Since listening to a certain monumental 500th episode back in February and watching many friends return to in-person pen shows I’ve been reflecting on the state of my stationery collection. I’ve shared a lot online about my favorite and most-used items over the years, but less about my most meaningful items.
So today I’m sharing some photos of one of my most meaningful stationery items. It’s an item that lives in a very prominent place in my home and breaks the mold of most of my stationery collection because it’s not an item I use very often. It is however, and item I see every day, think about very often, and would be one of the first items I would grab out the the door in case of disaster.
When I first fell down the stationery rabbit hole I was working as a pharmacist at a cancer center and became dear friends with a nurse that also worked there. It’s a toss up whether she found my stationery habit more endearing or ridiculous on any given day, but when she got the chance to visit Milan, Italy she completely surprised me when she brought this pencil all the way back to me and into my pharmacy after her trip. I’ve barely let it out of my sight ever since.
The Perpetua pencils are made up of of over 80% graphite and a good article with a little more info can be found here. More info on the beautiful Starbucks Roastery that collaborated on this pencil here. It’s an item that always brightens my day and reminds me of a good friend. What are some meaningful items that you own or items that break the mold in your collection?
Your description of something that you see every day but hardly ever use instantly made me think of a pen that sits on my desk. July 2019 was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and Montegrappa released an Apollo 11 special edition fountain pen that looked like a Saturn V rocket. It was super detailed, stunning to look at, super cool, and of course cost thousands of dollars (seriously it was $6000 or something very big like that). It was not something I would ever be able to buy but the design was so cool that I showed it to my boss at work. He agreed the design was awesome but gawked at the price. Well a week or so later I came in to find a little clickable ballpoint pen in the shape of an astronaut (complete with movable helmet visor) on my desk. I asked my boss about it and he said he couldn’t do the expensive pen but this one he could afford and thought of me when he saw it.
Now I’ve moved to a new position in a different office and I rarely if ever use that ball-point astronaut pen but I leave it on my desk right next to my monitor and every time I look at it I remember the shared moment with my former boss and his kindness in thinking of me.
For me that would be my late father’s pens: only one of them is suitable for my own handwriting (others are too broad), but I keep them all inked (or complete with refills) in this strange attempt to honor his memory.