How to Clean a Fountain Pen: Piston-Filler
One of the best things you can do for your fountain pens is clean them regularly! In this video, we walk you through the steps to properly clean your piston-filling fountain pen.
Steps to follow here:
- Remove cap of your pen
- Dispel excess ink into a sink or cup
- Draw clean water into the pen from a cup (If your water is hard, we recommend using distilled water)
- Dispel that water back into the sink
- Repeat this process until water is clear (You could also draw water into the pen running water instead of a cup)
- Shake your pen to remove excess ink
- Gently blot nib and feed with a paper towel
- Dry and reassemble your clean pen
- Write on!
You can shop our pen cleaning supplies on GouletPens.com
Leave any questions you have in the comments and we’d be happy to help!
Write on,
The Goulet Pen Company Team
Journal in June with Goulet Pens
June is here and we thought it would be worthwhile to have a reason to get out our fountain pens and notebook to journal our way through the new month ahead of us. We’re sharing 30 prompts to last the entire month of June and hope you’ll join us in inking up your pens and writing with us. Some prompts are playful and others more reflective, but hopefully all of them inspire you to think, process, and write. If you do, be sure to let us know across social media by using the hashtag #JournalWithGoulet.
June 1: Write about the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you.
June 2: Write about one positive memory from your childhood growing up.
June 3: Write about a challenge you had to overcome and what you learned from it.
June 4: Write about one goal you’ve had but have never actually written down.
June 5: Write about a day in your life that was a turning point for you.
June 6: Write about the most memorable trip you went on.
June 7: Write about what what your perfect day would look like.
June 8: Write about what you hope your life might look like in 5 years.
June 9: Write about your favorite song / poem and what the words mean to you.
June 10: Write about the best dessert you’ve ever tasted.
June 11: Write about the best teacher you’ve had and what you loved about them.
June 12: Write about your day… what you did and how you felt.
June 13: Write about 3 things you’re thankful for today.
June 14: Write about your dream breakfast.
June 15: Write about your favorite movie and what you love about it.
June 16: Write about what you would try if you knew you couldn’t fail.
June 17: Write about 5 people in history you wish you could meet and why.
June 18: Write about the most thoughtful gift you were ever given.
June 19: Write about 3 things that make you frustrated and action steps you could take related to them.
June 20: Write about something you hope to complete before the year is over.
June 21: Write about a dream you’ve had.
June 22: Write about your ideal weather day.
June 23: Write about the oldest memory you have as a kid.
June 24: Write about 3 things that are on your bucket list to complete someday.
June 25: Write about your favorite hobby and why you love it.
June 26: Write about a close friend you have and what that friendship means to you.
June 27: Write about an organization or cause you want to get involved with this year.
June 28: Write about a time you had to overcome a fear you had.
June 29: Write about the best meal you’ve ever had.
June 30: Write about what you would do if someone gave you $1 million dollars that you had to spend but couldn’t buy anything for yourself.
Write on,
The Goulet Pen Company
Platinum Plaisir Special Edition History
A visual look back at all of the annual special edition Platinum Plaisir fountain pens that have been available. The Platinum Plaisir is a great option for someone just getting into fountain pens. It features a cap that prevents ink from drying, enabling smooth writing even after no use for a whole year!
2020: Teal Green
2019: Black Mist
2018: Bali Citrus (No longer available)
2017: Nova Orange (No longer available)
Which color is your favorite?
Write on,
The Goulet Pen Company
New Wishlist at Goulet Pens
We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and are so happy to announce that our new wishlist functionality at Goulet Pens is now here! While our existing wishlist worked okay, there were definitely a few recurring bugs we couldn’t resolve. Some deleted items kept reappearing… the “zombie wishlist” as we liked to call it, and it didn’t have the ability to break out your list into sublists. We completely switched software and our new wishlist solves these issues and more your experience better.
If you had an existing wishlist on our site, we migrated it over to the new database around April 13th. You may need to re-add anything you’ve added to your wishlist since then. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a one-time thing related to the migration and you shouldn’t have to do this again.
If you don’t already have a wishlist, we have some tips here on how to get started. While we still aren’t shipping at the moment, it’s a great way to save and remember the items you may want to purchase later.
How to Create Your Wishlist
Find a Product
Use the search or navigation to locate the product that you’re interested in. Click on the product to view its product detail page. Under the “Add to Cart” button (or the Coming Soon or Out of Stock button), you’ll see an “Add to Wishlist” button.
Add to a Wishlist
After clicking the button, you’ll see a small pop-up. All products are added to your master “My Wishlist” by default, but you’ll also have the opportunity to create new sub-collections here, and you can add products to multiple lists at a time. Then click “Add to Wishlist”.
View Your Wishlist
At the top of our site, click “My Wishlist” to view it.
This next step is perhaps the least intuitive part: You may get a pop-up prompting you to add an email address. Whether or not you are logged into your account on our site, the wishlist database is actually housed separately, so adding an email address allows you to keep your products synced across devices, and get email reminders if you choose. If you don’t get a pop-up, you can click Settings to make sure your email is set up. If you get an email confirmation validating your address, click the link to finalize setup.
Share Your Wishlist
While viewing your wishlist (or any of your wishlist sub-collections), just click the “Share” link in the upper right corner. You’ll be prompted to email it to a friend, or share a link to it on social media. It will share whichever wishlist sub-collection you have selected.
We hope this was helpful. Feel free to email our Customer Relationship team with any other questions you have!
Write on,
The Goulet Pen Company Team
How to Start a Gratitude Journal
Ever been told you should start a gratitude journal? Rachel here, and I’ve battled generalized anxiety disorder for the last six years. As I’ve shared my struggles, multiple people have given me the advice to start a gratitude journal, but I just never knew how to start.
Why a gratitude journal? Well, when your heart is filled with thankfulness, it’s hard to simultaneously also feel worried. When you take the time to reflect on the good things in your life, you’ll feel much better about everything! Anxiety disorder or not, we’re all feeling a bit off these days. Things just aren’t normal, and it’s easy to watch or read the news and feel discouraged, fearful, and overwhelmed.
Though I’m only a few days in, the process of starting a gratitude journal has already helped bring me more joy, so I have some tips here to share if you’d like to get started too.
Choose a Notebook, Grab a Pen
Literally any notebook will work. For me, I chose a Clairefontaine A5 Wirebound lined notebook. It’s my go-to — I love the super smooth paper and the lines are wide enough for my large handwriting with broad nibs. It’s also another excuse to use your fountain pens!
Make it a Daily Habit
New habits require discipline until it becomes routine. Try to find the same time each day to write. You may choose to do it first thing in the morning to start off your day with thankfulness, or at the end of the day as you reflect on what happened. It’s okay to miss a day or two, just try to keep going even when you don’t feel like it. And if it’s easier for you instead to jot things down throughout the day as you think of them, do whatever works best for you!
What to Write About?
I don’t thrive in white spaces, so for me, I’ve chosen to pick something to write about each day from these categories: a material object, a person, an experience I had that day, a skill/ability I have, and something about my body that I like. Other ideas might be something in nature, a childhood memory, or a food that you enjoy eating. Literally anything.
How to Write
Whatever format works for you. You can start with a simple bulleted list, but I prefer to write about what and why. A few sentences is just fine. You can use the simple format “I am thankful for ______ because _______.” I’m making it my goal to fill one A5 page front and back each day.
Try Not to Repeat Yourself
Every day, pick something different to be thankful for! It might become a harder challenge as time goes on. But you’ll eventually start thinking about all kinds of really small things to be thankful for, like access to toothpaste, running water, toilet paper… things we might normally taken for granted.
What if you can’t think of anything?
Start really simple…. Being alive. The sunshine. How your body breathes on its own without you thinking about it. The variety of colors in nature. How the sun always rises every morning without fail. Or maybe your fountain pens. 😉
What other tips do you have to share on how to start (and maintain) a gratitude journal? I’d love to hear from you!
Write on,
Rachel Goulet
A Message to Our Loyal Customers (from the homes of the Goulet Pens Team)
While we are fully remote and unable to ship due to the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve been paying our team in full to stay home and stay safe. Out of gratitude, they wanted to make this video to personally say thank you for your support, especially during this time.
Write on,
The Goulet Pen Company Team