I am sucker for these Birmingham Pen Company inks. This is batch number two for me. The first batch was so lovely I knew I would order more. First, the colors are so muted and complex and I love that Birmingham names all their colors after people and places from their community. Second, they are so stinkin’ cheap. A 30ml bottle is just $7.99. So, I can’t resist buying them.

This round I bought some of the newer colors more recently released and some that have been restocked: Andy Warhol Pop Art Purple, Southside Market Boysenberry, May Lou Williams Piano Girl Pink,  Fred Rogers Cardigan Red, Thomas Mellon Evergreen and Schenley Park Thicket Green.

Evergreen, Cardigan Red and Pop Art Purple are the most saturated, vivid colors I’ve gotten from Birmingham Pen Company thus far. Schenley Park Thicket Green is a lovely forest green and Boysenberry is a good raspberry purple. However, Piano Girl Pink is no more pink than Gerbera Pink I picked up in the first batch. As long as I think of Piano Girl as a burgundy its a nice color but pink, it is not. For all the things Birmingham Pen Co. is doing right, pink is not their strong suit.

But oh, their deep, dark muted tones are so good. So, if you have not tried out some of the Birmingham Pen Company inks yet, now is the time.

I promise that I will do more in depth reviews of some of these ink colors in the coming weeks.

The post Eye Candy: Birmingham Pen Co. Inks appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I know it’s probably a little late to post this but with all the preparation for the San Francisco Pen Show, this is the first chance I’ve had to post this. These were the things I picked up in DC. And the funny thing, my biggest purchase, and the one purchase I truly set out to make in DC, didn’t even make it into the photo because it was in my bag. I’ll have to photograph it separately and tuck it in at the end of the post. You’ll just have to scroll all the way to the end of the post to see what it is.

But first, let me tell you about the other things because I’m super excited about them too!

First, there are the pens (and pencils!). A wonderful kind reader brought me two brand new NoBlot pencils she found in her office supply cupboard. I should have written her name down. She told me her name and then a thousand things happened between her handing me the pencils and me putting lovingly putting them in my bag at which point I couldn’t remember. So, please, if you’re reading this, leave a message in the comments so that I can thank you properly!

I “won” the lovely pink vintage fountain pen in the Black Pen Society auction but I think the auction was a bit rigged. No one really bid against me. Mike Matteson of Inkdependence put in a bid to make it look like a fair fight but after that, no one really bid. So, they pretty much let me have it. The nib needs a little tweaking but otherwise its in great shape.

Next is the lovely wood pen from Indian manufacturer Syahi. I got the Monarch model to test with a steel flex nib. It’s a larger pen than I usually use but the wood makes it lighter and warmer in the hand and who could resist the chance to try a new pen from a new manufacturer who is experimenting with steel flex nibs?

And finally, I accosted Brian Chu of Red Dragon Pen Company in the hallway in order to get a hold of one of his custom Pilot Parallel Calligraphy Pen barrels. I was able to score two of them.

Then there was the amazing Yenderings Sugar Beach 6-pen roll from YenYen who came all the way from Canada to sell her wares.The case is a combination of ultrasuede, cork and cotton fabrics and was inspired by a Toronto water park. I can’t wait to spend more time with the case and write a more thorough review.

My ink purchases weren’t extensive this trip but I did find some goodies. I got three bottles of Penlux ink, the special edition Monteverde DC Supershow Blue and right before I was leaving I was gifted the remainder of a bottle of 2014 Diamine 2014 DC Supsershow Blue.

I don’t know much about the Penlux ink yet though the box says its made by Sailor and the inks were described as being traditional Japanese colors. I bought all the colors available in the square bottles and these origami folded boxes. The only other colors available were a standard blue and black in the squat Sailor bottles.

This is what I truly set out to purchase at the DC Supershow this year. I have been eyeing the craftsmanship of Yoshi Nakama at 18111 for well over a year. I didn’t know he had a table at the show last year because I was so busy working that I didn’t hear about it until Sunday night after the show was closed and was told he had sold everything. Then in San Francisco a few weeks later, I was able to hold Leigh Reyes’s beautiful custom 18111 creations in my hands. Then I knew for sure that one day I wanted to own one of my own. So, I quietly watched his Instagram feed and Etsy shop debating and trying to decide. They are all so beautiful and unique. Eventually, I waited until the show in hopes that seeing them in person would help me make a decision.

I decided on this beautiful pink swirl with white and pink sakura blossoms and a twig roll stop.

Best of all, the Regalia Writing Labs nib that Laura bought me for my birthday fits perfectly and I can think of no better pen with which to pair it.

So, as I start the day at the SF Pen Show, I can think of no better to celebrate one pen show than to remember another.

As always, though, as much as we love the objects, pen shows are as much about the people we meet, the friends me make, the makers who create theses wonderful things and the memories we make at these events (and later, the things we create WITH these things) as they are about the actual objects.

The post Eye Candy: DC Pen Show Haul appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Taccia introduced its own line of inks at the San Francisco Pen Show. The full line includes 13 colors in 40ml glass bottles. The bottles looked like slightly taller versions of the Sailor  (more like the Storia bottles but not frosted) The colors are a good range of colors (black, blue, red, orange, green) plus colors unique to Japanese aesthetics like the Tsuchi (golden wheat), Uguisa (olive-green) and Momo (day-glo pink). The MSRP for these inks is currently at $15 per bottle (according to Pen World magazine) but I’m not sure exactly where retailers will end up pricing them. Anything under $20 per bottle seems fair to me but we will see where vendors land.

I had the opportunity to test four of the 13 colors. I only received samples so I don’t have pretty bottles or packaging to show off. I received Momo (pink),  Ebi (red-purple), Aogura (blue-black) and Uguisa (olive-green). All four colors were vivid, vibrant and saturated. They had nice flow for my samples and showed a decent range of shading.

(From top to bottom: Taccia Momo, Pilot Iroshizuku Kosumosu, Krishna Bauhima, Colorverse x Opus88 Girls Just Wanna)

Momo is absolutely eye searing. Just when I thought that Colorverse Girls Just Wanna was the brightest pink I had seen yet, Taccia looks to have raised the bar again. Momo has a distinctive gold sheen without any evidence of actual gold particles like Lamy used with its Vibrant Pink this year so its unlikely to clog your pen or crust.

From top to bottom: Colorverse 41 Albert, Taccia Uguisa, Diamine Light Green, Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku Rin, Colorverse x Opus88 39 Supernatural, Diamine Calligraphy Passion Ink)

Taccia Uguisa is definitely a deeper olive green than the inks I compared it to here but I am still working my way through swatching all my inks on Col-o-dex cards. I suspect its closer to some of the greens from Sailor like Waka-Uguisa which I am in the process of swatching. At least these swatches give you an idea of the depth of the color. There doesn’t appear to be any sheen with Uguisa but it looks like there is definitely some shading possibilities.

(From top to bottom: Diamine 150 Years 1864 Blue Black, Taccia Aogura, J. Herbin Bleu des Profondeurs, Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun)

I was able to find several blue blacks in my swatches similar to Taccia Aogura but not exactly the same. I’d say Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun is probably closest in hue and shading properties on first inspection. Diamine 150 Years Blue Black is much more indigo and the new J. Herbin Bleu des Profondeurs is more bright blue, just to give you an idea where Aogura stands in the spectrum of blue-blacks. (Does anyone else see a face in my swab?)

(From top to bottom: Callifolio Grenat, Taccia Ebi, Robert Oster Hippo Purple, Birmingham Pen Co. Ebenezer Penny Carmine, Monteverde Mercury Noir)

There is a huge range of burgundy/ruby reds so I thought I’d show where Taccis Ebi fell in the range. It’s the second swatch from the top and looks more rusty next to a lot of these other swatches which is surprising because in person its actually quite a wine reddish purple. And there’s even some sheen there. Clearly, YMMV. But Grenat is definitely more pinky and other colors were more red or brown so this will definitely give you a range.

Overall, the Taccia inks look great and I look forward to buying a whole bottle of several colors. I’ll definitely let you know when they are available with retailers. Thanks to Vanness Pen Shop for sharing their samples.

TOOLS

• Pens: Acrylic Dip Pen (similar models from Ebay starting at $18.03), Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards ($10) and Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Blick #0 Synthetic Studio Round Brush ($4.05)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided free of charge by for the purpose of review by Taccia and Vanness Pen Shop.

Other items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

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Guest Review by Julia van der Wyk

Intro and general comments

Bungbox Happiness ($39 per 50ml bottle) ink was made to replicate the color of happiness, in the guise of a cheerful, yet unassuming green. Do we think they succeeded? Well, the bunny fox on the label is so happy it can’t even handle how happy it is. Let’s find out why!

Fountain pens

For this ink’s review, I filled some inadvertently matching pens:
Parker Vacumatic with fine nib, Pelikan M400 with extra fine nib, though for the purposes of this review it works as a medium, and another personal favorite, the Franklin Christoph pocket 20 with the fine cursive italic nib.
The Pelikan is my “stream of consciousness” journal pen, so got lots of use. My current journal is a Confidant, and the ink performed well enough so I was only aware of it’s smooth flow and pretty color. Green, the color of my thoughts. The Parker Vac and FC italic saw more action in my daily schedule Hobonichi pages. Of course, it was a delight tracking my day to day mundane actions with these tools. I never had to coax the feeds with this ink, even with the Parker cap that is not air tight. For standard fountain pen use, this ink is a go!

Paper tests for Fps

Clairefontaine

Shading galore in the two round nibs. The color was more even using the italic, which is also tuned to be crisp, so no surprise there. I do not detect sheen with this ink. No bleed, show through or feathering, just juicy bright color!

Col-o-ring

I don’t see as much shading here, just darker to lighter as the nibs get smaller. Nice variety of tones with the brush, and is that sheen I see on the swatch edge?

Tomoe River

All three nibs show shading here, with nary a mark to be seen on the other side of the paper. Well done, ink and paper combination.

Baron Fig Confidant

Consistent again across all nibs, deep color and shading all the way round. No feathering, bleed or show through.

Inky Fingers Currently Inked

Color of the ink appears lighter here, but still can see shading from the round nibs. No feathering, bleed or show through.

Daiso “Word” Card

No big surprise, ink appears flatter on this more textured and uncoated paper, but performs well.

Cheap copy paper

Here’s the fun part: feathering, show through and some bleed on this multi-purpose, economical paper. You can tell it’s meant for an entirely different kind of ink. Oh well.

Art tests

Ink wash and dip nib calligraphy on SOHO sketch paper. Since this ink is a bright medium hue, I expected a clear limit on the variety of values it would produce. But here I was happily surprised! Working directly with brush and ink, I could layer and build deepness. Thinning with water I could go as light and ephemeral as I pleased. I added more layers onto the dry ink and the tones changed from there as well. In summary: this ink is pretty amazing as an art supply. Of course, the amount of depth and darkness is dependent upon the delivery system at hand: the brush, champ though it is, cannot compete with a fully saturated dip calligraphy nib. Here we see the full range of tones and shading, especially with the Speedball C-3 nib. The Zebra G flex nib did not want to hold onto the ink, which was expected as fountain pen inks are not made for this style of ink. If one were to embark on a lettering project with this nib, I recommend mixing with a thickening agent (ed. note: a drop or two of liquid gum arabic added to a separate container, not directly into the bottle) to lengthen the stroke capacity. Priming the nib will not be enough to overcome the thinness of the ink.

Conclusion and wrap-up

I know why the bunny fox is happy. I love the color, and yes, greens are my favorite, but still, this is a great one. The ink performs well in all scenarios from fountain pens to art experimentation. It flows well in longer writing sessions, and is ready to go for short jots. Bungbox Happiness is outstanding.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review may have been provided free of charge by sponsors for the purpose of review. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

Julia is an artist, classical musician, knitter, and lover of the outdoors. She resides in Santa Cruz, California, where she can draw Pelicans with Pelikans, and brag about the weather. Follow her adventures on Instagram @juliavdw or Twitter @juliavdw.

The post Ink Review: Bungbox Happiness appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Penlux ink is available from The Pen Show. Each bottle is 50ml and is made by Sailor for Penlux. The colors are based on antique Japanese colors. Originally, I purchased three colors (Amber, Pine and Rouge) from the Dolives at the DC Show ($30 each) but there are six colors currently available. I broke down after the DC Show and ordered the other three colors from the website. I couldn’t help myself.

I keep saying that I don’t care about packaging but I realize I am clearly lying. I want the packaging to be good, protective, interesting and/or environmentally sound. The boxes for Penlux meet all this criteria. The boxes are simple, coated paperboard that fold like origami with the top flap tucking in to close the box. Penlux boxes are elegant. Japanese design and worthy of an upscale fountain pen ink. It’s simple and protective. The packaging makes the bottles stackable and giftable. I was also told that the characters on the front of the box are the Japanese characters for “ink.”

Inside, the bottles are simple. square glass with a faceted, plastic cap. They are elegant but do not have the color name indicated on the individual bottles so keeping the inks in the boxes is handy for identification purposes. I ended up putting small labels on the caps with the names just in case the bottles got separated from the boxes.

The colors in the line are Pine, Amber, Rouge, Peacock Blue, Cobalt Blue and Charcoal. There are also black and blue black available in standard Sailor flat, tea bottles but I skipped those. What I noticed most about these inks, though made by Sailor, was that the colors had a matte, almost chalky quality. The colors seem opaque and fairly dry. Maybe this is what they mean when they describe it as traditional Japanese ink?

I definitely felt compelled to compare the Penlux colors to their closest Sailor cousins. I was quick to discover that in the regularly available Jentle line, there was no close match for the Amber. Penlux Rouge and Sailor Grenade were fairly close although the matte, opaque coloring of the Penlux ink made it seem darker and it had none of the green sheen of Grenade. Penlux Peacock Blue also had no close match though Sailor Blue Black might come close. Penlux Charcoal is definitely more black than Sailor Chu-Shu which leans more purple than grey or black.

Penlux Pine and Sailor Rikyu-Cha are definitely kissing cousins. Pine is a bit warmer making it slightly more brown where Rikyu-Cha is a touch more green but they are very close.

Penlux Cobalt hangs in there with Sailor Jentle Souten and Sky High with less shading. I also think its a serious contender to the new Akkerman Delft Blau for sheer pop. It would Yves Klein a run for his money.

If you are looking for something a little different, Penlux is definitely an inky treat. Amber and Cobalt are the standouts for me with Rouge and Peacock Blue as the runners-up.

I purchased these inks with my own money.

Tools:

• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15)
• Swatches: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
• Ink:  Penlux Inks by Sailor ($30 for 50ml bottle)

The post Eye Candy: Penlux Inks appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

One of my pen club pals Katie, swatched all the inks at our local pen shop using a rubber stamp. The effect is eye-catching and makes a quick way to show ink without using a big brushy swab.

While in Canada I found a couple stamps from Chamilgarden at PaperPlusCloth. I found a checked pattern similar to what Katie used and a dot design. Using a paint brush, I brushed ink onto the stamps and then pressed them into the paper. Some inks filled in a bit, others kept the stamp design more cleanly. It could also be a user error since I don’t work with rubber stamps ad fountain pen ink much. Though it was a lot of fun to try and each result was a little different and unique.

The sparkle ink I tried filled in a lot more though I suspect is had something to do with the gold particles. It gave a nice representation of the ink including shading and the sparkle. The other tests I did showed variety in the ink and the checked pattern stamp mimicked varying line widths nicely. I need to improve my implementation though.

While Chamilgardden stamps are pretty hard to come by, a search on Etsy for “grid rubber stamp” or “background rubber stamp” offers some other options.

The post Eye Candy: Stamping Fountain Pen Inks in Col-o-ring appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The Birmingham Pen Company’s December Pen Parcel featured brighter-than-usual colors for a company known for dark, moody ink colors. When rumors went out that the December kit would include brighter colors, I was expecting BRIGHTER colors but, I guess, for Birmingham, this was bright.What surprises me is that the pens that they make are often very vivid colors so it seems at odds that the inks are not occasionally equally vivid.

The December Pen Parcel included two shades of yellow:  Jane Grey Swisshelm Daisy Lace and Luna Park Marmalade. Daisy Lace is much more of a true yellow and would probably only be useful in a flew nib or wide stub for calligraphy. The Luna Park Marmalade is more of a yellow-orange making it a bit more usable in more pens. There are also two shades of red: America’s Oyster Bar Salmon Hors d’Oeuvre (I really think the names of Birmingham Inks could be longer, don’t you?) and and Erroll Garner Rose Overture. The Salmon Hors d’Oeuvre is a warm red-orange and does remind me of the color of salmon though it also reminds me of the Pantone color of the year too. Rose Overture is a deep red rose red with slight pink undertones. The last color in the set is the odd man out, I think. It’s Henry P. Ford Argula. The color is a deep green black. While it is an interesting color, if the goal of the December Pen Parcel was to be more bright inks, then the Argula did not quite fit in to the equation.

Overall, all the inks shade but none exhibited any sheening. As with any subscription service, some items in a kit will be to your liking and some will not. This month, though I was truly hoping for some bright brights, I ended up liking the Salmon and Argula best of the lot with the Marmalade being a close third. I always find yellow inks hard to use in practice, even if they look great in swatches.

Birmingham Inks are some of the best value inks on the market at the moment and I like the surprise and delight I get swatching the new inks each month, regardless of whether the colors strike a cord with me or not. I gladly share the inks with friends either way.

Tools:

• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15)
• Swatches: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Blick Studio Short Handle Synthetic Round #0 and no-name Cotton Swabs
• Ink:  Birmingham Pen Co. Pen Parcel ($17 for 50ml bottle)

This product was purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Birmingham Pen Co. Pen Parcel December 2018 appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Lamy released a collection of new inks they are calling Crystal inks. They are calling this their premium line of inks and charging accordingly, at least in the US where a 30 ml bottle is costing upwards of $18. Compared to Lamy’s standard ink line which features 50ml bottles for $12. This sort of price-to-volume increase seems to be following the same trends that Sailor and other major brands are employing. While I appreciate more ink colors becoming available more regularly through wider distribution channels, the continual price increases can e a little frustrating.

Also, the naming convention being employed for this line of inks from Lamy is also treading on some familiar territory. Pelikan Edelstein utilizes the gemstone naming convention for its annual ink releases and Monteverde also has a line of Gemstone inks. So, Lamy is complicating the already saturated (if you’ll pardon the pun) market of gemstone-related inks.

All of that said, the new Rhodonite pink ink will satisfy the craving of many people who may be hoping that Lamy is keeping Vibrant Pink in its regular line-up. It is. It’s called Rhodonite. The first tip-off was when I removed the bottle from the box (yes, the new Crystal inks come in cushioned boxes) and discovered the telltale gold metallic flakes in the bottom just like Vibrant Pink.

Once I swatched up the ink, I was fairly certain it was an exact match to Vibrant Pink.

I even consulted my in-house color expert (my husband Bob) to come take a look to see if he could spot any differences in the colors. I swatched both of these on the same day so there would be no difference in the colors due to aging, sun exposure, etc. We couldn’t spot any color shifts.

In writing tests, Rhodonite performs as I would expect a Lamy ink to perform. The color shades beautifully, with a hint of the sheen from the gold and the vividness of the magenta pink. This is definitely an ink that benefits from a wider nib. While Rhodonite is more expensive than the original Vibrant Pink, Vibrant Pink was a limited edition color and often times those inks end up only being available on eBay at extortionate rates if you missed the chance to buy it the first time around. So, Rhodonite, is a good alternative.

I am definitely interested to see what some of the other colors in the series are going to be like. It was a fluke that the one I chose was a dead match for Vibrant Pink since I chose a color simply out of a list. So, now you know. If you already own Vibrant Pink and want to try some of the Crystal Inks from Lamy, pick a different color!

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Ice No. 18 Lined
• Pens: Dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15), Woodshed Pens custom fountain pen (NA) with Peyton Street Pens JOWO compatible fine cursive italic nib ($45)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Princeton Neptune #4 Round ($7.16)
• Ink:  Lamy Crystal Rhodonite (€9.50 for 30ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Lamy Crystal Rhodonite appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Oops. So, I said last month that the Birmingham Pen Parcel was supposed to be their new “bright” collection. My mistake. This month is the bright collection. Which, I suppose, makes more sense. Last month was not so bright.

I cannot resist the Pen Parcels. The price is right. I love ink. Regardless of whether I like the colors or not, I enjoy getting these inks. And now, with few  (any really) other options for ink subscriptions left, what’s an ink junkie to do?

This month, the set included an orange (Albert Einstein Relative Cadmium), a blue (Wintergarden Snowflake), a green Bob Prince Green Weenie, a red (Herbert Simon Cranberry Nobel) and the oddball – Rodman Gun Gunpowder Tea. Cadmium, Snowflake and Green Weenie are all bright but not particularly unique. Cranberry Nobel is a lovely, deep red. It reminds me a bit of J. Herbin Rouge Opera but not as runny. And, if you were to have asked me to create a red for MontBlanc for their Shakespeare Red Velvet, I would have come up with something closer to Cranberry Nobel, maybe a little darker. And if you want to kill winter with orange, you wouldn’t go wrong with Albert Einstein Relative Cadmium.

Gunpowder Tea is a Matcha Tea Green which, while not being the brightest or most vivid color in the set, has turned out to be one of my favorites.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that my greatest desire is to find the perfect lime/matcha green ink. It has to be dark enough to be legible without losing its luminance. It can’t be too grassy or too brown. Some colors look great in a swatch and then write too lightly or vice versa. Rodman Gunpowder Tea has the potential to be “the green.” It is a matter of time though to be absolutely sure.  As you can see from the swatches above, my search has been on-going.

What is your white whale ink, your Moby-Dick?

The post Ink Review: Birmingham Pen Parcel: January 2019 appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

By Jessica Coles

This newest offering from Robert Oster is also the first ink offering from Brad Dowdy (The Pen Addict). After many long years of being asked to create a Pen Addict ink, Brad finally caved to the cries from his fans.  Teaming up with the talented Robert Oster, he has now introduced a new ink to the market with a moniker gently poking at Mr. Oster’s propensity to add “fire” to his inks (alluding to high levels of sheen).

According to Brad, his ink idea was a long and arduous journey that only came to fruition when the perfect name popped into his head one day: Fire on Fire.

Fire on Fire is a nicely saturated orange ink, one that doesn’t sear the eyes but is also dark enough to use every day.

Monteverde Mandarin Orange and Montblanc Lucky Orange are the closest colors in my Col-o-Ring collection.

Sailor Apricot has long been a favorite of mine for this particular orange.  My first thought when seeing the ink was that Fire on Fire would replace Apricot.  However, it seems that they can live harmoniously side-by-side and not compete for this particular spot in my life.

Writing with Fire on Fire is quite pleasant.  I used the TWSBI Eco Burnt Orange with a fine nib (mainly because it is Brad’s fault that I had to get this pen) and a turquoise Conklin with an omniflex nib (recently purchased from another Pen Addict follower) on Tomoe 52 gsm paper notebook made by Birmingham Pens.

Writing on Tomoe cream-colored paper with the fine nib, the color of Fire on Fire is a well-saturated orange that leans towards red, flows well (not particularly wet or dry) and no bleeding or feathering. The fine nib didn’t produce noticeable shading.

The omniflex nib wrote similarly except for the shading.  Here the shading was present even without pressure.

So far everything with this ink was nice.  Pleasant.  Good.  My notebook had been left open on my desk overnight.  When I sat down in the morning, my writing looked quite different.

The previous day had been cloudy and gloomy, no sunlight to speak of.  However, this day the sun was shining through the window – no clouds in the sky.  Simply turning the writing samples slightly in the bright light made it shine a beautiful silver!

Remember, the ink is totally dry.

None of this sheen required large amounts of ink.  It was there in regular writing.

There is no glitter in the ink, but it has an almost metallic look.

I found that the metallic sheen shows up like a halo when the writing is heavier.

Even with a fine nib, the sheen is there.

I love that this ink has such a beautiful sheen that reacts magnificently to bright light.  Both the actual color of the ink (orange) and the sheen color (silver) can be appreciated.

Whether we should thank divine intervention or subconscious whisperings, the Pen Addict ink is now available for purchase through Brad’s website. The first batch of 200 bottles sold out quickly but a second batch will be available soon.  It seems that the pens of Pen Addict fans were more than ready and quite thirsty for this new and particular ink!

Thank you, Brad, for FINALLY bringing us this ink!

DISCLAIMER: All items in this review were purchased by myself. Please see the About page for more details.

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How could I possibly pass up a book that would teach me how to make my own ink? Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking by Jason Logan was an insta-buy for me. The swashes of color on the cover alone were enough to get it in my cart. Then, I was at a friend’s house on New Year’s Day and she had a copy of it on her studio table. Getting a chance to flip through the pages of the book had me hitting “buy it now” while I was still standing there.

The book has some lovely details to start. The edges have been painted to look ink stained and spattered.

How beautiful are these edges? I didn’t notice this detail until I got my copy.

Inside, the book features lots of photos and white space and a storytelling aspect to the art and science of making inks. If you start reading the book from the beginning (and don’t skip straight to the ink recipes) it becomes clear that there is as much luck, experimentation and  kismet in coming up with ink recipes as there is science, measuring and careful formulation.

The next thing I noticed is that there is a strong possibility that should I actually attempt to make any inks from these recipes, they may not be safe for fountain pens. Indications suggest that these inks were designed for brush, dip pen and other more artistic applications. However, understanding how inks are made is something I’ve always wanted to know and this book seemed like as good a place as any to learn.

Chapter Two: Make Ink, starts on page 42 and starts with the terms and materials that make up ink. Then provides an assortment of recipes to create your own inks using plants, nuts, bark, spices, metals, and flowers. The recipes do not seem difficult but do require some ingredients I’d be hesitant to put into a fountain pen of any value (shellac, gum arabic, rusty nails, alum, etc.). While none of these things are particularly harmful to humans if handled, they could wreak havoc on a fountain pen.

This is the Copper Oxide ink recipe which requires fermenting copper in vinegar to get the oxidized turquoise color. Beautiful color but definitely not fountain pen friendly. I’m all for trying this with brushes, dip pens and other tools though (in well ventilated places, of course). So beautiful!

This yellow is made with tumeric. It requires isopropyl alcohol and its suggested to be great in an empty marker to be used with other alcohol-based markers. Must smell quite unusual but the color is wonderful.

The last section of the book shows samples of ink experiments, doodles and drawings showing some of the inks in use. It’s basically just ink eye candy from the author and friends. Some are more interesting than others. Margaret Atwood contributed a little piece. Gary Taxali did a drawing too. So, its a bit of showing off as well. I like the author’s ink swashes best. They look like abstract paintings.

The book is full of inspiration and takes a lot of the mystery out of ink making, at least at its simplest level. And it also reminds me why I love ink — any ink or liquid color as much as I do. I like just splashing color down on a page and watching it pool and move and dry. I like watching one color blend into another and create new, interesting combinations. I am eternally fascinated by color in all its hues and the idea of making my own colors feels like breaking the third wall.

DISCLAIMER: The item in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Book Review: Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

By Jessica Coles

Lately, Sailor has been flooding the ink scene with new ink choices.  This has been quite a delight to ink collectors although it is also a curse to completionist collectors who just need to have each color.  Sailor Studio inks are available in a standard line of 100 separate inks.  Although each ink is closely related to two or three others, the characteristics of each are wonderfully unique.

Sailor Studio 462 is another of the chameleon inks that I love to find.  The color shifts dramatically based on the details of your writing environment and set up – the nib size, the paper, the lighting and angle of that light.

From the online presentation of 462, I believed that the color would be a dusty teal that leaned slightly towards green. I hoped that it would be dark enough to read in normal writing!

I found my Sailor Studio ink supplier on eBay – one who ships from Japan with free shipping but the shipping time is rather long.  It can take over a month at times.  In my opinion, it is well worth the wait.

For swatch comparisons (all on Col-O-Ring cards), I had to pull colors from the teal section of my cards all the way through forest greens; I still didn’t find an exact match!  When it pools on paper, the ink shows green, blue and purple; as these individual colors combine, various grays, teals, and blurples show up.  This makes a beautiful ink but makes it impossible to describe. The closest I can get in my collection is a dusty version of ColorVerse Pale Blue Dot.

The swatch above (on Birmingham Pen Company Tomoe River notebook paper) has been left as untouched as possible in order to show the color seen during writing.  The various combinations of green, blue, and purple are easy to see here.

The words above have been lightened up slightly to show some of the shading in the writing. At times, the ink color seems to change halfway through a letter. Sailor Studio inks (all that I have used so far) do not feather or bleed (on Tomoe, HP 32 lb or Clairefontaine paper) and the writing does not feel particularly wet or dry. Overall, these are all great inks to write with! I have yet to find one that I would even hesitate to recommend.

If you have tried any other Sailor Studio inks, please let us know in the comments!

DISCLAIMER: The items in this review were all purchased by myself.  Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Sailor Studio 462 appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

By Jessica Coles 

I fell in love with Sailor Studio 273 as soon as I saw a photo of the ink on two different types of paper – the ink looked like an entirely different color when only the paper was changed.

This is another ink that I have placed in my “Inks that have really weird properties” category; a category that houses other inks I find unusual or amazing.  Other inks include Robert Oster Avocado, Sailor 123, and Montblanc Swan Illusion as well.

The Sailor Studio inks use a numbering system to differentiate the inks – a numbering system that also gives clues to the color of the ink.  The first number (here, 2) is used to indicate the shade of the ink, although saturation is indicated to some extent as well. 1 is the lightest and 0 the darkest.

The last two numbers (here 7 and 3) can be used to find the family of the ink – inks that have nearly the same color mixtures.  Ink 373 looks like it may be close to Montblanc Swan Illusion which made me even more excited to try 273 – hopefully, I could find another ink that was slightly different than Swan but also contained the same haunting color mixture.

I wasn’t disappointed.  Sailor Studio 273 is a strange mixture of brown, dusky pink and what looks like an orangish yellow.

I have tried to show inks that look similar here, but as you can see, nothing is quite there.  I didn’t include Swan Illusion since it contains more red undertones.

The photo above shows 273 on Tomoe cream paper.  With the top swab of ink, I smeared it while it was still wet to show how the ink layers upon itself.

One note – there is no sparkle in this ink.  There was a tiny bit of sparkle left in the nib of this pen from a previous fill.

As for other qualities in the ink, it is absolutely not water resistant and the flow is medium.  The price is high, however, coming in at $21.49 for only 20mL from this eBay seller.  So far, no one in the US has started to carry this ink, but I’m hoping someone will!

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me.  For more information, visit our About page.

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Following the jokes last week on The Pen Addict podcast about trying to urushi a Lamy, I thought it best to share the untainted Lamy Al-Star Bronze before I possibly offer up my Lamy Al-Star to a possible attempt to urushi it, if that’s something that could be attempted. The 2019 Bronze Al-Star ($38) is the most recent in a long line of limited edition Al-Star models. It turns out that just four years ago, in 2015, Lamy released the CopperOrange which is not all that different than the new Bronze. The Bronze pen barrel is more of a light orange color and a darker, ruddier tone that I would think of as bronze.

When I think of bronze, I think of bronze statues that are darker, almost brown with a golden undertone. A Lamy AL-Star in deep chocolate brown metallic would be stunning.

The limited edition Bronze fountain pen ink ($12 for 50ml bottle) is not an exact match for the pen. The ink is more of a burnt orange than what I would think of as a bronze color.

I put the Bronze ink next to several other well-known orange inks for comparison. From top to bottom: Robert Oster Pen Addict Fire on Fire, Lamy Bronze, J. Herbin Orange Indien, Montblanc Lucky Indian, Noodler’s Apache Sunset, Sailor Jentle Apricot.

J. Herbin Indien Orange is closest in color with Apache Sunset being  slightly redder and a little dirtier. Fire on Fire is much redder in comparison and both Apricot and Lucky Orange are more saturated and cleaner by contrast. If you’ve ever wanted an orange ink but didn’t want one that was too bright, Bronze might be a good option.

Since the Lamy limited edition inks are so reasonably priced, its hard to skip them, even when I’m just ho-hum about the colors. After several years of Lamy ink scarcity, it’s worth it to grab a bottle, just in case.

Tools:

• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15)
• Swatches: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
• Ink:  Lamy Bronze ($12 for 50ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Eye Candy: Lamy Bronze Al-Star & Fountain Pen Ink appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

This is a big week here at The Well-Appointed Desk. Pelikan released their ink color of the year: Star Ruby. While we are rolling around in inky goodness, we thought we’d share some of the color goodness with you.

Star Ruby is a deep magenta red color. You made be thinking to yourself, “Didn’t Pelikan already release a magenta color in their limited edition inks?” You would be right to think that. In 2012, Pelikan released the first “Color of the Year” which was Tourmaline. It was a slightly deeper, purply magenta.

That said, Star Ruby has clearly noticeable sheen. The color, when applied in a wider swath, has a velvety quality and a golden sheen.

Compared with other magenta pinks, there are a lot of similar colors. From top left down: Kaweco Ruby Red, J. Herbin Rouge Opera and Pelikan Edelstein Star Ruby and Lamy Vibrant Pink. From top right down: Colorverse No. 5 Lights on Ceres, Colorverse #19 Red Shift,  and Pelikan Edelstein Tourmaline.

J. Herbin Rouge Opera is probably the closest in hue though Herbin inks are notoriously wet. Tourmaline is the only other one with true sheen, Vibrant Pink has sheen plus metallic gold glitter and is much lighter pink. Colorverse #19 and Ruby Red are more red and Colorverse #05 Lights on Ceres is similar to Tourmaline — more magenta but with less sheen.

If you missed out on Tourmaline, then Star Ruby is definitely worth picking up. The sheen created by Star Ruby in wider nibs is quite attractive and will be very noticeable on high sheen papers like Tomoe River. If you have several magenta or pink inks, you might not need another one. Though, if you are like me, you might not be able to resist the temptation anyway.

Tools:

• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15)
• Swatches:  Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
• Ink:  Pelikan Edelstein Star Ruby ($27.95/€12.40 for 50ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Pelikan for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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For the third year, Papier Plume is offering a limited edition set of inks for the Chicago Pen Show. This year’s offering is a riff on the extremely popular Lake Michigan Summer (from Chicago Pen Show 2017) called Lake Michigan Winter and a new deep brown called Bad Bad LeRoy Brown.

The ink comes in Papier Plume’s classic glass, 30ml bottles with wax topped caps. Lake Michigan Winter features an icy blue wax seal on the cap pressed with the signatue Papier Plume fleur de lis seal and Bad Bad Le Roy Brown has a deep chocolate brown wax seal with the same seal.

Lake Michigan Winter turns up the density on the deep sea teal tone of Lake Michigan Summer creating a deeper, denser color. As this was one of the most popular limited edition colors that Papier Plume has released, I can fully understand why they would do a remix of this color. It’s a stunning color and I expect there will be a rush of people wanting to grab a bottle of this.

When compared with the copious amounts of teals and blue-greens already in my collection, I was flabbergasted to discover that I had few things truly similar in color. Robert Oster Morning Mist was probably the closest. I have Robert Oster Peppermint but it was too green. Other colors like Kaweco Paradise Blue  went too vibrant or too turquoise.

Bad Bad LeRoy Brown is a deep, rich brown. In a wide application, its almost too dark but in a finer nib, it has a lovely milk chocolate quality. I find that when you find a good warm brown ink and a good cool brown ink, I don’t find that I continue to look for more. I then start looking for golden browns or more unusual hues. That said, LeRoy Brown is a good, solid deep brown.

When compared with other brown inks in my stash, You can see the range of values. Kaweco Caramel Brown is more reddish, Smoky Quartz has an orange undertone, Diamine Espresso is definitely a cool brown, Robert Oster Chocolate is clearly red-brown and the new Lamy Crystal Topaz has more red with a green sheen. LeRoy Brown is almost a neutral brown by comparison — at least, based on these initial swatches.

Both inks will sell for $10 per bottle and will be available starting Friday, May 3 at the Chicago Pen Show. There will be 180 bottles of each color at the bottles are $10 each.

The post Eye Candy: Papier Plume Bad Bad LeRoy Brown & Lake Michigan Winter (Chicago Pen Show 2019 LE Inks) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

By Jessica Coles

In the latest newsletter from Pen Chalet, I caught a glimpse of their newest ink.  However, this ink had a special twist – it is a collaboration between Pen Chalet and ColorVerse and a limited edition as well.  Only 300 boxes of the ink duo will be available and only from Pen Chalet.

The name of the inks are Monsoon Storm and Monument Valley (80mL for $36). They come together in a large-ish cardstock box with labels portraying scenes that have inspired the names of each ink.

As usual, there are plenty of little goodies included inside the Colorverse box.  First, these cards show a larger image of the drawings from the outside of the box – each card matches the color of the ink.

A small packet of items is also included – two sets of stickers, a clip bookmark, a pen stand, and a napkin.

The napkin is useful to wipe off your pen if you want to fill up as soon as you’ve opened the ink.  I’ve always thought it was a rather strange addition, however.

One card has detailed information about the inks including their RGB code, Pantone number, and pH of the ink.

At one point in their past, ColorVerse had an issue with bottles occasionally breaking during shipment.  In response to their customers, they changed the packaging to better protect the contents and they’ve done a great job with it.  Each bottle is snug in foam cutouts.  I’ve also found this useful for holding bottles securely while I am making ink swatches – cats can be cruel when it comes to open bottles of ink.

The two bottles are of different sizes. Monsoon Storm comes in a 65mL bottle while Monument Valley contains 15mL.

Monsoon Storm is a beautiful dark teal that leans towards green.

Below are a few comparisons to other inks in the same color area.  Private Reserve Ebony Blue is a very close match including a slight red sheen.

The sheen in Monsoon Storm can be tough to see – no sheen monster here.  The subtle sheen that is produced can be seen but takes a backseat to the true color of the ink.

The flow of Monsoon Storm is a bit on the wet side of medium.  I found it quite pleasant to use in a medium Pilot Metropolitan.

Now for Monument Valley.  Usually, in ColorVerse ink sets, the smaller bottle is my favorite color and this set doesn’t disappoint there.

Monument Valley is a rusty orange that leans towards yellow.

Comparing the ink to other colors, I found it closest to Monteverde Copper Noir, but the shading reminded me of Noodler’s Habanēro. Perhaps related to Noodler’s Apache Sunset as well.

The shading shows colors from the rusty orange to a yellow that leans heavily to orange.

A very slight silver sheen occasionally showed up and reminded me a bit of Pen Addict Fire on Fire.  The flow of this ink was on the dry side and would best be used in a pen that can compensate for that characteristic.  I used a TWSBI Go with a fine nib and the dryness bothered me a bit.

Here is a double swab of the two colors together.  I love the contrast of the two inks and I think both the colors and the names were well chosen.

I hope this is not the last collaboration ink we will see from Pen Chalet! They’ve done a great job with this one.

The post Ink Review: ColorVerse Pen Chalet Special Edition appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Vanness Pen Shop has released their first ink product and it’s an additive for ink to help improve the drying time and flow of “dry inks”. Dry inks are the inks that may cause a pen to hard start or are overly pigmented. Some inks might have excessively long dry times, particularly on certain papers. The product is called White Lightning Ink Additive ($5.95 for 1oz bottle).

Good candidates for White Lightning might be the Kyo-No-Oto or Kyo-Iro inks. Some Robert Oster inks. I’m thinking Aurora Blue Black might have improved dry time with the addition of White Lightning. And that’s just a few I can name off the top of my head. There are probably many one-off ink colors that have frustrated and annoyed.

So, how do you use White Lightning? It’s easy. Take the offending ink and add 5ml to a sample vial. Add one drop of White Lightning to start. Shake up the mixture. Then fill a pen from the sample vial.

Never add White Lightning directly to a whole bottle of ink. Dispense ink into a smaller container and use a ratio of 5ml to 1 drop or 10ml to 1 drop. Be sure to label your container after you’ve dded White Lightning to the ink.

The above sample was done using Robert Oster Carolina Blue with a broad nib on a Leonardo Momento Zero (reviewed earlier this week). The ink is extremely pigmented and writes quite dry. One drop in 5ml made the ink much better behaved and improved flow dramatically.

One bottle of White Lightning should last a lifetime. Unless you’re me.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post What the heck is White Lightning? appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

By Jessica Coles

Franklin-Christoph.  New Ink.  How on Earth did I miss two of my favorite things intersecting?

I was only able to attend the first few hours of the Raleigh Pen Show this year, although it was long enough to see the prototype tray set out and find an amazing 45L pen in a Sky Blue Loi material from Jonathan Brooks.  Amazing.  But I was in such a hurry afterward that I failed to notice a new option when choosing the color of ink for my new pen.

Graphite 4B was offered for the first time at the Raleigh Pen Show, but with very little fanfare.  True to the Franklin-Christoph way, Graphite 4B was set before the public to earn its own name in the world.

Although it is not a current offering on their website, Graphite 4B will soon be available to order in either a 1-ounce bottle ($8.25) or a 2-ounce eyedropper bottle ($12.50). The photo above shows the 1-ounce bottle.

My first impression of the ink was the name.  Why 4B? It brings to mind the Bungubox color 4B (which stands for Bungu Box Blue-Black).  However, after speaking with Scott Franklin, the owner of Franklin-Christoph, I found that the color of the ink was modeled after the color of the lead in a 4B pencil.

Knowing that story, I naturally had to add 4B pencil to my Col-O-Ring swatch card.  You can see the pencil in the lower left and lower right of the written portion of the swatch card above.

I used a Tombow Mono 4B pencil for comparison and found the color of the ink to be warmer and slightly darker than the pencil, although it absolutely brought pencil lead to mind.  Kobe #59 might be a closer match to the color of 4B lead, however, Graphite 4B has a more even coverage with less shading, overall closer to what I would expect of a pencil.

That’s not to say that Graphite 4B doesn’t shade.  There is plenty of that, especially when printing rather than using cursive.

• Papers: Birmingham Pen Company A5 Slim Notebook ($8.99)
• Swatch cards: Col-O-Ring ink testing cards ($10)
• Ink: Franklin-Christoph Graphite 4B ($8.25 for 1-ounce or $12.50 for 2-ounce eyedropper)

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me.  For more information, visit our About page.

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A Little Background

At every pen show I’ve worked, at least one person will ask about a particular ink color. It’s almost always sepia. They ask me to help them pick out a “good sepia”. This is inevitably a loaded question because sepia is a moving target. It’s like asking someone to recommend a good movie, book, bottle of wine, a brand of beer or the best coffee. Inevitably, everyone defines the characteristics a little differently. You might prefer a chardonnay over a merlot. I might prefer a period drama over an action film. Someone else might think their coffee’s tangy roast with an astringent hint of lemon is more appealing than dark roast with a buttery finish. Similar problems occur when someone asks about a “good sepia.” They might even pronounce it differently.

What exactly is sepia? Well, it depends on who you ask. Sepia is a genus of cuttlefish. It’s also the name of the color of ink derived from the cuttlefish (of the same name)’s ink (you know, squid ink?) used by many from the ancient Greeks and Romans up until the 19th century. Sepia is also the name given to the photographic toning process that creates a brownish tint to photographs and utilizes sodium sulfide, thiourea (or ‘thiocarbamide’), or polysulfide toners. All three of these processes were used on traditional silver print photos. Today, sepia toning is done digitally using a duotone process.

Why does this make it so difficult to select a “good sepia” fountain pen ink? Well, representations of all of these different types of sepia colors are mostly seen in reproductions today and have faded over time or have been modified by digital means. Not to mention that even original sepia inks would have had variations depending on where they were created and the diets of the cuttlefish, etc.

So, if you are on the hunt for your perfect shade of sepia, please help us help you by coming armed with more information than just a “good sepia.” Any pen shop owner (or clerk) will be much better able to help you, if you give them more information to go on. This can apply to more than just sepia inks too. If you have a photo, a clipping from a magazine, a bit of fabric (Yes, Mike Vanness’ latest polyester supersuit counts) or ribbon. Anything can help determine the color you are looking for.

Also, being able to describe the color you are looking for with words like: warmer (more red, orange, yellow) or cooler (more green, blue), more saturated (brighter), less saturated (not so bright, duller, smokier) can help a lot too. Using tried-and-true fountain pen ink words like “shading ink”, or wet ink, dry ink, “sheening ink” etc will also help.

Sepia Inks

After a thorough scouring of online sources, I found more than 17 inks that had “sepia” in their name. I picked these 17 as a good representation of the range of variation. (Yes, I know there are others.) The sepia inks show above all have “sepia” in their name. As explained, depending on how the ink maker was defining sepia, or which specific species of sepia cuttlefish or region it might have lived (if they were actually trying to mimic squid ink) or if they were just using the word “sepia” to describe the color as being brown-ish may have determined how they arrived at calling their ink sepia. Or they might have chosen the word arbitrarily. Unlike ochres and umbers which are named for natural pigments, sepia has become essentially a fancy word for brown.

These ink colors, when laid out next to each other, range from a greenish olive through yellow-browns (both warm and cool) in to warmer, darker browns into a plum. Clearly, there are some wide definitions of “sepia.”

If you were to ask me, which of these colors were the best representations of “sepia” as defined by the previous section, I’d have to decline responding. I’m more inclined to describe any or all of these colors as being some other color: warm browns, cool browns, golden wheats, olive and plum. DeAtramentis Standard Sepia Brown is a deep chocolate to me. The two Kobe inks are deep coffee browns. I’d describe the Stipula Sepia as a very red-orange brown and the Visconti and a reddish-ruddy brown. Both the Diamine and Leonardo are almost honey-colored and might be similar to Robert Oster Honey Bee, KWZ Honey or Franklin-Christoph Honeycomb. As for those outliers, the Organics Studio Green Sepia and DeAtramentis Beethoven Sepia, those are playing fast and loose with the definition of Sepia altogether.

How do you describe sepia? Do any of these inks look like what you think of as sepia? Are you ready to use a different word to describe your perfect brown-ish ink?

(To note, the samples used taken from vendor web sites. Links and details are provided below. However, YMMV regarding actual color fidelity in final use. Large swatches like these provide the range of color variation but once in a pen, color can often appear darker or lighter depending on ink wetness, opacity and nib width. Also, as we all know from experience, what we see on screen may not be the full range of color seen in person. The human eye can see a far greater range of color than can be displayed on your laptop, monitor or mobile phone.)

Sepia Inks (in order, top to bottom and left to right):

• Organics Studio “Join or Die” Green Sepia $14 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• L’Artisan Pastellier Classique Sepia $7 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• Organics Studio “Foggy Bottom” Yellow Sepia $14 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• Platinum Classic Sepia Black $25 (via JetPens)
• Leonardo Officina Italiana Sepia $19.99 (via Pen Chalet)
• Diamine Sepia $7.50 (via JetPens)
• Platinum Pigment Brun Sepia (waterproof) $22.50 (via JetPens)
• Stipula Calamo Sepia $20 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• Callifolio Sepia $12 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• Papier Plume Sepia $8 (via Papier Plume)
• Visconti Sepia $18 (via JetPens)
• DeAtramentis Standard Sepia Brown $14 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• Rohrer & Klingner Sepia $11.95 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• De Atramentis Maria Montessori Sepia $16 (via JetPens)
• Kobe #03 Kyuu-Kyouryuuchi Sepia $30 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• Kobe Ginza Gold Sepia $30 (via Vanness Pen Shop)
• De Atramentis Ludwig van Beethoven Sepia $15.95 (via Goldspot Pens)

Thanks to my sponsors for providing some of the images I used here. Please consider making your next purchase from the shops that support this blog and let them know you heard about them here. Thanks for your support and for supporting the shops that help keep it running.

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