Happy Patina Writing Kit

Note: this item was provided for review.

I’ve written quite a bit about patina on this site — it’s why I love things like cotton, waxed canvas, and leather. Happy Patina is a great name for a company which produces leather goods made to patina and change with you. This Writing Cover is big and the natural veg-tanned leather begs you to use it and add your own patina.

A couple of surprises I didn’t expect with this, meant it truly did become my writing kit.

(Note that this is a revised variant, sized to fit A4 notebooks. Previous variants were smaller.)

Materials and Specs

I measure this at 9.25” x 12.667” so it will hold soft sided A4 notebooks easily and any flat things of that size. The pen slot will hold slightly oversized pens, but will not fit most fancier capped pens (none of my Montblanc pens fit) — at the same time I wouldn’t want it much larger than it is.

The entire thing is veg-tanned leather with no pigmentation to it, and a single press snap closure via a leather flap. It is very simple and well made. The only branding is on the inside, behind where you would stow a notebook.

The leather smells great, and is supple without feeling delicate. I’ve not babied this since getting it, and even after having used it on many outdoor tables, it still looks reasonably ‘fresh’ — though moving deeper in color than when I received it.

In Use

I have been using this for five weeks at the time of writing, and you can see how much patina has developed:

New:

Now:

I cannot remember the last time I carried around something this size for writing — it’s been quite some time. At first it felt overbearing, and then I leaned harder into it, and quickly realized how much easier it is to write on a larger area.

Then I realized that my iPad Pro 11” with the Magic Keyboard cover still on the device, fits in the left pocket of the setup. Notebook, pen, iPad Pro — that’s all I’ll ever need to write. That unlocked things further, as I now had an easy way to carry my iPad around, keep it mostly protected, while also having the tools I need to work remotely. I’ve been a huge fan of this setup, and this is how I used this cover the most.

It is a really nice setup to carry, as it feels great in your hand and has everything I need right in it. It’s an ideal setup for analog writing sessions, or, in my case, for taking product notes and turning them into reviews like this.

It’s a joy, and the only thing I wish this did different was patina faster, and perhaps use something like elastic for the pen loop so I could fit more varied pens in the slot.

A quick aside about this, and it’s not really 100% about the writing cover, so much as it is about what the Writing Cover is design for. The entire setup makes me slow down each time I pull it out. It’s a focused tool, as it won’t fit on my desk anywhere near my keyboard and other electronics.

The cover, when laid open, takes over the space. This is going to work well for you, or be a deal breaker. I would encourage you to embrace it. I found myself moving to open tables and other areas in the house so I could write without the distraction of devices around me. Even when I took it out to other places, the same thing happened, I focused in on the task I set out to formulate.

I don’t write much prose by hand, but I write a lot of bullet point style lists which are the backbone (not even really an outline) for the majority of what I write on this site. And I found this process to be a pleasure with the Writing Cover on hand, as there wasn’t much room for anything but this setup — and it turns out that’s exactly what I need and want. But I loved having my iPad fit with it all, so I could swap over to that if the mood hit to knock out a couple hundred words.

Overall

I am a big fan of this. It’s well made, simple, and will slowly become yours the more you use it. And because of that, you’ll find that you want to use and carry it a lot, so the ‘new and shiny’ fades and the marks of use develop.

It’s a joy to write it, and it’s fantastic that it can hold my iPad Pro in it as well — I’ll be using this for some time to come.

Buy here, $124.