Category: Stationery

As I’ve said before, I have a lot of pens, too many, really. I can’t use them as much as I’d like, which means they spend far too much time put away in pen cases. Most of my pens are in use for only a week at a time. That means none of them, and especially my special pens, don’t get the appreciation they deserve.

When my pen collection first expanded to include pens that couldn’t go in a standard pen case — mainly urushi pens — I kept them in pen sleeves. After a while, I decided to get a pen box. It didn’t take me long to move the pen box to one of the display cases I’d purchased years before for my Pop Figure collection.

As I’ve mentioned a few times now, one of my rules for this year is to not purchase any “pretty ink sticks” — which I’ve broken. As the DC Pen Show has approached, “pretty ink sticks” have come to mind more, since I know I’ll see lots of them. But, recently, I’ve been considering, what qualifies as a “pretty ink stick?”

Before I really get into this post, I want to make clear that I don’t consider “pretty ink stick” derogatory in any way. It’s a classification of pen — along the lines of urushi, black pen, and painted — one which many people love. I feel like many people, though, use “pretty ink stick” as an alternate term for “indie pen.” And that, to me, is derogatory. So I want a better definition.

I’m not a stranger to outgrowing a pen case. In my early days of pen collecting, I tried to stick to a Girologio 24-pen case. I think my collection grew out of that after a year or so. So I got their 48-pen case. And, when the collection grew out of that one, I picked up a second one.

For the past 4+ years, I’ve had 3 48-pen cases. I divide my collection into less expensive, more expensive, and indie-made pens for my pen rotation. It makes sense to me to store them that way, too.