Adieu Moleskine - Hello Parchment

Here is my poor moleskine, which has put up with me for 6 months, with my thoughts and moans and experimental pens which left smudges. And I even made it fat. And now our journey together is ended, though it shall forever be a treasure.

And this is Journal 17. A handmade journal with hand decorated paper. I bought this quite a while ago - at least a year, probably longer - but couldn't use myself to write on these lovely pages. Sometimes, I get that with journals. For some of them, I just need to wait until I am ready to use them. But I am ready now.

Compared to moleskine it's got a lot less pages, and also I am writing much more into journal now, so I don't expect this to last long, but looking forward to filling it.

On practical matters:


Because it is handmade, it would not take the battering as well as the moleskine, so I shall not be carrying it everywhere.

Pages are very good quality, and thick, so all those pens that bled through in plain moleskine work well here. After a little test (it comes with a square piece with a note about the journal, but the back is blank so a good place to try out different pens.

Pentel Gel Pen and Zebra liquid Ink Roller Ball, as well as Gel Pens will be my preferred choice for this journal. They write well, don't bleed through, and liquid ink doesn't smudge on the page.
Parker and Watermen Fountain pens don't work so well, because the ink doesn't come out dark enough on these pages.

It is a very light journal, so it would be easy to carry it around if I wanted to. While it is not as flexible as moleskine in terms of just leaving it open, it is comfortable enough to write in.