Pen collecting and the curious art of curation
I’m continuing to think my way through how large or small my pen collection should be. Part of the equation, for me, is driven by curation. What do I want the final collection to look like?
I suspect there are two general goals for a collection. One is accumulating. The other: curating. This post thinks through both as they pertain to my own goals — without judgment. We all wear many sizes.
Curating ≠ accumulating. Accumulating aims to gather “one of each” within a single type of pen or ink. One of each color. One of each yearly special edition. The goal of accumulating is completeness. Crafting a library that contains every single Lamy Safari edition, for example. (Go Team Safari.)
The value of accumulating lays in completing a library of editions. The many shades of one kind of pen. A rainbow of similarity. The collection itself is your accomplishment. Sweet deal.
Have to respect a completionist
Curating away from samesies. Curating, in contrast, strikes out for diversity — in both engineering and style. Balanced against needless overlap. A writer for every occasion.
Curation drives toward comparatively small collections. Each pen chosen intentionally because it offers some structure that no other pen in your collection embodies. One small-sized pocket carry. One metal pen. One piston filler. One earth tone colorway. One pen to represent a favorite maker.
The value of curating is in the unique choices throughout your collection. You will have a large-capacity pen for your long trip. You will have a fanciful multi-colored acrylic pen for whimsical writing sessions. And you’ll have your black writer for when it’s time to get into serious business.
A little different, a little fun
As for me. Diversity sits at the inky heart of my stationery habit. Excellent and wild stationery helps me start writing. Multifunctional nibs keep me writing. Beautiful pens and inks bring joy to the finished product. The goal is to avoid feeling bored with my analog tools.
So I’m leaning toward curation. The goal of my curation is collecting a diverse library of pens that can continually surprise me. Small enough that I can rotate back into each type of pen. Large enough that I can mix and match pens, nibs and inks to keep my writing experience feeling fresh and new.
But am I going for one of each kind of pen? A more organic combination? How many options are enough? Clearly I have more thinking to do.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. The clear standout combo this week has been the TWSBI 580-ALR, on week three of Jacques Herbin’s Kyanite du Népal. This has been my first problem-free shimmer inking. Wow. This pair continues to rock on with reliable writing every time I uncap it. The shimmer remains consistent. Meeting notes, lesson plans, lecture notes, scratch notes, pocket carry. 1/6.
Hey there, good lookin’
Montblanc 146 (EF) — Feed. Strong pairing. True EF line. Quick drying prevented smudges in my weekly spreads. Lack of shading kept this pair one dimensional. Task management, scratch notes, lesson plans, poetry, some journaling.
Franklin-Christoph 31 (M SIG) — 1/3. The fun shines on. Writes smoothly enough to take the edges off the crisp SIG grind. The 31’s broad section makes for comfortable writing, especially through long writing sessions. Journaling, manuscript drafting, lesson plans, meeting notes.
Platinum 3776 (B) — 1/2. Started the week wonderfully. The broad B lines shaded beautifully. Well rounded in shape and function. Muddy Sand offset my cool-tones grey ink well. Wrote well until Friday, when hard starting became an issue. Might be mechanical as I see the feed is warped away from the nib tines. Tinkering shall commence. Journaling, lesson plans, lecture notes, and meeting notes.
Conklin Mark Twain (F CI) — ?? Crisp italic lines at a disciplined F width. Sacrament is dark within this feed. Near-black. A fun, different, daily driver option. Grew into an alternate “grey/black” for lesson plans and reading notes.
Visconti Homo Sapiens (F CI) — ?? Wet. Jungle rainstorm wet. Much darker as a result. And now with gold sheen halos along the outer edges of my letters. Fun. The palladium nib requires a feather-light touch. Combined: slow, contemplative writing tasks only. Lesson plan outlines and journaling.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Musubi Cosmo Air Light 83 (A5). 18 new pages this week. The Musubi sits at 112. Approaching halfway.
The go-to two-page weekly spread starts the week off. Five lesson plan outlines follow. I tapped the Homo Sapiens, TWSBI, Conklin, Franklin-Christoph and Platinum. Rotational.
Seven pages of meeting notes. Scribble, scraggly and color-mixed. I even got to use the TWSBI during a meeting this week as that meeting took place virtually. I’ve learned the hard way that meeting parents with a pen that resembles some vapes can prove distracting.
The remainder are scratch notes. One of my favorite spreads was my homework assignment schedule.
Putting chaos into boxes
Journal. Stalogy Editors Series 1/2 Year (A6). The journaling deities were kind to me this week. 19 new pages. A6 pages. So: nine-and-a-half A5 pages spread across five entries.
I tapped the TWSBI and Franklin-Christoph for the first entry. A long-form reflection on the D&D campaign I’m running for some friends. Sabimidori was blue when I wrote last weekend. It’s a murky green now. Hooray, chemistry.
My Platinum wrote out two entries — nearly half of the week’s journaling. The rest are a blend of the Conklin, Montblanc and Loft. Rotational, indeed.
Four entries end in poems, too. My favorites: Age Sixty-Nine by Jim Harrison, Randall Jarrell by Robert Lowell, and a few lines out of William Carlos Williams’ The Great Figure.
Written dry. The Montblanc ran down to its feed on Thursday. During a disciplinary meeting.
The combo survived the meeting but, with a new nib available to me, I elected to sub in a new daily driver. Who can say no to trying a new nib?
Starter and sub
Newly inked. I swapped my new nib (see below) into the Loft Pens Highworth. The round EF seemed a great choice for a backup grey writer. I intended to use the new nib often through the back end of my week. A test run. A test write?
A 1/2 fill worth of test squiggles
The Highworth is inked with Montblanc’s Oyster Grey. A mid-toned grey with excellent, reliable performance. And I’m familiar with how the ink feels while writing. Suitable for a replacement daily driver.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. My new nib arrived from Spain. Without delays or damage. Well done, FedEx.
Come here often?
This is a simpler Jowo design than the more common scrollwork featured on most Jowo nibs. One clean etched line. Outside is black rhodium trim.
Inside sports a keyhole that reminds me of skeleton keys. It’s a detail that makes me smile.
Pablo and Esther even etched the blog logo into the central face.
You have one happy customer, FP Nibs. Gracias!
Outgoing / trades or sales. No movement. I’m content for the moment. Especially as a sort out my goals for the collection.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. I’ve continued on into the wilds of the Mossflower woods — the location of the second book in the Redwall series, Mossflower. 53 more pages brings me to page 647 of the anthology. Chapter 6 of Mossflower.
We’re in the midst of a jailbreak. Martin and Gonff are presently jailed. The current government is cracking down post-coup. The two protagonists are plotting their escapes.
V for Vendetta with mice. And a lot of detailed descriptions of food. Fair mix, Jacques.
Nonfiction. I’m neck deep in Nell Irvin Painter’s research. Two short articles, an online interview for Big Think, and three chapters out of her classic The History of White People. About 90 pages, all told.
I chose the two articles to serve as broad stroke overviews for how race becomes a political and legal identity in the United States. They’re my students’ introduction to our new unit.
The book chapters highlight key figures in the consolidation of “races” into US immigration laws. We start at the Naturalization Act and work our way to the exclusion acts of the 1920s. Fun, sad, and important.
And plenty of use for Mildliners and Blackwings.
Music. I lived a dual life this week. My after dark listening returned to Dope Lemon’s newest album, Rose Pink Cadillac. It made for an excellent dog walking soundtrack. Starlord with a leash. Also: quite explicit.
The workday soundtrack was a mix called Solo Piano, compiled on Spotify by a user named Matthew Mayer. Mellow, pretty, and easily sits in the background. I recommend the playlist.
Tinkering ahoy
