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Open book showing a painted scene of manatees under water with bright yellow fish, trees with large roots under water, seaweed, and pelicans. Next to the book is a water brush and a ceramic paint palette filled with different colors of ink, everything is on a desk in a beam of sunlight.
Dominant Industry Ink Archiving Book: A Log of Atlantis

A whole new way to explore fountain pen ink.

Items on a desk including a cup of glass stir rods, a jar of stir rods in water, a wood block with a blue dropper bottle, a ceramic tray with swatch cards, and a desk mat.
10 Useful Things

Ten things you probably won't find at a stationery store that have become an integral part of my usage of fountain pens and inks.

A wood pen storage box with 10 fountain pens visible through the glass lid.
You Can Keep Only One?!

Happy Fountain Pen Day! Hypothetically, if I could only keep one pen from each brand, which pens would I choose?

A scrap of dark green batik fabric and multiple green wall paint swatches hung on a white wall.
Layers of Color

I have relatively large control over the appearance of my living environment, and I choose to surround myself in color.

Collage of Pennonia shimmer colors, a leafy green tree art piece, and a rainbow of mixed ink colors on paper
St. Jude 2024 Campaign Update and Milestone Stream Recaps

There's less than a week left to support St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital during September! I've completed three special Twitch stream topics unlocked by donations so far.

Haul picture of pens, inks, stationery, paper, and accessories spread across a table
2024 San Francisco Pen Show

I wanted to visit a new pen show this year, a bigger show, and "The Fun Pen Show" in San Francisco did not disappoint!

Screenshot of a Twitch VOD of swatching inks on Col-o-dex and Col-o-ring cards
Relay for St. Jude (2024)

For the sixth year the Relay podcast network community is supporting the life-saving work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and I've created a sub-campaign with Twitch streams and custom rewards featuring fountain pens and inks!

Multiple pens, ink bottles, ink samples, notebooks, and accessories laid out across the desk.
2024 Atlanta Pen Show Highlights

Highlights, including the "haul," from my second pen show weekend! I returned to the Atlanta Pen Show after attending for the first time a year ago.

Sheet of paper with ink swatches and a selection of 5 different swatching tools.
Ink Swatching Tools

I do a lot of fountain pen ink swatching, so finding reusable tools that would produce a good swatch and could be cleaned quickly and easily at my desk was important.

Small pouch and notebook on a restaurant table.
Pen Meetup Toolkit

Join me for a "bag dump" of the pouch of accessories and tools that I bring when meeting up with pen friends.

A stack of Col-o-dex cards each showing a small sliver of color.
23 Memorable Inks in 2023

A look back at 23 inks used in 2023 that became favorites or otherwise made an impression.

A beautiful black cat with a sweet face looking straight at the camera with big green eyes.
Boo

Last month I had to say goodbye to my beloved 16 year-old cat, Boo. I reflect on her life and our time together, including her connection to my relatively recent interest in fountain pens and inks.

Lego instruction booklets for Hokusai - The Great Wave and PAC-MAN Lego kits
Relay FM for St. Jude

For the fifth year the Relay FM community is supporting the life-saving work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Returning this year: Building Hope 2.0, my sub-campaign featuring Lego—now with more fountain pens & inks!

A small wooden tray with col-o-dex cards of ink swatches sorted by color.
120 Col-o-dex Cards

In mid-April I started on a project to re-swatch all my inks on Col-o-dex cards with little sketches inspired by the ink name, packaging, and/or color. Now four months in, I took a look back at the process so far.

Several Sailor Manyo square glass bottles spread out across a wood desktop.
#17InkQuestions

Since I'm obsessed with fountain pen inks, I came up with my own list of questions.

A top-down view of a desk with a Franklin-Christoph TN-size notebook cover with inserts, a 3 pen holder visible in the front cover pocket, on top of a gray TUL discbound Jr notebook with clear disks, surrounded by fountain pen ink boxes and bottles, several dip pens with metal and glass nibs, a paint brush, water brush and ceramic watercolor palette.
#5MorePenQuestions

Answering 5 More Pen Questions from The Gentleman Stationer.

Sailor Pro Gear Slim 'Nuts' pen with a medium gold nib and light gray green translucent body with transparent yellow accents with swatches of the green/brown/blue Sailor Manyo Shirakashi and bright yellow Sailor Manyo Yamabuki inks.
#21PenQuestions

Answering the 21 Pen Questions posed by Ana at The Well-Appointed Desk.