Ink Bottle Storage Ideas

[Tiny Tim]

I have accumulated quite a few bottles of ink, which I have stored in a large plastic bin. While this provides adequate storage, it's messy, and I have to dig through everything to find a bottle I want. Do you have a storage system that is more organized?

[JefferyS]

I bought some cheap polypropylene drawers from WalMart, which are the right size and can be cleaned in case of a leak. On the downside, they bend under the weight of Noodler's bottles, and the drawer likes to fall out when I start pulling it out. I don't recommend them. I'll probably switch to polypropylene storage boxes.

[WOBentley]

I keep mine on two shelves in my home office:

 

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae8/Catriker/Pen%20Pics/12_26_12043_zpsd40b7ad6.jpg

[Renfield]

  On 1/27/2013 at 6:52 PM, WOBentley said:

I keep mine on two shelves in my home office:

 

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae8/Catriker/Pen%20Pics/12_26_12043_zpsd40b7ad6.jpg

 

 

WOW!!!

 

Can I come over and test them all?

 

How many bottles do you have?

 

I only have like 11 bottles. And a dozen samples.....

[Cyber6]

Oh my... You seem to have duplicates there (R&K line).. You are better stocked than most pen&ink stores I know.

 

 

C.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Cyber6

[petravana]

  On 1/27/2013 at 6:52 PM, WOBentley said:

I keep mine on two shelves in my home office:

 

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae8/Catriker/Pen%20Pics/12_26_12043_zpsd40b7ad6.jpg

 

How can you possibly keep track of what you have? In all seriousness, is there any system you have to rotate them? Or are you an artist and thus would need such variety for your sketching?

[Stonerman33]

I'm keeping my eye out for a small cabinet of sorts. Think something the size of those nice-ish wooden cabinets some people use to store extra rolls of toilet paper in their bathrooms with. Just throw a few simple shelves inside it and you should be able to fit a half dozen bottles or so to a shelf. At the moment, my ink collection is pretty small, and while I would like to add several colors to the collection, I don't see it growing to the point of some on these boards. (Famous last words, right?)

[mAnuscript69]

  On 2/3/2013 at 7:01 PM, Stonerman33 said:

...I don't see it growing to the point of some on these boards. (Famous last words, right?)

Indeed.

When I got into fountain pens I told myself that I'd find a favourite ink in each colour group, buy a bottle and stick to those until I run out. Alas I have clearly failed to meet those constraints.

 

I've long since run out of shelf space to display my inks and resort to keeping them in shoe boxes in a moving drawer. I have no system for organisation, though I 'kind of' know where my inks are seeing as I change inks very frequently.

[Uncle Red]

I just organised the ink bottles on one side of my desk and I'm looking for a better solution. I only have 37 bottles.

[drifting]

This filing cabinetesque set of drawers from Ikea sits nicely beside my desk and comfortably holds my 70 some odd collection of bottles, with room to grow. Noodlers and Stipula ink bottles fit in the drawers upright: Visconti and Akkerman are the only bottles I can think of that would be too tall.

 

Ryan.

[sherlock_tomes]

I can't help myself. I couldn't stand the idea of all those nice ink bottles stored away in a drawer, where it was difficult to locate particular colors. I remembered I had some Brazilian rosewood left over from a kitchen remodeling project, so I did the ink rack over a cold weekend. (The pen racks were an earlier project in cherry.)

 

My wife was dismayed to see so much empty space still left on the shelves. Surely she should know me better than that!

[Cyber6]

That's amazing Sherlock...

 

 

I don't see any Akkerman bottles... You certainly need one.

[Sasha Royale]

Okay. Collecting ink bottles is not normal behavior. Nobody

needs that many ink bottles. At best, it is undignified.

:ltcapd:

Just a stone thrown from the glass house down the street.

Very nice display. :roflmho:

[Cyber6]

  On 2/28/2013 at 1:46 AM, Sasha Royale said:

Okay. Collecting ink bottles is not normal behavior. Nobody

needs that many ink bottles. At best, it is undignified.

 

 

Geeeezzz you tell me now..

[sherlock_tomes]

  On 2/28/2013 at 1:40 AM, Cyber6 said:

That's amazing Sherlock...

 

 

 

I don't see any Akkerman bottles... You certainly need one.

 

Thanks, Cyber6! I knew there was a reason for those extra shelves.

 

I haven't seen the Akkerman inks at the pen shows I attend, and there is no pen store worthy of the name anywhere close by. Where would I find such a thing?

 

I'd really like to get one of the old glass Visconti ink bottles, as well, but those seem to have all disappeared.

[Cyber6]

  On 2/28/2013 at 2:19 AM, sherlock_tomes said:

 

Thanks, Cyber6! I knew there was a reason for those extra shelves.

 

 

I might be mistaken.. but those shelves look a little short for the Akkerman bottle.

 

 

You can find them here...

 

http://www.vulpennen.nl/inkt-and-vullingen/AkkInkt000.html

 

 

Or, just wait for the next group buy. There seems to be one every few months..

[sherlock_tomes]

  On 2/28/2013 at 2:30 AM, Cyber6 said:

  On 2/28/2013 at 2:19 AM, sherlock_tomes said:

 

Thanks, Cyber6! I knew there was a reason for those extra shelves.

 

 

I might be mistaken.. but those shelves look a little short for the Akkerman bottle.

 

 

You can find them here...

 

http://www.vulpennen.nl/inkt-and-vullingen/AkkInkt000.html

 

 

Or, just wait for the next group buy. There seems to be one every few months..

 

I like the functionality of the design. I could probably squeeze in one or two up top. It certainly would be distinctive!

 

I'll have to check the reviews -- for all the beauty of the bottles, it's how it comes out of the nib and interacts with the paper that appeals to me most.

[Cyber6]

  On 2/28/2013 at 3:06 AM, sherlock_tomes said:

 

I'll have to check the reviews -- for all the beauty of the bottles, it's how it comes out of the nib and interacts with the paper that appeals to me most.

 

Ah.. there is no losing there. Kick ass bottle, with great colors and ink behaviour. Top of the line ink... and not that expensive if you consider those bottles are 150ml.

 

[chiaroscuro]

Not very innovative, but I currently use a shoe box lined with bubble wrap. :roflmho: The inks I'm using I keep on a bookshelf above my desk.

[inkstainedruth]

At the moment most of the bottles are in a square box that just fits on top of the hutch (I'm using it as a bookshelf just outside my bedroom), but the two ink vial trays are too long to fit. A few bottles are on my dresser, along with a fabric covered barrel-vaulted box that *originally* was going to be used for inks (but very quickly the stash outgrew it ). The box with the inks in it originally held the fabric colored one (but is a fair amount larger in width and length); they were from a Yankee gift swap at something I was at a couple of years ago, and the fabric box initially contained fancy teas and homemade lemon peel, which was a bonus (I just wanted the fabric box and kept having to steal it back... ). I still have a few bottles of ink in it, plus cartridges and other random supplies (silicone grease, an extra converter, a few nibs -- eventually the shellac and talc containers will get walked upstairs as well).

What I really want is something that will *also* have room for the increasing pile of finished journals (I think I'm currently on volume 20...). I saw a nice little two shelf cabinet with hinged doors in an antiques store a couple of weeks ago. I think it might double nicely as a nightstand: put the current journal, the fabric covered box and my alarm clock on it, and maybe the cannister of pens (although that could stay on the dresser, I guess and so could the fabric box if necessary), and put all the inks and (hopefully) the rest of the books inside.

I'm just hoping the cabinet is still there in a few weeks when I can afford to be making discretionary budget purchases again. Especially since there's also all these other inks I want. And of course a few pens as well.... :embarrassed_smile:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth