Dusty Inks on My Shelves
One of my inky display shelves.
I like to make lists. It’s probably because it’s an opportunity to use a pen on paper without having to think too much about what I’m saying. Lists of books I want to read. Lists of movies I watched. Lists of my collections. There is something satisfying about a good list. Since I’ve been playing a good deal with my inks as part of the move into the old Hobonichi Weeks for tracking, I noticed that I didn’t get to add any dots to some inks in the index. To keep things simple I chose a Zebra Mildliner for each year I have previously tracked ink usage (2021, 2022, and 2023) and added a dot for when those inks were used.
And there are some inks with no dots.
Gold for 2021. Purple for 2022. Blue for 2023. I’m doing olive green for 2024.
Curious, I set out to make a list of these inks that haven’t been inked in at least 3 years, either because I got them in the last three years and never used them or the last time I used them was prior to 2021. Either way, three years seems like a pretty long stretch of time to not play with something in my collection.
By the end of 2023, and adding in the 2023 Diamine Inkvent calendar, my collection sits at 415 different inks between bottles and samples. Of those 415, 145 of them sit unused in the past three years. A few of these are end of year acquisitions via the holidays and I just haven’t gotten a chance, but a good chunk of them I’ve had for a long time. In making the list, I wanted to get some data on these unloved inks. Currently, I have determined that 35% of my collection is unused. I’d like to get that number lower in 2024 (one of my goals for Project Enjoy Collection is to utilize underused or never used inks). By the end of 2024, I’d like to get that number down to 20%. That means I need to use what I buy, and use what I already have but haven’t.
It took three A5 pages front and back to list all the inks. I’m crossing them off if I put them in a pen.
Here are the stats by color category:
Red: 25 out of 44 inks, 56% unused. Actually surprised that this was my most underutilized category, because I generally like using red inks - I thought anyway. Many of the sample inks on this list are ones I got a long time ago. I’m wondering if they’ve just been hanging out because I’ve settled on some favorite red inks that I generally reach for before trying something new. Another good chunk are reds that came in sets with other inks.
Burgundy: 3 out of 10 inks, 30% unused. Two of the three are from the 2019 Diamine Inkvent, meaning I probably used them then and then never inked them up again. I definitely have some go-to inks in this category that I have bottles of. I think these will be easy to test and decide if I need to use them more or move them on.
Pink: 11 out of 24 inks, 45% unused. Almost all of these were part of ink sets - Diamine Inkvents, Colorverse Limited Edition sets, Ferris Wheel Press ink charger sets. Pink is a color category I am very picky about, I almost exclusively reach for earthy pink tones. Many of these inks will probably find new homes by the end of the year.
Orange: 16 out of 30 inks, 53% unused. This number surprised me at first, but when I considered it I realized what happened. I love the color orange. I think I went through a time where I was trying every orange ink that I could get my hands on and then settled on a few shades. Diamine Pumpkin is probably one of my top oranges and I use it multiple times a year (it’s the perfect bright orange), which led to many of these other inks just hanging out on the shelf. I actually look forward to trying to utilize more orange this year.
Yellow: 3 out of 12 inks, 25% unused. A sample and two Inkvent inks. Should be pretty easy to determine if they stay or go after a fill or two.
Green: 18 out of 34 inks, 53% unused. Honestly, I was expecting this to be my biggest category of unused inks. I rarely reach for greens and so many ink sets include a green option. The samples (Coloverse Taepyeong, Coloverse Able, Colorverse Cat’s Eye Nebula, and Colorverse Psc) are the only ones I chose that weren’t included in sets. I think I’m going to have to take a look about whether I am willing to break up an ink set if I know I’ll never use a color. Greens have been slowly chipping away at me though, so maybe I’ll end up liking more in this category after all.
Blue: 28 out of 115 (can anyone guess what my favorite ink color is?), 24% unused. I am pretty consistent about using blue inks and I love the variety throughout the year. I roped turquoise inks into this category this year and blue-leaning teals. Most of what I haven’t used lately were inks I used to use a lot, but stopped when I got more variety or inks that came in sets that I just haven’t gotten to yet.
Purple: 11 out of 40, 28% unused. I really don’t know why any of these inks are on this list… other than that I maybe have too many inks (I don’t know if that’s really a thing, but…) I want to use up the samples on this list and definitely utilize the others throughout the year.
Brown: 12 out of 51, 24% unused. Most are samples that I just haven’t gotten around to yet. Will have to prioritize a bit more.
Black/Gray: 18 out of 55, 33% unused. What’s true of brown is also true of the black/gray category. I was on a dark ink exploration last year and bought a lot of samples. Need to move them towards the front of the inking queue.
Immediate things that I noticed while making the list:
Many of the unused inks were part of sets that included other colors that I have utilized.
Many of the unused inks are samples that I bought in my "haul phase” where I was buying 10-15 ink samples a paycheck and part of some ink sample subscription services.
First thought was that many of the inks that ended up on the list are very bright, and I’ve moved toward more muted colors over the past two years.
I think this was a useful way to think about one of the goals I had regarding using my ink collection this year. What colors am I avoiding? Do these inks need to stay in my collection? Is it okay to break up a limited edition set? Just a few of the questions that come to mind. It also proves to me that there are things still left to discover that I already have on my shelf.
I wonder how many times I will be asking myself why it took me so long to use these inks?
Winter light desk shot for fun. It’s finally a proper winter here in northern Minnesota with a few inches of snow on the ground.
Currently Inked
Adding a few bright inks into the mix for this week.
Birmingham Golden Ale - Kaweco x Elite Royalty Sport Deep Red BB - This was an old sample from Birmingham Pens back when they had their monthly subscription. I was hoarding this last fill that was left in the vial because I like this shade. Going to enjoy it and then be on the lookout for dupes in my collection and if there aren’t any… some more ink searching will be afoot!
Ferris Wheel Press Brilliant Beanstalk - Kaweco Sport Iridescent Pearl M CSI - Remember how I mentioned greens are growing on me? The soft green of this one was intriguing and with a little bit of white lightning gives it some great shading and makes the shimmer better behaved. A little bit of green to think of spring.
Ferris Wheel Press Land of Shangri-la - Kaweco Art Sport Terrazzo M stub - I am a little in love with this combo right now and needed a refill. I love how solid a brown-black this is with some hints of shimmer that give it some fun surprises when the light catches it.
Bungubox Melancholic Grey - Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye M ‘selvedge’ - Working my way through the fill still. Although, it might be playing second fiddle to the other gray that I added to the set this week.
Wearingeul Othello - Kaweco liliput copper 14K B - I bought this one at the end of last year and was partially worried that it would be too similar to Wearingeul Anubis and it would be a waste… man, was I wrong. While both are warm grays, they look completely different and have very different shimmers. The shading on this ink is wonderful! Been having fun writing with this one.
Diamine Pick Me Up - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M ‘journaller’ - When I get a chance to sit down and write without interruptions, this is a great combo. Still having fun, but it might be time to switch it up when I finish this fill and give another ink a chance to play in my favorite pen.
Ferris Wheel Press Purple Jade Rabbit - Kaweco Sport Macchiato 1.5 - The more I use this ink on different papers the more interesting it becomes. It has a sort of watercolor feeling with the blue undertone. Might have to put it in a writing pen for a bit after this run as a header.