A community with heart

A little heart brings people of all kinds together. One of my favorite parts of our stationery community is that folks are eager to help one another. From warm welcomes, to moral support, to shameless pen-enabling.

I found my way into the online stationery community at a low point in my journey. I was burnt out. And searching for the joy that used to live in my writing and teaching. I wound up in the stationery Instagram community.

Folks loaned me pens. Sent me paper to try. Traded inks back and forth with me. Offered good faith advice on pens and writing. Exchanged letters asking how I was doing — and shared how they were doing. I found a friendship network alongside the pens and ink and paper and journaling talk.

Many of my best friends are stationery community folks. Heck, I met my spouse at a Pelikan Hub.

Now that I’m in a great place, I’m reflecting on ways I can pay those kindnesses back. An opportunity cropped up recently — with stationery at its center.

A student of mine, who we’ll call Pranay, approached my table at lunch on Friday to ask if I would look at his Sailor Pro Gear Slim. He shared that the nib had grown scratchy and unpleasant.

My 30x loupe revealed the cause: the nib was simply misaligned. A quick tuning and Pranay was all smiles.

The young man asked how the misalignment had happened. My guess: too much writing pressure. So, I asked how he’s been feeling lately.

We chatted over his pen. And I got the opportunity to touch base with him. He is nervous about the school year. We jumped from stationery to life as a high schooler and back as we spoke. I only got the chance to chat with him because I’m the “fancy pen teacher.” He left my room smiling. Bonus.

———

A little heart, I’m reminded, is sometimes all you need. Stationery sits at the center of those moments for me.

There are many avenues into these “communities with heart.” A few I’m familiar with are:

• the Pen Addict’s Slack (instructions here);

• Instagram Live chats with makers and vendors;

• podcasts (two of my current “after the Pen Addict” favorites are The Stationery Café and Pen Noobs);

• fora like Fountain Pen Network;

• Reddit’s Fountain Pen Pals; and

• ink sharing sites like Fountain Pen Companion.

Time chatting about stationery is fun. We do it heart-forward. Thanks, all.

This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. This week’s standout combo is easily the Lamy Safari, inked with Colorverse’s Brane — the shimmer version. Brane and this B nib are the best of friends. A fun and well-balanced pairing. Medium wetness. Smooth and reliable ink flow, even with Brane’s prominent green shimmer. My main journaling pen this week — even with pricier pens available. 4/5 left.

Ooh, shady

• Kaweco Sport (EF) — Empty. A dry ink and a stingy EF nib. While quite toothy, the pairing dried quickly. Suited pocket notes well as lines dried almost immediately. So all of my notes were easily legible and smear-free. Victory. 

• Karas Kustoms (EF) — Feed. Smooth writing nib. Clog free shimmer ink. Perfect pair for journaling — well, last week. Grew into a scratch notes combo this week. Showed sheen even on post-it paper.

• Faber-Castell Ondoro (M) — Feed. Rose Noir proved dark enough to work as a non-accent color during meeting notes, lecture notes, and a handful of manuscript outlines. Atypical for me to use a purple ink as a main writer. Remained a desk pen due to worries over the flimsy-feeling clip.

• TWSBI 580-AL (M Predator) — 1/4. This pair sat on the sidelines from Sunday on. Predator Hybrid grind is excellent for lesson plans. M side for headings. EF side for details. Easily scannable, especially while teaching. Thanks, Mr. Bacas.

• Platinum 3776 (F) — 1/2. True European EF line — and a smooth, toothy writer. Earl Grey’s shading stood out alongside Smoke Noir’s even tones. The week’s task management duo. And some scratch notes while grading.

• Visconti Homo Sapiens (EF) — ??. Dry combo — even with Visconti’s wet feed. Grew into a smoother writing pair by Tuesday. Excellent accent color in meeting notes, lecture notes, lesson plans, and manuscript outlines. All-purpose accent work.

Notebooks. Work bujo. Musubi Cosmo Air Light 83 (A5). Plenty of action. Eight new pages. Two for the weekly spread. Six for lesson plan outlines. The work journal sits at page 37.

The initial plan was to use magnetic page markers to render lesson plans easy to thumb to. Easy to clamp on and remove — all without damaging notebook pages.

The bookmarks proved too large for the purpose. The magnets worked well as place holders. However, they added thickness to the edges of the page. The resulting “bumps” disrupted attempts to write in my weekly. Boo.

Cue the hero music

So, I swapped to two metal Midori Chiratto Index Clips. They’re small. They fit snugly on the thick CAL paper. They’re thin — and so add no noticeable thickness to pages. And they’re easily moveable. Much happier with these little clips. 

Journal. Taroko Breeze (A5). This week was a desert rain of writing. Sparse. We can pretend that’s a real metaphor.

Three pages, all from Thursday night. I picked up my Lamy and Visconti for the task. These two pens sit at opposite ends of the expense spectrum. The Lamy is one of my least expensive and the Blizzard is my most pricey pen. 

Price ≠ value

Brane’s yellow-green is a refreshing contrast to the cool blues and purples that make up nearly all of my September journal entries.

Caribbean Blue for a Jim Harrison poem that’s been stuck in my head since Monday, “The Muse in Our Time.” For me, it’s about wanting to help. Trying to help. But the person does not want your help.

And howler monkeys

Pocket notebook. Stalogy 1/2 Year (B6). The B6 dimensions of this small notebook make it mighty for long form writing. I can see a B6 notebook as my next journal. Especially if I write vertically like last winter.

The B6 size proves challenging, however, as a pocket notebook. From pant pockets to slots in folios, the book is just too wide to sit comfortably.

So rugged

Despite the ill-fitting dimensions within my current work folio and (I guess?) clothing choices, the Kaweco and Stalogy got along famously. Six new pages, with scratch notes taken every weekday.

Written dry. One pen ran dry this week. The Kaweco Sport went out in the most respectful way. I used the pen to make a quick note in my Stalogy about a meeting scheduled for next Monday. Ten minutes later, at my desk, it was dry. No halfway-written words. Classy.

Two more pens are carrying empty converters: the Karas Kustoms and the Faber-Castell. Both pens are accent pairings — used primarily in lesson plans, reading notes, and meeting notes. I also used both pens often during my journaling two weeks ago.

Both will be replaced this weekend. I prefer to clean shimmer inks out of pens once the ink level hits the feed. Doing so minimizes the risk of evaporation, which could lead to clogs. Avoiding clogs ensures a good time.

Newly inked. No newly inked pens this week. Boo-ya.

The collection

Incoming / new orders. Every purchase-less week helps my stationery budget grow. This was a growth week.

Outgoing / trades or sales. The Sailor Fresca arrived safe and sound, back with the folks from Fahrney’s, on Thursday. They were gracious, attentive, and helpful. I’m quite happy with their support office.

I’ll follow up next week.

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. Exit Strategy continues on as my go-to read. I’m a sucker for thoughtful science-fiction. And Wells delivers.

First-week-of-school craziness shrank my evening reading time to bedtimes all week. I read another 18 pages across Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. And woke up laying on the book two of those nights. Talk about “heart.”

As does Murderbot, who is ever the Mother Bruce of space.

Nonfiction. The classrooms on my floor flooded last week. I lost a shelf of books to the two-foot-high flood waters. And the bookshelves in my classroom. I spent all but two prep periods taking inventory of my remaining teaching texts and reorganizing my office books along a folding table.

This is to say: I read very little non-fiction this week. However, the Epic of Gilgamesh awaits.

Music. My good friend Justin and I watched Chillhop Music’s newest seasonal fall compilation. It’s excellent background music while reading or writing. Or teaching.

Plus, this season’s video would make great viewing for young ones.