Meticulous Ink’s Forever Home

Aim

Help us secure and build a permanent, forever home for Meticulous Ink where heritage print, creativity & community can grow!

Meticulous Ink: A New Forever Home for Beautiful Stationery.

For 15 years we’ve been creating beautiful stationery in the heart of Bath, pressing ink into paper the old fashioned way on our collection of vintage printing presses and bringing a little paper-based magic to the world with our creative workshops. We’re analogue lovers through and through, providing a hands on, tactile experience in our shop on Walcot Street. Thanks to you, Meticulous Ink has flourished.

Because of rising rents, we launched this Crowdfunder to give us the chance to expand into a forever home for Meticulous Ink. A permanent place where we can grow, create beautiful things without the fear of rent rises and build a truly special place for creativity that you, our community, deserves.

This next step is incredibly exciting and rather terrifying. I need your help to make it real.

Once Upon a Time - the background story.

I've wanted my own business since I was 11. A challenging yet utterly joyful childhood had its monetary ups and downs, so I wanted to be in control of my own destiny, to rely on myself for my own income. I knew it would be in a creative field and specialised in Fine Art Print at uni mainly because no one else used the print room. After working at two bespoke stationery companies I took the leap (after 10 months of research, planning and praying) and opened Meticulous Ink in October 2010 using a business loan, my life savings, three credit cards (which I applied for before leaving my old job) and unshakeable self confidence! Things were done on a shoestring budget, with furniture off gumtree and a multitude of favours from friends and family. The dream was alive!

Meticulous Ink has survived dramatic changes over the 15 years. Premises relocation, buying out my business partner, then Covid lockdowns. Since then every cost within the business has increased and yet we’ve thrived.

I invested in expanding the shop by dismantling the largest of our presses and moving them into the basement last year and it’s been utterly wonderful welcoming so many of you into the bigger shop. The warm glow that occurs in my soul when we hear the excited noises of a customer squealing over the cuteness of some stickers truly makes it all worthwhile and pushes me to keep going.

We’re now an award winning team of six stationery and print fanatics that adore chatting about the texture of paper or helping you find the perfect pen. We want more of that.

Why We Need Your Help.

I love my shop and the current premises has been blooming brilliant for the past 11 years. However our latest challenge is a whopping 31% increase to our rent, which feels very much like the last straw in a long list of increases. I’ve worked hard to keep the many plates spinning and am so proud that it’s working. It’s now time for Meticulous Ink to evolve.

I’m now on a mission to find a permanent place for Meticulous Ink. I recently bid on an amazing property, and although sadly we missed out on that one, this campaign is very much still alive. The funds raised are for our Forever Home, and will be used for the first opportunity that fits our needs: space for the printing presses, to run workshops, and to expand creativity and community. Where Meticulous Ink can expand and exist for the next 100 years!

With your support we will:

• Securing our Forever Home - I'll once again be cleaning out my life savings and adding it to your amazing contributions.

• Set up and moving costs - to create a truly magical space and put our Meticulous Ink stamp on it.

• Boring but essential costs - solicitors fees, bank fees, valuation fees, other fees (why are so many secret fees in buying a property?!)

• Build a long term, permanent home for Meticulous Ink - somewhere that anyone can visit and inhale creativity into their soul.

This is all about making sure Meticulous Ink continues, thrives and becomes even more magical for stationery lovers for years to come. To do this properly, I’m asking you, our wonderful stationery fans, pen aficionados and nib nerds, for help.

Rewards.

We’ve put together some splendid rewards for you to choose from, with exclusive options to please pen lovers, journalers, book lovers and print geeks, as well as some more quirky options too. How about finally getting to choose a name for one of our big three presses, or sponsoring our new WC? 

Each and every one of you that backs this new phase will have your name added permanently to our new space in my finest calligraphy skills.

Yes, but will you be staying in Bath?!

Our first attempt at securing a property was in Bath and I would very much like to stay here - it’s our home and where we built our community. However, I am considering locations in and around Bath and Bristol too. The most important thing is that it’s the right place for us to continue to thrive long term. That it makes sense financially, doesn’t put strain on the business through overspend, and is stable enough that we won’t ever be at the mercy of rent hikes again. When I know we have somewhere, you’ll know. Until then, please pray - and pledge!

Please support, pledge and share.

I’ve taken a leap of faith into the unknown because I believe in Meticulous Ink from the core of my soul. I have unshakeable faith that the right place is out there for us just waiting for the exact right moment to present itself. Getting to our first goal means we are ready and able to respond quickly when the opportunity arises.

I believe that you, our utterly wonderful customers and fans of stationery, want and need a flourishing stationery shop to expand your creativity, to increase the analogue in your life and to be able to take a moment of peace away from the digital. 

I’m so grateful for any and every pledge, which will take us a step towards securing this magical home for Meticulous Ink. If you can’t support with a reward purchase, sharing with your besties, on social media or with your family would be hugely appreciated too.

What happens next? Our first attempt at securing a property didn’t go our way - but this is only the beginning. Thanks to you, our incredible community, we are in a really powerful position, with a dedicated fund ready to go the moment the right place appears.

The Big Hunt: I’m a woman on a mission, searching for the perfect home for Meticulous Ink. There are several potential options in and around Bath and Bristol, which I’m reviewing carefully and lining up viewings for. The most important thing is choosing the right space, somewhere we can thrive creatively, financially and joyfully.

I won’t be sharing any specific locations until I know for sure it is secured. Once I have the keys in my hand I’m gonna be so ecstatically happy to share the news with you all, long before anyone else hears about it. I guarantee an excessive amount of happy tears when this happens.

Rewards timeline: I can’t confirm right now when we’ll find our permanent home. I can assure you that every reward will be honoured within approximately 12 months of moving into our new permanent space. There are some of the physical rewards that we may be able to fulfil by June 2026. In any case, I’ll be in touch to keep you in the know. Naming sponsorship will happen once we move into our new space and bespoke work we’ll be in touch in the Spring to organise with you.

Thank you for your loyal support over the last 15 years. I literally could not have done this without you. This feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity to build something lasting, secure and beautiful, and I’m so excited for this next challenge. Let’s make a permanent home for analogue crafts, community and creative joy.

With immense faith and maximum effort,

Athena x

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made