Year in Review: What happened with my 2025 Stationery intentions?

Welcome to the annual “What happened with my stationery intentions?” post :) You can read all my Year Planning posts via the Year Planning category. I’ll post my 2026 Stationery Intentions early next year.

Montegrappa Mermaid and Onoto Magna Sequoyah on a Hinoki blue Toyooka tray, with menagerie friends bolo bear, alabaster rabbit, and FORG!

I’m linking my Stationery Intentions 2025 post, but I’ll also summarize it below. My 2025 goals are marked in Bold, and end of year outcomes of each goal are in regular font.

1. Resisting FOMO. I think the beginning of 2025 was not great (more on this below) - I got concerned that tariffs would ruin my ability to buy the pens I like the most - Italian pens primarily, but also pens from the UK. However, by the end of 2025 I got over the FOMO-induced brain fog, and did not buy a single pen after July 2025. I’m going to give myself a KIND OF on this one.

2. Ink mindfulness - YES. I felt that I went overboard on ink in 2024, wanted to rebalance by bringing back my regular guardrail of 10 bottles or less per year. I also wanted to move 10 bottles of ink out of my ink library and be at net neutral of bottles at the end of 2025. I also wanted to explore my existing inks :) Well, I am ending the year at 9 ink bottles added. I moved 23 (!) bottles out of my ink library via sales, donations, gifts and exchanges. I think I did well. I did not buy a single new bottle of Montblanc (I did exchange one MB for a different one with a friend). On the other hand, I continuously inked and enjoyed many of my 2024 acquisitions, especially the Montblanc bottles I acquired last year. I continue to love those inks, but I am managing to resist bottles that do not add anything new to the collection. This year I acquired a number of excellent brown and grey inks - two previously underrepresented colors in my ink library - and I hope to keep using those inks in 2026. Overall, my ink situation feels balanced and beautiful.

Journaling about my fiction WIP - the ink is one of my top favorites of 2025, Diamine x Cult Pens Maple Leaf.

3. Be mindful about fountain pen acquisition. YES - but this is a bit convoluted. As I mentioned in (1), I failed in the first half of the year. I acquired three pens, plus one catch and release (I bought it to swap a nib with a pre-existing pen, and let it go after that was done). I went to the STL pen show, and fell in love with vintage Montegrappas. I did not buy a single pen in STL, but I kept thinking about those vintage Montegrappas. I bought a grail pen from Bryant Chatterley in late July. And then I just…stopped buying pens. So the second part of the year redeemed the first.

If I knew how this year would shape up, I would have only bought the Montegrappa.

Having written all this out, I thought about it, and then I’ve emailed to Bryant about some consignments. It looks like a few pens are about to leave the Gathering. This wasn’t an easy decision, some of these pens were well-loved, but it’s time.

Counting the pens that entered the Gathering this year, my total for the year is at 5 acquisitions, including the catch and release, which is below my threshold of 6 pens. Once the pens I am sending to Bryant leave the house, only two of my 2025 acquisitions will remain.

4. Nib work and Collection Improvement, including downsizing - YES. I worked with Kirk Speer at the St. Louis Pen Show to fix and improve a number of pens. My Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age got a cursive smooth italic grind, which I’ve been loving. I moved four pens out of the Gathering to make room for new pens in 2025. I ended 2024 with 22 pens, and I’m ending 2025 with 23 pens. Unfortunately, one pen has a cracked ink window and will need to travel to Italy soon. Some pens will be on the way to Bryant soon. I expect to be under 20 in early 2026. This is a place of comfort for my collection, and one I thought I was leaving behind as the number of pens kept increasing. But no. That’s my comfort zone, and has been for years now.

A quartet of beloved fountain pens on a gloomy, foggy December morning. Two were acquired in 2024, one in 2025, and one in 2021. This collection evolves slowly.

5. Consider adding a special nib. I’m counting this as a YES overall. I attempted to order a special nib from a creator, but they ghosted me. I should have pinged them. I did not. I did get some interesting grinds on Jowo nibs while I was at the STL pen show. I also acquired a KOP nib from a friend, and it will need some work next year when I will hopefully visit a pen show again. My biggest success in the special nib category was the Gentleman’s 149 beauty of a nib with its split ebonite feed; while the rest of the Gentleman is no longer in the Gathering, the #8 Montblanc nib is eminently enjoyable in the Conid Tiger.

6. Enjoy the Collection - YES. Certainly. Definitely. Endlessly. 2025 was the year of refinement and contentment with my collection - I have such wonderful pens and inks, and I enjoy them so much.

7. Attend a Stationery show or convention - YES. I went to St. Louis. I had a lot of fun, and am wondering whether to attend next year. I’m actually not sure if I will - more on this in early 2026.

8. Continue to focus on process. NO. I feel that I did not focus enough on process this year, and certainly did not blog a lot about my process. I want that to change in the future, but I won’t beat myself up for 2025; it was a difficult year, and I focused on things which brought me joy and meaning. This is good enough.

9. Make more art. NO. I did make art with both FPs, inks, and watercolor, I’m definitely making art, but not MORE art, not nearly as much as I’d like. This is a bit sad, but it’s been a hard, hard year, so I am cutting myself all the slack.

A smooth cursive italic grind by Kirk Speer rekindled my love for the sole Visconti in my collection - the Homo Sapiens Bronze Age.

Revisiting my Pens and Stationery of Interest 2025

Here are the pens I listed as being of interest in the beginning of the year, and what happened with them:

• Aurora Dante Inferno: no. I missed a chance to buy an older Aurora Dante (not Inferno) at a spectacular price second hand from Japan, and I’m still kicking myself, but also it’s fine to pass.

• Try an Aurora Goccia nib: tried it at the St. Louis pen show, a lovely nib, and might still be on my list for buying in future years, but I do not feel the urgency to buy one now.

• I’d like to try an Atelier Lusso pen: tried it as a borrowed pen from Nicole (thank you!!), did not fall madly in love, but might still pick up a Lusso in the future.

• A Kaweco Art Sport piston filler: does not exist, and I’m over that idea.

• A special Montblanc: no, but will continue to be of interest. As of the end of 2025, I own zero Montblanc pens, and I don’t miss them. The right one will eventually come along.

• A Namiki Yukari: I tried many fabulous ones in STL, only to discover that I am allergic to urushi. Bummer.

So I did not buy any pens on my list, and I am not surprised.

My planner setup felt very good in the beginning of 2025, and I happily used it through the year. No changes, but I may be beginning to crave a bit of a change. We’ll see.

Ink I wanted in early 2025:

• Oblation Sitka Spruce (upgrade from sample): bought, but in retrospect could have skipped

• Another Dominant Industry for Wonderpens Exclusive: no, but a friend sent me some samples (thank you, Nicole). That satisfied my craving :)

• A 2025 Montblanc LE ink. No - the new MB releases did not appeal to me this year. Alas.

• The new Herbin shimmer, or a bottle of Cornaline D’Egypte: I tried both of the new Herbin shimmers in sample form, and these are not bottle candidates for me right now; I’m not all that excited by blues at the moment, but may make an exception for Opale Nocturne down the road. I did buy Cornaline earlier this year when I saw it on sale, but did not ink it even once.

My ink wishlist from early 2025 was not such a great success either, but I had so much fun with my ink library.

Accessories:

• Toyooka Craft pen box. No. But I bought the Alfie tray!

• An antique stationery box. No. But I still want one.

• A cool wax seal: I bought two gorgeous Lin Chia Ning seals, and used them here and there, but I’m not sure if I found my perfect wax seal yet.

Bolo bear, the Mermaid, and two of my favorite inks (Taccia Ainezu and Diamine Maple Leaf), and some journals.

It was really interesting to revisit my 2025 list at the end of the year. I think the pen and ink purchases of early 2025 were motivated by fear. They were all byproducts of my visceral reaction to the political developments in the US and the world. Looking back at 2025, one pen stood out as the true object of admiration and desire - the Montegrappa Mermaid. That’s such an idiosyncratic pen, I sometimes feel the urge to defend my love for this pen - it’s odd, mildly NSFW, blue (historically not my color??), expensive even though vintage, the piston might be a bit sticky - all of these are true, but ever since I saw a different figural Montegrappa at St. Louis, it’s like my love for fountain pens has been rekindled anew - I wanted the sheer excess and artistry of the lost wax casting in silver, and the mere thought of owning such a pen made me happy. It was as if I was reliving the early days of collecting, except that my genuine excitement about this pen came from lots of knowledge and experience. From the moment I saw the Mermaid I admired it, but was initially going to pass. None of my friends seemed especially into it, although some might read this now and protest. :) I bought it anyway. It had never been inked before. The nib is M, I usually prefer an F or an Italic, but this one is like butter. This pen made me so happy. And after that, months passed and I did not want to buy a pen at all. I wrote about it on the blog. It was October. In November, the desire to buy a new pen began to resurface, and I saw a few more pens I liked - some really cool Scribo releases, a new Kilk, a few pens that have been on my list for a while. And every time I thought - will it be as good as the Mermaid? And passed on the pen of the day.

I feel like all I’ve written about lately is this pen. It’s not even a perfect pen. It’s not even animal-themed, like some other figural Montegrappas.

What a pleasant obsession.

Mermaid and FORG! friend on a blue handmade journal. Blue has been growing on me lately.

Happy New Year, folks - I’m wishing you all much joy in your stationery journeys. I’ll see you, hopefully, in 2026!