I Gave In And Bought An Epica Journal!

[umenohana]

After drooling over it for months, I finally gave in and bought an 8 x 10" Epica leather journal with unlined hand-cut pages. I took advantage of their live help chat, and ended up getting a nice coupon code-- PM or email me to get the code if you're interested.

 

Why did I get it? I needed something that's both FP and sketch-friendly, with no lines. (The luxurious, old-fashioned feel doesn't hurt, either ) I'll do a review of it after field-testing it during my upcoming Euro-trip.

 

-Hana

[Tannhauser]

That...is some pretty awesome looking stuff. Also, too expensive for me right now. I am tempted to drop $10 on a sheet of that handmade paper.

But I overblew my budget this weekend on pens, so I'll have to wait until my next paycheck.

[InkWell]

That...is some pretty awesome looking stuff. Also, too expensive for me right now. I am tempted to drop $10 on a sheet of that handmade paper.

But I overblew my budget this weekend on pens, so I'll have to wait until my next paycheck.

 

I just took a look at their website...Wow! Since I'm a poor college student I'll have to wait until I graduate and get a career before I can spend the $$$ on exquisite papers and journal.

Edited May 13, 2007 by InkWell

[R.ticle One]

Congratulations! They look great.

Hey, has anyone seen this - World's Largest Journal - $1200 and up! Holy @#!&...

http://www.epica.com/The-Worlds-Largest-It...ournal-p-8.html

 

R.ticle One

Edited May 17, 2007 by R.ticle One

[AnneM]

I totally understand why you gave in...! I will be looking forward to your review!

 

I took a look at the website of Epica and now I am drooling over the Amalfi paper... I actually visited Amalfi last summer, but at the time I didn't have the money to buy their nice paper.

[Guest ictop]

There is only one reason to buy from Epica - The Amalfi paper.

 

I tried their leather journals, and I think the cover leather is too thin.

The "antique look" and the feel of their "leather"... just don't feel right.

Good leather is not an expensive item.

Handmade or not, they don't worth that kind of price.

For the same price, I can get top gain leather with the feel and texture like those from Coach.

 

 

[drndrw]

Wow. Their icon is an animated gif! That's some fancy stuff .

[dnb]

I received a $140 Epica 9x12 journal as a birthday gift. It is an absolutely exquisite Italian leather journal made in a traditional style. However, I don't recommend it for FP users. The paper bleeds terribly and feathers. Their response was to try different pens and inks. My response was, "Yes, thank you. The point that you miss is that with such an expensive item, one should not have to navigate which pen and which ink needs to be used."

[chiaroscuro]

That looks amazing. I hadn't heard of it before; thanks for the link.

[mm1624124]

I received a $140 Epica 9x12 journal as a birthday gift. It is an absolutely exquisite Italian leather journal made in a traditional style. However, I don't recommend it for FP users. The paper bleeds terribly and feathers. Their response was to try different pens and inks. My response was, "Yes, thank you. The point that you miss is that with such an expensive item, one should not have to navigate which pen and which ink needs to be used."

 

 

Interesting...I purchased a 4X6 classic laid journal specifically to test my collection of ink samples and haven't experienced any feathering or bleeding. I try the inks with four pens ranging from dry, fine to wet, medium. I had asked specifically about the paper's behavior with fountain pens but their reply wasn't very definitive, so I decided to risk purchasing a small journal to find out. So far, so good.

 

My problem is with the binding. The book simply refuses to stay open unless held down because the spine is so stiff and awkard...perhaps due to the small size??? It's obvious that it will never "break in". Unless the larger sized journals have a more flexible spine, the writing experience is challenging because I spend more time trying to keep the book open and it is very distracting.

[dnb]

Interesting...I purchased a 4X6 classic laid journal specifically to test my collection of ink samples and haven't experienced any feathering or bleeding. I try the inks with four pens ranging from dry, fine to wet, medium. I had asked specifically about the paper's behavior with fountain pens but their reply wasn't very definitive, so I decided to risk purchasing a small journal to find out. So far, so good.

 

My problem is with the binding. The book simply refuses to stay open unless held down because the spine is so stiff and awkard...perhaps due to the small size??? It's obvious that it will never "break in". Unless the larger sized journals have a more flexible spine, the writing experience is challenging because I spend more time trying to keep the book open and it is very distracting.

 

Mine lays flat but then the book is quite large and quite heavy. I just went back to their website and checked again. It says:

 

- Perfect for any and all writing mediums and

- 150 pages = 300 writing pages.

But the fact is, that even with the rollerball, everything still bleeds through. Working with a F or EF fountain pen that's not a wet writer stops the feathering, but not the bleeding. There's absolutely no way that anyone could write on both sides of these sheets for this particular book. Talk about misrepresentation in your advertising!

For anyone wanting to see for themselves, here's that particular webpage:

http://www.epica.com/Italian-Leather-Journals-with-Classic-Laid-Pages.html

Edited November 19, 2012 by dnb

[mm1624124]

Under the circumstances, I don't think their response is appropriate particularly since their website does allude that FPs can be used, which was why I contacted them about it. And for the price they should be willing to stand behind their claims or refund/exchange for something else. I haven't had your experience even with any of the inks I've tried; and they have been wide ranging. There is some "ghosting" or show through because the paper isn't completely opaque, but I can still use both sides of the paper without any problems.

 

I think I would contact Epica again and suggest they consider some other way of rectifying the issue.