What’s In My Pencil Case?

EDC – stationery edition

THE CASE

I am not a huge believer in pencil cases: I love things that come in cute tins, boxes, pouches etc, and so typically I reappropriate those types of things whenever I need to store anything. My old pencil case was a box that some Taylor Swift merch came in, and it was the perfect size for my three-pen EDC, so I would encourage everyone to look at pretty jewellery boxes and cracker tins as adornments for your everyday life. With that noted, however, I do have a gorgeous pouch that I got on my honeymoon that’s become my pencil case: I love it because it’s a book, it’s from a very cute movie about books and love and finding your passion (Whisper of the Heart), and it has a picture of The Baron von Gikkingen who is the star of possibly my favourite Ghibli film (The Cat Returns). Whisper of the Heart might not sell as much merch as Kiki’s Delivery Service or My Neighbour Totoro but I’m glad it’s in the rotation.

NOTEBOOK

I use a single MD Paper A5 lined notebook for everything, delineating topics with a line of washi tape over the side of the page I’ve written on. These notebooks are terribly plain, which is a point in their favour: when I get a new one, I can design the cover myself by getting a large sticker from Redbubble. The last two of these notebooks I have also glued a second ribbon into it from macaron packaging, which has been a simple fix to my desire for multiple bookmarks and also allowed me to make a use for some fine things intended to be disposable. My MD is in a plastic cover which I swap to each new notebook, and I keep the original tissue paper on it too as a kind of soft focus filter.

I probably like Tomoe River paper more than MD (who doesn’t?) but I find that Tomoe River is a) not as easy to come by, and certainly not in formats as versatile as what MD do, and b) that it’s so thin it’s a special paper rather than an everyday paper. These notebooks are great no matter how much I glue onto them, and the paper is enjoyable to write on with all instruments. I love that they lie flat, and I want a notebook rather than a diary or journal so that I can make my own spreads and set my own pace.

PENS

Fountain Pens

I keep three fountain pens on me at all times. I used to have two sets: gold for home, white for work/travel, but one of my white ones broke and one and one got… reappropriated… by a work colleague, so it’s just the gold ones that stay in my bag at all times now.

I have a vintage Mont Blanc Noblesse that is my main pen for writing. This is usually filled with brown ink, but I also have oranges and other ‘interesting’ colours that make it into there from time to time. I have not tried it with shimmer yet and I’m hesitant to, because I don’t want to buggar up such a lovely old thing. I find it a) very attractive, a clearly premium and chic product that brings me delight (I think it looks like a cigarette holder), and b) the perfect size for my lady hands! I am not a fan of chunky pens and I never post, so a good, slim, well-balanced pen suits me.

My Hongdian Forest Pro is a very wet pen which I did buy specifically for shimmer inks. The feed is easy to clean and it never seems to get clogged up – plus, again, it’s an attractive object hewn from brass. This one is always inked with pink – I use pink to annotate and analyse texts pertaining to what I’m currently working on, so this one is quite heavily used. The Hongdian is a great pen to gift as it’s quite reasonably priced, and very versatile – just post it if you like a weightier pen. I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived, because its low price and hard-to-obtain-in-Britain status made me think I was, perhaps, being scammed. Reader, I was not, and I am grateful for the person in r/fountainpens who suggested it to me.

My Ferris Wheel Press Bijou, on the other hand, is much harder to recommend: whilst I own a lot of FWP products I’ve actually stopped buying from them entirely for ethical reasons and the company has become something of a joke in the fountain pen community. Whilst I think this pen was overpriced, it is lovely – I love the way that they’ve machined the nib and the grip, and I coveted the Earl Greyson colourway so much I actually sold the navy edition I had before to buy this one instead. It’s a bit leaky, doesn’t handle shimmer as well as it should for a company that sells so much shimmer ink, and the converter doesn’t fit nicely in the feed, but it’s so beautiful I do love writing with it still. I also found it’s exactly the right length and weight for my hands (perhaps because the customer profile for this store is women?). This pen is always inked with green – my ‘elucidation’ colour. I use green to underline words I don’t know and define them in the margins, or highlight people or theories I don’t know or think I need to know more about. It’s also become my ‘action’ colour, so whenever I see green in my journal I know there’s something I need to learn or do.

Ballpoints

I’m not a huge fan of ballpoints, but I spend a lot of time travelling and find the commute a great time to journal; in those instances I use ballpoint so that a sharp brake doesn’t result in a bent nib. I use Zebra Sarasa ballpoints because I like the colours (I am not a ballpoint connoisseur so if you have insights they are welcome) – I alternate between brown-gray, blue-gray, and the two Late Romantic-ish colours cassis-black and red-black (my husband has the objective best one, caramel-yellow). I usually have two in my pencilcase.

I do also have a very cute, tiny vintage ballpoint that looks something like the Montblanc Noblesse and has telescopic action that reminds me of a Chanel lipstick. That lives in my pocketbook in case I need to fill in a form or sign a receipt.

Gel pens

I don’t write in gel pens, except when I do. What can I say? Nothing decorates like a touch of glitter. I have Sakura Gelly Roll pens in copper, marine, and silver, which I use to write in the music I’m listening to or a hard deadline as an accent that leaps from the page. I actually bought these for addressing envelopes (I have matching stamp pads for making my own letterhead paper) but they’re serving their shiny new purpose here.

TAPE

I have a lot of beautiful washi tapes, which is annoying because it’s taken me some time to decide my ~washi aesthetic~ and I don’t want to throw out all the cool ones which don’t match (including, but not limited to: several tea-themed ones, Pokémon, Sailor Moon, kitsune and shinto, Hans Anderson, Whisper of the Heart, pen and book patterns, and an amazing coral one I got at Kaiyukan Aquarium in Osaka and I literally cannot find online). I have decided my ~washi aesthetic~ is floral with a little bit of foiling, and I will not be buying ones going forward that don’t have this vibe.

I keep my tapes in two Kanmido Maco washi tape holders, which have been a bit of a game-changer because I carry seven washi with me at any one time to distinguish between the different kinds of content I typically have in my journal.

STICKERS

I am a Redbubble fanatic because I want stickers that reflect my own personal interests. The only times I’ve tried to buy ‘sticker collections’ I have ended up with a bunch of AI or things I don’t like, so I do actually think it’s better value to curate a set that you actually want and buy individually.

If I see any seal/flake stickers in the wild (especially if I’m doing something interesting) I will probably pick them up (for example, Rough Trade on RSD, Pokémon centre Kanazawa), though I don’t like using the same sticker over and over and this tends to be the flake/seal way so I have a bit of a hoard of them now.

I do also love a sticker sheet, and I will pre-order your album to get them (Lucy Dacus, Marina). I have them from companies like Suatelier, Midori, Pipsticks and Kamio and they’re ideal for my decorative purposes.

My stickers are on themes like: cute animals (dogs, hedgehogs, frogs), music and culture, vibes like ‘witchy’ or ‘dark academia’, and often combinations of the above. My current journal is laid out with regular punctuation of rose-themed stickers, but then I’ll just decorate with things from my stash that may or may not be relevant around the layout I already made.

I have tried stickers for layering (from Coffret and Midori) but they’re not for me and I can’t make it work.

TOOLS

My Tombow Maxi Power Tape glue runner is INDESPENSIBLE. Tape runners in general are fantastic – they stick anything to anything in my journalling experience – but this one hasn’t yet done me wrong. I have tried to use smaller ones, but I’ve had issues with the tape tangling or winding in the wrong direction, and it is probably a good idea for the plastic housing to be reusable.

My Victorinox Companion Slim Alox is ideal for a librarian / journaller – no knife, so I feel happy having it on public transport, in a school etc, but all the tools are useful. The scissors are small but practical for use on washi tape or stickers (or knitting yarn), and the box cutter is great for opening mail. I’ve used both screwdrivers a surprising amount, and I’m very impressed with the number of functions this little ‘knife’ has squeezed in. I’m quite attached to the idea of a multitool since getting this, and the quality is so high it will last me years. I do also have a pair of Kokuyo portable scissors that I think are fantastic, but the Victorinox has more functions and was a very thoughtful birthday present so it’s won the space in my handbag.

I have a pair of angled tweezers that are probably a bit beyond necessary but they mean that my fat fingers don’t mislay a sticker or pull a delicate edge off something, and getting them out has meant a journalling session, thus sending the ‘we are having fun’ signal to my brain.

MISC

I always keep a box of Tic-Tacs in my pencilcase, because garlic is wonderful and so is talking to people after lunch. There’s usually a teabag or two in there, too – something fruity so I don’t need milk – and a lemsip, I.C.E.

A book of 8 first-class stamps means I can send postcards or birthday cards at a moment’s notice.

Hairpins and a hair bobble are always useful things to have around and allow you to take on work with the femme equivalent of rolling up your sleeves – that is, pulling back your hair. A single bobble and 3-4 pins is enough for my signature French braided updo.

STORAGE & ARCHIVING

These are all the things I keep on-the-go, but I of course have a powerful amount of ink, stickers, tapes etc that I replenish my everyday supplies from. They are mainly stored in what I think was a Muji desk organiser that my husband picked up on one of his ‘let’s get minimalist’ attempts, but stickers have a biscuit tin I got at the Pokémon Centre on my honeymoon, and stamps and inkpads a box that once contained some chocolates I bought at the Royal Academy of Arts. I have decanted some ink for my dip pens into tiny Bonne Maman jam jars and keep the pens themselves in a silver / pewter vintage milk jug. I think when I finish my current stash of ink (in, like, 2050) I will make sure I only buy samples: I think the Pilot Iroshizuko mini bottles are the perfect size for enjoying an ink but then being ready to try a new one out (15ml).

My Midori date stamp lives in my desk – I usually remember to date my entries when I get home, but sometimes I do two or three at a time. Even that’s OK, because if I’ve been in a journalling fever then I have daily entries and don’t have to remember when I wrote what. I am also a librarian, so sometimes I’ll change the return date stamp on my desk at work to stamp my journal entries.

A strange habit I’ve got into is tying up my old, finished journals in legal tape. I just think legal tape is a neat tradition that we should keep going – and it really is strong stuff! As such I have a reel in my desk that will probably keep me going forever, as I’m not tying up something as heavy and explosive as a trial bundle.

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On This Topic:

• How much Jetpens do you watch? Is it none Jetpens? I am constantly watching Jetpens, because I cannot be a casual amount into anything and now need to know what’s happening at Bungu Joshi and how people use a planner I myself will never try.
• I was inspired by this insane collection to unhaul myself. If you’re my friend and you get a parcel of washi tapes in the near future apropos of nothing, thank Erin.
• They might not be the most famous and influential Ghibli films, but honestly if you need an injection of nice stories tightly told try The Cat Returns and Whisper of the Heart.

To-Do:

• I have had passport photos in the back of my journal for months now. I need to get somebody at work to sign it and apply for a passport under my legal name.
• Tidy finances, do some planning.
• Catch up on life outside of the PhD bubble.

Today’s Culture:

• I have three Etsy wishlists and fourteen Redbubble wishlists of journalling accessories I covet (not to mention the inks and the pens I’m considering buying) so I do spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about stationery. But god bless the wishlist function, so I can shop and not buy.
• My favourite things to go to in the city are not galleries or concerts or clubs, but lectures. I love it when knowledgeable people tell me shit.
• It was Ethel Smyth‘s birthday last week so I listened to a lot of her music and u know what? She’s good.