I love browsing through antique malls and looking at all the pretty vintage items. The things that catch my eye the most are inkwell stands, tea cups and saucers, and perfume bottles (even though I don’t wear perfume). A place I love to browse is Market Road Antiques in St Jacobs. There are tons of stands to look through, which means there is a big variety of items to see. I have been a few times and spotted a purple glass bottle and bejewelled hair pins that I had been thinking about. I went back to the antique store and unfortunately, the hairpins were gone, but the purple bottle was still there. The bottle wasn’t quite right for what I wanted it for – ink storage. The part that holds the liquid was too big and it would be hard to get the ink out or make evaporation problems worse. Storing ink in a perfume bottle is not ideal. Especially if the stopper is glass and doesn’t create an air-tight seal. The ink will evaporate a lot faster than it should, but I went ahead and did it anyway.
This beautiful amber-coloured glass bottle was locked in a glass display case. I’m quite sure I said out loud “I want that” the first time I saw it. It came with a hefty price tag, $75 Canadian dollars. That seemed on the expensive side for a glass bottle. I found out that it was this price because it was part of a two-piece set. I walked around browsing all the booths and kept circling back to the display case wondering if I was really planning on buying a $75 bottle. There were so many beautiful bottles to look at, most of them clear glass. The clear glass bottles were priced way better (around $25), but the amber glass one, was just that much more beautiful to me. I spotted a spikey triangle glass bottle that I was trying to find again, but for the life of me, I could not find it. If you’re ever in a large antique mall and see something you like, take a photo of the booth number, because that spikey bottle went missing despite my searching.
The third and final time I passed the display case one of the agents saw me drooling over it and offered to open the case so I could see it better. I knew I knew if she opened that case, this bottle was coming home with me. Well, she did and I found out the bottle was part of a two-piece set. That did make the price a little more reasonable. I told her I was planning to store ink in the bottle and how I was obsessed with fountain pens. Turns out I’m not the only one. We have the same book and love some of the same stores.
She showed me photos of some of the ink she had made out of the book, I had always wanted to make the blue ink, but hadn’t yet. Hers turned out crystal clear and beautiful. I can imagine how pretty it would look on brilliant white paper. I can’t wait to make it. I feel like I’ve met my crafting hobby soul twin. So of course I bought the bottle. The ink will likely not store very well, so I was sure not to use a favourite ink. I put a really pretty purple ink in it that didn’t have any shimmer or other properties, it was a straight-up solid colour without any extra pizzazz. It looks pretty cool too. I love this bottle and have no regrets (I’m also hoping beyond hope that I don’t knock it over. There is nothing to prevent a spill).
The other bottle I’ve gotten recently was a birthday present from Mr Lobster Shorts. This is the Twisbi Diamond 50 Inkwell. I’m not sure if he got it from Amazon or Wonderpens, but I absolutely love it. This bottle should prevent inky fingers (the video at the top of this post is a demo on how to use it) one of the frustrating parts about fountain pens. Filling your pens can be messy if you don’t use cartridges, like me. I love it.
As for the second part of the glass items. My guess…. ashtray? It’s going to be used to store my fountain pen converters. I have a couple of them loose floating around in a drawer in my desk. This will bunch them together nicely and double as a paperweight. They had gorgeous paperweights at the antique mall, but they are not something I’d use, yet stunning all the same).
I’m going to use this pretty green pen and fill it up with the converter on the bottom of the photo, from the Twisbi bottle. The converter on the top part of the photo will work perfectly to get ink from the glass inkwell. You could also just stick your pen nib right in there and fill it up that way, the opening was large enough, but I prefer filling directly from the converter.
As for the two empty ink bottles, I’m saving them for when I make my own ink and the samples you can buy at the pen stores.
Lobster Shorts 