The great ink storage hunt
My ink collection now extends beyond the capacity of my current ink storage plan. I now find myself hunting through bottles for the one I want more often that I’d like. A new organizing system is in order.
Hoo boy, are those shelves full-to-bursting
My system for ink samples works great: two vial racks. Each row has a letter and each column has a number. Every vial can be quickly found using its “coordinates.” The system works cleanly because each vial is the same size and shape.
Ink bottles vary in size and shape. My new organization system sorts bottles into bins by color family, and then by maker within each bin. The hunt for bins, and for trays or barriers I can use within each bin, is underway. Thank you, holiday gift card money.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. My writing was all over the place this week. Without a clear plan in place from the outset, I haphazardly grabbed whichever pen was nearby. The chaos was fun. Not all entropy is bad.
The surprise standout combination was the Franklin-Christoph 45, inked with Robert Oster’s Barossa Gilt. Pink is not my shade, but this purply-pink had such great shading. BG refused to feather. It shaded wonderfully, even in my pocket notebook. I grabbed it time and again throughout the week.
Pelikan m805 Stresemann Anthracite — 4/5. The wet Pelikan feed brought out all the best qualities of Caribbean Blue. Had a distaste for printer paper. Journaling, manuscript outlining, notes from internet shopping.
Franklin-Christoph 31 — 4/5. The M-SIG is a tad wet for Thornton’s. I prefer to feel the paper underneath my hand when I write. This combo is so wet that I often don’t feel any tooth at all while writing. Accent notes in a manuscript outline.
Franklin-Christoph 45 — 3/5. Think color, more than the pen itself, stood out as a winner this week. I’m a sucker for excellent shading, especially when the shading forms an outside border in your writing. Journaling, pocket carried one day, and rocked some thank you cards.
Sailor Pro Gear Graphite Lighthouse — 1/2. The Zoom nib puts a lot of ink on the page, which shows off Gris Orage’s wonderful shading. Scratch notes, journaling, reading notes, and some vague noodling.
Sailor Pro Gear Slate Blue — 1/2. An excellent pairing, especially on coated paper. Bondi Blue is a wet ink, which keeps the EF end of this Sailor’s Architect nib writing smoothly. Journaling, some pocket notes, and a few sketches Thursday afternoon.
Nakaya Neostandard Heki-tamenuri — 2/5. Remains a winning combination. Smooth, crisp lines. Just colorful enough to work as an accent color in reading notes. Journaling and reading notes.
Delike New Moon 2 — 2/5. Just wet enough to show off some of Yama Budo’s sheen. Pocket carried for most of the week. The pen-ink combo behaved well on our holiday thank you cards, too. Holiday thank you cards.
TWSBI Vac700R Iris — Feed only. The F-CSI is a great line-width for my handwriting. Narrow enough keep my lines clear. Wide enough to be forgiving when I rotate the pen too far in my hand during longer writing sessions. Journaling, manuscript outlining, and outline notes for this blog.
TWSBI 580 ALR Prussian Blue — Feed only. Used the M side of the predator grind far more than the EF side. Journaling, scratch notes from a few phone calls, and pocket carried for two days.
Notebooks. My work bullet journal sat lonely but appreciated on a shelf in my study. I put a lot of myself into my teaching. On average, I spend about 10 minutes of prep for every minute of in-class time, plus marking time. Breaks are most productively spent gaining mental distance from my work. Fresh eyes are invaluable. The result: no writing for work until the final days before 2021 classes begin.
13 new pages were added to the personal journal, all long-form journal entries. This week is a colorful collection of writing. I used every single inked pen at least once. Entropy indeed.
Written dry. You get to spread the love widely with so many pens inked. None were written dry this week. That said, the two TWSBI’s are down to their feeds. That’s an accomplishment in itself.
Newly inked. I added a second Sailor Pro Gear to the week’s already over-inked collection Thursday evening. The Z nib brings out the lovely shading and shimmer of Herbin’s Gris Orage. I dig grey inks for their personality.
Personality aplenty
The Collection
Incoming / new orders. A good friend in my local pen group shared out ink samples as part of a holiday event. I picked up seven inks from Vanness with her generous gift. Four are dark, dusty almost-greys: Robert Oster Summer Storm (purple grey), Ink Institute’s Cat at Midnight (blue-black) and Cat at Dusk (grey-blue-black), and L’Artisan Pastillier’s Gris de Payne (grey-blue).
The remainder are more eccentric shades: Ferris Wheel Press Lady Rose Pink (a dusty pink), Kyo-no-oto Higashiyama Moonlight (an earthy orange), and Taccia Sharaku-Koiame (a dustier, antique orange).
I was also gifted a bottle of Jacques Herbin Gris Orage. It’s a lovely medium-grey with gold shimmer. My partner nailed the holidays with this gift.
Outgoing / trades or sales. Nothing yet. But pictures of the Looms are on lé phone. They’ll go up for sale soon. Initial offers go to the folks in my local pen group, as per tradition.
Currently listening
Lo-fi Christmas. Even pandemic holidays can be mellow, tea-friendly affairs with the right soundtrack.
