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Another year, another Pelikan Hub. After Hamelin’s acquisition of Pelikan, there was some uncertainty about the future of the Pelikan Hubs, especially when we reached May/June, the time when registration for the Hub opened in previous years, and the situation was still unclear. I am sure I was not the only one who was relieved when Pelikan confirmed that the Hub happens again in 2025.  View this…

When in Shanghai, I like to visit Lamy stores. Unlike Lamy stores in Europe, they tend to offer lots of special editions. My best guess is that I am not only amazed by the quantity of these special editions but also by the quality. Originally, I was trying to find two specific items: The Lamy Safari Field Green because it looks beautiful and the Hanzi nib because I want to experience how it…

If you grew up in a Western country and are old enough then you probably know about MAD Magazine. Many countries had their own versions, but the UK edition stopped being published in the mid-90s, so every time I went to visit Germany I tried to get the latest German version. Towards the end of German MAD’s life this wasn’t very easy: the only places I found that sold the magazine were newsagents…

A few days ago I found a refill again that I ordered in 2021 and forgot about after moving home. It’s OHTO’s needlepoint gel refill. An air bubble prevented the refill from writing There was an air bubble right behind the tip, probably from evaporated ink, so the pen didn’t want to write. Luckily it was easy to pull the tip out without using any tools. You can then just let the gel ink flow…

Did you always want to know what happens inside a band’s tour bus at a music festival? Well, you are in luck: Volume Five of Giant Days, a comic book about a group of students in Northern England, shows what exactly is going on in there. The following page shows the moment Esther, one of the protagonists, enters the band’s bus. When a few pages later heavy rain starts, turning the festival…

Wishing you a great year of the snake

Today: a guest post by Catarina Lory: “Without wishing to overstate it, stationery has created civilization. Language is how we make sense of the world, and written language gives us an aggregated sense of knowledge. That only happens because of stationery.” – James Ward Stationery has done much more than spread knowledge of language and history; it has also played vital roles in many aspects…

Seen in Spiegel, a weekly German new magazine, issue 51/2024: The letter from German chancellor Olaf Scholz asking for a vote of confidence. You can also see the pen used to sign the letter. The resulting vote of no confidence will lead to new elections.

Hands up, please, if you miss Nock Co. Ah ok, thanks. You can lower your hands again, thanks for taking part. I’m not surprised so many here miss Nock Co. It’s a real shame they closed down. Their products were well thought-out and of great quality. Luckily, I backed all Nock Co. x Pen Addict Kickstarters, so can still enjoy a few of their pencil cases. The 2015 Hightower is just a great…

Today: a look at a new eraser from Staedtler. I bought this eraser in August at Kaufland, a German supermarket-chain that is part of the same group as Lidl, on offer for €1.09 (~£0.92; $1.16). The normal price seems to be €2.20 (~£1.85; $2.33). The packaging advertises it as being made with a minimum of 56% renewable materials. This made me curious to find out more. Luckily Mr. Rüdel from…

Vegefarm, Bremen The Pelikan Hubs for 2024 took place last weekend and luckily I was chosen again as the Pelikan Hub host for Bremen. This year we met in in a more central location: in a very nice and vegan Restaurant serving Chinese / Taiwanese food. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bleistift (@bleistift.blog) Compared to last year it was really busy: Altogether twelve fountain…

Pelikan’s ink tower Once a year, not long before their worldwide Hubs, Pelikan organises an Open Day at their ink tower (TintenTurm) in Hannover’s Pelikan quarter. Seeing that I now live in driving distance, we (i.e. the whole family) went there last Saturday to have a look. Lots of construction sites around When parking the car nearby the venue you can see a lot of construction sites where…

By now, the new school year has started in most countries, and this year, I saw something I hadn’t seen before: Here in Northern Germany, in the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, I have noticed houses decorated with large pencils. This is not very common, I only spotted a handful of houses like this, and seems to indicate that a child living in the house is starting primary school. One of the…

After Hamelin’s acquisition of Pelikan last year, there have been some changes, including the announced closure of Pelikan’s sales and distribution locations in Hannover and near Berlin. We’ll have to wait and see how Pelikan’s long term future will look like, but in the near future, we certainly have the Pelikan Hub to look forward to. I was lucky enough to be able to act as the Hub Master for…

Bremen’s libraries are offering a holiday programme for children. It’s called Sommer Blub. Using a Noris as part of the logo is of course an excellent choice: What symbol to use if you want to show creativity: a pencil! What pencil to use if you want to show a typical pencil: a Noris!

The old and new Noris together After being able to observe the shift from the traditional, wood-cased Noris to the new upcycled wood Noris in the UK last year (see The new, upcycled Noris) I was able to experience the same transition in Germany now. What I saw is, of course, only a small snapshot of the two countries as I observed the transition in a city in North West England last year and now…