I learned about the 12 Pen Person Questions tag from The Well-Appointed Desk‘s September 8 blog post. In it, Ana linked to Olive Octopus’s original post. I enjoyed answering their 17 Ink Questions, so I’m answering these questions as well.
Now, on to the questions! I plan to write this more “stream of consciousness” style so that the answers are more genuine, since Lise (Olive Octopus) indicates a goal of answering these is to learn more about yourself.
1. If you consider the different ways you can engage with pens and stationery—as a user, a collector, a hobbyist, a creator, a maker, a vendor—which roles fit best and what percentage of 100% would you assign to each? Are you happy with the balance?
Well, I can eliminate two right off the bat; I’m neither a maker nor a vendor. Creator is more difficult. I don’t create stationery, but I create content related to it; does that count? Reading others’ posts, it certainly seems to.
Of course, as I think about this more, I suppose I am dipping my toes into the worlds of maker and vendor with my crocheted pen holder lanyards. But that’s a very small percentage of my engagement with the community, maybe 2% maker and 1% vendor.
As much as I wish otherwise, I have to say hobbyist is a higher percentage than user. The two together are definitely over 50%. For a nice, even, number, I’ll mark them as 60% together. My initial thought is to put hobbyist at 40% and user at 20%, but that doesn’t feel right, so I’ll go with 35% and 25%.
That leaves me with 37% of my interaction to divide between creator and collector. And that doesn’t feel right, either.
So let me reset. What, exactly, is a hobbyist? The best definition I found was “a person who pursues an activity in their spare time for pleasure.” To me, that encompasses nearly everything I do with stationery. I don’t get paid, in any way, for anything I do with stationery, except the new venture into selling the pen lanyards I make here and there.
If I consider that maker is 2% of my engagement with the stationery world and vendor is 1%, that leaves 97% as hobbyist to divide between collector, creator, and user. Creating and using are intrinsically linked, as a good portion of the time I’m using my stationery, I’m also creating. Which means that creating is the largest percentage of the three, by a significant margin; I’m calling it 60% of the 97%, or 58% of my total engagement.
This feels much more right, and leaves 39% of my engagement for collector and user. While I do collect some things, in most cases it’s with the intent to use. It’s only some stickers I collect for the sake of collecting. So, that should be a fairly low percentage. 5% feels too low, maybe 7%.
This, this feels right, now.
- Vendor: 1%
- Maker: 2%
- Hobbyist: 97%
- Creator: 58%
- User: 32%
- Collector: 7%
Well, now that you’re thoroughly sick of my rambling, let’s move on to question 2. Here’s hoping my answers get shorter.
2. What is something you want to understand better or develop more informed opinions about?
At the risk of sounding self-centered, I’d like to better understand my own “buy this now” triggers. While I’ve gotten better at buying all the things over the past couple of years, I still “relapse” here and there, which tells me that, while I’ve learned to mitigate and fight the desire, I haven’t addressed the core issue.
I realize that this isn’t exactly what the question is asking, but it’s at the top of my list right now.
3. In the pen community, what’s something someone has said or done that stuck with you?
This isn’t a single thing someone has said or done. Instead, what’s struck me about the pen community from day one is how open the majority of people are to sharing, be that ink, pens to test, stationery, knowledge, skills, or anything else you can think of.
While I’ve certainly come across other hobby communities where knowledge is freely shared, that isn’t generally the case in artisan communities. But, everything I’ve heard points to makers being happy to share tips and tricks. I’ve had excellent discussions with makers about pen-making secrets I would generally expect someone to want to keep to themselves.
I feel that having such an open community strengthens it.
4. There are now 25 hours in a day, a bonus hour is available to use however you like as long as pens or stationery are involved—how do you spend your hour?
I would finally have the time to do more drawing. I keep meaning to do more Zentangle or doodle style drawings, but I then the day is over and I haven’t actually done anything.
And yes, I know I need to make time, but it’s just far enough down my priorities list that I don’t get to it.
5. In the pen community yearbook, what would your superlative be? (i.e. “Best ______”, “Most _______” “Most likely to _______”)
My first thought was, most likely to sit quietly somewhere and let you approach her. But, while completely accurate — it’s what I do at pen shows, like my fellow introverts — it isn’t necessarily stationery related.
So, I asked Jim. He had just as much trouble coming up with a superlative as I did, eventually settling on most likely to covet pens out of her budget. Definitely closer, but I doubt I’m the most likely to do that.
But then it hit me. The true superlative that’s completely stationery-related: most likely to promote indie brands. After all, Jim and I taught a class on indie-made pens being underpriced. And I ADORE my indie pens. So… yeah… go buy an indie-made pen… or three.
6. How do you feel about your handwriting?
I like my handwriting. I have a few letters that I would like to change — I’m looking at you, capital Q and capital Z — but for the most part, I like the style I’ve cobbled together over the years.
Granted, when I write too fast, it quickly gets sloppy, and I’m not anywhere near as happy with that.
7. What is something you are proud of doing, achieving, or overcoming?
Oh, goodness… proud of something specifically stationery related. I’m going to have to go with keeping my blog going for over 8 years.
No one ever starts a blog — or other social media channel — with the expectation that it will be short-lived, but if you’d asked me at inception if I’d still be writing 8 years later, I probably would have said no. Not for a lack of interest in doing so, but a lack of faith that I’d stick with it.
8. You’re going on a writing retreat anywhere in the world—where would you go, what would you write, and what would you write with?
Three questions in one, that hardly seems fair.
Where would I go?
Well, if I could choose anywhere, as in money is no object and the location would be booked for only those on the retreat, I’d love to go back to Versailles. The gardens, especially, would be fabulous to write in during spring or autumn.
However, if it has to be within realistic parameters, I’d want to go to London. There are so many great places to write, and I love the city.
What would I write?
Since it’s a retreat and the main point is writing, I’d probably try my hand at fiction again. It’s been ages since I’ve written any. Although I’d likely break it up with some longer, story-based blog posts.
What would I write with?
A little bit of everything. I usually only bring one or two fountain pens with me when I travel significant distances. However, I also sometimes bring along non-fountain pens, or even a mechanical pencil.
I enjoy having a variety of colors when I write, often switching colors on each new page. So, I’d bring along my Hi-Tec-C Coleto with four different ink colors; a few standard clicky pens in the Zebra Sarasa Clip, Ilmily Nuance, and/or Uni-ball One lines; and either my Keroppi Kuru-Toga or Winnie the Pooh Pilot Dr. Grip.
9. What’s a current or favorite creative outlet?
I realize this isn’t stationery, so it’s kind of breaking the rules, but right now it’s crocheting. I’ve been having so much fun making amigurumi (small crocheted plushies). It’s what led to me creating the pen holder lanyards.
10. What’s something that causes you benign envy—the kind of admiration and desire that leads to inspiration or motivation?
People who have “completed” their collections. As a bit of an extension to my answer to question number 2, I find it more than a little amazing that there are people who feel their pen and/or ink collection is complete and either don’t have, or don’t give in to urges to buy more pens. While I don’t know that I’ll ever consider my collection “complete,” I’d like to significantly reduce my consumption.
11. What’s a comfort item, material, or color?
I don’t think I have a stationery comfort anything. The closest I have is my blog binder. I bring it with me most places I go so that I have the option to write. I’ve adjusted my purse/bag preferences in the past few years to ones that will hold my blog notebook.
12. What would be a dream collaboration, project, or partnership?
The unfortunate truth for me is that any “dream” collab would be out of my price range, and none of them would be collabs with me since I’m either not the rights-holder, not the most knowledgeable, it’s not of interest to enough people.
I would, of course, welcome anyone who wanted to produce a product line around my cats. A sticker sheet for each, for example, or a notebook separated into sections with a drawing of one of them for each section.
Do me a favor and answer at least one question in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.
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