I love that Kobe Nagasawa has been creating inks inspired by places in Kobe like the Chocolate Museum and this most recent release: Kobe Lampwork Museum Maroon. Many of their ink colors are inspired by plants, places and other elements that are in the Kobe area. I think its a great way to create and theme inks and it let's us as ink users to be desktop tourists every time we open a bottle and fill one of our pens.

As I have been thinking about this post for the past several days, I realized that I am no where near as organized as Thien Kim was about her review. I ended up going more by gut feel, which means I probably have some recency bias (more inclination towards what I have been using more recently). I also discovered a flaw in my re-inking notes - I don't always mark the pen as re-inked if I refill it with the same ink.

Taccia makes some unique inks, very much influenced by Japanese history and culture with deep, complex colors. Their line of Roughna Sketch Inks are no different. I picked up a sample of the Earth Green ($32 for a 40ml bottle) which is a sheening olive-y green. And if you've been around this site for very long, you'll know that yellow-y greens are some of my favorite colors and the most difficult to find a usable ink that keeps its yellowy tones while being visible to the human eye.

Big shout out to new reader, Kate, and winner of our Hobonichi Techo 2026 giveaway! I have emailed you directly to get the planner mailed out to you. Please let me know if you have not received it. I hope the folks at Creative Kindness is excited to get your generous gift. Desk readers are some of the nicest, most generous people on the internet! You never disappoint.

Robert Oster Kelp Forest (50ml for $ 19) was created for the Melbourne Pen Show 2025  and is kind of a dual-shading mossy green. When its lightly applied to paper with a fine nib, the color is a shading low saturated yellowy green. When there is heavy coverage on the rright kinds of paper, there is a golden sheen maybe even reddish looking.

I know it’s only mid-December, but I’ve probably re-inked my pens for the last time this year so it’s recap time! This is the first year I’ve put all my data into a spreadsheet to figure out what inks I used the most. But we’ll get to that later. My 2025 Ink Intentions In 2024, my ink collection grew by. .

This week my social media apps exploded in outrage and skepticism around the announcement of the Pantone Color of the Year for 2026. There is sooooo much to say about the choice of color, a white they are calling "Cloud Dancer" and the outrage pouring from every source on the internet. Laura and I plan to spend a good deal of time talking about color in January so put this outrage on your back burner until then.

I couldn't kick my contributions to Inkmas off without a green? I actually bought a bottle of Sailor Manyo Ukikusa (50mL for $24) a few months ago, but then decided to hold onto it for a little Inkmas fun. The Sailor Manyo line is a collection of inks inspired by the leaves and flowers of Japan. Manyo sort of translates into "Ten Thousand Leaves."

Over the summer, I kept seeing the little USA Series bottles from Colorverse at various pen shows and when I saw Giant Potato (15ml bottle for $15) I knew I needed to grab a sample of it. I know that making the ink for Idaho a potato brown color is probably a little simplistic view of the state but the color is a lovely light warm brown with just a slight haze to the color like a dusty baking potato pulled fresh from the ground.

Over the summer, I kept seeing the little USA Series bottles from Colorverse at various pen shows and when I saw Giant Potato (15ml bottle for $15) I knew I needed to grab a sample of it. I know that making the ink for Idaho a potato brown color is probably a little simplistic view of the state but the color is a lovely light warm brown with just a slight haze to the color like a dusty baking potato pulled fresh from the ground.

We pause our regularly scheduled Inkmas to announce a very special giveaway. A kind reader has an extra Hobonichi Techo (classic A6-sized, Monday Start for 2026) that she doesn't need and asked that I give it to a reader. For full details on this planner, check out the full description on 1101. If you missed a chance to buy one domesitcally or are feeling a little strapped for cash this year, this may be your chance to get a new planner thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

I know we already started Inkmas but I recorded and edited this video so I wanted to share it with you. Would you like to see more video reviews from us or do you prefer old school text-and-photo posts. Leave a comment and let me know! Products mentioned in the video: Kutsuwa Lgaba Pen Case - Green Hobonichi Drawer Pouch…

When my sister planned our family vacation in Portland, Oregon this summer, I knew I had to visit Oblation Papers & Press. It's a beautiful, well-curated shop full of stationery, pens, inks, and vintage typewriters. It's a writer's dream shop! Of course I had to purchase some of their exclusive inks. After much deliberation, I chose Oregon Marionberry and Oblation Olive…

I really wanted to try the TO-MEI HAN Ka-Sa-Ne Clear Stamp Sets in the Japan and Nordic designs ($27.50 each). Each set includes three texture stamps and then a series of simple flat shapes that can be layered with the patterns or with each other. I liked the simplicity and experimentation that could happen with these so I decided to take them out for a test drive and see how easy (or difficult) they are to use.

Gift Guides are starting to pop-up for the pen community. I feel like we go from planner season announcements to Fountain Pen Day to gift guides to best-of's and finally year end wrap-ups. Its the pen community version of traditions, right? Then we'll start all over again with plans for the upcoming year. It's the pen seasonal cycle! If you missed Link Love last week, Brad invited me to participate in our annual Gift Guide tradition on the Pen Addict podcast.

12 Pen Person Questions List I’ve wanted to answer OliveOctopus’ #12PenPersonQuestions but haven’t had the time until now! As a newish contributor to The Well-Appointed Desk, I thought this could be the get-to-know Thien-Kim post. 1. If you consider the different ways you can engage with pens and stationery—as a user, a collector, a hobbyist, a creator, a maker, a vendor—which roles fit best and what percentage of 100% would you assign to each?

Share your love for stationery this holiday! To celebrate you and our wonderful stationery community, we are offering a special discount for Black Friday. All orders over $25 qualify for a 10% discount in our shop all day Friday, 11/28/25 (12:01AM-12:00 Central time). Use the coupon code BLKFRI25 to take advantage of this special offer. Thanks for supporting The Well-Appointed Desk and small businesses everywhere! (Sale not available on Etsy or for any international orders).

I was talking and thinking about my personal hang up with the words "grateful" and "gratitude". I feel that that have been overused and become something that feels almost performative. But I believe in the concept of being grateful. I want to take time out of my day and my life to remember the good things, the things that made me happy, the people who matter to me.

I hope everyone is getting a chance to relax, eat their favorite holiday foods and spend time with people you actually like. If not, you can look forward to listening to Brad and I do yet another Holiday Gift Guide on the Pen Addict this week (episode goes live on Wednesday, Nov. 26). This is probably our tenth Holiday Gift Guide (neither one of us could verify the exact number, maybe 9, maybe 10 - -but it's a lot!).

Hello! I'm on holiday break this week (but still working... sheesh!) and so I wanted to share a quick post about what's new to my EDC/travel carry! Two fun new pens have entered the collection. The first is the TWSBI Eco Plum + Onyx ($55.99 at Lemur Ink). This is one area where Ana and I agree to disagree - she doesn't care much for TWSBIs but I LOVE them.

I had planned to share a video of my process but technology is not on my side today so in an effort to get this post up today, I'm hoping you all will be okay with photos this time since very little has changed from October or November. If I can pull the video footage, I'll add it to this post tomorrow.

I've been noticing teal, deep blue-greens everywhere and is a great color for winter. It's a deep and moody color but also bright and happy to help get through the dark, cold days and long nights of the winter. There are so many beautiful stationery options in this colorway. I really think I want a whole teal backpack full of teal notebooks, pens and ink.

I keep picking up more purple inks. I don't know what's possessed me but I keep finding new, different and interesting purply colors. Over the last few months, I grabbed a bottle of the Yachingstyle Bellflower, Ink Institute Echeveria Sahviana (Mexican Hens) and Diamine Inkvent Black Edition Potpourri. The Inks: I confess I bought Ink institute Mexican Hens because of the name.

For some reason, the end of minting the US penny hits hard for me. While I do believe they will remain in circulation for many years to come, it just feels weird even if I haven't paid cash for anything in months. Dig around in those change jars, couch cushions and under the seat in your car and drop all your pennies off at your bank so they stay in circulation for as long as possible.

One of my lovely readers sent me a sample of the new paper that Aura Estelle will be using in their planners for 2026. My plan was to review this new Tomoe River Paper 52gsm white (New Sanzen) paper on its own but it quickly became clear that a comparison was needed between not just the Aura Estelle but the papers being used in some of the other planners currently available.