I mentioned in my Pen Resolutions Tag 2025 post that I’d “made some major changes this November,” referring to Nov. 2024. While I’m rather behind in sharing them, better late than never, right?
Standard Rotation Changes
The biggest change was to my standard pen rotation and storage. Remember less expensive, more expensive, and indie-made? Well, no more of that. While I still have 3 groupings, they are now:
- Pretty Ink Sticks: the appearance (typically material) of the pen is its primary appeal, but it doesn’t feature any additional work outside of making the pen (turning, polishing, adding clip/rollstop, etc.)
- Art Pens: The appearance of the pen is its primary appeal, but it features work on top of the material (e.g. urushi, painting, carving)
- Fabulous Writers: The writing experience is the primary appeal. That doesn’t mean the pen is ugly, just that the writing experience is better than the appearance. This does not include pens with easily changeable nibs (Jowo/Bock pens, Kaweco, Lamy, etc.).
This change meant that I reorganized all of the pens I store in pen cases so that each group is in a single case. I still keep them in color order for each group.
I’m enjoying the different groups because I tend to get a better variety of pens each week, and I’m guaranteed at least one fabulous writer.
Standard Rotation Constants
Partial Rotations
I still have the partial rotations I started in November of 2023. Pens that I’ve had for a long time that need to take a backseat to the “new shinies” but I don’t want to retire or sell get put into a group to be used every other pen rotation.
Randomizer
I still choose my pens for each week with my randomizer app so I can’t play favorites. The app also keeps track of which pens I’ve used and which I haven’t. Very handy feature.
Number
I also still fill 5 pens per week. Typically, I have 2 pretty ink sticks, 1 art pen, and 2 fantastic writers inked with a supplementary rollerball. But, there are a few weeks where I have 2 art pens and 1 fantastic writer.
Long-fill Rotation Changes
Another change was to my long-fill rotation, the pens I keep inked for 2 months at a time. I’ve downsized from 5 long-fill slots to 4.
Prior long-fill slots | Current long-fill slots |
---|---|
ARTUS: four elements series | No change |
Namiki Yukari: two pens | No change |
Expensive Pens: Aurora and Visconti | Eliminated |
Iron Feather Creative: selection of four pens | Changed the four pens in the rotation |
Cypress: selection of four pens | Stanford Pen Studio: selection of four pens |
Having only four additional pens means that they all get used a little bit more, so, win!
Always Inked
My Kurikara-Ken and The Right Royal Pen are still, literally, always inked. But, I’ve also added a — presumably temporary — always inked pen: the Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Sunlight from the Ocean Floor. I love how it writes so much that I didn’t want to de-ink it. So, I decided to keep it inked until I’m willing to clean it out.
Upcoming Change
I have one more change that I’m considering: creating a layout to plan out my full pen rotation with sticky notes.
The full rotation plan would allow me to see what’s coming up easily. I could use this to plan out pen porn posts for weeks that I’ll have the pens inked. The sticky notes would allow me to reorganize when I get new pens and need to insert them into the rotation. I can also easily see which pens are on partial rotation, just by the color of the sticky note.
I’ll give it a try for the rest of this pen rotation and see how I like it.
How do you use make sure you’re using your pens? How many pens do you usually have inked at once? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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