My vials

At one corner of my desk at the office there sits a test tube rack for forty test tubes. However, instead of holding test tubes, it holds ink vials, thirty-one in all. Each ink vial holds one color of fountain pen ink, and the vials are labeled with the brand and color of the ink they contain.

I decided to use this system so I can finally keep my original ink bottles in a cool, dark container where they should be stored, instead of sitting haphazardly at whatever surface was free on either of my desks at the office or at home, and sometimes even residing inside an assortment of bags.

One day I chanced upon this idea on The Fountain Pen Network, which we lovingly call The Nuthouse, and got myself this rack and forty ink vials.

Now my original ink bottles are all safe and sound in a cool, dark place, away from light and dust and the rest of the world, while this ink rack stands at my desk in the office, so all my inks are available to me in case I want to refill a fountain pen or want to write with my dip pens.

This is indeed a brilliant idea, although sometimes people who come to my desk tend to ask me why I am keeping blood samples. Then I have to tell them about the inks and the fountain pens and the paper, which makes me look just a little bit crazy. But then again, that’s a small price to pay for this convenience.