Tom’s Studio is a brand that has been on my radar for a while, but until recently, I hadn’t tried any of their products. Initially it was their inks that I had my eye on, but then I spotted The Wren. 

The Wren is an interesting little pen, not just because of its diminutive size, but also because it’s a fibre tip pen that you can fill with fountain pen ink. I was intrigued enough by this pen and the good reviews it was getting that I asked my fiancé for it for Christmas.

Because he ordered it directly from Tom’s Studio, I got to pick two colours for the pen, as opposed to having one of the single coloured ones that other retailers sell. Even with the single coloured pens, there’s a nice array of both muted and brighter colour options to choose from, and in the end I settled on a mixture of the ivy green colour and raspberry pink. 

And then came the agonising wait, not only for it to arrive, but for it to be Christmas and to get to try it out!

The first thing I noticed when I finally got my hands on this pen, was how incredibly beautiful the packaging was. The Wren comes in this small but beautiful box, complete with an instruction leaflet and a tiny bottle of ink. It also includes the writing tip and ink reservoir, which is already fitted in the pen.

The pen was even tinier than I expected, but once posted it’s a nice, comfortable size to use. Although I would say I have quite small hands, so I’m not sure how someone with larger hands would find it. 

For comparison, I’ve shown it here next to a Kaweco Sport, which is a small pen a lot of people will be familiar with: 

The Kaweco Sport is only a little longer when posted, mostly thanks to the nib, but you can see just how tiny the Wren is when you see it capped next to a Kaweco Al-Sport! 

For the size, the Wren has a decent heft to it, and a sturdy, good quality build, with an aluminium body and cap. The pen itself is round, whilst the cap is faceted, which makes for a nice contrast. 

I decided not to use the bottle of ink that came with it for its first fill, and instead chose Waterman Harmonious Green, which I thought would go nicely with the ivy green of the cap. The filling system for the Wren is one of the most interesting things about it, and was thankfully really easy. The tip is attached to an ink reservoir inside the pen, which looks a little bit like a cotton swab. To fill the pen you dip the ink reservoir into the ink and hold it in for a few seconds. You can see the ink rising up the reservoir, and eventually hitting the nib of the pen, which is incredibly satisfying! 

I’ve now been using the pen for over a month, and I’ve been loving it! The writing experience is nice and smooth, and because of the fibre tip, has a bit of a softer feel than writing with a fountain pen, which I like. I’m also impressed that the first fill is still going strong, as I’ve used the pen regularly, so that tiny little reservoir must hold a fair amount of ink! 

As I’m still using my first fill, I haven’t yet cleaned out and changed the ink in the Wren, so that is one thing I am curious about. You can buy replacement tips and reservoirs from Tom’s Studio, to just replace the whole thing, as well as little test tubes to keep alternate ink reservoirs and tips in so you can keep swapping them in and out. 

But you can also supposedly clean out the original tip and reservoir and reuse it, but I’m not sure how easy that would be. I imagine if you want to just refill the pen with the same ink, the process would be the same the second time around, but if you wanted to clean it out and put a new ink in with the same tip and reservoir, I suspect that might be difficult. I’ll have to try it once the ink runs out and write an update! 

Overall I’m incredibly impressed with this pen, and especially for the price. It feels similar to the Kaweco Al-Sport, but at £35, it’s half the price, and the writing experience is glassy smooth. Not to mention, I love the convenience of the filling mechanism! I’m definitely planning to get some more tips and reservoirs so I can keep swapping ink colours easily (although out of interest, I will try cleaning out the original ones, just to see how easy it is!). 

My only caveat with the Wren really is the size, because this pen is small. It does become quite a comfortable size when posted, but for someone with bigger hands, that might not be the case. And when capped it is tiny, and so wouldn’t be ideal for throwing in your bag – I’d be worried about losing it! 

I’d definitely recommend it overall though, as a fun little pen!

So have you tried The Wren from Tom’s Studio? What did you think?