiscing about this girl I used to work with at the grocery store, back when I was a florist. She used to wear prom dresses to work, and she was a bagger. The kid was hilarious, she’d find a $20 1980s prom dress at the thrift store and decide to wear it to work. So funny. You look at the registers and there would be this kid in a puffy pink prom dress, all satin and lace. Customers would ask her, “Is there a formal tonight?” and she’d reply, “Nope, I just felt like wearing this.” After I was finished writing I flooded the page with clear water. I added magenta to the left edge then allowed it to flow over the wet page.There were a few larger drops of water, I blew on them to create spatters and runs in the color.

I then colored a self portrait with blue watercolor. Then a brain drawing with pink and purple watercolors. Once dry I cut these from their backings and positioned them at various points on the paper. Once I found a spot I liked, I wanted some watercolor drops around the brain to add emphasis. I mixed up droplets of color and added them to the page. I wanted them to drip so I blew on the drops through a straw.(I forgot to take pictures of thisstep.) After allowing the drips and drops to dry I adhered the self portrait and brain drawing.

The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

9 of 30 in June

This page was started by attaching a mask to a page in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook I then flooded the page with red and magenta watercolors. After that I let it fully dry. I used my Pentel pocket brush pen loaded with Platinum Carbon ink to draw some waves. I used a white china marker to accent the tops of the waves.

After that I wanted to create some radiating lines from the heart areas of the sheep. I used a ruler to mark off the radiating lines. I then filled every other section with dark blue  watercolor crayon. I wet the crayons and then scraped it off. I don’t like the effect.

I had wanted to keep the sheep white, but I took the mask off too soon, so I’ve got traces of everything I used on the page within the sheep..

The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

8 of 30 in June

This page was started by writing with a fountain pen loaded with red ink on a page in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. After writing I put a red watercolor wash on the page. After that dried I layered a magenta wash over the top of the red.  I forgot to take a pic of the writing. I got excited by the creation process.

I used caran d’ache watersoluble crayons to color a die-cut sheep.I used watercolors to color a brain bright orangey red. I used an UHU gluestick to adhere them to the page. (forgot to take a pick of just the sheep and brain not glued to the page.)

After that I realized that the brain melted into the background. I really wanted it to pop, so I grabbed my white china marker and added circles all around the brain.

The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

7 of 30 in June

This page was started by flooding a page in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook with turquoise watercolors and then dropping purple into the still wet color. After that I let it fully dry.

I then colored 2 of my die-cut sheep a deep dark color by layering sepia and indigo watercolors. While I waited for the sheep to dry I also colored both a brain and heart print of some of my drawings. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to use. I cut both out once they were dry. I allowed the sheep to dry fully before adhering them to the page with glue stick.

After looking at placement of both the heart and the brain I chose to use only the heart, as it fits my mood and the thoughts I’m having as I work on this page. I uge UHU gluestick to attach it to the page. I picked a center point in the heart to use as the starting point of radiating lines. I then used a ruler to mark off the lines coming from the center. I used yellow and white colored pencils to fill in the lines. After the page was finished I burnished the colored pencils to give it a bright shine. Unfortunately I cannot take a decent picture of this effect as I’m getting too much reflection from the page. The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

Things to Read this Weekend

I wanted to get in on the Friday link love so here's my 1st Link Love post!

First, some props to Jessie for being bold and jumping in on the 30 in June challenge.

Check out the Pen Addict for pen reviews and some serious enabling on your pen addiction.

Check out Tammy over at DaisyYellow for more link love and loads of art journal inspiration.

Check out Eveline's sketches with watercolors on her blog. Amazing work.

Check out this post about ink in summer heat on Inkophile. Be aware of mold!

The June carnival of pen, pencil, and paper is here.

Don't forget to check out the 30 in June posts!

Also, You should watch this again:

 

6 of 30 in June

This page was done in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use watercolors. The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

I started by transferring an image of a sheep to the page with a Chartpak AD marker.

I then wrote my entry with a colored pencil.

After that I colored in some wedges with blue and teal colored pencils.

Then I used watercolors and covered over the writing.And added an outline of yellow around the sheep.

5 of 30 in June

This page was start in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use watercolors. The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

I started this page by using a pencil and a ruler to create a grid on my page.

I then colored a sheep die-cut with my favorite blue turquoise  watercolor. Then I glued it to the page. I then used my Chartpak AD marker to transfer an image of a brain to my page.

I used a terracotta Derwent Pastel Pencil to write. I obscured the writing by using a similarly colored watercolor over the top, in this case red oxide. I wanted the brain to stand out more so I use light cadmium yellow watercolor to color the brain. I have a thing with lines radiating out from a fixed point on my pages. I wanted somethign subtle on this page. I used a white plastic eraser to remove some of the watercolor and some of the writing, in lines radiating out from the center of the brain. Some of the lines were still dark so I used a stick Sanford Magic Rub Eraser to remove more of the watercolor. After that I used stencils to add the word BAA to the body of the sheep.

4 of 30 in June

This page was done in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use watercolors. The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

This page started with a 6B Eberhard Faber drawing 3800 pencil. I chose it because it’s soft and dark and sharpens with ease. I wrote a page full of musings on coffee and some of my first memories of the delicious substance.

After the writing was completed it was too dark to draw, sketch or even doodle over. I wanted to remove some of the graphite yet leave the writing. Using a kneaded eraser I started to lightly erase the pencil. I erased until I liked the amount of pencil left on the page. The kneaded eraser is great for this as it is a delicate eraser and complete removal is difficult but will leave the page unharmed.  I carefully removed the graphite moving the eraser gently over the page.

I wanted to add one of my self portraits to the page. It was a happy memory so I used a favorite turquoise blue to color in the the face. After the face was dried I cut it out.

I used my 2 way glue to position it on several areas of the page. Once I found a spot I liked I decided it needed 5 colored circles around it. I used a small bottle to trace the circles onto the page. I painted them red, orange, yellow, green and blue with watercolors. This allowed the text to show through the color.

Returning to my thinking motif, I carefully sketched a gear onto the page. I used watercolors to paint around the gear. I considered painting in the gear but I really liked the idea of it being a loose shape and something less defined.

Funny Picture

This picture is funny. The artist is working on the portrait  in a frame? LOL

 

it's a good publicity shot.

3 of 30 in June

This page was done in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I It’s got this awesome smooth plate finish, smooth enough that pens are great on it but tough enough I can work several layers and use watercolors. The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

 

I started this page with Derwent Watercolour Pencil. I’ve got a set from the mid-90’s that was given to me as a gift, so while expensive they last a long time, even with frequent use. I did my writing which filled half of the page. I then added clean water with a big brush. I moved the water around over the pencils and then dragged the colored water down to the white area of the page. After I’d covered the page in pale blue color I added some more water and manipulated the pencil some more. I then allowed this to dry at an angle so that the colors dripped and moved around the page.

While the main page dried I grabbed 3 of my die-cut sheep. I used a 2-Way Glue to temporarily hold them to a spot in my big art journal. I then added yellow, orange and bright red watercolors to them. While these dried I then considered my writing and what it meant. My choice of the sheep is usually to address my own sheep-like tendencies. The writing was about breaking with the herd and skipping out on something traditional. It also addressed some of the consequences of not following tradition.

I keep looking at this page and thinking it needs something indefinably “more.” But at the same time I love it’s perfect simplicity. So, in the end I’m leaving it as is and turning the page. Maybe the fact that it leaves me feeling that it's unfinished is what I'm supposed to feel withthis page, I think that art journaling sometimes unveils feelings we aren't ready to conciously think about, but by looking at and considering our pages it makes those feelings clear and easier to address and explore.

2 of 30 in June

This page was done in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I chose it for it’s smooth yet tough paper. The finished image is 5x7 inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

 

This page started with a section of junk mail security envelope collaged onto the page. I used a UHU glue stick to glue it to the page.

I then did my writing, in a technique I call overwriting. You’ll be able to read exact instructions on this technique and more in my upcoming zine, “My Headlines and Stories.” I used Derwent Watersoluble Graphitone 2B labeled as a brown or tan. (It turns out the color on the label is only for identification and NOT to indicate that it’s tinted a color.)

After I was done with the writing I wet the water soluble pencil, completely saturating the page. I used my brush to move the graphite around, but mostly allowed the water to do the work. While letting the page dry I printed off 3 copies of a self portrait I drew. I painted these with a hot orange red. I used turquoise blue to paint a stripe over the eyes. The red and blue mixed to create a purpley grey color. I painted these pages very wet so the colors dripped down the page. I encouraged this by tapping the page on it’s edge. While waiting for the faces to dry I went through my personal ephemera, stuff I’ve gathered over time and looked for items that struck me as fitting the page. I pulled 3 cup sleeves from Karma Coffee.  I was not sure if I’d use them or not. After some fiddling with them and the faces I decided to glue them down with just the word KARMA sticking out over the heads. After the faces were completely dry I cut them from the larger page. I used UHU glue stick to adhere them to the page.  After gluing them down I realized I could use my exacto and scrape off the word coffee, so I did.

I wanted to utilise the elephant that is part of the Karma Coffee logo, but wasn’t sure how. I fiddled around with the look and placement of the logo. Then I decided it would be a shame to cover up the great texture created by the overwriting technique, so I cut the logo from the cup sleeve. I then positioned this here and there over the page before settling on a final spot. Once I glued it down I realized it disappeared. I drew a circle around the logo and then filled with withthe same turquoise blue I used on the eyes. I used a rag to lift up some of the color, creating a nice mottled effect. Things I like about this page: I like the use of repeated imagery, something that happens in a lot of my work. The use of personal ephemera, particularly the Karma coffee sleeves, as they are now from my past as is the topic of the writing. The logo of the Karma Coffee Company is an elephant a perfect metaphor for the topic of the writing. the overwriting texture is awesome, but hard to see in these images.

Things I don’t like about this page: The lack of control on the watercolors in the faces. I went very wet into wet with these and wish I’d let the red dry a bit before applying the turquoise. Alternately, the lack of control is very appropriate given the subject of the writing.

 

Available on Etsy here.

Priestly Thoughts June 1

This page was done in a 6x8 inch Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. I chose it for it’s smooth yet tough paper. The finished image is 5x7inches and is available matted and ready for framing on etsy here.

I started the page with a sheep mask with an overlay of chrome yellow and red liquid watercolors. Yesterday I found some images of guys in funny hats on Flickr, and I had sketched them a few times, I decided I wanted to continue with that theme. So, I sketched a guy with a funny hat in pencil using a palomino blackwing original.
I then inked the sketch. I used a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen inked with Platinum Carbon Ink.

I wrote my journal entry with a Derwent graphitone in 2B light, in some tan or brown color. (Some of the text is blurred to protect the not-so-innocent.)

 

The image of the man in the funny hat didn’t stand out from the background so I used some earth toned watercolor on the negative space to make the face stand out and blur the writing. It worked.

Then looking at the face I decicded he needed some highlights. So I added some highlights with a white China Marker. (Which you can see in the above picture.)

 

Finished piece is on Etsy here.

Things I like about this image: The graphic quality of the line in his face. The hot colors in his face. That he overlaps an image of a sheep, in the context of the priest gives some interesting meaning. I love the layers of meaning here. The writing is about a formerly catholic friend who is dying, so add the additional layer of meaning to the already complex page. I love that the text is muted and partially legible in the finished piece, but very hard to read. This perfectly compliments my feelings on the subject. (It’s a complicated friendship.)

Things I don’t like: The earth tones in the negative space. I think this image REALLY could have used some color opposites, a nice indigo would have been perfect in opposition to the oranges. But the problem is that it would have blended with the oranges and made something muddy.

Curious Incident

Yesterday while I was trying to kill the last 15 minutes before I had to pick C up from work I decided to clean my Noodler’s Ahab Flex pen. It’s been working pretty well, writes nicely, with plenty of flow. It was in desperate need of a good cleaning. So I gave it one in plenty of warm soapy water. Everything got a good scrubbing, including the tiny breather tube.

Then I brought it back into the office for a good once over with my floss (piece of tin can cut to scrape gunk out of the fins of the feed) and get it put back together right. I blew the water out of the breather tube and sat it down, never to be seen again. Did I mention that I had it working perfectly? Once you get an Ahab tuned perfectly you don’t really want to mess around with that perfection, you never know if you will get it working right ever again.

I searched for it and was nearly late for picking up C, and never found it. I have no idea where it went. One might think it’s somewhere on my workbench, but I can't see it. Resolved that I wouldn’t find it again and prepared to fiddle with the *(&*%*^*&* pen for the rest of the night, I put it together with 9 fins showing and the nib fully seated.

And wouldn't you know, it works perfectly and if anything, better than before.

 

Oh and later I'll  have my first 30 in June post up. Are you playing along?

30 in June

If you are interested in joining in with me for the 30 in June Challenge, here's an image you can post on your blog or blog post:

And here is the code for blog loading:

<a title="30 in June by lessherger, on Flickr" href="http://comfortableshoesstudio.com"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7407/8901630644_ee3c7a087d_n.jpg" alt="30 in June" width="168" height="223" /></a>

Just copy and paste the red text!

Let's bust out of our journaling habits and try some new things!

 

Read about it here and here.

Still Journaling

You might think that because I'm working so hard on  "My Headlines and Stories" and making books that I'm ignoring my art journaling. While I might go a day or so without art journaling I'm definitely journaling.

I'm also getting ready to do 30 in June. Which I've mentioned before as my method of getting back into the daily manner of art journaling, which I've definately NOT been doing. I wrote about the 30 in June here. (Let's see if I can remember to link that up when I post this...) Small 5x7 pieces posted to the blog, daily along with being put on Etsy. Yeah, I'm going to sell the art journal pages. Why? No idea, but the thought was to keep me honest and force me to have a goal in their creation and to keep creating. Without a forced public goal (blog post and etsy) what is to keep me creating? I think eventually I'll be able to just create on the positive vibe of the art making.  Who am I kidding, I like goals, I need goals, so I give myself goals...

Do you want to join in or just watch the fun? Starting June 1, watch here for lots of art journaling experimentation.

Trying to Make Them Vegan

I’ve been making these recycled covers for a long time, and with the exception of the beeswax on the hemp cord, they are vegan. Yesterday I decided to try and make them 100% vegan.

Beeswax acts in a couple of ways when binding books, first it keeps your thread or cord from tangling. Secondly, it helps the cord to pass through the stations as you sew. Lastly when you tie a knot the beeswax helps it to stick in place. I also notice that it improves my grip on the needle, since the wax is slightly sticky at body temp.

Since the hemp cord I use on these books doesn’t tangle I decided to omit the wax altogether. Big mistake, the protection the wax gives the cord as it passes through layers of paper keeps the hemp from fraying and getting too fibrous and insightly.

I have some paraffin leftover from canning. I decided to test that out. Instead of melting to the cord as it passed through the wax, it was as if the cord cut it, like a chain saw, leaving behind lots of tiny little flecks of paraffin all over me and my workbench. What a mess. the paraffin on the cord was also in these tiny little pieces. I used a lighter and carefully heated the wax and melted it to the cord. It worked really well. However at body temp it made my hands very slippery. I had to use a pair of pliers to pull the needle and cord through the paper. My next experiment was to melt a small puddle of paraffin onto a piece of cardstock and pass the cord through the melted puddle of wax. I used my fingers to press the wax into the cord a little bit and to pull off any excess. This seemed to work the best of any of the methods.

I’ve got a couple of unscented candles that are made out of other waxes and don’t contain any beeswax, so I’m going to mess around with melting the candles along with some paraffin to see if I can get a wax that works better.

27 Covers and Counting

The covers freshly cut from signs. These banners were all about 3 feet high and 8 feet long. One was only 1.5 feet high. They had brass grommets about every foot and a half which really screws up with my ability to use ALL the poster. I can either cut 3 inches from each edge or cut covers from between the grommets. I chose to cut between the grommets.Interior pockets, with ID tag sewn in. I use a jig to keep placement of the tag similar on each pocket. The tag is first temporaily glued in place then permenantly stitched in place. After stitching the extra thread is removed then seared with a lighter.
The pockets start as a 5.25x8.25 sheet of old cardstock poster. The poster has a top corner folded over. These pockets are then temporarily glued in place then stitched to the covers. I use a zig zag stitch for strength.
27 finished covers including 3 that are not perfect. I will hold off on stitching the seconds for awhile. These covers have some neat patterns created not only by hte images on the posters but the text that appeared on the posters.
I have a few more covers to stitch up before I even get to the task of adding paper to these covers.

Handmade Journals

I finished a few books from some covers I’d made years ago. I had forgotten how much I like bookbinding. It’s really relaxing. Anyway, these books feature a sturdy soft cover made from an old advertising sign. The cover is vinyl. The paper is a heavy duty cover stock, almost cardstock weight but slightly lighter. Each book has a pocket in the front and the back of the book. The pockets are stitched in place with quilting thread. The books are bound with super sturdy and tough hemp cord.

This style of journal is one of my favorites. I’ve used them extensively to take notes at my old DayJob, creating tough notebooks of reference information. I have one that is over 7 years old, and the cover has only gotten better looking with age. Bumper stickers stick to these notebooks incredibly well.

Anyway find them on my etsy shop here.

Oh yeah, this paper? Great with fountain pens.

Baa Baa Sheep

Awhile ago I picked up some Staedtler watersoluble crayons. They work okay, but seem to resist melting as easily as other brands. For this page I started with some collage of personal ephemera. I then dusted the page with watercolor crayon shavings and added water. I smeared and moved the crayons around the page with my procaulk tools. After allowing the page to dry I sketched the olde-timey dude and used a stick eraser to remove some of the watercolor crayon to add areas of light in his face. After that I added the die-cut sheep and tissue paper.
In the Pukka tea sachet is a folded up note that was written to me. I added a small tab to allow the note to be removed and read with ease. The sheep, as usual, reflect sheep-like thinking on my part and the author of the note.
I received some neat parting gifts from my coworkers as I left my DayJob. The frog I sketched here was one of the gifts. It's a neato still life subject.

Review: Iroshizuku Asa Gao Ink

Recently I bought a sample of Pilot’s Iroshizuku Asa Gao ink. I’d read great reviews of it online and figured I should try it. I’ve tried one of their gray inks previously and loved it. This one well, read on...

All of the Iroshizuku inks boast a smooth writing experience. They have good flow coming out of the pen and lubricate the nib as it glides across paper. Asa Gao performed well in this respect, it’s a very enjoyable ink.

I’ve got it in my Pilot Prera medium nib and my TWSBI 530 medium nib. Both pens write flawlessly with this ink, on any paper I throw at it. From my absorbent Canson XL pocket sketchbook to my Leuchtturm1917 dot grid to my new found HP LaserJet 24lb paper it worked well, even impressively on all papers. It resisted feathering on most papers but showed some bleed through on some. Dry time was slower than average, but not by much.

All in all writing was a joy with this ink. 

My problem with it is the color. It’s boring. It’s straight up blue. There is nothing that makes this blue stand out from the crowd when compared to other blue inks. It’s simply a nice blue ink.This is not the ink that will sell you on the Iroshizuku line.

To me I can get other nice blue inks for a lot less then $28 a bottle. Do I dare suggest that Parker Quink blue is also a nice blue ink but is a mere $10 a bottle? It is also a nice blue color that has decent lubrication, flows well and is kinda boring. Or what about Noodler's Blue? Less expensive, good lubrication, but it's Noodler's.

I feel like a blasphemer for suggesting this but, if you are going to go Iroshizuku check out one of their other colors for the wow factor Asa Gao might have you falling asleep.

Personal Ephemera and Writing

I sat down with my art journal this evening and started to write while watching some TV. (I love me some Amazon streaming.) I reacted to some of the personal ephemera from my last days at the DayJob. I wrote and wrote some more. then I looked at what I had been writing and what I’d been reacting to and I asked myself the most important journaling question ever:

 

Why am I reacting in this particular way to this particular item and moment?

I looked hard at myself and realized that the answer was in my head. My reaction was less about the other person as it was about me.

I control my reactions and actions.

While it’s useful to explore the negative emotions and ideas that come along with those reactions it’s also important to explore the reasons behind those reactions and actions. The further exploration is the hard and most useful part of journaling.
Is the page pretty? Hell no. I’ll add a few more layers of collage and stuff but honestly it isn’t a pretty page but it’s a useful page. There is more meaning to the page than anyone else will ever see.

These pages are an example of some of the work I'm doing for my upcoming zine, "My Headlines and Stories."

 

Facebook Sketches

I’ve written before about how I occasionally get bored and draw from the facebook pictures of my friends. A couple of weeks ago I realized we’re not all 20-somethings anymore*, most of us are married or are on our second or 3rd marriages. We’ve all got some gray hair and a few wrinkles.

In some cases I bet we’d hardly recognize each other of we met up in person.

*We're all closer to 40 now than 20.

The First Day of Real Work

Today starts my self-employment. I’m forcing  myself to take a week to relax before I dive head long into the work of the site and writing. I know that by the end of the week I’ll be working hence the forced relaxation period. This weekend C and I watched some crap TV shows and cooked. It was great.

I started some random art journaling last night by culling through my pile of personal ephemera. I picked stuff out and glued it to the page. No rhyme or reason, but where it called to be glued. Where it looked good to me. A simple concept but one where I had to let myself be random and not plan out the page.

After that I wanted to clean off one of my watercolor palettes so I wet the colors and used a big brush to slather colors onto my pages. Again I wasn’t calculated or planned about where and what colors I used. I simply looked at what colors I had and what looked good on a page, then slathered the colors onto the page. I mixed colors on the page, worked wet-into-wet, and layered the color on top of the ephemera. Some of the ephemera resisted the watercolor, some absorbed it like a sponge.

I’ll write on these pages and then add more color and collage over my words. It’s all process.

Review: HP LaserJet 24lb Paper

I’m always looking for a printer paper that works well in my printer and with fountain pens. The standard photocopy paper I can get feathers and bleeds with fountain pens or liquid ink pens and is now about $6 a ream. When did paper get so expensive? I decided to branch out and try out a new paper. I’d heard great things about HP’s laserjet papers on the fountain pen network, but the often recommended 32lb is simply too thick for me to bind into journals with ease and runs about $19.99 for 500 sheets. Also my printer has trouble with the thicker paper. I took a chance and picked up the HP LaserJet Paper that is 24lb and bright white. It was $11.99 for 500 sheets at my local Staples. Regular printer paper is about 1 cent a sheet. This is 2 cents a sheet. The HP 32lb paper is 4 cents a sheet.

It feels very smooth when I run my fingers over it’s surface. The paper is a crisp bright white color. At $12 a package it’s about double the cost of the lowest priced paper we usually use in our laser printer. The printer prints really nicely on this paper. The lowest priced paper from Staples tends to occasionally jam the machine when I print longer documents. Occasionally an entire ream won’t run through the printer well.

Testing out a few different pens I had no feathering or bleed through. I tested the following pen and ink combinations:

Pilot Prera M Iroshizuku Asa Gao

TSBI 530 M Iroshizuku Asa Gao

Rotring Esprit (non Retracting) EF Private Reserve Sonic Blue

Kaweco Sport M Noodler’s Eternal Brown

Zebra Sarasa 0.7 M Black

Noodler’s Ahab Flex Camlin Turquoise with a touch of my black junk ink blend

Not one of these inks had any bleed through or feathering on this paper. The pens didn’t quite skate across the paper. In my mind this paper has just the right amount of tooth for writing. It wasn’t as smooth as a Rhodia Webbie but it also wasn’t like writing on newsprint. It reminded me of Staples sugarcane paper. Smooth but not too smooth. The paper was dense enough that there was no show through, which means that both sides of the page can be used and you can read both sides. This makes me really happy. I plan on making some books with this as the filler.

Overall this paper is a great choice for people looking for budget fountain pen friendly paper that is not as heavy as the HP LaserJet 32lb paper. It fold well so it’s great for bookbinding.This paper will save the frustration of writing on paper that feathers and bleeds like crazy. To me that’s worth the additional penny a sheet.

You can get this paper through amazon here: HP LaserJet Paper