Rhodiarama Review & Giveaway!
/The folks at Goulet Pens were kind enough to send me a turquoise Rhodiarama and an extra for a lucky reader to try out for themselves!
When we started doing the #RockYourHandwriting Challenge I did the handwriting prompts in my Bullet Journal. What I found was that the handwriting practice took over the pages and filled my Bullet Journal pretty fast.
The second month of the challenge I decided to use a dedicated notebook for handwriting practice. I was immediately drawn to the Rhodiaramas because of their great paper and colorful cover selection. When I spotted the turquoise one I knew that that was the notebook. These are only available in lined for now, but that doesn't bother me for handwriting-only activities. Dot grid is usually my preference for Bullet Journaling because its easier to think on and brainstorm ideas but I'm cool with using lines for mainly handwritten activities and since this is a handwriting challenge, it fits the bill perfectly.
Here is the unwrapped Rhodiarama.
At the bottom of the notebook, you can read what kind of ruling it has.
Here's the back of the notebook where you can see more details. It has lined paper, 96 lined sheets, and an inner pocket. It's 90gsm of high quality, velvety paper that can handle most pens beautifully without bleed-through and hardly visible show-through.
One thing I did notice was the indent at the bottom right corner of the notebook where the strap is. The cover is made of a soft leatherette material which some would think of as comforting.
The strap is super short in comparison to a Leuchtturm1917 notebook. It is also more of a traditional smooth ribbon in contrast to the ribbons that Leuchtturm1917 and Moleskine notebooks have. The ribbon hangs out at about three quarters of an inch.
Alright, let's take the sleeve off and check out what the Rhodiarama actually looks like. It has the Rhodia logo debossed on the front and the turquoise color contrasts beautifully with the orange elastic closure and ribbon bookmark.
When you open to the front color you're met with this colorful image of a zebra with the Rhodia logo stamped throughout. You can also see the word rhodiarama stamped on the bottom right corner.
When you open to the very first page you're faced with this at the bottom of the page. The paper is a nice creamy color, deeper in hue than Leuchtturm1917 notebooks.
Here's a pen test with some of my favorites and some common choices I've noticed Bullet Journalists like.
As you can see there's virtually no show-through/ghosting. The only bleed-through that occurred was predictably from the Sharpie.
Since I was using a dip pen with walnut ink for the first month of practicing, I noticed it took 3 minutes to fully dry on the page. Maybe a tad longer. You can see above how the Noodler's Apache Sunset ink when written with the Nikko G was transmitted to the opposite page because I didn't let it fully dry. I think I waited roughly over a couple of minutes before I flipped the page to take a photo of the other side.
This notebook has fantastically smooth and velvety pages and Goulet Pens carries them in various colors which is awesome.
Rhodiarama Features
90gsm - Fountain pen friendly
Colorful cover options
Rulings available: Lined
A5 size
Soft Leatherette Cover material
96 sheets
Minimal ghosting = barely noticeable
Rare bleed-through
The main drawbacks I notice are a lack of ruling options, I know other countries have dot grid options for the Rhodiaramas. Since the paper is fantastically smooth, it takes longer for the ink to dry.
Gallery of images from the practice with the #RockYourHandwriting Challenge.
Special thanks to Goulet Pens for providing the Rhodiarama for review and an extra to give away.
Giveaway
If you'd like a chance to win one of these awesome Rhodiaramas, simply participate in the #RockYourHandwriting challenge on Instagram and/or Facebook and we'll pick a winner randomly at the end of the month. If you're eager to grab one of these for yourself now, head on over to GouletPens to grab one. To check out the other supplies I used, check this page out.
