{"id":16666,"date":"2026-04-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=16666"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:55:20","slug":"unanswerable-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/unanswerable-question\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unanswerable Question"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

I have a fairly short post for you today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With pen show season well and truly underway, I’ve seen a plethora of posts and videos about pen show hauls \u2014 I’ve shared my own, too. And it’s great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes me happy to see people keeping the pen world afloat. Even better when posts\/hauls feature indie-made pens. The world is tough right now, and every pen purchased helps keep an indie maker afloat. And that leads to my \u2014 currently \u2014 unanswerable question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I love supporting indie makers and small businesses. Unfortunately, pens are consumable goods, and I already have too many. Yes, I said the forbidden sentence. I have too many pens. It’s why I adopted my “no pretty ink sticks” rule. But, that eliminates many indie-made pens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I do my best to tell people about indie makers in conversations, through my blog, and on my Instagram. But it’s not as good as the monetary support of purchases \u2014 especially since my audience is still fairly small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which leaves me with the question: how do I support indie pen makers when I’m trying to buy less pens, specifically few to none of the kinds of pens they make?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve backed myself into a bit of a corner and now have an unanswerable question. A conundrum, if you will. Find out what it is in this short post.<\/p>\n

Keep ReadingThe Unanswerable Question<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fountain-pens","category-random-reflections","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/unanswerableQuestion_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Z77k-4kO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9955,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/more-indie-makers\/","url_meta":{"origin":16666,"position":0},"title":"Even More Indie Makers","author":"Rachel","date":"March 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I've come across even more indie makers since my last maker post. Here are the new makers I've found and a link to a new reference page.","rel":"","context":"In "Fountain Pens"","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/indieMakers3-featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1782,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/fp201-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":16666,"position":1},"title":"Fountain Pen 201: Indie Pen Makers","author":"Rachel","date":"August 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome back to Fountain Pen 201. This issue I cover indie pen makers. I've also included a list of indie makers I know about.","rel":"","context":"In "Fountain Pens"","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Pen Collection","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/collectionStarred-300x176.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7773,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/add-indie-makers\/","url_meta":{"origin":16666,"position":2},"title":"Additional Indie Makers","author":"Rachel","date":"June 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I've come across even more indie makers since my last maker post. 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Here are the new makers I've found and a link to the reference page with my full list.","rel":"","context":"In "Fountain Pens"","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/indieMakers3-featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12623,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/even-more-indie-makers\/","url_meta":{"origin":16666,"position":4},"title":"Even More Indie Makers","author":"Rachel","date":"March 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I've come across even more indie makers since my post last year. Here are the new makers I've found and a link to the reference page with my full list.","rel":"","context":"In "Fountain Pens"","block_context":{"text":"Fountain Pens","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/category\/stationery\/fountain-pens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/indieMakers3-featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8266,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/indie-pens-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":16666,"position":5},"title":"The True Value of Indie Pens","author":"Rachel","date":"September 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Gain a better understanding of what goes into making indie pens and the value you're getting when you buy one. 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