2024 Wrap-Up: Quick Thoughts on the Stationery World
This post was inspired by Rachel’s (@randomly_._rachel) 2024 New Pen Releases, The Tag post from 12/16/24 where she reviews events that have happened over the year and her thoughts about what the next year will look like. This is my own spin, while also borrowing some of her questions.
This repurposed letterpress tray is getting pretty full (which is why I now have a second one :D)
I feel like 2024 was a bit of a pivotal year in the hobby for me. I was deep into rediscovery mode and just straight up enjoying my collection. There is just something inherently wonderful about having a collection of useable objects - they are fun to look at and can be used for work, play, drawing, journaling, and so much more. I think fountain pens have the double awesomeness of having pretty much unlimited ink options in the same pen. I might be feeling a bright blue one week and then a subtle pink the next and it’s as easy as cleaning out my pen and swapping. I get to use the object that I love over and over and over.
My little Kaweco liliput fireblue is going on seven years of being in my pocket almost every single day, I bought it used on eBay in January 2018. I’d been putzing around in the fountain pen and planner hobbies, but it was that little pen that really started it all. In the seven years that it’s been around in my collection it has never not been inked with something. And there’s just something about being actually active in the hobby for seven years that feels pretty special and I’m looking forward to year seven with my little buddy pen (and year six with its copper sibling).
Now on to the questions!
What were some releases that lived up the hype in 2024?
For sale at Atlas Stationers and several other pen stores.
I think the Esterbrook King of the Night (affiliate link) pen was one of my favorite releases of the year. It’s not a pen I’ll ever actually own because I don’t like the large form factor of the Estie model, but I love everything about the creativity of this set. The colors chosen for the barrel, the absolutely adorable bat pen wrap, and the crime scene stationery set that came along with it (Esterbrook… you need to release that washi tape as its own product!). I have really enjoyed the storytelling coming out even when I end up admiring it from afar. On the much easier to say yes to end of Esterbrook releases, their new travel mug is adorable. I’ve been using mine all week and it looks delightfully vintage in its color scheme.
Esterbrook travel mug accompanied by my Esterbrook JR Purple Paradise. I currently have this pen inked with Colorverse Colorvent White Hole (which is just an awkward name, but it’s what the scientists named the phenomena.
The Colorverse Colorvent is amazing. Did I need it? Absolutely not. Do I love it? Absolutely. Along with the Season 8 The Grand Expedition release, I think they hit it out of the park this year. I can’t wait to see what they keep coming up with. I’m also very curious to see which inks will make the top 3 of the Colorvent when the voting is over. I’ll be getting a post up about the Diamine Inkvent and Colorverse Colorvent up soon.
What were some disappointments this year?
Image from Yoseka Stationery. Also available at other retailers.
This is mostly me being petty about the price, but I was really disappointed in how expensive the 140th Anniversary Kaweco Ebonit Sport was when the price was released. When it was first announced I was really intrigued, after all it was another Sport in a material I’d seen in other pens and one I would like to have in my collection in a pen model I enjoy… but then the US price was nearly $400. I was honestly expecting closer to $200 like the older Art Sports. It was just too rich for my blood. I even considered buying it from a European retailer which dropped the price down to $300 to $350, but it still felt like too much. Although I am deep into the hobby now and have paid plenty for modifications to my pens and upgraded nibs that probably equal that amount… it just felt like a big risk for something that I might not like. And I have a feeling it would not have been easy to sell on without losing a lot of money on the sale. If it had been equipped with one of the Kaweco 14K 060 nibs I would have understood the price a bit more. It was just a lot for a steel nib, a fancy box, and a set of ink cartridges (especially considering how inexpensive Kaweco cartridges are).
There’s been upward price creeping all over, which is expected due to inflation, but limited edition pricing is getting a little out of control in my opinion. I can understand an upcharge, but when we are talking several hundred dollars above a standard model just because it’s a special material or special color? Alongside the sheer amount of limited edition pens that have come out over the last few years… I wonder if we’ll see a big change in how the community approaches the hobby. I’ve already seen a lot of people dropping down to one or two pen purchases a year. I think I maybe bought three pens? I got the Kaweco Art Sport Terrazzo (affiliate link), the Kaweco x Galen Leather Sport Carmine (currently not on sale on website, will update with link when it is available), and picked up a Ferris Wheel Press Carousel in the Oinking Embers colorway (affiliate link) because it’s such a weird color and I love it. Those three pens combined were less than $200, with the Art Sport being the most expensive.
The trio of pens bought in 2024.
What was one of the wildest luxury releases this year?
This crown has to go the Montegrappa Odyssey (affiliate link). Montegrappa don’t ever change, your pens are insane and I love that about you. This pen came on my radar because I have a friend who loves Greek Mythology and has been writing a novel about Penelope. For fun I wanted to see if I could find her a Greek mythology themed pen for a reasonable price. She had accompanied me to the Twin Cities Pelikan Hub and seen the Zeus themed Pelikan, but that one was way out of her price range (and mine too). The Montegrappa Odyssey is so not in my price range even remotely (the price is on a different planet from me), but it’s amazing. I think my favorite feature is the Trojan Horse pen stand that it comes with. I had to share it with my Greek Mythology loving friend and this is how that text conversation went:
Me: Check this out [link to pen]
Friend: OMG I need that.
A few seconds later… Friend: Why would you tease me with an $9000 pen!?
At the time of this writing (Dec. 2024) it is on a 50% off last chance sale… so it’s a $4500 pen at the moment over at Atlas Stationers.
I tried to soften the blow and find an affordable Greek Mythology pen… but strangely I couldn’t find any. C’mon pen makers we need Greek Mythology themed pens at the sub-$100 level. And Laban, we need some more Greek mythology inks. I added a bottle of Poseidon Green to join my Athena Grey that I got last year and they are wonderful inks (and the box art is too much fun).
Which brand(s) had the best year?
For ink brands, I think Wearingeul and Ferris Wheel Press came out with some fantastic inks this year. There was a lot of experimentation with shimmer types and they are some pretty unique inks that have come as a result. I think my favorite from Wearingeul that came out this year is 1984, I snagged a bottle as soon as it came out. For Ferris Wheel Press, I would have to go with Age of Aurum, such an enjoyable burnished gold with golden shimmer. Honorable mention goes to Wearingeul The Nightingale and the Rose (I have a sample, but haven’t tried it quite yet) and Ferris Wheel Press The Sad Charade which I used quite often throughout the year.
Predictions for 2025
I hope I’m wrong, but I have a feeling we are going to see an even bigger price jump from steel nib pens to gold nib pens.
Sheen is making a comeback in popularity. I feel like shading (especially chromashading) has been getting all the attention, but sheen is sneaking back in and in more color options. I remember when Organic Studios Nitrogen was the peak of sheeners, there are so many more choices and brands now.
There will be a new paper that will get everyone excited. With Cosmo Air Light and Mitsubishi Bank Paper being discontinued, it will be interesting to see what paper fills in that niche. I have a soft spot for thinner papers and I hope we’ll see some more in that category.
Wishes for 2025
For brands to stop relying on artificial scarcity to create FOMO around their product only to easily restock later. It creates a lot of unnecessary stress in my opinion and probably leads to buyer’s remorse (I know it has for me in the past).
For Kaweco to release another series of Art Sports, they would get bonus points if they reintroduced some of the sparkly or pearly resins.
For ink companies to keep making off-the-wall colors that can only exist in the fountain pen world.
While I am definitely going to have to scale back my shopping in 2025 due to personal circumnstances and just the general state of the world economy, I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to reconnect with what is in my collection and just enjoy using my pens, inks, and paper. I mean, I do that already, but I have made so many great discoveries within my own collection in 2024 and I want to continue. I’m considering a low-buy challenge for myself for 2025, but haven’t completely worked out how I want to go about that.
What are your stationery world predictions for 2025?
Currently Inked
Milky Way is having a hard time showing off its sparkle in the winter sunlight, but the “star bright” shimmer from Chilly Nights is so sparkly it shows with even a hint of light.
Diamine Chilly Nights - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M ‘journaler’ - This was love at first sight… but not at first ink. I love navy blues and the “star bright” shimmer really pops. Trouble was there was so much glitter in my fill it would just clog if I left it alone for more than an hour. I ended up adding a drop of white lightning to the cartridge after cleaning out the mass of shimmer in the nib and I haven’t had any trouble since. Inks like this one are the reason I keep a brass shim in my TN.
Colorverse Milky Way - Kaweco liliput copper EF flex - Ran out of ink about halfway through the week and just haven’t gotten around to a re-ink yet. This ink is so much fun, especially in the flex where the glitter will pool at the bottom of the letters making a sort of shimmer shading.
Colorverse Blue Moon - Kaweco Art Sport Terrazzo B ‘imperial’ - Another love at first sight ink from the Colorvent. Even with over 100 blues in my collection, I don’t have one that is quite this tone. The shading is phenomenal in this light blue ink.
Colorverse Eclipse Silence - Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye 14K B - This black is BLACK. It essentially has a matte effect due to the black sheen on top of the black ink. I want to try and get back into ink sketching in 2025 and I think this one will be really cool because a purple undertone comes out when water is introduced. It might go head to head with Black Hole and Sunspot as some of my favorite Colorverse black inks.
Colorverse White Hole - Esterbrook JR Paradise Purple B - I had never heard of a white hole in astronomy before seeing this ink, but essentially its the theoretical opposite of a black hole where light and matter come out as opposed to collapsing. In my very brief research, I’m not sure if it’s even been observed as a phenomenon, but just a hypothetical in the next stage of a star’s life after the black hole and a LOT of time. I really didn’t like this ink when I first swatched it. I was like, I’ll never use that, ever. When other people began to post their photos I realized it’s actually more complex and for some reason didn’t really show off in my swatch. This ink is really interesting, blue on some papers, gray on others, when in a big saturated swatch it has a chromashade of light purple/pink. It’s also actually legible unlike Laplace Resonance which has a similar chromashade.