Empty Ink Bottles

I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours seemed like a busier one than usual, so it was nice to wind down a bit on Monday, with the shop closed. We actually packed up baby Caleb in his stroller for a nap, and headed out to a cafe where we did a bit of work surrounded by other adults and the smell of coffee, rather than stacks of boxes and the smell of ink. While I can't say I don't love the smell of ink, a change of space is sometimes nice. Ever since Noodler's announced the temporary change from the glass bottles to plastic, we've had a few requests for empty glass ink bottles. We have empties from making ink samples, and mostly we've had them available in the shop, but now we've finally got them online. While I'm a bit believer in the utility of a product, and that it is truly the ink that is the most important, sometimes it is still nice to have a glass bottle to hold this precious elixir of your words and art.

People use empty ink bottles for all sorts of things, including:

• ink mixing
• ink sharing
• using smaller bottles, like the J. Herbin, for bringing a small amount for traveling (30 mL containers will make it onto airplane carry-ons)
• bringing ink to have in multiple places, for example at work and at home

Non-inky possibilites include:

• a tiny vase for a few small flowers (my favourite!)
• holding artist materials, like paints or water for watercolours on the go
• holding sand from various places you've traveled to
• Jon's idea: use it to hold marbles

Most of the ink bottles will come with just a bit of ink left at the bottom, maybe enough for a partial fill if you've got a syringe, but maybe not too much. If you're putting another ink in them, you should be sure to wash them out first. You can take a look at the empty ink bottles here. If you're looking for a specific colour, you can definitely leave a note in the comments, and if we have it available, we will certainly accommodate. However, with so many ink colours, chances may not be excellent! One day, I hope to have enough free time and organization to see if I can make candles in some of these glass bottles, maybe like the Noodler's or Private Reserve bottles with a slightly larger opening. I think that would be a pretty fantastic use for these bottles, or any glass jar, really, and they would make great gifts for a fountain pen lover! I will probably need to do a bit of research, or maybe find myself a candle-making friend, but I love beeswax candles, and I have a few empty bottles kicking around, so I'm hoping to try this project soon. Of course I'll try and snap a few pictures for the blog.