Joseph - The Looped Square

2020 in Inky Review Part 2 - Market Trends

By the time I finished gushing over our communities and my own instruments of ink destruction, I realized how long the first post was getting. So, in a first, I’

2020 in Inky Review Part 1: Personal Trends and Collection

Well, that was a year, wasn’t it? It certainly wasn’t how any of us planned it panning out, so thank God we have our analog and digital diversions

The Art of Impermanence

I’ve made no secret that I’ve been looking for new ways to use my fountain pens and inks. I am, and will always be, a writer, but I

2019 In Review

I love doing year end wrap ups. There, I said it. They're easy to write, and kinda fun, too. But I’m going to deviate from the smaller post I

DC Pen Show 2019 Recap

My wallet is empty, but my heart is full. Another DC Pen Show has come and gone, and while I’m sure it sounds like a broken record, this was

How Do You Use Your: Nock Sinclair?

Sitting quietly in a beach house seems like the perfect place to write a little bit about my favorite stationery carrying case: the Nock Co. Sinclair. First and foremost, while

How Do You Use Your...Traveler’s* Notebook?

It might come as a surprise to some, but I am not an organized person. At all, actually. I know people who are naturally organized (my wife springs to mind)

Baltimore Pen Show Recap - 2019

And just like that, the pen show season is underway! The Baltimore Pen Show was this past weekend, and I’m still reeling from the great time that I had.

How Do You Use Your...Hippo Noto?

One of my favorite things about pen meetups and shows is seeing how everyone uses different notebooks. You’ll see pocket notebooks, big pads of paper, and all manner of

Points of Interest: Work Trip Edition

Nothing like a work trip to totally throw off any plans you have. I like work travel, I really do, but the unpredicatability of what your day to day is going to look like makes it really hard to find time for things like

Points of Interest: Fire on Fire Edition

It's happened: Brad Dowdy from the Pen Addict has finally released his first ink collaboration with Robert Oster, and it's called Fire on Fire. As expected, people went nuts for it, myself included. Brad is a great guy, and definitely an "influencer" in the

Points of Interest: InCoWriMo Edition

It's InCoWriMo time again! I've written in the past about my experiences doing InCoWriMo, so I won't be writing about it this year. I won't be going for the every day challenge this year, but I'm going to do some letter writing here and

Points of Interest - Escape from Wisconsin Edition

Sunday night I flew to Chicago and then drove to Milwaukee for what was supposed to be a quick day of meetings, with a flight home on Tuesday afternoon. Instead, it turns out that I flew right in front of a winter storm, so

Points of Interest: 1/12 - 1/18

Null Refill: A synthetic paper for ink lovers - The Fude Fan I’m incredibly jealous of anyone who gets easy access to Japan’s vibrant stationery market. Even with the strides that have been made in bringing stuff from there to America, there’

Paper

Let’s Talk About Tomoe River

In August of 2017, I wrote a blog post talking about how I wanted to highlight some of the wild, wacky, and amazing types of paper that can be found

Points of Interest: 1/5 - 1/11

It’s Philadelphia Pen Show weekend! Pictures are already starting to fly across Instagram, and it looks like it’s going to be a great weekend. I won’t be in attendance, so I’ll be living vicariously through the pictures. Gotta start saving

Pen Review: Platinum Procyon

Back at the DC Pen Show, Platinum’s distributor in the US had a new pen to show off: the Platinum Procyon. You couldn’t buy it just yet, but

Weekly Roundup: 12/31 - 1/4

I love going through what others found interesting in their browsing around the web. Even if I follow the majority of the same sites as someone else, their commentary or choice of links always provides something to read. So, I thought it was time

2019 Creative Goals

First things first. If you haven’t been listening to the Make Do Podcast, you should go fix that. It’s a fantastic, positive look at creativity and the feelings

2018 - An Inky Year in Review

As the end of the year starts to draw near, I always enjoy looking back at some of the things that happened in the year past. And while there were

Paper

The Paper Series: Whitelines Pad Review

I live my digital and analog lives almost entirely separately. I’ve been a technology guy since I built my first computer when I was 13, and my love of

“How Do I Get Started Running?”

“Hey Joseph, how do you get in to running?”I hear that question a lot. It’s certainly no secret that I’m a bit of a runner these days. I’ve run either six or seven half marathon races, covered that distance a

DC Pen Show 2018 Recap

Have I really been to three DC Pen Shows now?! I can still remember the overwhelming feeling of walking it to the old hotel and seeing rows and rows of

Pelikan Edelstein Olivine Review

Each year since 2012, Pelikan has released a new ink of the year for the Edelstein line of inks. Last year was Smoky Quartz, the year before was Aquamarine, and

Paper

The Paper Series: Life Airmail Letter Pad Review

“What was that paper you used in your last letter?!” was a common refrain over InCoWriMo. As I mentioned in my post about the month, my primary paper for letter