Ferris Wheel Press, a Canadian stationery company whose motto is “Make Fancy Fun”, has launched a Kickstarter to fund the making of house-themed fountain pens and ink. The house sets would join their existing collection of fantasy-themed pens, inks, leather goods, and stationery.
Pens and pencils are, alas, increasingly obsolete in some areas of the Muggle world with the advent of electronic devices that enable us to type rather than handwrite most of our communications. But they remain crucial in the wizarding world in part because electronic devices do not work in magical surroundings but also, I suspect, for aesthetic reasons. Given the power of witches and wizards to communicate via fireplaces, coins, writing words in the air, etc., they could invent magical options to replace quill pens, ink, parchment, and owl post if they wanted to. The Ministry did away with owls for internal memos, which now fly around the building to their recipients by themselves. This was a practical move to reduce the amount of owl droppings the maintenance crew had to deal with each day. Not to mention how unprofessional it looks for the Minister, members of the Wizengamot, and other officials to emerge from the lifts with bird poop on their robes!
The rarity of receiving a real letter, let alone one written with a fountain pen and ink, makes them extra special nowadays. A beautiful fountain pen is an affordable luxury and a beautiful, portable heirloom with which to record your thoughts. I cannot recall Leaky promoting a Kickstarter before, but it would be delightful to have house pen and ink sets for oneself and to give as gifts. If you are able and motivated to contribute, here is the link again.
