Project Enjoy Collection 2023
I’m not very adventurous when it comes to pens. In fact, I’m pretty particular. I’m a big Kaweco fan and most of my pens are from the brand.
The same cannot be said for my ink collection. At the moment, I think it’s been about seven years since I started ink collecting in more earnestness. I have a pretty variable collection at this point thanks to all of the shops that offer ink samples.
One of my favorite parts of a large collection is revisiting what I have. For the past few years I’ve been keeping a list of inks and I marked every time I made a fill with a pen. I was tracking overall volume and progress through bottles. In conjunction with this list I would have a swatch book of some kind. Flipping through swatches is one of my favorite calming activities.
I would call each year’s list and swatches a “project” and would define a goal for the year. It’s been to minimize and streamline (to “curate” in a way) and in 2022 it was simply to enjoy what I had and try to limit the number of purchases I made. I was way more thoughtful of my purchases last year, although I still added quite a few new samples to my collection and a few bottles. It was a fun project that was helped along with a plethora of papers to try out (an activity I plan on continuing in 2023).
My 2022 setup consisted of a homemade notebook filled with onion skin paper for swatching (onion skin paper was one of my favorites from 2021) and my ink list in my A6 stalogy. The goal was to enjoy the collection. No guilt if I wanted to keep the same ink in a pen for long stretches and an acknowledgment that I probably wasn’t going to touch everything that I had in my collection.
Last year’s project really helped me discover what inks I was drawn to (which does shift from year to year) and what I was just not using. I’d realized that some of my inks have sat untouched since I got them. Some I’d purchased and never even tried. I also realized I was a little bored with the setup of tracking by volume.
I wanted to try something new.
During #30inks30days hosted by @inkjournal on Instagram I decided to try out making an index book. At the moment, it’s in an A6 Midori MD notebook that I’d had lying around for a while. Using a square stamp that I found in the stamp bin at a thrift shop I’d make a swatch and write the name of the ink in the first pen/nib combo that I inked it up in. Then I would take a date stamp and stamp when I “checked it out” from my library of inks. I’ve continued that into December and I plan on doing it throughout 2023 to get a rainbow catalog of what I used. In addition, I am keeping the ink list in the stalogy notebook with a swatch and direction to where it is in my “ink passport”. It’ll also double as a quick reference for which inks I haven’t touched since November ‘22.
I’m interested to see what inks show up in my writing over the next year.
Currently Inked
Diamine Pick Me Up - Kaweco x Elite Royalty Sport Deep Red - BB - I actually really like the depth of this brown. It’s not my favorite in this tone (that currently is held by Ferris Wheel Press Writing Desk), but it’s pretty fun, especially on papers with sheen. Worked on some of the Vampire Story Project, blog draft, and some journalling this week.
Colorverse Strelka - Kaweco Collection liliput green - premium B - This is one of my favorite light blue/ turquoise-y inks. Along with Colorverse Apollo 11 it’s probably one of my most commonly used from that ink brand. It was a late night “I need a new color” ink swap on Sunday night and it saw a lot of use at work the next day.
Diamine Garland - Kaweco liliput copper - 14K B - This ink was the other one in the late night “I need a new color” ink swap. This pen had been sporting my flex nib from FPnibs and I wanted something a little more robust. This ink has snuck up on me. I barely glanced at it when it came out in the 2021 Inkvent calendar and then I saw @mnmlscholar using it a few weeks ago and was like… yes, I want that too. A great re-discovery of something just sitting in my ink box. Drove a lot of storywriting on the Vampire Story Project.
Colorverse Black Hole - Kaweco liliput fireblue - 14K M “journaller” - This nib and pen were made for each other. It was made all the better when I had CustomNibStudio grind the stingy nib into a journaller which she developed for Esterbrook. It’s a really forgiving stub and it adds just a bit of flair to the writing in print and cursive. I’m really digging having at least one black or grey inked up right now and that will likely continue into the new year.
Sailor Ink Studio 273 - Kaweco Collection Sport Iridescent Pearl - M CSI - A delightful warm brown with pink shading and haloing on Cosmo Air Lite paper. Having fun using it in my journal and for some work stuff in the past week.
Diamine Memory Lane - Kaweco Sport Cognac - M stub - This is a really beautiful sparkly purple that I was using for text when I still had it in my flex nib last week and using up the last of the fill in the stub for some headers this week.
Diamine Ghost - Kaweco x Elite Royalty Sport Crown Blue - B - This ink is fascinating the more papers I use it on. It’s got a very different shade and subtlety on different papers which is making it fun for journalling and some more writing on the Vampire Story Project.
Dominant Industry November Leaves - Kaweco Sport Macchiato - 1.5 - This ink is one of my Christmas gifts from a family member (couldn’t wait… perk of being a grown up, haha) and it might take some time to grow on me. It’s a really pretty light brown and looks really great on absorbent papers and is really pale on coated papers. I’m definitely won over on the name though… Autumn theming is my favorite.
Notebooks
Journal - Cafe Notes A6 with Tomoe River Paper - 10 new pages of planning for a trip to Disney in January to visit family and some musings on ink.
Scribble notebooks - Mostly playing in a homemade A6 notebook with Cosmo Air Lite paper. Really digging the way shading and shimmer shows up on this paper and little bit sad it’s getting discontinued. Will need to lay hands on a few more packs before it’s gone for good. I also did a little bit in both Kokuyo Perpanep notebooks. Some pens I love on the smoother Sara Sara paper and others I’m digging in the more textured Zara Zara.
Adding pages to the Vampire Story Project in beautiful sheeny, shimmery Diamine Garland.