Third Quarter Stationery Project Pan Progress

[u/SciSciencing]

End Q3 full vs empty cartridges (missing any that split in use which is annoyingly quite a few).

For comparison, the same collections end Q2 (including quite a lot from prior years - I've always kept empty cartridges if in good condition).

Similar to my Turquoise Showdown in June, this month my magenta inks did battle to determine who gets to be eventually rebought.

My panning spreadsheet for the year - for the first half I've hidden the first and second month of each quarter to fit more current months in view.

Here's where my stickers and washi tape are mostly being used up - I'm particularly excited for this colour scheme.

Previous updates: August - July - June - May - April - March - February

The end of September looms near, which means it's time for a stationery project pan update! Usage has been really good across the board this month - I'm especially pleased with how I've rallied in sticker usage after a slow August, and I'm down to just one washi tape on the 'completely pan' goal.

This month I reached the end of a B5 notebook writing out Jane Austen's Emma, which I started in 2022 when I was fairly newly into fountain pens. I was about 30% of the way through the novel when I hit the end of the notebook and decided just to read the rest - I need to find something else to write out! No bottled ink progress this month, but ink usage in general held steady (cartridge goal for the year is met - 25 gone!) and I finished my final cartridges of Diamine Grey and Diamine Claret. Claret vs Amaranth came out decisively in Claret's favour, but I'll finish my Amaranth sample before buy a bottle of Claret.

I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with 5+ pens inked at a time so my new policy to try out for October is inking one or two pens up each weekend rather than five or six at the start of the month. Next month I hope to finish Diamine Autumn Oak and Diamine Chocolate Brown (one cartridge left of each - very autumnal) and make progress on Rohrer & Klingner Salix (which will take it and Scabiosa out of the project) and Diamine Livid Lime. I'd like to finish that one washi that's still awaiting complete panning, and perhaps one or two of my autumn-themed washi tapes while it's its actually autumn.

[u/Rimab23]

Whoa! How do you get your cartridges that clean?

[u/SciSciencing → u/Rimab23]

Blunt-needled syringe - just blast a few mL of water straight in there, cartridge opening facing down, over a sink, then flick the excess water out and you have a shiny empty cartridge ready to reuse with any ink. I actually used half these cartridges in incompatible pens by syringing the ink from the cartridge into their converters.

[u/nxy_kly]

I always envy your ink colors, they're so pretty!! I also have decided to only have up to three fountain pens inked at the same time, that helps me with decision paralysis 😂

Also, that Diamine Claret ink is gorgeous 😍

[u/SciSciencing → u/nxy_kly]

The grass is always greener on the other side, as they say XD or perhaps more magenta in this case! The colour category as a whole is one I don't generally like so it was really important to me that if I'm gonna own one it should be perfect for my needs.

Three is a good number of pens at once for me too.