Opening Pendora's Box
I've always had an interest in stationary. Perhaps being Chinese had someone to do with it. Asians seem to have a thing for stationary. Even though I was brought up in Canada, I was still exposed to Asian stationary. I loved going to the Chinese bookstores to check out the latest stationary plastered with cute Japanese anime characters.
Later in university, while wandering the stationary section of the university bookstore, I discovered the Pilot Dr. Grip pens with gel ink. Not only was the writing experience with this pen a big step up from the average Bics, but it also helped to reduced hand strain from hours of mad note taking. By luck, I had accidentally discovered Pilot G2 refills and I never looked back. I loved writing with gel pens. So much so, that when I started work, I always avoided the office supply cabinets like the plague and opted to use my personal stash of pens instead.
Around 4-5 years ago I inherited my hubby's old iPad. I also discovered podcasts. Specifically Mac Power Users podcast with the dynamic duo David Sparks and Katie Floyd. I started on a journey to MPU-mastery and going "paperless". Yet in this endeavour, I still wanted a way to take notes by hand on the iPad. I tried every handwriting note app in the App Store and creating paperless workflows. My use of analogue writing tools fell by the wayside.
After going paperless for 2 years, I was still not happy with my notetaking workflows on the iPad. I thought about going back to the old pen and paper. I looked around the Internet to see what would be a step up from gelling pens. Somehow, I latched on to the idea of fountain pens. I discovered Goulet Pens YouTube videos and shortly after, the Pen Addict Podcast. I was hooked. I started binge-consuming all back catalogue of Brian Goulet's videos and Myke and Brad's energetic podcasts.
It did not take long before I decided I would order my first fountain pen. The Namiki Vanishing Point Raden Galaxy. Yes, it seems quite crazy...not exactly a starter pen but I was thinking I would only get ONE pen so (as the flawed thinking goes...) might as well get a good one. I also got a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki since I needed some work appropriate ink, so, might as well get a good one. After all, many of my Internet fountain pen gurus had said that the ink is what makes writing with fountain pens fun.
After the first orders, I discovered a myriad of interesting things like flex pens, ink samples, papers, Field Notes Colours subcriptions, glass pens, pen stands, Mylar paper, and so on. Inevitably, a new box would show up on my doorstep every so often. In short, I was fully lost in the pendamonium after the lid of the Pendora's Box was thrown open.
After a couple years of wading through the pendamonium, I decided it was time to add my voice to the pen community. I will certainly write about pens, ink and paper. I'll also write about how I use them in my analog/digital workflows.
Let's unravel the pandemonium together.