Category Archives: Fountain Pens

Fountain Pens

July Pen/Ink Palette, Review!

My theme for July was “Summer.” picked ink colors that reminded me of a pool, or a beach, or a beach ball. It is a very fun palette. I was able to match pens with inks pretty well, but I also started out with two wooden pens, which did not match (which is fine because they are soooo pretty). Over all I liked how this palette worked, although I did end up switching out one pen after the first week, because the nib needs some tweaking. There are several colors I would like to use again in the future, but first! The palette!

There are nine pens and ink sample cards laid out on a wooden table in two rows. The first row starts with a dark purple, then a lighter purple, then a bright blue, then a teal. The second row starts with a dark green, then a lighter green, then an orange and lastly a pink.The names of the pens and inks are listed below the photo.
July 2022 Pens and Inks
  1. James White – Monet (Custom Nib) / ColorVerse Mystic Mountain
  2. (Forever Purple) Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse Hayabusa
  3. Sailor Pro Gear – Gin Cocktail, Purple Fizz (MF) / Diamine Lilac Satin
  4. Kaweco AL Sport – Stonewashed (F) / Van Dieman’s Summer Collection Wineglass Bay
  5. Beardbarian Woodworking – Thuya Burl Birthday (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Mirror Mirror of Moraine
  6. (Magic Green) Hong Dian 5019 – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlit Jade
  7. (Originally) Beardbarian Woodworking – Walnut Burl Anniversary (M?) / Robert Oster Envy (swapped this out because the nib was really hard to write with and the line was much thicker AND the ink was really sticky in the syringe I filled the converter with which made me nervous for the pen. So when I got the Esterbrook, I switched it out.)
  8. (New) Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Key Lime (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Down the Don Valley
  9. Leonardo Officiana Italiana – Supernova (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland
  10. Twsbi 580 Diamond ALR – Punch Pink (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Pink Ice

(If there are no links it is because I could not find it, my apologies!)

I think my favorite in this set (besides my usual favorites like Forever Purple and Magic Green) were Wonderland in the Leonardo and Down the Down Valley in the Esterbrook. The Esterbrook matched the ink in it PERFECTLY which I was especially pleased by. The Wonderland ink is a very wet ink but it is really pretty, both the shine when it went down on paper and after it dried. Those blues are super pretty but the pens gave me some trouble. I was surprised at the Kaweco not feeding well, and I need to get a new nib for the two Beardbarian pens. Twsbi performed well as usual. And the Salior Pro Gear NOT Slim confirmed for me that I definitely prefer the Slim version haha. But it is pretty and the ink matched it really well. And the James White pen is a mesmerizingly pretty resin, and I really like the Mystic Mountain ink because it is so pretty when you can really get the shimmer out – there are a bunch of different color shimmers in that one ink – which I was able to do with that custom nib.

Overall this was a great palette. I liked all the pens and inks I ended up with by the end of the month. (And the one I had to swap out just needs a new nib, the pen itself is really well balanced and I enjoyed writing with it.) The colors contrasted really well with each other. And I had two of each shade – two purples, two blues, two greens, and I used the orange and pink as a pair which meant I could try out making my work notes more readable by alternating colors on bullet items and between meetings, and use a different pair each day (rainbows on Friday). It meant I got to use more of my pens every day, which I like, and it did make my notes more readable – which is awesome. 

A successful palette, my favorite kind! It was the third month this year that was basically a rainbow, since April was a rainbow palette because birthday month, and June was a rainbow because Pride month, and then July which was basically only missing yellow. Which made me pause when I was originally picking my colors. Then I remembered rainbows make me happy and also these are my pens and my inks and my notebooks so all that matters is I am happy. And I was very happy with this palette. 

Fountain Pens

August Pen/Ink Palette!

Tada! Pens and inks. I usually only ink 7-9 pens but! I am experimenting with a new carry case AND. August is the one year anniversary of me getting into all this. So! I’m going a little extra this time…

My theme is sunset, I was trying to think of good colors for the last month of summer and it made me think of a day ending, as the summer ends, and then I thought of a sunset! The idea of a sunset made me really happy at the wealth of colors I could try out. So that’s what we’re doing!

There are two columns of pens and ink sample cards laid out side by side. The left column starts with a dark green, then a blue, then a darker blue/purple, then purple, then a slightly lighter purple, and last a rose magenta color. The right side colum starts with a darker orange, then a slightly lighter orange, and then another slightly lighter orange, then a peach, then a darker yellow, and last a lighter yellow. The names of the pens and the inks are listed below the photo.
August 2022 Pens and Inks

1. Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 

2. Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat 

3. James White – Nebula (Custom Nib) / Ferris Wheel Press Tumbling Time Blue

4. Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening

5. Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F) / Van Dieman Beetroot Relish

6. Bearbarian Woodworking – Copper Eclipse Sunset, Diamine 2021 Inkvent Raspberry Rose

7. Conklin – Coronet Orange (F) / Kakimori Apricot Tea (Edit – switched Apricot Tea out for Kyo Iro Moonlight of Higashiyama on 8.1.22)

8. Kaweco AL Sport Limited Edition – Orange (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Pumpkin Patch

9. Leonardo Officina Italiana Brooks PM4 Limited Edition – Supernova (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland

10. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pen – Orange (EF) / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Peach Punch

11. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (EF) / Sailor Ink Studio 770

12. Majohn Wancai Mini Fountain Pen – Transparent Clear (F) / Diamine 2019 Inkvent Golden Star

(You may notice the two yellow inks are in different pens than the picture shows, my mistake! The list is correct, the photo is not. And also – Apologies – I can’t seem to find links for the Diamine Inkvent inks – they originally came out in an advent calendar in 2021 or 2019. The place I grabbed bottles no longer has them – seems to be a very limited run.)

Now, where am I going to put these 12 pens you may be asking! I technically have pen loops for 7 pens across my two main portfolios. I can squeeze in 2 more by putting a smaller pen – like a Kaweco – across the top of my weekly portfolio, and another one clipped into the card slots in my larger portfolio. So that gives me 7 in my main portfolio and 2 in my weekly. See why I usually try to stay under 9 pens? Haha.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered Galen Leather makes tiny little cases for Kaweco pens. I clearly needed one, since I have entirely too many Kawecos. Once I got it I figured out I could fit 3 small pens in it. Tada! Space for 12 pens.

Here’s the thing – If all 3 of my smaller pens are in the extra tiny case, then I don’t technically have a second spot in the weekly portfolio. Oh no…but! I also picked up a full size pen case at the same time as the tiny one – and I happen to be using three Esterbrook pens this month. So! I’ve got 3 Esterbook in a big pen external case, the Sailor Mini, Orange Kaweco, and the clear Majohn in the tiny external case, and the rest of the pens in my large portfolio. Yay! This should be fun.

A purple folio with space on the right for a notebook. The one there is a more blue purple, with three stickers on it. One in the bottom right says “Don’t believe every thought you think.” And to the right is a unicorn with pink hair and sunglasses holding a sparkly fountain pen the same height as the unicorn. And above those is a lightbulb with a black cat and a garden inside. On the right side of the portfolio is 4 card slots, and 6 pens. The card slots are holding a grey cat paper clip, and two ring splints. Set on top of the portfolio in the center is a purple external pen case that has space for 3 pens. And on the top right corner of the notebook is a smaller purple case, one pen rests inside, and 2 pens are set below it.
Purple Portfolio from Galen Leather, all 12 pens, and a fresh purple notebook!

First Impressions!
I got the pens inked this morning and I usually fill them with a syringe, so sometimes I need to do a little bit of manipulation to get them to write. Then of COURSE I have to test them…ahem.
– Magic Green – writes as well as always! (Knock on wood).
– Blue Sailor – gorgeous. I love the mini slim, and I love the MF nib!! And Cat is one of my favorite inks. Gorgeous all around.
– Sparkle Stick – had a little bit of trouble trying to prime the feed on this one, so I rinsed it, and eventually got it to write, and this ink is going to be awesome in this custom nib.
– Forever Purple – also writing wonderfully as usual!
– Esterbrook Purple – very pleased, writes well, solid color. It’s a PURPLE without SHIMMER and I like it. How dare.
– Custom Swirly – yeeees I was worried the nib in this one would be wonky, but no! Writes well out of the gate, and this is a fun ink to play with.
– Conklin Orange – this ink is WEIRD. It had a weird consistency in the first place, and it feathers like bonkers on the page…I’m going to give it a couple of days but I might end up swapping this ink out.
– Kaweco Orange – ink is struggling to flow. I need to check the nib and feed alignment, I’ll keep using it and see if I can’t loosen it up. I think I saw a post about this with like, a nick name, because this happens commonly? Haha. I’ll look for it.
– SuperNova Wonderland – writing beautifully as it did all thru July!
– Esterbook Orange – ugh. Would not write right away – unsure why, although it does have an EF nib – but no shimmer in the ink?? I let it sit for a while and it started to write, but it’s still struggling. I’ll let it sit for a longer time and see what happens.
– Esterbook Yellow – same problem as the orange, so we’ll see how it does tomorrow maybe?
– Clear Shiny Yellow – pen is so wee and tiny and cute!! I hope this nib can handle a shimmer ink… I put a shimmer ink in this because it is truly gorgeous…
Check it out:



Keep in mind, this is all after a single use, testing the pens and inks for the first time. So much can change in a month! I will naturally complain on twitter, ahem, but I will also post a review type thing at the end of the month. It will be less in depth and more…Spoon’s weird opinions! Yay!
Enjoy!

Fountain Pens

August Daily Samples, Wearingeul

To be honest, I often pick which samples I am going to try out by what is actively available AS a sample because some things – like ColorVerse – seem to be almost impossible to find. Maybe I need to look around some more…

Which brings me to Wearingeul. I’d seen posts on Instagram of inks with some intriguing names linked back to this manufacturer, and I found a place that does samples last month. Hooray! The ink name that first intrigued me was “A Watery Star” which brought such an interesting image into my mind. I think the next one I saw was “A Taxidermied Genius” and I thought, okay where can I find more of this awesomeness. 

When I start looking for ink samples these days I just google the manufacturer + sample and see what pops up. Often I get vanness1938.com as a first result, which was where I did get these this time. But I also look for a site that will tell me anything about the inks. Which brought me to the Hamilton Pen Company. They have all of the series sorted out with a nice tool in the side bar, so I could easily see which inks belonged to which series. 

What further intrigued me about these inks is that the series are all associated with literature. One of them is even called “World Literature Series.” Ink colors associated with books? Yes please. I am a book lover, and the idea of inks associated with literature sounded awesome. I have also discovered that if an ink is named something and then the color of that ink does not match the name – let’s say the ink is named “Verdant Grass” but the color is like. Orange. Then it makes me super grumpy.

So a series of inks that are “re-interpreted novels”? I am expecting the ink colors to make SENSE. For example, one of the series is “Alice in Wonderland” and one of those inks is Alice, and the Alice ink is a light blue with light gold glitter. In my head, that matches what I think of when I think of the character from Alice in Wonderland. She’s blonde and wears a blue dress – matchy matchy. 

What will be trickier is some of the inks that come from an author I am unfamiliar with. But that also means I have some fun opportunities for research and also finding out about some new books to read. 

That was my thought process when looking at these – and the next thing I had to figure out was how to get exactly 31 of them. That was fun. I basically wrote down every single series and figured out which ones to Tetris together to equal 31. Then when I went to pick up the samples, an ink in one series was unavailable. Sigh. So I picked up a 2 ink series and have an extra yay. 

And here are the inks I picked up to sample this month:

20 sample vials from above, sitting in an orange tray. Each white cap has three sticker dots on them. One of the sticker dots says 8.22, the second is a number from 1-20, and the third is blank. They are laid out in numerical order by fives.
Sample Vials from above.

Yi Sang Series

  • 13 Children
  • A Taxidermied Genius
  • Architecture Infinite Cube
  • Me In The Mirror
  • Soyeongwije

Natsume Soseki Series

  • I am a cat
  • Mind
  • San shirt

Alice in Wonderland

  • Alice
  • Cheshire Cat
  • Mad Hatter
  • Queen of Hearts
  • White Rabbit

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

  • Cowardly Lion
  • Dorothy
  • Scarecrow
  • Tin Woodman

Jeong Ji-yong Series

  • A Watery Star
  • Floating Clouds
  • The Night Colored in Grape

Kim Sowol Series

  • Flowing Leaves
  • Half Moon with Dimmed Light
  • The Flowers on the Way
  • The Song of Reed

World Literature Series

  • Beneath the Wheel
  • Don Quixote
  • For Whom The Bell Tolls
  • Jane Eyre
  • Metamorphosis 
  • Resurrection

Demian Series

  • Lost 
  • Mature (this one is extra)

Now all we have to do is sample each ink, one at a time, and see how these turn out. I’ll be reading up on some of these authors I am unfamiliar with so I’ll report back if I find anything interesting! 

Fountain Pens

August Palette, Ink Colors Narrowed

Let’s continue where we left off, shall we? In my last post I showed you how I start to pick inks out for my monthly palette. I go thru all of the inks I have in my sample library and start – you know what? If you want to know more about how I started, go read THIS post. 

Today I narrowed down my choices to two different – but similar – palettes. I usually have a rather flamboyant ink in the pen I put my custom nib in. I had two options for August and I ended up picking the one I haven’t used yet, just for fun. It also happens to be a better option for my sunset theme.

2 sample cards laid on top of each other on a wooden desk. The swaps are both blue inks with red sheen and silver sparkle, but each is slightly different. The card on top is Birmingham Ink: Galactic (twinkle) and the one on the bottom is partially covered, but Ferris Wheel Press can be seen.
Ferris Wheel Press and Birmingham Ink
A single sample card on a wooden table of Ferris Wheel Press FerriTales: Down the Rabbit Hole Tumbling Time Blue. There is a stamp on the card that looks like a fountain pen nib with a cats face engraved on it.
Ferris Wheel Press
FerriTales: Down the Rabbit Hole
Tumbling Time Blue

Next, I need to match my new colors to ones I end up keeping. For August I am keeping two inks from my July palette, an orange I am way too in love with and what I am referring as my Forever Purple. (It’s ColorVerse Hayabusa, in a Sailor Pro Gear Slim Northern Lights – it is my favorite.) Because my theme for August is “sunset,” and purple is technically a color that can be found in a sunset, I used that as an excuse to start this whole process. Any excuse to start with purples really. I’ve managed to keep purples relevant to these palettes for months now, haha. So, I took the Hayabusa sample and started by comparing the purples I have to that one. 

Two cards, side by side but overlapping a little in the middle. On the left is ColorVerse Hayabusa and on the right is PenBBS Purple Sky. Hayabusa is a sparkly warm purple, and Purple sky is cooler purple with no sparkle.
ColorVerse Hayabusa and PenBBS Purple Sky

Every purple in the pile gets compared back to the first purple. I am looking for two things primarily this time – a color that is distinct from the Forever Purple, but also goes with it. I discard purples that look too dark or too light or fall outside of the theme. I ended up with a lot of options left over – which is intentional. I don’t want to narrow it down too much at the beginning.

Pile of sample cards of purple inks, ranging from cool purples to warm purples. They are overlapping so the writing on them is close to each other.
Pile of sample cards of purple inks, ranging from cool purples to warm purples.

Once I have a more manageable collection of purples, I start adding in the magentas. I’ve already made certain decisions which can roll into the next color – for example, the samples that are too dark or light, those can be discarded quickly. And I can get rid of obviously too bright magentas. I’m again looking for a color that is distinct from the purples I have picked and yet still has a smooth transition which is the effect I am looking for this time. I ended up with a decent set of options.

Lots of sample cards on a wooden desk. The purples have been narrowed down to 4 options, and there are magenta sample cards placed around it in smaller groupings or singly.
The magenta sample cards are circling the line or purple sample cards.
5 purple sample cards in an overlapping line on top, 5 magenta sample cards on the bottom.
Two lines of sample cards, purple on top and magenta’s on bottom.

Next up are the oranges. I actually had three fairly distinct oranges – a darker orange, a sort of straight orange which is a bit brighter, and then a kind of peach color. All of these would work well in a sunset theme, but I needed to see what worked with the purples and magentas I pulled. Choices so far continue to help me make some easy choices. I’m always getting rid of colors that are darker or lighter than I want for that month’s palette. Now I remove doubles – colors that are super similar to each other – or practically identical. I ended up not being able to narrow this pile down too far, because I really liked the three distinct oranges I started with. No worries, I still have another color to look at, that should help me decide. 
To pick the yellows I really have to look at the writing on the card to see how readable it is. Many yellows are too hard to read when written with the nibs I use. And for the palette I’m looking for, I got rid of the darker ones as well. 
Actually, I use the writing on each card to make my choices. So I’ll line up the cards so the writing is side by side. The swabs are gorgeous and good for picking broad swathes of color. But often the writing turns out very different from the swab. Close enough but when I am getting down to picking a color for sure, I want to look at the writing on the card. 

Line of 5 purple cards, underneath that is 5 magenta cards, below that is 5 darker orange cards, then 6 medium/bright oranges, under those are 3 peach colored oranges, next is 4 orange/yellows, then 5 brighter yellows. These rows are all overlapping the ones above and below and beside each other.
7 lines of sample cards overlapped so the writing on each card is closer to other cards writing.

Next I narrow things down, this time I end up with 3-4 options per color. Each color gets compared to the one before it. I want a transition that reminds me of a sunset, so I’m comparing each color to the ones on either side, so I don’t end up just matching everything off the Forever Purple. Frankly, if the palette I end up with doesn’t work well with that purple – it’s fine. I have two colors that have been constant for months now, and they don’t have to go with the palette because I am keeping them for different reasons. I’ll go into that in another post. 

Sample cards still laid out in rows by color grouping, with new group colors overlapping them from top to bottom. 3 purples, 3 magentas, 2 darker oranges, 4 medium/bright oranges, 3 peach oranges, 3 orange/yellows, 3 yellows.
Narrowed down choices for each color.

And lastly – my choices, and my secondary choices. This is where I narrow things down to two very similar palette’s. I do this for three reasons. Firstly, I want to be able to walk away and look at something else for a bit before making the final decision. At this point I will have been staring at these colors for at least a half hour. Second, Husband is the color expert in this house. He literally used to do that for a living, making sure colors were accurate. And third is that I like keeping him involved in my silly hobby. This is an easy for us to collaborate. And it’s fun explaining my thought process to him and what I am looking for. 

First palette option:
ColorVerse, Hayabusa
Van Dieman’s Harvest Collection, Beetroot Relish
Diamine 2021 Inkvent, Raspberry Rose
Kakimori, Apricot Tea
Diamine 2021 Inkvent, Peach Punch
Ferris Wheel Press, Pumpkin Patch
Diamine 2021 Inkvent, Wonderland
Diamine 2019 Inkvent, Gold Star
Sailor Ink, Studio 770
Second Palette Option:
Van Dieman’s Harvest Collection, Tasmanian Lavendar
Kyo Iro, Cherry Blossom of Keage
Kyo Iro, Moonlight of Higashiyama
Van Dieman’s Harvest Collection, Apricot
PenBBS, #517 Cold Dews
Kiwi Ink, Liquid Gold
PenBBS, #501 Spring Festival

And that’s where I’ll leave it today! When I’ve got these two sets of options like this I can start seriously matching pens to the possible ink colors. Often I have some ideas already – for example, I had already pulled all of my orange pens for this palette as soon as I decided on the sunset theme. I also have a new purple and a new tiny clear one I want to try. But I don’t always know which colors I am going to pick until the very end and sometimes I don’t know when a new pen might be coming in, so I keep my options open.

By next weekend – the end of the month – I will have picked both the palette and the pens, because I’ll need to set them up and I’ll reveal that next time! Until then, if you have a favorite color from this post, please share!

First palette option in a row on top, second palette option in a row on the bottom.
First palette option in a row on top, second palette option in a row on the bottom.
Fountain Pens

August Palette, Picking Inks

Oh look, the internet! Clearly this place wants to hear about the fountain pen stuff I’m all excited about. Right? Definitely. Here we go!


So I got into fountain pens last October (2021). Since then I have been keeping a set of pens inked, sampling new inks, and trying new pens. I’ll get into all that as I back track in future posts. Today I am going to wax eloquent about my current stage of fun.


I forget when I started this but I decided to stop carrying around 20 inked pens at a time, and started trying to keep to 7 at a time. Ish. This was after reading a post on the practicality of it and realizing that more than about 7 meant I just didn’t use all of the pens. Since pens can’t stay infinitely inked and still work well, it ended up being kind of a waste. Then I decided to swap them out monthly. THEN I started to pick themes for both the inks I used that month and the pens I put them in.


Which brings us to August. About half way thru the month before – so in this instance, right now, middle of July – I start looking at which inks and pens I’m going to use for the following month. I usually think of a theme a couple months before – for August I was planning on using a sunset palette. Fortunately I’ve been picking up orange pens lately – convenient eh?


I create a new sample card every time I pick up a new ink. Since I have been sampling a new ink daily for a couple of months, I have a decent library at this point. What I like to do when I am picking out my inks is I literally walk thru every single card for whatever colors I am looking for on the next palette. In this case I was looking for purples, magentas (I do NOT like pinks usually), oranges, and yellows. I pulled from this painting my husband and I have from one of our anniversaries:

A painting of a sunset with purples, pinks, reds, oranges, and yellows. There is a lighthouse in the foreground in a dark silhouette. The ocean around the lighthouse is reflecting the sunset's pinks and purples.
Painting, Angela Ferrari

And yes, I pulled all of those colors – ALL of them. Every single purple, magenta, orange, and yellow I had in my sample card library. Wheeeee.


When I am first pulling these colors, I do it very loosely. Is it purple? Yep. Goes in the pile. Is it green? Yep. Put it back. I look for nuance after I’ve pulled all of my main colors. Like, a purple that is so dark it’s closer to a black. Or a yellow that is too faint to read easily. I put all of those back and then I do the next thing.

5 piles of ink sample cards. Each card has a swatch of ink at the top of the card, with the details of the ink - Brand, series, name - and an ink drop below that. There are a couple of smaller sample cards are mixed in, they only have the swatch and the inks details on them. There is a dark blue/purple pile at the bottom, and then above that there is a pile or purples. Above that is a pile of magentas. To the right is a pile of oranges. And below that is a pile of yellows. All are sitting on a dark wooden desk.
Piles of sample cards grouped by color.

Next I start to group them by color feel – there is more than one kind of purple for example. Some are more blue, some are more red. You get the idea. I like to do this because the same ink colors can show up across different manufacturer’s. Often you can get very similar colors but also they can end up having really subtle differences which is super fun! This is what I got from that step:

The larger pile of purple sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. The purples range from a blue/purple, dark reddish purples, dark blueish, to lighter reddish and blueish purples.
Purple sample cards, grouped by tone.
The larger pile of magenta sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. There are only three piles, one is more neon pink, another sort of a rosey pink magenta, and then the last one is a magenta that leans into the red tones.
Magenta sample cards, grouped by tone.
The larger pile of orangeish sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. There are some dark oranges, ones that are more peach colored, some with more red in them, some more variable, and some more yellowish.
Orange sample cards, grouped by tone.
The larger pile of yellow sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. They range from a very vivid yellow to darker ranges with touches of gold or orange.
Yellow sample cards, grouped by tone.
Seen from the top down, it's clear the top edges of each card has been colored as well. There is a nice range from yellows to oranges to magentas to purples.
All of the sample cards piled, seen from the top down.

You should be able to see how similar the cards that are grouped together are, usually by tone or temperature or color or whatever you want to call it. They look similar. Moving on.


I REALLY like what I have come up with so far. But I need to keep narrowing it down, obviously. But rather than do that today, I’m actually going to sit with this stack for a bit. It’s got the range I think I like, it’s narrowed down to some good options – too many good options. And while I could make final decisions today, I don’t have to. Having this stack set aside, colors I can look through whenever I want to check something, colors I can visualize in my brain, I find this a very enjoyable experience. It’s part of the whole thing for me, being able to get to this step, and just think about it.


I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the things going on in the world right now are kind of the worst. So I like to put good things in my brain, so I can concentrate on that for a nice break.


I have also picked out the pens, or at least most of them. This can change depending on which ink colors I end up picking, or a new pen might come in that I want to try. Or a new ink comes in last minute. It can change a lot of things. These are the pens I picked out:

9 pens, starting from the left: two tone green, sparkly purple, sparkly blue, sparkly and swirly blue/purple/pinks, swirly purple, swirly and sparkly orange/purple/blue/green/yellow/pink, sparkly orange, a metallic orange, completely clear and tiny.
9 pens laid out in a row.

I typically keep 9 pens inked. I’ve been pretty consistent about that since I started using the 2 portfolios I keep my main notebooks in. There is intended space for 7 pens but I can get creative and fit in 2 more. This month I want to try using a tiny pen case for Kaweco pens – but I’ll only be putting 1 Kaweco in it, with 2 other tiny pens. Which means. Technically. Ahem. I could carry…12 inked pens. Just saying.


I have some favorite pen makers these days, although I am always keen to try new ones. And I very much love tiny pens. Husband and I both super like Kaweco AL Sport, for example. We have entirely too many of them, haha. Sailor has turned out to be another favorite – the MF nib is my favorite! I tend to like finer nibs, so I’ve stuck mostly to those so far. I do have a custom nib that does a very broad line but I can also write “upside down” with it and get a finer line – closer to a medium nib I think. I use that one for Headers when I am writing dates and notes. I have also used Twsbi a great deal – they were some of my first pens, and I continue to enjoy them. I try to experiment with new kinds of pens when I can, but I definitely have favorites. For example, I have been using the two tone green pen and the sparkly purple pen on the left side of the photo above for several months in a row!


In fact, this month I am trying out two pens that are fairly new to me. I did use an Esterbook for the first time in July, and I’ll be using a second one in August. The other new one I got on Amazon haha – a friend found it, it’s adorable and tiny, and completely clear. And it doesn’t take a converter or a cartridge – it’s called an eye drop pen. You fill it with a syringe, which I’ve started using lately. Looks like fun! Depending on how many pens I do end up inking, I may end up changing my line up, but this is what I am planning on so far.


And that’s it! I do this every month. There are many steps to this…process? Project? I don’t even know what to call this – it’s woven thru my day, become critical to my sense of calm, and something I continue to find solid joy in. Whatever it’s called – there are things I do a certain way, and I plan on talking about them here. So, if you’re into fountain pens and what not, enjoy!

There are entirely too many inks to list for this post, but I will list the ones I end up choosing in another post. Here is a list of the pens in that photo:

  • Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF)
  • Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF)
  • Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF)
  • James White – Nebula (F)
  • Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F)
  • Leonardo Officina Italiana Brooks PM4 – Supernova (F)
  • Conklin – Coronet Orange (F)
  • Kaweco AL Sport – Limited Edition Orange (F)
  • Majohn Wancai Mini – Transparent Clear (F)