Supporting St. Jude

It's (basically) September yet again, and I'm joining the Relay podcast network (home of the Pen Addict podcast) community to support the life-saving work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. I originally started streaming on Twitch as OliveOctopusInk to spread awareness of the campaign during September in 2023. Now that September is here again I will be doing more frequent streams at a wider range of times and days in support of this year's campaign!

Background

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. After raising more than $4 million dollars since 2019, the Relay community is joining together for a seventh year to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital throughout September.

Relay and St. Jude are again providing the ability for individual members of the community to run a sub-campaign with their own milestones and rewards to extend the reach of the campaign beyond the podcast community. I'm running my fourth campaign this year with Twitch stream milestones, matching donations, and custom thank you rewards related to my interest in fountain pen inks, including lots of new stuff to paint with fountain pen inks.

The 12-hour Relay Podcastathon for St. Jude 2025 will stream on YouTube starting at 11am Central on Friday, September 19th, and this year Pen Addict Brad Dowdy joins the team!

My Campaign Rewards

I'm offering special donation rewards specifically for those interested in fountain pen inks and paper or who would simply enjoy some "happy mail" of handwritten Thank Yous or postcards. Please visit my campaign page for the latest rewards details and availability.

Ink Swatch Reward Details

In thanks for your generous support I'll work with you to pick inks from my FPC.ink profile, papers to swatch on, and I'll create and mail you custom swatches! Are there inks you have been curious about and want to see in person, or compare with an ink you already have? Do you want to see shimmer inks, interesting multi-shaders, or inks that are not readily available as samples before committing to a bottle? Are you on the hunt for the perfect shade of purple or a hue to match a new pen? Are you just curious about fountain pens and inks? I'd love to help you out if I can!

Note: To fulfill these rewards I'll need an address reachable via a USPS First-Class/First-Class International stamp from the U.S. (or digital/online alternatives).

	$15	$25	$50
Paper Types	2	3	3
Number of Inks	3	5	12
Total Swatches	6	15	36

Inks can be picked from my Fountain Pen Companion (FPC) profile.

Paper options include:

• Iroful
• Mnemosyne
• Colorverse Nebula Casual
• Croquis S263/S265
• Rhodia
• Clairefontaine (multiple forms)
• Yu-Sari
• Bank Paper (Life, Mitsubishi, etc.)
• Yamamoto Papers (Canopus, Meringue, Soliste, Sheep's Cloud Bond, Sleight White, Light Force, etc.)
• Tomoe River
• Cosmo Air Light
• Col-o-ring/Col-o-ring Oversize
• TUL Discbound/Notepad
• Swatch Cards (Wearingeul, Colorverse, Iroful, etc.)

Please ask about anything not listed, I collect lots of paper and have access to local stationery shops.

New Reward Offerings!

This year, it's Ink Pony Club time! In short, the Ink Pony Club is my way of inviting people to try painting with fountain pen inks, or just taking some time to color with whatever coloring media is available, because anyone can color and it's fun. I've included a wide range of rewards to choose from because every contribution, big or small, adds up to support the life-saving mission of St. Jude. Whether you can support financially or not, helping to spread the word can make a big difference!

Note: Unfortunately due to uncertainty with the USPS and international shipping, and mail restrictions varying from country to country, some items will need to be limited to U.S. mailing addresses only. I'll do my best to provide as much as I can internationally, feel free to reach out to me beforehand to discuss what might be possible for a given location, especially for the booklets. Thanks for understanding.

• Ink Pony Club (Mailed) | $25
  I have an open invitation to mail blank ink pony coloring sheets to anyone, but for this reward I'll add as much extra as I can. For U.S. addresses I can add an extra ounce stamp to include more papers and stickers, for international addresses I'll squeeze as much fun as I can into a 1 ounce envelope.

• Ink Pony Club: Floral or Sea Creatures (Mailed) | $20
  Ink Pony Club started with painting a pony, but it's fun to paint all kinds of things. These are sets of either floral or sea creature stained glass designs, printed on fountain pen friendly paper (b7 Natural)—12 sheets, approximately 4 inches square.

• Floral Stained Glass Coloring Book (Mailed) | $50 (5 available)
  A custom small coloring book (about 4 inches square) with 12 floral stained glass designs, each repeated once for a total of 24 pages to color, printed on fountain pen friendly paper (b7 Natural).

• Olive Octopus Currently Inked (Mailed) | $75 (1 available)
  I usually have dozens of fountain pens inked up at a time, so for this reward I'll schedule a stream to write out my currently inked on a paper of your choice (that I have access to) and then I'll mail it. I'm happy to try to schedule the stream at a time you can attend, if desired.

• Paper Sampler Booklet (Mailed) | $75 (5 available)
  A custom A6 paper testing booklet made with 12 different fountain pen friendly papers, with 12 blank pages for writing tests and 12 stained glass floral designs for swatching/coloring/painting tests. This booklet is similar to the A5 Slim version I've been filling in for myself on Twitch streams.

Twitch Streams

I'm now two years into streaming regularly and I still look forward to "going live" to spend time with lovely people while sharing my excitement for fountain pen inks, getting artsy on a regular basis, and chatting about whatever other topics (squirrel!) might come up. My hope is to maintain a welcoming, companionable, and creative space in my little corner of Twitch year round, but for September I've set aside extra time to stream more frequently and cover a wider range of things.

Last year the total raised on my campaign was $643, so I've set my goal this year at $700. The first milestone is to double my impact by matching the first $250 raised with a $250 donation, and I'm offering a variety of thank you rewards to those who join me in supporting St. Jude! While I'll have extra graphics with the campaign details and progress visible on screen and will occasionally share updates or answer questions, the campaign will mostly be in the background and I want to invite people to come hang out and explore things with me such as:

• fountain pen ink swatching
• painting and sketching with ink
• fountain pens 101 (and beyond?)
• writing experiences with different dip pens and fountain pen nibs
• comparing fountain pen friendly papers
• Diamine Forever Inks "CMYK" ink painting (unlocked at $50)
• Custom Nib Grinds Show & Tell (unlocked at $100)
• Big Lego build (unlocked at $600)

Questions about what I'm working on or general pen, ink, and stationery questions are always welcome on stream!

Regular Twitch Stream Schedule (CDT)

• Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9am
• Thursdays from 7:30 to 9am (may shift to 7 - 8am or Fridays due to TPA podcast live recording moving to 8am on Thursdays)
• Sundays from 9am to 12pm(ish)

St. Jude Posts