Ninth Wave Designs

2006 Moleskine Diary & Planner Availability

The 2006 Moleskine Diaries and Planners are in short supply.  I was able to confirm on Wednesday that the U. S. Distributor will no longer be able to fulfill any orders for the Large and Pocket size Daily Diary format, and the Weekly Planners are nearing the end of their availability.  Ninth Wave Designs has a limited stock of Weekly Planners available in both the pocket and large sizes, but no longer has the Daily format available.  Because of the limited sales time frame for the diaries, the manufacturer, Modo & Modo of Italy, has decided not to reprint the Daily formats, so the U.S. Distributor is unable to get any more of them.

The good news is that looking ahead to the 2007 Moleskine Diaries there will be some new formats available.  There are plans to release an 18 month academic year planner in 2006, as well as a new diary format that features alternating formatted planner pages with standard ruled pages.  This format was available only in Italy this year in limited production, but will become available in the United States in 2006 for the 2007 calendar year.

A new format sketchbook will be available in 2006 as well, with pages specially designed for watercolor.  I will be testing the pages of this new sketchbook as soon as I can get a sample and will post the results here on the NWD blog. Stay tuned!

2006 Moleskine Diaries are available in the Ninth Wave Designs store HERE

And in the Ninth Wave Designs eBay store HERE.

Exacompta Index Card Update

The new shipment of Exacompta index cards have arrived (see this previous post HERE).  Since it may take me a while to add them to the NWD online store I have posted a PayPal button here for those of you who may be waiting to get some of these.  I have them in two sizes now, the large are 4" x 5 7/8", and the extra-large are 4 7/8 x 7 7/8.  They come 100 cards per pack in 5 assorted colors. The extra-large are great, they are almost the same size as the pages of a large Moleskine notebook, providing a good expanse of index card for those bigger organizational projects. 

Index cards are out of stock for now. Thanks!

NWD Gallery Update: Alchemy Notebook

Just a quick post to say that there are two new images added to the NWD Gallery:

These pages are from my Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook and were done using a combination of liquid acrylic paints and watercolor pencils.  I am interested in ways that Alchemical imagery corresponds with Jungian archetypes, and have begun this series of images to explore particular symbolic ideas.

You can view the full size images in the NWD Gallery HERE.

Quotes For Your Notebook: Sarah Vowell

This latest quote is from the book Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, and addresses the "Grandfather Paradox" concerning time travel.

"The grandfather paradox poses this riddle: What if a person traveled back in time, encountered her grandfather, got into an argument with the grandfather, and then shot her grandfather to death, thereby ensuring that the granddaughter herself would never be born?

What I like about the grandfather paradox is that it treats time travel not as some lofty exercise in cultural tourism - looking over Melville's shoulder as he wrote Moby-Dick - but as a petty excuse to bicker with and gun down one's own relatives."

I have encountered this paradox in several books dealing with the concept of time, and in EVERY sci-fi TV series I have ever seen, but never has it been presented in such a revealing manner.  When I read this I howled with laughter, seeing for the first time, compliments of Vowell's trademark droll humor, just how ridiculous the Grandfather Paradox is.  Why such violent ideas associated with time travel, as if it would be impossible to go back in time and not turn into the Terminator?  "Grandfather, I'll be baahk".

If you are not familiar with Sarah Vowell I would recommend first hearing her read her essays on This American Life or as a book on tape.  I find I cannot read her books without hearing her voice narrating them in my head, and frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way, no matter how psychotic that sounds.  Her voice is essential to the delivery; otherwise you just might miss the subtlety of the humor.  Incidentally, Vowell is the voice behind the awkward daughter Violet in the Pixar movie The Incredibles.

It is no suprise to me that Vowell would excel at providing voice acting for animated characters, since, until I actually saw what she looked like, I always pictured Velma from the Scooby-Doo cartoons when I heard her radio essays.   Even now that I have seen a picture of Ms. Vowell I still think she looks like Velma (without the glasses).  If they make another live action Scooby - Doo movie (not that I'm hoping they will) I think they would do well to cast Sarah Vowell as Velma and make it her movie: Then everyone could share my vision. If the main plot line involved time travel Vowell (as Velma) would have the opportunity to act out the Grandfather Paradox on the big screen providing for some great action scenes, i.e. Velma as the Terminator with a sawed-off shotgun in hand. I can hear her in my head now - "Jinkies, Granddad, I'll be baahk".

Palomino Pencil Update

As a follow-up to the previous post The Search for the Wild Blackwing, the Ninth Wave Designs store is now offering sets of 6 of the Palomino HB pencils.  Also available are combination sets of Palomino pencils and Moleskine pocket notebooks and sketchbooks through the Ninth Wave Designs eBay store.  If you are interested in trying these pencils you can order using the button below:

Once put into the PayPal shopping cart, this item can be combined with other items in the Ninth Wave Designs online store.

UPDATE 11/1/06: This promotion has ended.

The Search for the Wild Blackwing

Finding the elusive Blackwing 602 pencil is a lot like bird watching.  You need to be in the right place at the right time, and be very patient.  If you are lucky enough to find one you will end up feeling like you have just spotted the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker: rare, thought by everyone to be extinct, but lurking in the wild waiting to be discovered by the devoted few.

I have written previously on the NWD blog about Blackwing 602 pencils (HERE and HERE), partly because they are my favorite writing instrument, and partly because I still can't quite accept the truth that they aren't being made anymore.  In an attempt to move on in my life and find a way to acceptance I have focused my pencil obsession in a new direction: finding a replacement for the Blackwing 602.  I have searched the web, read personal opinions among the comments from Pencil Revolustionaries, and haunted the aisles at my local Staples (until I started getting funny looks from the sales staff).  Finally I am able to say that I have found a pencil that meets the challenge, which picks up the gauntlet thrown down by the Blackwing and offers a compelling alternative to the ruling champion of writing instruments.

First, a short eulogy:  There is something about the Blackwing 602.  Maybe it is the sleek silvery-grey color of the finish or the distinctive eraser shape that sets it above your average pencil.  Maybe it is the slogan stamped in gold: Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed. For me it has always been the graphite core that makes the difference.  I love great design and innovative looks, but it is the function that is the ultimate criteria for me, the thing that makes or breaks even the coolest looking product.  No other pencil provides that smooth and rich writing experience.  But they are no more, driven into extinction from the same quirky detail that set it apart from other pencils; the metal clip that holds the eraser in the ferrule.

In my search for a replacement of what I consider the best pencil ever manufactured, I needed to find a pencil that had at least these qualities established by the Blackwing 602:

1. Dark smooth graphite with a slightly waxy feel to it.
2. Graphite that doesn't smudge easily (eliminating most grades over 4B).
3. Reasonably priced (i.e. not so rare that you have to buy at collctor's prices).
4. Produced by a company with commitment to pencil quality (to avoid future heartbreak should they stop production on a whim).

I gathered several brands and lead grades of pencils together, some easily found in office supply stores, others sold in art supply stores.  After trying them all out in my Moleskine Reporter notebook (this is a stab at journalism after all) I reduced the crowd down to these runners-up. Here is the list of contenders for the throne:

• Staedtler Mars-Lumograph 100: 4B
• FaberCastell Noblot Ink Pencil 705
• California Republic Palomino: HB
• Sanford Design Ebony 14420
• Prismacolor Turquoise 02268: 4B
• California Republic Palomino: 2B

I ran these pencils through the testing facility, meaning I wrote and scribbled with them in my Moleskine, and compared them against the Blackwing for smoothness in writing, darkness in writing, smudgability, ability to create a range of shades of grey, and ease of erasure. I switched back and forth often with the Blackwing, to give a good side-by-side comparison. After this rigorous process I found only three of the above pencils performing well in all categories. The finalists are:

• Staedtler Mars-Lumograph 100: 4B
• California Republic Palomino: HB
• California Republic Palomino: 2B

The Palomino 2B was a late entrant to the race, as it is among the newest grades being produced by California Republic.  It seems odd to have two pencils from the same maker, so instead I will treat them together as one finalist.

Testing the finalists in my Moleskine Reporter notebook.

As they say at the Miss America contest, everyone is a winner.  In the case of finding a replacement for the Blackwing 602 the same is true.  Of the 3 finalists there were only subtle differences between either of the pencil brands.  The subtle differences between them may be settled by your own individual preferences, but here are my results:

The first runner-up is:  Staedtler Mars-Lumograph 100: 4B!  Should the winner of the Blackwing 602 replacement contest be unable to fulfill its duties, the first runner up will ... well, you know the drill.

And the winner is:  California Republic Palomino: HB & 2B!  A tie really between the 2 grades - both possessing smoothness in writing that compares equally to the Blackwing 602.

The Lumograph 4B is a very smooth writing pencil, but a little on the smudgy side and ever-so slightly less waxy feeling compared to the Palomino.  I chose the Palominos because they each accomplished the smooth and waxy feeling on paper that is almost identical to the Blackwing 602 but at lower and less smudgy grades.  The 2B is a bit softer and darker than the HB, but for general use, daily writing and sketching, the HB provides the same pleasurable writing experience at a lower and cleaner writing grade.  Frankly, I am very impressed that an HB pencil would even be a contender to compare with the 4B grade of the Blackwing 602, so for that reason alone I pick it above the Palomino 2B.

The Blackwing 602 will never be replaceable, really.  It possesses a certain inimitable quality, the combination of unique elements that make it impossible to reproduce exactly.  Now that I have found Palomino pencils I am much happier having a day-to-day writing instrument of such high quality without the concern associated with using a rare and collectible pencil.  The Blackwing may be gone, but long live the Palomino!

Thanks so much to Phoebe Epstein for the use of her birdwatcher photo above.  See her complete Flickr photo album HERE.

NWD Expanded Bookshelf

The Bookshelf side bar now has an expanded presence on the NWD weblog.  As with my own personal library, the limited space in the sidebar, matched with my unlimited consumption of books, has created the need to expand the bookshelf.  I am now keeping a master list of books listed in the Bookshelf TypeList as well as any books mentioned separately in blog entries.  These are books I have read or am in the process of reading, many of which offer further reading for the topics covered in the NWD blog.

As this list grows I plan to break them up into subject areas for easier browsing. I promise, no matter how long the list becomes, to never employ the Dewey Decimal Classification System.  I recommend all of the books on this list as great reading based on my own personal, albeit eclectic, taste in books. If you have some books to recommend please drop me an email using the link in the sidebar above. Also, don't hesitate to ask questions about specific titles via email as well. Enjoy!

You can access the expanded Ninth Wave Designs Bookshelf HERE.

NWD Gallery Update: Pendulum

This latest update to the Ninth Wave Designs Gallery includes images from my Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook. 

The sizing of the paper in the Moleskine sketchbooks makes using watercolors on the paper difficult.   I have found that tempera and watercolor pencils have more body and don't bead up when you apply them the way watercolor does. Even though Moleskine never recommended using watercolor in the sketchbooks, many users have found this to be an annoying quality in the sketchbook paper.  In the spring of 2006 Moleskine will be releasing a new watercolor sketchbook, with paper expressly designed with watercolor use in mind.  I eagerly await the chance to try one of the new Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks out, and will post about it as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I enjoy working in a wide range of mediums in my Moleskine sketchbooks, and have never been very troubled by the specifics of the sketchbook paper.  Recently I was experimenting with liquid acrylics on the pages of my sketchbook and found that the peculiarities of the paper sizing made it easy to create a vellum effect on the paper, a very convincing looking vellum effect actually.  This was an exciting discovery for me, since I have an interest in old manuscripts and imaginary writing.  I was recently introduced to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript (thanks Paula!) and wanted to create some images that had a similar feel and contained mysterious elements.  The image above, called Pendulum, is my first attempt at what I plan to be a series of pages along this line.  In fact, I may just have to tint all the pages in my sketchbook to look like vellum - it is such a great effect! 

You can access the NWD Moleskine Gallery HERE.

Quotes For Your Notebook: Magical Alphabet

This latest quote from the pages of my Moleskine pocket diary is from the beginning of the book Mysteries of the Alphabet by Marc-Alain Ouaknin:

"The magical alphabet, the mysterious hieroglyphic, merely reach us incomplete and distorted, either by time or by those very people who have a vested interest in our ignorance; let us find the lost letter or obliterated sign, let us re-create the dissonant scale and we shall gain strength from the world of the mind." - Gérard de Nerval (1808 - 1855)

It is precisely the mysterious aspect of ancient scripts that makes them compelling to the artist and poet alike.  Nerval was a French poet and bohemian, a friend of Baudelaire.  I am not sure what larger context this quote is taken from, but I gather from reading his short biography HERE that he was the kind of writer that was drawn into the mysteries of ancient signs and symbols.  As an artist it has always been interesting for me to try to see beyond the commonplace usage of language to the deeper symbols embedded in the words and letters themselves.  Nerval's quote is a call to examine this magical aspect of the alphabet, and he even tempts us with a touch of conspiracy theory suggesting that there are deliberate means that keep us from knowing the truth.  The challenge is finding something within the symbols of letters, whether contemporary or ancient, that carries deeper meaning for ourselves, since the original meaning attributed by the first writers of these alphabets are forever lost to us.  Perhaps it was the way the first writing tools fit the hand that influenced their forms, that the charcoal stick or quill played an integral part in their development and left their own natural imprint into this human communication.  Whatever the origin, whatever the form, Nerval's quote asks us to take time to contemplate these letterforms as a way to strengthen our minds.  Considering that many early Greek philosophers felt that writing weakens the mind by removing the need for memorization, it may be good advice indeed!

Magical Alphabet quote from my Moleskine diary.

Here are a few good books on the history of the alphabet:

Mysteries of the Alphabet by Marc-Alain Ouaknin

The Alphabetic Labyrinth: Letters in History and Imagination by Johanna Drucker

Magical Alphabets by Nigel Pennick

The Alphabet Abecedarium: Some Notes on Letters by Richard A. Firmage