The week started with a blazing fanfare which revealed to me that I couldn’t spend another minute writing with the inks I’ve been using this past month. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing inherently wrong with the inks, in many ways each was perfect for its task, I had simply hit the point where I needed a change.

My photo shows the aftermath of my pen-cleaning session. The turquoise/aquamarine pen on the left had been filled with Waterman Inspired Blue and had all but run dry as it was the pen and ink combination I’d been using in my Filofax. Moving across towards the right, next up is the pinky-red barrel of the Waterman Hémisphère Rose Cuivre. I had filled this pen with a mix of green and blue ink, hadn’t been happy with the result and hadn’t used it at all. I dumped the ink and washed out the pen. Next across is my other Waterman Hémisphère with the deeper blue body. I have to confess I have no idea what I’d put in there, but I know I wasn’t using it so that,too, got ditched and cleaned out. Finally, the black pen is my dad’s Parker 51 which I’ve had filled with Graf von Faber-Castell Cobalt Blue. I adored the combination of this ink with the pen’s very fine nib, it worked well with the temperamental paper in my journal and actually rescued me from my feelings of dislike for the book. This is one I also wrote dry before I washed it out.

So, we’ve done out with the old, what about in with the new?

I’ve gone for three Graf von Faber-Castell inks this time, using up some of the cartridges from my collection. First up, I loaded a cartridge of Hazelnut Brown into my Waterman Allure and wrote a journal entry with it. This felt a bit too dark and overbearing in the journal, although I love the combination of pen and ink on decent paper so it will see some use. For the journal entries, though, I have settled upon Graf von Faber-Castell’s Gulf Blue in my Namisu Orion pen. Wow! Considering that I was convinced I didn’t like this ink, it is proving to be a surprising hit. For all that the pen sports a fine nib, I think that it is actually a fairly wet writer which brings out the best in this pale blue ink. I am enjoying the simple act of writing words with this pairing. The third ink I’ve chosen from this company’s range is the Electric Pink which I’ve loaded into my Waterman Hémisphère Rose Cuivre, making it the only pen I’m re-using from the cleaned line-up. What can I say? Electric Pink is exactly what its name suggests and it’s such a gorgeous choice for those bright pops of colour around appointment times in my Filofax, and for my daily horoscope in my journal.

That just leaves my Filofax and for that I am using my Lamy LX which I had inked up a couple of weeks ago with Diamine Pansy. It’s a shame that this hasn’t seen any use yet, so I’m glad to have a chance to rectify it.

Whilst my journal and Filofax are toddling along nicely, I’ve added one of the A5 Silvine exercise books into my regular mix. This houses notes and task lists associated with my ongoing job search which really needed their own dedicated home. I’m just grabbing whichever pen is to hand when I write in this so they are all seeing some use.

So, that’s about it. I feel that I need to do a revisit post about the Namisu Orion fountain pen now that I’ve had it for a few months and it’s had a chance to bed in. Don’t be surprised if you never see the post, though: it’s the kind of idea I often have, start writing, and then it gets swept away by whatever is on my mind when it comes time to write for real. I keep the draft hanging around for weeks or months, until I finally accept that I’m never going to finish it.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and find time to play with pens, or wool, or flour and sugar… whatever spins your wheels and floats your boat.