2025 Stationery Intentions
I’m kicking off the new year with a Stationery Intentions post! I like to make stationery intentions every year, and report on them throughout the year; you can read more of these posts by exploring the year planning category.
At midnight, after raising a glass, I switched inserts in my A6 cover. For a change, I went with Midori MD paper as opposed to the Hobonichi blank grid and day free inserts I’ve been using throughout last year.
2024 was a great year for me in terms of my stationery hobby. I tried new things, acquired some wonderful pens and inks, and found endless wonder in my collection. One of the highlights of 2024 had been sharing the joy of stationery on this blog and with my friends in the fountain pen community; I rediscovered the pure delight of writing for pleasure. I’d love to have another fantastic stationery year, but I’d like 2025 to be more modest in terms of acquisitions. Here are the intentions:
1. My #1 intention for 2025 is to resist FOMO. What I want to not just avoid FOMO, but to understand the mechanics of FOMO for myself. FOMO has been an issue for me in 2024 in a way it hasn’t been in other years. This requires mindfulness on my part - there was a reason, or a combination of reasons, why I experienced FOMO repeatedly last year when it’s not really my thing (or perhaps it is my thing, but I told myself otherwise?). I want to think about this as I write my way through the year.
2. Ink mindfulness. I’ve been planning to do a no-buy in 2025, but I feel that it will make me feel awful. I went overboard on ink in 2024, and I feel the need to rebalance this year, but I think that harsh limitations will be too much for me in what promises to be a difficult year. Ink brings me joy, and limiting joy is not going to be a good solution. So I’m back to my regular guardrails with a few tweaks.
I usually have a guardrail of 10 bottles or less. This year I’m going to give myself a target range of 4-8, but I’ll be happy if I come under 10. I rarely purchase samples, so I won’t worry about these.
I want to move 10 bottles of ink out of my ink library so that I’m at net neutral of bottles at the end of the year.
I want to explore and enjoy my existing inks! One of the ways I plan to do this is 2025 is by re-inking my inks from 2024 in order of acquisition (if possible).
3. Be mindful about fountain pen acquisition. The Gathering is thriving. Most of the pens I have now I absolutely love, and do not want to give up. I am at 22, two pens over what has been the limit of my collection for the last five years. I’m unlikely to end up with under 20 pens in 2025. My intention for the year is to add up to 6 pens, same as last year. There is nothing I especially want right now; I was thinking maybe an urushi pen, or perhaps a special maker pen. No rush.
I’m curious about how this will develop in 2025; perhaps there is a natural rhythm to my acquisitions where I buy 6-8 pens a year and rotate a similar number out. I’ll plan to return to this hypothesis at the end of the year and see what I discover.
On the morning of January 1st, I photographed my currently inked lineup - and discovered that it is very similar to last year’s. This us unsurprising: I have a smaller collection and use all of my pens. But this year, the lineup is larger. I had 5 inked on Jan 1, 2024, and I have 8 (!!) inked on January 1, 2025. The Leonardo MZ Viola, Aurora Internazionale Arancione, Onoto Magna Keats, and Scribo Piuma Impressione were inked in both years. The other pens in the picture below are new to the Gathering in 2024. They did not displace my beloved pens from previous years, but rather were added to it.
My NY pen line up includes beloved pens from Montegrappa, Kilk, Scribo, Aurora, and Onoto. The Montegrappa Micra is filled with Teranishi Smoky Navy.
4. Nib work and Collection Improvement. I need to send some pens to a nibmeister, decide whether to sell any pens, and generally decide if and how the collection can be improved. It’s been a while since I sent anything to a nibmeister, and I think I want to. In terms of improvement, I want to see if some pens need to leave the Gathering, but I am not setting a separate downsizing goal.
5. Consider adding a special nib. I have been thinking about some special nibs for my existing pens: we’ll see what happens in 2025.
6. Enjoy the Collection. I’ve had this as an intention in previous years, and I really love what Dime Novel Raven did with a similar concept, “Project Enjoy Collection” - here is a blogpost KC wrote in 2023 about enjoying their large collection by swatching, tracking and using the inks. I want to continue tracking my ink use, but I already know a lot about my ink use. For standard ink, I love Montblanc, and I’ve been enjoying Teranishi and some Scribo inks. I’ve branched out quite a bit in 2024 when I experimented with new ink brands, but I did not change my mind about what I enjoy the most. In terms of shimmer, I have enjoyed Diamine and Jacques Herbin shimmers, with an occasional FWP offering thrown into the mix. Is this an opportunity to streamline my ink collection by getting rid of almost everything not in these categories? Is this a license to keep most of what I have and see if my preferences change, as has happened before? I am leaving room for inksperimentation, but I want to keep the focus away from acquisition.
My Currently Inked pens, at an angle :)
7. Attend a Stationery show or convention. I’d like to attend one in 2025. Let’s see if I can swing it.
8. Continue to focus on process. This worked very well in 2024, and I want to keep going - both in my daily writing practice and in writing for this blog.
9. Make more art. I want to do more art with my pens and inks, and I’d also like to design a pen. :) :) Let’s see what happens!
My helpful tiny badger friend assists the clipless Kilk Dusk so it won’t roll off the desk.
Pens and Stationery of Interest 2025
After writing the list below, I’ve noticed a refrain: there’s nothing urgent here.
I don’t urgently want anything in the domain of pens. I still want an Aurora Dante Inferno. It’s still too expensive. I’d still like to try an Aurora Goccia nib. I don’t have a use case for the Goccia. I’d like to try an Atelier Lusso pen, or a different special maker pen. What I’d like to see in 2025 is a Kaweco Art Sport piston filler in that Terrazzo resin :) I don’t even know if I’d buy it necessarily, I just want it to exist. It doesn’t yet. I might just break down and just buy the non-piston Terrazzo. I want a special Montblanc, but I’m going to wait for the right timing and budget to materialize. I would love to get my hands on a Namiki Yukari Herb Decoration or Sweet Flag and the Moon, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money this year, and if I’m not selling many, or any, pens, then I won’t have a budget for expensive pens. I can take or leave all of those options. I want to be surprised and delighted.
My planner setup feels very good as is. No special interest here, but we’ll see.
I do not need anything inkwise - I have so much ink already! But last year’s excesses left me with certain temptations.
Oblation Sitka Spruce (upgrade from sample)
another Dominant Industry for Wonderpens Exclusive (Ginger Chicken?) - can take or leave, since I love my two other Wonderpens LEs, this has been on my mind.
Another Montblanc LE. I am not excited about yet another Montblanc ink, I have so many incredible choices, but I’m saying this before seeing the lineup.
The new Herbin shimmer, whatever it is, and/or a bottle of Cornaline D’Egypte (upgrade from sample).
Toyooka Craft pen box. I’m nearing a decision to aim for a 40-pen box. That’s a lot of pens, and twice as much as I have now, but at least it makes sense now that I’m over 20. I’ve wanted this box for a few years, which makes me feel good about having it on the wishlist again - I like to be sure that I want what I crave.
An antique stationery box. This I am genuinely excited about! I want one of those very old ones that opens up and has many compartments :)))
I still want a cool wax seal :)) not necessarily an antique fob - just a cool one. Yoseka carries the Lin Chia Ning seals which are very cool, so maybe I’ll get one of those.
The pens in my lineup represent the milestones and ideas to take with me into 2025: accomplishment, poetry, myth, vitality, and whimsy :) With Menagerie friends raven and bear.
In terms of my intentions for 2025 in general, what I want is a warmly lit, glittering ship of stationery with paper sails and stormbird banners to carry me through what this year will bring. I want the magic of words and camaraderie to guide us, shimmer to paint the navigating stars across the relentless sky, blue-blacks and sepia-browns for the maps to hold us steady on the course — and a song. There must always be song. None of it is written yet, but I have lined up my pens.