#nanami paper

[ramblingsofnobody]

Some journal pages from today. Notebook is Nanami Paper's Seven Seas Crossfield from a few years back.

[ramblingsofnobody]

Plus some pictures of the baby herself

[talkamongstthetrees]

The Seven Seas of Rhye...ter.

A new year, and a new review! I haven’t posted anything in a while due to a lot of things eating away at my schedule over the past few months. With the hectic holidays over with, I’m going to bust out one of the things I picked up for Christmas: Nanami Paper’s Seven Seas Writer Notebook.

Having experimented with Rhodia, Midori, and other treated papers, I was always eager to try the next brand and see how my favorite inks would look and perform. Friends had spoken highly of the ghost-like, veil-thin Tomoe River paper with such enthusiasm that I knew I had to try some. I went in head-first with picking up the Seven Seas Writer, and I'm glad I have. From the moment I removed the wrap and held the notebook’s elegant packaging, I knew I was in for a treat.

The notebook itself is sturdy in the hands, while at the same time feeling light enough to carry around with you. Midori's stitched binding is high quality and lays very flat, but somehow Nanami Paper gets the Seven Seas to lay even flatter! Nanami Paper uses Buckram for the covers for this year’s notebooks. They can take some bending and abuse, which makes this a great traveling notebook. Guide lines are dark enough to be noticeable, but don't intrude upon your attention as you write. And yes, the Tomoe River paper is pure joy to use.

When looking at a single sheet, it’s almost as thin as tracing paper. I could press down slightly and see every detail of a picture or page under it. Some will not enjoy the amount of see-through that occurs on the Tomoe River paper, of which there is quite a bit. Even with such razor-thin sheets, the paper suffers no bleedthrough from even a 1.1 stub or dip pen. I hesitate to call it magic, but whatever it is that Tomoegawa uses to make their paper so unique, it allows for a stunning amount of shading and sheen for inks that produce such effects. Dry times are somewhat long though, so lefties will most likely not get along well with the notebook.

I keep mine tucked away inside of a Hobonichi Techo Cousin cover, which fits the notebook’s standard A5 size. I plan on investing in an actual Hobonichi Techo and another cover as soon as I can, as that planner also uses Tomoe River paper.

In my adventures with pens, inks and the paper I use them on, I often find myself pleased with what I’ve got… but wanting to try out the next thing. With the Seven Seas Writer, I feel like I’ve found exactly the paper I wanted and needed for daily writing. All roads on the journey for stationary lead to this. I'm sure I'll eventually get the itch to order another brand, but right now I feel even more at home with this paper than I did when I jumped from copy paper to Rhodia. At $29 for 480(!) pages, I can highly recommend this to anyone looking for a journal or workhorse notebook.