About Me

My name’s Eleanor, and I’ve been a fountain pen user and enthusiast for years now. I’ve dabbled on and off since my first fountain pen a couple of decades ago, until finally falling into the hobby for good a couple of years ago.

Apart from the aesthetic pleasure of using fountain pens and beautiful inks, the physical act of writing helps me be more mindful in my writing, journalling and planning – an incongruous position for a digital-first woman, perhaps, but it’s working for me.

Why a blog? Well, why not! I’ve been blogging since the days when that meant hand-coding static HTML pages and uploading via FTP, uphill, both ways, in the snow. The fountain pen hobby has a rich and welcoming community, and blogging’s one of my favourite ways to connect.

My favourite pen: My Just Turnings Deluxe in Pastel Primary Manipulation, with an Elastic Fine nib.

My grail pen: Subject to change. Currently a Hachimonjiya Jellyfish Aquarium.

My best-loved ink: I can’t pick just one! At the time of writing, it’s a fight between Lamy Dark Lilac, Lennon Tool Bar Sesame Oil, PenBBS Ruijin City or Taccia Utamaro Ume Murasaki.

My favourite ink properties: high lubrication, light to moderate sheen, interesting but low-contrast shading.

My controversial opinion: steel nibs are not automatically inherently inferior to gold nibs.

Apart from the love of fountain pens and ink, my favourite hobbies are journalling and planning, and tabletop roleplaying games. (And yes, all my gaming notes are written with fountain pens!)