it's a bit crazy to think that it has already been a year since i started to sell some of my restored vintage fountain pens online. prior to then, i only restored to collect, but alas the rabbit hole was too deep and it was hard to keep funding new projects with shiny pens sitting in my pen trays. the goal of my workshop has never been to make any profit, but rather fund the constant research and development of restoration techniques, fact-finding experiments, and of course the impossible-to-avoid-damages that come with handling vintage materials.
there are some who would say that these vintage pens should be preserved in a museum for our later generations to study and see. i say, to hell with that, haha. the art of writing has already been on the decline for decades now, and the constant pressure by greedy businesses have sucked a lot of the soul from the fountain pen world (but more broadly the artisanal world). if i could find anything comparable in ability and thoughtfulness from modern pen makers i wouldn't have embarked on this journey. vintage pens aren't perfect, they were made with tools of yesterday with less precision and optimization, yet they stood the test of time and continue to spark joy when you pick them up.
2025 was a whirlwind of a year and 2026 will definitely be evolving my tiny workshop into different streams of work and projects. i have been working hard updating my social media (instagram and facebook) on a daily basis, and will look to expand that effort further by finally taking a jump to long form content on youtube and tiktok (reluctantly haha). wish me luck and thank you if you decide to follow me there too!
in the pipeline today for my partnership with Mark Hoover under the brand Maison Arclaire:
- vintage inspired fountain pen inks
- urushi, raden, and maki-e stationary
- restoration toolkits and supplies
- a few other secret projects
earlier this year, i was able to visit multiple suppliers across Taiwan, China, and Japan, and added ever more passion and motivation for me to become a maker and product designer within this industry. it's like an insatiable itch at the top of my brain that constantly makes me move to do something. 
making something new in the world is kind of scary, and not just from the amount of money burned during prototyping. and yet, it sparks a completely new vigor that just can't be replicated when doing anything else.
Thank You for joining me on this journey, and I hope my endeavors will join the hundreds of independent makers and artists who are the embers that will ignite the next Golden Age of fine writing.
my distinguished cat: Billi
