I’ve always loved pens & stationery. When I got my first full-time job at a printers & stationers I picked up a Parker Jotter fountain pen which I loved using, but I would get annoyed with how quickly it’d dry up. During the decade I worked there before it went under, I also picked up a Parker 45 flighter and a Cross Century at a huge discount. But after getting really ill those pens languished in a drawer for almost a decade, and the ink left in the Cross well and truly clogged it up.

When I started going to an evening class at college, I wanted to start making use of my fountain pens again. The Herbin pen cleaning fluid made short work of the clogged Cross, and I bought my first bottle of ink—Waterman Intense Black. And that was when I went off the deep end and descended into fountain pen madness. Fast forward to today and I have 108 fountain pens and 115 inks, and it’s constantly growing. I’m trying to get through this month without buying a pen, but it’s a real struggle 😅