Wonderpens

For a Canadian company, Wonderpens needs to know a little more about their home turf. I ordered a pen and some inks from this Toronto-based stationer recently, and upon its arrival in my non-climate-controlled community mailbox, in January, in Québec, from Toronto, the first thing I noticed was this giant “do not freeze” sticker. It was -30°c at the time.

I understand that fountain pen inks might not remain stable and predictable at these very low temperatures, so asking customers not to intentionally put their inks into cryostasis makes sense. But in central Canada in January it was a bit of an ask, and surely made no difference in its handling from source to destination.

Luckily the box was also full of non-ink stationery goodies. I grabbed a stack of new notebooks, both A5 journals and letter-writing paper, as well as a new Platinum Plaisir in a lovely orange. My systematic approach to everything in life has meant that I have a hard time not coordinating the colour family of the pen with the colour family of the ink I put inside, so I’ve recently been trying to fill out my pen selection with some of the colours I like to write with but lack the pens to easily identify outwardly with.

The inks included “Poupon d’Oie” from Ferris Wheel Press, Honey Burst from Diamine, and some sampler vials as well. Whilst I love the idea of writing in orange and yellow, I’ve yet to find a comfortable and reliably readable yellow or orange ink, and these two were alas no exception. The paper and the new Platinum pen were excellent additions to my hoarde, though, and I’ll definitely check with Wonderpens again someday. Whilst their website shows a lot of selection, the vast majority of their listed items are out of stock at any given time, a known SEO strategy, but an annoying one for shoppers nonetheless. Besides this, the package came fast and in good condition, and the Canadian winter appears not to have affected it at all.