Ink Organization and Display for Maximum Enjoyment

[DilettanteG]

I’m up to over 200 bottles of ink now (have temporarily lost count) and I’ve found that instead of enjoying my collection I’m just chasing the latest and greatest.  I’m hoping you folks can give me some solid advice on how to display, store, and organize my inks so that I stop buying new bottles, taking one or two fills, then stashing them and forgetting them on my closet shelves. 
 

This is what I’m starting with: bottles are alphabetically lined up by brand and then by name on shelves with shelf risers. I make an ink sampler page for each new ink and put it in an alphabetically sorted binder and add it the my online blog inventory. New inks go on the bottom shelf until I get around to cataloging them. 
 

I’d like to get out of the rut of over buying and under using. This is what I’m starting with:

 

 

[I-am-not-really-here]

If you are only taking one or two fills then I suggest buying SAMPLES ONLY.  One might argue that the cost/ml is too high  but buying a whole bottle that just sits there isn't very cost effective either.
 

 

 

[AmandaW]

I store many of my inks in a glass display cabinet near my desk. The boxes are so pretty they do look nice... and I can see them very well when online at my desktop machine. It helps. A little.

 

The cabinet is intended as an out door one - grey metal with glass doors, shelves and sides which suits my decor and wasn't expensive.

[DilettanteG]

52 minutes ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

If you are only taking one or two fills then I suggest buying SAMPLES ONLY.  One might argue that the cost/ml is too high  but buying a whole bottle that just sits there isn't very cost effective either.
 

 

 

Samples? Yeah, I’ve gotta few of those, too. I think most of them are from trading with other FPN members back in the prehistoric days before retailers offered them. So nice that we can buy just a few mls to try today!

 

 

[DilettanteG]

36 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

I store many of my inks in a glass display cabinet near my desk. The boxes are so pretty they do look nice... and I can see them very well when online at my desktop machine. It helps. A little.

 

The cabinet is intended as an out door one - grey metal with glass doors, shelves and sides which suits my decor and wasn't expensive.

I do love a glass display cabinet. I think I’ve got an out of sight, out of mind problem. Object permanence? What’s that?  
 

Do you have them arranged so you can see all the labels? Do you just use the manufacturers’ labels or do you have your own custom system?
 

I’d solve a lot of problems if I thinned my collection. I plan to every time I come back to FPN and then I talk myself out of it. 

[AmandaW]

Mine are supposed to be arranged to be pretty... (bit of a mess at the moment) but more could be fitted in using the 'steps' as you have in your closet.

 

[Penguincollector]

I have mine in a mid century style nightstand with tambour sliding doors. Inside there,  I have a spice rack that looks like a choir riser. I really like your cabinet, @AmandaW. It looks like a store display.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I have an entire hutch cabinet for pens/inks, as I am one of those 'If I can't see it, it doesn't exist' types.

 

Organized by brand, and color.  No, I do not need more inks!  🤣

[DilettanteG]

1 hour ago, AmandaW said:

Mine are supposed to be arranged to be pretty... (bit of a mess at the moment) but more could be fitted in using the 'steps' as you have in your closet.

 

Very pretty indeed.
 

I think I threw away all my boxes. I kept them for a couple decades, but sadly had to go when space got tight this year. (I’ve been on an organizing spree since mid June.)

 

The little bleacher like steps are handy, but I wish I’d bought taller ones. Those little ink bottles are a bit buried in mine.

[DilettanteG]

Wish I’d picked up some mid century modern before iit became chic and unobtainium again:

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

I have mine in a mid century style nightstand with tambour sliding doors. Inside there,  I have a spice rack that looks like a choir riser. I really like your cabinet, @AmandaW. It looks like a store display.

 

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I have an entire hutch cabinet for pens/inks, as I am one of those 'If I can't see it, it doesn't exist' types.

 

Organized by brand, and color.  No, I do not need more inks!  🤣

Me either which is why I’ve spent the last two afternoons curating a wish list. I’ll try and wait for the ones already on order to get here before I go bananas again.

[lapis]

Here's a couple of old shots of two IKEA bookshelves I posted years ago. Not especially entertaining but very convenient. To repeat what Sailor Kenshin said above, "If I don't see it, then I don't have it". One draw-back, however: using the ladder is a pain in the ahh, y'know....
 

Open:

 

Closed:

 

[AmandaW]

Very cool, Lapis.

[Chimera01]

2 hours ago, lapis said:

Here's a couple of old shots of two IKEA bookshelves I posted years ago. Not especially entertaining but very convenient.

What a lovely way to organise an ink collection. And a bit of vinyl as well, I see!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Nice.

 

I don't keep ink boxes, apart from the few MB Limited Editions I have (so they can stack).  I want to see the bottles themselves; some are very beautiful.

[lapis]

On 12/5/2023 at 4:04 PM, Sailor Kenshin said:

Nice.

 

I don't keep ink boxes, apart from the few MB Limited Editions I have (so they can stack).  I want to see the bottles themselves; some are very beautiful.

Completely true, buhhht... I'm into keeping them out of the light.

[lapis]

2 hours ago, Chimera01 said:

What a lovely way to organise an ink collection. And a bit of vinyl as well, I see!

Right! And, as you also saw (I'm certain) the saddle which is a Brooks. In your vicinity perhaps? (No, I see no connection between an ink and a bike saddle... except "quality").

[DilettanteG]

Thanks for the pics @lapis. This is super helpful, but first some thoughts:

1. That is a seriously impressive ink collection AND you've kept all the original boxes, too.  Ditto to @AmandaW. It must be like going to your dream ink shop everyday.

2. Love the display cases. I love how the look of the Ikea billy cases and the glass fronts on both really turn your collections into a display. Plus, no dusting!

3. Just a shout out to the library ladder. Anything that says library warms my heart. Also, those are the tallest billy cases I've seen in the wild. Nice!

4. I'm quite enjoying looking at the pictures and identifying the inks that I can. Lots of, "Cool! I have that ink, too!"

5. And @AmandaW I see your beautifully organized  and labelled stationary supply bins. It soothes my cravings for organization and office supplies. Yes, I am a huge nerd.

 

So, I love the idea of using display cases to turn my collection into a room's focal point. I tossed most of my boxes, so light exposure would be a problem for me. I could just keep the cases in a closet, but that kind of defeats the point. However, I think I would actually use my inks more, even if they didn't last as long. Plus, like @Sailor Kenshin I would like to look at the pretty bottles more. 

 

I tend to come back to FPN after hiatuses usually with the idea that I'll finally get my collection down to the things I actually use and let the rest go. It never works. Inevitably, I fall in love with pens, inks, and papers all over again and always end up just buying more. I think this time I'm going to focus on how to make the most of my passion for these objects. Since my house is pretty much AT CAPACITY right now, I'm going to have to figure out to do that.

 

My office is one of the last places in the house on this year's decluttering and organizing tour, I think I'm going to have to start playing giant Tetris and shifting other stuff around to give my inks and pens a more prominent pride of place. I have a couple of glass enclosed shelves in my existing office furniture which I can probably repurpose. That gives me about five shelves. Maybe I can split everything up into fancy bottles for look at everyday and fragile old inks to hide in the closet? That might make things even harder to use. 

 

Hmmm, welcoming suggestions and more pics if you got 'em.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

I do keep the boxes as much as possible for the bottled ink.  I store them in a bunch of of fabric boxes covered with rattan that I got a few years ago at IKEA (but which they don't seem to carry any more).  The cardboard boxes make the bottles easier to stack, and the IKEA boxes helps prevent light damage; I have them sort of organized by brand.  But I also keep inventory files on my laptop -- one by color, one by brand, and one that's a spreadsheet with notes, like whether the ink is vintage, whether it's a LE color (or exclusive to a specific retailer), etc..

The sample vial trays are not nearly as well organized.  I was meaning to do that this week, now that I have a couple of more trays, but that hasn't happened yet.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[DilettanteG]

@inkstainedruth well that explains how you keep your excellent vintage inks intact. (I seem to recall you discussing those finds in other posts.) I think my oldest inks are probably from the nineties? Just realized that's still thirty years ago. Wow, I'm also vintage.

 

Do you use an excel spreadsheet or a different database? I've been using my blog to keep track, but again it's out of sight/site, out of mind. I might move it to my home inventory program UnderMyRoof, I think it's called, but it's lost data in the past so I feel a bit gun shy.

 

Anybody know an affordable, consumer friendly database program?

[inkstainedruth]

I basically use iPages or iNumbers files and make up my own lists, and then update them as the pen or ink stash increases.  

I'm probably really more than a little OCD, but I'm also not really a computer person so I use what works for me.  I know some people keep track of what pens they currently have inked up on pen and paper, but I like being able to skim down through the files by searching for specific words/phrases -- it's faster that way in the long run.  And the advantage is that if it's some ink I haven't yet tried (and I have WAY too many of those) the listing is greyed out so I EASILY know that I haven't tried them.  

I did also have spreadsheet files set up to note what ink sample vials were in each tray, but I'm so far behind on that that I'd probably have to start from scratch (those were more or less organized by ink color).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth