Fountain Pens

November Ink/Pen Palette: 2022 Year Review – Review!

Alright, to review, this whole palette started with the idea of a “comfy” theme, and when I started thinking about comfy pen/ink combos I started thinking about combos I had used before that worked well. Which led me to the idea of picking a combo from each month between January and October of 2021 and using that as my palette. 

So I did. I went back through all of my palettes. Although the palettes from before April were definitely not documented in my Monthly Palette Journal where I recorded what I ended up using – which made things a bit tricky. But, I picked pairs out and started using them – but I ended up making some changes, which I’ll explain later:

  1. Jan: Twsbi Diamond – Prussian Blue (F), Diamine Inkvent 2021 Subzero

This combo kept getting clogged, and I tried all of my usual tricks and they just wouldn’t work and I ended up getting very frustrated.

2. Feb: Twsbi Diamond – Punch Pink (F), Van Dieman – Underwater, Moon Jellyfish

This combo clogged as well, and was equally frustrating! These two inks really did reflect my experience in January and February of 2022 with my palettes.

3. Mar: Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 

4. Apr: Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening

5. May: Bonecrusher7Studios – Monet (Architect), Ferris Wheel Press, April Showers 

6. June: Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat

7. July: Leonardo Supernova (F), Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland

8. Aug: Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F), Van Dieman, Harvest Collection, Beetroot Relish

9. Sept: Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves 

10. Oct: Mad Science Pen Company, Modified Clingman – Ghost (F) / Vinta Inks, Fairytale Collection – Clouds of Grey

I immediately had trouble with the January and February pens. Looking back more closely at my notes I realize I had always had trouble with them. So I thought, welp maybe I’ll try a different pair – and when I looked more closely at both of those months it became clear those two palettes were kind of the worst. 

The thing is, I discovered shimmer inks later in 2021, and my Daily Samples for December were all Van Dieman shimmer inks, so by January and February of 2022 I was very hooked on shimmer inks. And I struggled to use them in my pens which I found incredibly frustrating! Which is why when the Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade worked without a single issue in my Hong Dian pen in March I was so absolutely thrilled! 

As I was looking into this and trying to decide if I wanted to keep struggling with those two pens, I ran across and instagram post from @claire_scribbles (check) about the #30Inks30Days challenge for November being about sampling old favorites. Which is similar to what I was doing for my November palette…except the favorites part. That got me thinking, maybe I’ll look back thru all of the palettes and see if I had any other favorites – and turns out – I did! So I threw the whole “one combo from each month” out the window, and went back looking for any combos that worked and were loved. I looked thru the Monthly Palette Journal, where I make notes about the combo performance, and for anything prior to April I went looking in my Captain’s Logs for those times and looked for any complaining or performance issues. And came up with more than 20 options. Since I try to only carry around 10 pens at a time in my palette, I needed to narrow it down. 

I started by keeping the 8 pens I had picked out already and were behaving. And mostly looked for combos that helped me round out the ink palette color range wise. But what was interesting to me were the combos that stood out – like Bloom in the Peach Punch Twsbi Diamond – it was the first pink I used and liked, in my April palette. I’d used a bunch of pinks in February and it made me so grumpy that they both didn’t work and the colors were irritating that I switched to the March palette early. And in April I found a pink I liked AND it performed well. So I kept using it in May! Or Kon-Peki, which was a blue I used really early on, first time in September of 2021. I’d gotten into all of this pen stuff in late August 2021, and I got a sample pack of blue inks and Kon-Peki was in it, and I liked it, and I put it in a pen when I built my first rainbow palette. I put it in my Twsbi Diamond Mini. And I loved it. Used it into October 2021 before I switched it out. I wasn’t using month palettes at that point. But it came back in my May 2022 palette in a Kaweco, and continued into June just in another pen. One of the reasons this one stands out is it is not a shimmer ink and yet, I still adore it. And there were other examples like that, combos I liked enough to pull into the next month’s palette, and inks I liked enough I swapped them into different pens to keep using them. 

11 pens lined up horizontally, with the pens standing vertically. They are a combination of different colors and materials, shapes and lengths.
My 2022 November Ink/Pen Palette!

I ended up with 12 pens – rather fitting, considering it’s a year review, although I did stick to combos from 2022. When I started listing out which combos were from which months, I realized some combos could be from multiple months! Actually, only 2 of the 12 are combos I only used once, but I distinctly remember wanting to use them more than once. In case anyone is interested: 1 of them is a pen I inked in late April but ended up using through May. 2 of the inks I put in a pen and never took out. 2 inks I used in multiple months but not back to back and in different pens. 3 more are pens I used across 2 months. And there are 2 from October I am using in November, so I guess technically one of those joins the “used across 2 months” club, and the other counts towards the group that I used in multiple months but different pens! 

So this ended up being a proper review, because each of those categories hits a 2022 trend for my palettes. Even washing out 2 pens almost immediately fits a decision I made pretty early on to not persist for too long with a pen that bugged me. Made that decision after the February palette. I remember being SO GRUMPY which utterly defeated the entire purpose of using these pens in the first place. The Narwhal pen with Sosdajgh in it – pen arrived IN November, so never used it before, but that’s something I did often, adding a pen completely unrelated to the palette purely because I wanted to use it IMMEDIATELY. Usually I decreed it an accent color. Actually, Bloom was my accent color for May, since that theme was all Blues. So even that one fits!

I will list the pens I did end up using – and why! I find this rather fascinating. I really enjoyed the things I discovered and learned and developed. Like how I don’t reeeeally need a whole rainbow. (Even tho rainbows are absolutely delightful and satisfying and completely legitimate.) I figured out what was satisfying for a palette and worked out good themes along those lines. I learned how many pens I could actually use in month. I worked out how to deal with shimmer pens when they clog. I started filling the removable converters with a syringe. I settled on a good way to use the different colors for work. I discovered new pen makers and new inks. I even did art. Yay art.

November Pen Test, and the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” written 9 times in different colored inks.
November Pen Test, sans the Ghost pen which had to be cleaned out early when it ran out of ink, and the Forever pens because I use those all the time anyway!
  1. January: NOPE. Could not find a pen combo from January I wanted to use.

I tried Subzero in the Twsbi Diamond, altho originally this ink was in a Twsbi Eco. It didn’t perform well in either of them so after trying to make it work with my new found skill set at handling shimmer inks and having that fail, I decided to put this one away. February’s palette made me so very very grumpy this year that I decided moving forward to just clean out a pen if it was bugging me too much. 

  1. February: NOPE. This was a very frustrating month for me. The pens either didn’t work or the ink were colors I really didn’t like. I actually ended up emptying almost all of these pens about half way through the month!

I really like shimmer inks, but at this point nothing was working well and it made me want to throw things because Van Dieman shimmer inks are so gorgeous. The one I felt truly betrayed by in January was another Van Dieman: Twilight Mist, but! I kept trying. I had a theory with that brand that I just needed to find a good pen and the shimmer inks would behave.  (The secret usually is having a wide nib, for the record.)

  1. March: (Magic Green) Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 

And lo and behold – a pen and shimmer ink that WORKED. I swore I would never put it down. Never. We shall see how long that is true. But please know – I was so incredibly delighted. (AND this is an EF nib! Why does it work?? No one knows.)

  1. March: Twsbi Diamond – Prussian Blue (F), Kiwi Inks, Zoanthid Turquoise 

This was another satisfying combo – both of the TWSBI Diamond pens I tried to use in the beginning with different inks ended up with shimmer inks from brands I had looked in to after Van Dieman frustrated me so badly. I was chasing a theory that each brand handle shimmer differently, largely stemming from how Diamine shimmer inks and Van Dieman shimmer inks performed so differently between November and December of my 2021 samples. The only reason Zoanthid didn’t go from my 2022 March palette it into my 2022 April palette was I had chosen bright rainbow colors for April, and a teal didn’t really work. 

  1. April: Twsbi Diamond – Punch Pink (F), PenBBS, #140 Bloom

Pink? Seriously? Pink. I needed a red for my 2022 April rainbow and I loathe red inks more than I dislike pinks, so I picked a pink for my April Rainbow Palette. And I liked it so much I justified using it in my 2022 May palette because I was going to use all blues and I needed an accent color. And it remains one of the only pink inks I actually enjoy using. 

  1. April: (Forever Purple) Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening

It’s the right color purple – a cool purple, that is desaturated enough to LOOK purple, and has shimmer that showed nicely. In this pen it mostly behaves. And the pen is sparkly. So I decided to also never put this combo away. I’ve only had to empty it once completely so far and that is because I made an absolute mess filling the converter with a syringe the first time I tried it. Which made me nervous the next time I went to fill it so! The entire pen top to bottom got beautifully cleaned sometime in August 2022 and otherwise I just keep refilling it.  

  1. May: Bonecrusher7Studios – Monet (Architect), Ferris Wheel Press, April Showers 

I actually started using this ink in April 2022, late April, the day the custom architect nib I had ordered arrived. This ink was originally in my Gravitas pen, with this same nib. I put it in a different pen for my 2022 November palette because I really love this resin. I love being able to use both top and bottom of the nib to get those different line widths and I think this was the nib that I decided to use for headers in my notebooks. 

  1. May: Kaweco, AL Sport – Anthracite (F) / Sailor Inks, Kon-Peki

Okay this one is fun! It was one of the original inks I used in the first set of pens I ever kept inked. I put it in the Twsbi Diamond mini first in September of 2021, then used it into October 2021, but switched it out sometime in that month. It re emerged in May of 2022, with a Kaweco pen. Then I swapped it into another pen in June, a Cult Pens x Kaweco collaboration. And now it’s back in the first Kaweco pen I had it in! This ink is delightful and NOT a shimmer ink and yet I still adore it. May 2022 was when I started to accept that if I wanted a pen that worked well without having to fuss with it every time I used it, I might need to find non shimmer inks I enjoyed using. Sigh. For the record, there is like, a thousand blue inks that fit this category. But not many purples. 

  1. June: Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat

This was another fun one – I fell in love with this ink fast, because it is a blue, but also can shade purple, and has rose-gold shimmer. I adore it. And finding a pen that would write consistently was difficult. It wasn’t until August that I actually found a Sailor pen with a MF nib to put it in and be able to trust it worked consistently. But since June was another month with a disappointing palette, I fudged which pen I put this ink in a tiny bit. I first used this ink in November of 2021 in a Twsbi Eco. Kept using it in December and then January of 2022. In February I moved it into the Twsbi Navy Blue Diamond, where it lived until April. I put it back in the Twsbi Diamond for May and June, cleaned it out in July, and it joined my palette again in August in the Sailor. So technically an ink I used in June, just not the pen. The ink works pretty consistently in this Sailor pen, but to be honest it isn’t perfect. I was originally thinking that this would be my third forever pen alongside the Purple and Green I am using, but alas. Still too frustrating to be kept inked forever.

  1. July: Leonardo Supernova (F), Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland

I desperately wanted this pen – it has a fidget built into the clip on the cap. It’s not intended as a fidget but it is one and I needed it. The one I got has a lot of orange in it, so! For my July palette theme of Summer, I needed a really good orange. Enter Wonderland! Loved it so much I managed to justify using it into August, for my Sunset theme. It performs so beautifully. I was super excited to have it back in my November palette. And it worked beautifully as usual!

  1. August: Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F), Van Dieman, Harvest Collection, Beetroot Relish

A non shimmer purple that I like! What! So excited. SO EXCITED. I loved how this pair worked. I didn’t use it in the September palette, because it didn’t fit into the Fall theme, so enthusiastically added it back in for the review theme in November!

  1. September: Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves 

Wearingeul inks sampled in August brought me Flowing Leaves which is a truly delicious green – and distinct enough from Moonlight Jade that I was able to justify keeping them both in my palette. I had started insisting inks of the same color had to be distinct shades, because sometime in June or July I think I started using two different color inks in one day for my work notes, alternating per line item so I could read my notes easier. In August I switched to just using the entire palette, mostly because I couldn’t find 2 ink shades for the whole palette that I liked enough. But, I ended up liking this ink so much I used it in my October palette for my Zombie Spoopy Monster. Yet another ink brand with excellent shimmers! I am going to have a very hard time putting this ink away.

  1. October: Mad Science Pen Company, Modified Clingman – Ghost (F) / Vinta Inks, Fairytale Collection – Clouds of Grey

Another Wearingeul shimmer ink – one of 3 in the October palette actually, all 3 of which are still being used in November. This was originally in a different pen, but I actually can’t remember which one? I HAD to put it in the Mad Science Pen Company “Ghost” pen the instant it arrived. The INSTANT. And it has performed beautifully, and I love continuing to use it. I ended up having some trouble with the ink dribbling out into the nib when it was resting capped so I ended up having to clean this one out early, mostly because I completely ran out of the ink sample. I spilled this vial, if I recall correctly, when I was first sampling it. And of COURSE it is out of stock everywhere. Sigh.

  1. November: Narwhal (Nahvalur), Nautilus – English Garden (Limited Edition) (F) / Wearingeul, Yi Sang Series – Soyeongwije 

This entire year I tried very hard to create palettes I would find engaging and delightful. Occasionally a pen or ink arrives after the theme is put together and I just HAVE to use it. And that is how I justified using this pen in this palette! I put together a palette to review pen and ink combos that worked well, one from every month between January and October of 2021. But THIS pen arrived in November – and I was having an extremely bad day when it showed up and Aaron encouraged me to put an ink in it I love just for the night. And now I refuse to put it away muahahah because I love it. So, technically, it fits in this year’s review! 🙂 

Two page spread of a notebook listing each ink described in the list above, with an ink bottle stamp colored in with that ink alongside every entry.
November Monthly Palette Journal

I think it’ll be interesting to see what ends up happening around this time next year. Will I have even MORE options to choose from because I get amazing at combining pens and inks and they all work beautifully? Or will I take more risks because I’ve gotten better and now I think I can do ANYTHING. Hmmm…I do want to try some more custom nibs. I want to keep trying new brands of inks, and paper types, and experimenting. So who knows? I guess we’ll just have to find out. 

Fountain Pens

November Subscription Samples, Review: Maiora & Octopus Fluids

November begins! This month I got Maiora inks from Truphae and Octopus Fluids from Ink Flight! Interestingly named inks, I must say. 

A purple tray with 5 ink vials lined up side by side and a plastic bag with the inks listed in handwriting that is difficult to read, each name written in the color of the ink.
Maiora Inks

Maiora inks are made in Italy and are most often described as vibrant when googled. I have been super tired lately so I didn’t get to look into this brand as much as I’d like. I know I’ve seen other reviews of it and they have a good reputation.

3 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom 2 pages, and more of the top page. There is a red, a blue, and a black ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Maiora: Rossa Pompeiano, Blu Caprese, Nero Vesuvio
  • Rossa Pompeiano, looks red in the photo but in person it looks like a nice pink to me.
  • Blu Caprese, a purply blue, or a blue with faint purple tones, my favorite!
  • Nero Vesuvio, tough to find a true black ink. Looks black when wet, but dries to a very dark grey, hints of brown undertone.
2 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom page, and more of the top page. There is a yellow and a blue ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Maiora: Giallo Tufo, Viola Amalfitano
  • Giallo Tufo, a lovely bright orange, yum!
  • Viola Amalfitano, nice medium purple, feels slightly multi chromatic, I really like it’s tone. Slightly worried about staining my metal nib – but ended up fine.
A notebook page with the following text in a silver ink: “Nov Truphae, Maiora” and then the name of the ink written in that inks color, and then a line of that ink color below it. “Rossa pompeiano” is a reddish color. “Giallo Tofu” is a yellowish orange. “Blu Caprese” is a blue color. “Viola Amalfitano” is a sort of cobalt blue. “Nero Vesuvio” is a dark grey/black color.
Maiora, Rossa Pompeiano, Giallo Tufo, Blu Caprese, Viola Amalfitano, Nero Vesuvio
A black pen with small bands of around the bottom of the cap in green, white, and red.
Monteverde, Aldo Domani Italia, F
  • I haven’t tried this pen yet, and I’m not sure when I will. The Monteverde pens I have tried I liked, but the coloring of this one isn’t something I usually use.
A purple tray with 5 inks lined up side by side and 1 more on either side. There is a long piece of paper with a lot of printed text and a dot of ink color next to each paragraph describing the ink. Those descriptions will be included in the listed inks under the following photos.

Octopus Fluids – these inks are pigmented, water proof and smudge proof – I think. Because of that I was super careful with them when I did the samples, and I expected to have some trouble keeping my metal nib clean. I only had an issue with one ink which I’ll describe below. I will include the text on the piece of paper that describes the inks below my own thoughts and in quotations.

3 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom 2 pages, and more of the top page. There is a purple, a red, and a teal ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Octopus Fluids: Aubergine, Brilliant Rot, Karibik
  • Aubergine, purple! It’s pretty! Concerned about how sticky it is though. I had some trouble getting it cleaned off the holder for my metal nib. And I did not see the halo or the sheen, but that might be the paper I am using.
    “This charming purple ink has a blue halo with some light sheen.”
  • Brilliant Rot, weird name but okay! Very bright red.
    “This bold red stands out on the page like fire.”
  • Karibik, nice turquoise, although I did get it all over me! I shake the vials gently before sampling and when I opened the lid it burst out all over me and my desk! I think it was me though and not due to the ink haha.
    ”Sail the refreshing waves of this aqua blue-green ink.”
4 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom 3 pages, and more of the top page. There is a sepia brown, a yellow,a gray, and a maroon ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Octopus Fluids, Sepia Schwarz, Orange, Pebble Stone, Weinrot
  • Sepia Schwarz, kind of a smoky brown. I drew a tree. Which I will not be showing the internet haha.
    “Write with vintage style using this dark, woody, neutral brown ink.”
  • Orange, pretty orange! Bright, yellow tones. Did not see any shading but again, could be my paper.
    “Bright and cheery, this juicy golden-orange color has smoky shading.”
  • Pebble Stone, very light grey, and I thought I saw some purple hints in it.
    “Part of the ‘pastel,’ this light grey ink has a soft appearance that shades well.”
  • Weinrot, dark maroon or burgundy I think, with very faint sheen.
    “This saturated, deep burgundy red has a dark sheen.”
A notebook page with the following text in silver: “Nov Ink Flight, Ocotopus Fluids” and then the name of each ink written in that inks color and then a line of the same color underneath. “Sepia Schwartz” is a brownish color, “Aubergine” is a gorgeous purple, “Orange” is a yellowish orange. “Brilliant Rot” is a super bright red, “Pebble Stone” is a light grey, “Karibik” is a teal, and “Weinrot” is a maroon.
22 November Ink Flight: Octopus Fluids, Sepia Schwarz, Aubergine, Orange, Brilliant Rot, Pebble Stone, Karibik, Weinrot
7 inks lined up in a straight line on a brown desk. Underneath them is a long piece of paper with a lot of text, an A5 size pack of loose leaf paper from Iroful, and a sticker of a Science Octopus, in a lab coat, and each arm holding different beakers and one has a pen. It’s a shiny sticker.
Octopus Fluids Ink Flight, 100 sheets of loose leaf A5 paper from Iroful, and a shiny Science Octopus sticker!

The inks turned out really cool, I liked all of the colors. I worry about pigmented inks in my pens and have even had warnings accompany some of them about not using them in that particular pen. Here is where I show my inexperience! Actually, the entire pack highlighted how much I still have to learn. For example, I thought this paper would be awesome to use, it’s a fancier grade and everything. But some of my pens end up sort of going dry and skipping when I write on it. Not sure why. Discovered a hard surface under the page instead of another page or a softer surface does help, but! Must still investigate. And I continue to love these stickers.

I enjoy how these subscriptions keep exposing me to new inks, pens, and accessories. I don’t know how long I’ll keep doing them but as of next month I’ll have been subscribed to Truphae for an entire year! They are certainly still fun.

DnD Characters Letter Game

Letter 1, Auster to Verin: “Beginning”

Hey Verin! 

Okay, remember how I told you that the Collection I was in charge of got stolen, and now I’m in charge of finding them? Well, I found one! I think. The thing is, I heard it was in a shop right here in Portal. So I headed down to just ask where he got the book, and maybe look at it quickly. But he argued with me! Can you believe that? I’m a librarian, and all I did was ask him if it was stolen, why in the world would he get so mad and defensive??? So, anyway, he pulled this stone out of his pocket and chucked it at the ground and said some nonsense word and a demon appeared! It was so cool looking, but it kept trying to bite me…

So, you know how you keep teasing me about the spells I know just being useful in the library? You…might be right. I got distracted trying to figure out how it was moving because it kept seeming to blur out of existence around the edges and it kept trying to bite me and it hurt! Anyway, this paladin came out of no where! I was yelling at the demon and trying to take some notes and the shopkeeper was literally hopping mad, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, come to think of it…But this paladin! Her name is Speak, and she just walked in, shut the demon down, healed my bites, and then…well honestly she looked kind of disappointed, but she did not say a single word! I actually didn’t learn her name until we got to the temple, oh speaking of which, so the book I thought the shopkeeper had, the one that was maybe part of my stolen collection? She took it! She took it from the shopkeeper, since it had caused a disturbance, and she took it back to the temple of Tyr! I think that’s how you spell it…feels silly, me, a librarian, not knowing how to spell something, but a girl can’t know everything right! Anyway I followed her back to her temple, so maybe I can convince her to get it out of the vault for me. 

Oh! Also, I got that pen you made me – it’s gorgeous! The brass fittings are curved perfectly for my hand – of course they are, right, since we’re twins haha – but the glass ink vials that I can swap out are just incredible, and I know you know this but I also know your brain is mean to you sometimes – just like mine – so trust me, this is INCREDIBLE. The other librarians are jealous, and I love it. Also what are these glass vials made out of, because you know I drop things, like we do, and I haven’t broken one yet! Dropped, yes, broken, no. I appreciate the extra empty ones too, because I have been trying out some new ink recipes, and two things – one, the vials are perfect because I have a place to keep the experiments, and second, the pen is robust enough to handle any…misfires? It writes so smoothly and I don’t know why but I feel such a sense of…calm? Peace? Joy? I’m not really sure what it is, but I like it, whenever I write with it. I know you worked really hard on this and I think it’s perfect, I’m really going to be able to make a lot of use out of it, it’s really going to help me develop more of my spells. You’re wonderful.

Oh and you asked for my impressions, so more critically, haha, since I know you like that! There is a small burr on the edge near the back, I’m not sure if that rough spot is supposed to help hold the glass vials in the pen casing or whether it’s something you missed, but it is rough enough to cause scrapes, so I figured I’d mention it. Also, two of the seven vials you sent me are just barely able to fit in there, I can feel the glass sort of screeching quickly when I squeak them in there. I found that the feed doesn’t seem to like a thicker ink, so I am working on keeping as many particulates out as I can, but there are some spells that just…need them? So I was wondering if you could take a look at that a little bit? I could really use more vials too, I really want to experiment some more because I think I’m going to be traveling soon and I’ll have access to all kinds of things that could be really interesting. I am doing most of my mixing in larger vials, ones that aren’t designed for the pen, which are still small enough to carry with me, so no worries there, but what I am worried about is developing enough spells that I won’t have enough quick vials to put them in and…well.

You were right, I should have studied more spells that would be useful in a fight…you were right. But I can’t help it Veri! I can’t help it, the spells I get interested in are just more complex and interesting than something like shooting something at someone. You know what I mean. But I am working on it. Or I will. I will work on it. I promise. But more vials would help k thanks haha.

The tea you sent is much appreciated, I like what you’ve done with this latest batch, it helps me wake up a bit faster in the morning and it still takes the edge off my aches, but I wanted to mention that if I drink too much straight water after my morning cup of tea then the aches do come back. Which I thought you would appreciate. Feel free to send me more of your experiments, and I can send my notes back to you. And if you would like to try any of my experiments, let me know! I know you don’t like ink as much as I do, but you never know, you might learn something haha just kidding – or am I? 

Veri, I miss you. I know you need to travel like this, but I just…I wish we could do it together sometimes. I know I was never really useful to the kinds of research you are doing but maybe once I find all of these lost books I’ll have learned enough to join you some day. 

Loves you oodles and doodles, let me know if you hear from any of the rest of our sisters, and I’ll write soon! 

For true and always, 

Auster TrueStone

Verin and Auster TrueStone, a DnD Characters Letter Game
DnD Characters Letter Game

Verin and Auster TrueStone, a DnD Characters Letter Game

I would like to begin with! This is all The Husband’s fault. But let me explain. 

I have two characters in two different Dungeons and Dragon’s games. Run by two different game masters. The first one I created when I was getting really excited about tea – and the GM helped me make a character that was an alchemist artificer, to I could use the tea for my spells. He let me have her be an ambulatory wheelchair user, and she’s autistic, because I really wanted to play a character that felt like me and there are mechanics to support it now! Her name is Verin TrueStone, and I love her. Then I got invited to play in another game and I was like, well…I like Verin a lot, but I need someone else to play…ah heck what if she had a twin. 

See the thing is, I find twins a really interesting mechanic. I am writing a book about twins actually, but that’s neither here nor there. So, of course, twins. Both human, both autistic, and both ambulatory wheelchair users, because both of my GM’s are a delight. 

Now the differences are how they magic – because magic systems is yet another thing I find fascinating. So, Verin is an alchemist artificer. And Auster, her twin, is a wizard librarian. Verin casts her spells with tea, and Auster casts them with ink. Tada! I thought up Auster when I started getting hilariously into fountain pens and inks. Much like Verin came out of my interest in teas. It’s been fun so far. 

Now, the bit about how what you’ll see next in this area is The Husband’s fault. In our last session of the Caterean campaign (Nov 4th 2022) I made a joke about how I should play the Letter Game with my two twin characters. And he was Iike oh heck do it and post it on your site! So here we are. 

What’s the Letter Game? I don’t know if it has an official name or anything, but I played something like it when I was a kid on long car rides, and I’ve heard a bunch of different versions described, but I was mostly referring to what Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer did writing The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. If I remember correctly, they wrote letters back and forth to each other as the characters in what eventually became that book. So what I am doing here is writing letters back and forth between Verin and Auster, from their respective campaigns. 

I will not necessarily be writing a letter per session, but rather whenever I feel like it. That will most likely be inspired by interesting things that happen in the games, or random backstory pieces I want to develop. This is meant to give me a creative writing outlet that I plan to thoroughly enjoy. I will title the posts by which sister is doing the writing and I’ll date it using the general month of whatever hame session prompted me. Keep in mind I will maybe be taking artistic license, but I will try to run things by my GM’s when I feel I need to. And I will try very hard to make sure I am not speaking for any of the other player’s characters without running it by them first. This is meant to just be a fun creative outlet, so don’t take any of this too seriously! Just enjoy. 

Fountain Pens

October Daily Samples, Pennonia, Review

Pennonia Inks! I found this page on how to pronounce the inks names and I was incredibly entertained. 😂 This brand has raaaange heck.

A notebook page with the names of the inks listed in order from 1-31. Each ink name is written once in a purple color and then a second time in that days color of ink. List of ink names is in the rest of this article.
Heckin messed up the 11th haha look at that mess! At least it was with two pretty colors.

Now, I couldn’t figure out a way to really group these, so we’re just going to look at 10ish at a time. There are darks, lights, saturated, chromatic, pretty much everything but shimmer. And! This was one of those inks with a small enough library (at the time I was looking) that I could finish out almost the entire thing in one month! I have one more which I’ll try in my November set of Daily Samples. Let’s take a look! It was a little strange having so many pastel type shades at the beginning of a spoop month haha.

10 ink sample cards stacked on top of one another, so only the top of the card with the color swatch on it is visible on all of the cards except the bottom one. The bottom cards says “Pennonia 010 Selyempezsgo xxxooossssss 22OctVent-10 standard”
Pennonia 001 – 010!

001 Orgona Lilac – Another blue lilac, multi chromatic, but on the light side. Reminds me of fairy wings.

002 Balaton Kek – Multi-chromatic blues, faintest hint of lavender.

003 Ragu Bubblegum – Very light peach, soft and pretty.

004 Danuvius Danube – Light blue, with some pink shading, another multi-chromatic!

005 Zuzmo Lichen – Soft green, fresh looking, orange shadinf which doesn’t muddy it – unusual! And the last of the multi-chromatics for a while.

006 Abigel – Oh heck a hot pink! And readable!

007 Kekek Kekje – I like this blue, medium dark, jewel tone, performs really well.

008 Patina – Light teal, fairly readable, reminds me of a copper patina. Without the copper.

009 Gyermeklancfu – Burnt orange yellow.

010 Selyempezsgo – Pale peach, reminds me of tea! I like tea.

10 ink sample cards stacked on top of one another, so only the top of the card with the color swatch on it is visible on all of the cards except the bottom one. The bottom cards says “Pennonia 020 Ordogi Voros Devil Red xxxooossssss 22OctVent-20 standard”
Pennonia 011 – 020!

011 Fekete Sas – Blue black, fun to write with, not a fun color tho. 

012 Almazold Apple Green – Nice dark green, darker medium green.

013 Csillant Nettle – Reminds me of that first Granny’s Apple green apple of the summer – did that make sense? It makes sense. Ahem.

014 Dungo – Butter yellow, no! Egg yolk yellow.

015 Hupikek Whoopie Blue – Brigth blue, pool/beach blue.

016 Kekfesto – Nice standard dark blue, light blue is nice too.

017 Lila Arnyek Purple – Not one bit of purple in this ink, disappointed. However this dark blue ink is fun to write with, very well behaved and controlled. (But no purple, grumble grumble grumble.)

018 Meggyes Sour Cherry – Reminds me of cherry juice, not maraschino, like the bourbon soaked cherries we get sometimes.

019 Meregzold – Teal! Good teal.

020 Ordogi Volos Devil Red – Bright lipstick red. More pink than devil red.

11 ink sample cards stacked on top of one another, so only the top of the card with the color swatch on it is visible on all of the cards except the bottom one. The bottom cards says “Pennonia 031 Godenyzold Pelikan xxxooossssss 22OctVent-31 standard”
Pennonia 021 – 031!

021 Roka Koma Fox Friend – Bright orange, with a red base that grounds it nicely.

022 Tihanyi Lila – Reminds me of the ink I have called Nightshade but a touch more purple. Shading inks are really interesting.

023 Torokkek Turkish Blue – Sheeny blue, purple sheen, dense lighter blue, with some aquamarine. Complicated ink!

024 Vattacukor – Dark pink. Rose pink, has a flower petal softness to it.

025 Viharfelho – Dark grey when wet, fades to a medium grey when dry.

026 Kekfeny – Medium blue, red sheen = purple! Yay purple.

027 Mustvoros Young Wine – Reddish orangeish/brownish tones?

028 Gesztenyebarna Chestnut – Maybe not a chestnut brown, exactly, but definitely brown.

029 Rezvoros Copper – Pastel, peach color – might be chromatic?

030 Zoldike – Grass green, yellow/tan undertones.

031 Godenyzold Pelikan  – ooo caught the sheen! Dark green/teal, hint of reddish sheen.

Whew! Quite the month. I do miss shimmers tho!

A notebook planner page that has a line of ink for each day of the month. “Pennonia” is written at the top.
All of my Pennonia colors!

I’ve got another set of solid standard inks in my collection. Two months in a row of no shimmer is tough tho, so looking forward to next month’s samples! Altho those chromatics were fun. These were nice and low maintenance. Which I hilariously appreciate.

Fountain Pens

November Daily Samples, 2022 Review, Pt.1

Instead of a new ink – despite having like dozens I wanted to try – I decided to look back and pull inks from the brands I had tried this year. The idea came to me when I was looking at the Pennonia inks to follow the Akkerman inks. There were only a couple more than 30 in both brands (- at least when I was looking at them). And that completion rule I have kept bugging me, and I was trying to think of a way to use the extra ones. Maybe I could build a collection that finishes out each brand? I started looking at all of the other brands, and then the part of my brain that thinks it’s an archivist immediately started doing research into my own past. (It was super fun. Like, for real real.) I looked through notebooks, and looked up specific samples, and ended up realizing that there were some brands that would definitely not fit into a single month. Here’s the list of the ink brands I tried since January of 2022, and then the inks I am planning to sample this month:

30 ink vials from top down, the caps are all white, and they have round white stickers with the date.
So many potentially pretty inks!

January: I hadn’t quite figured everything out in January, so I didn’t focus on just one brand this month, instead it was tiny little glass bottles from Yoseko Stationary that I focused on, because they are adorable. Also I am still figuring out Brand vs. Line of ink. So! Much confusion, and this may not be correct, but I’m trying!
Taccia:
1. Hokusai Benitsuchi
2. Sharaku Kurocha
3. Utamaro Usuzumi
4. Utamaro Ume Murasaki
5. Hokusai Fukakihanada

Kyo No Oto:
6. Aonibi Iro
7. Nurebairo
8. Imayou Iro
9. Hisoku
10. Kokeiro

Kyo Iro
11. (02) Fushimi’s Flaming Red
12. (05) Keage Sakura
13. (01) Cobblestones

February: Robert Oster – so many inks! So none for the Daily Samples in November.

March: Kiwi Inks – finished everything they had at the time, I believe, but will definitely be checking back, because these are fun! Their multi-chromatic shading inks are awesome.

April: Ferris Wheel Press – I had tried a couple of samples based on a friend who recommended them. So, when I saw they had these ”collections” of every ink sample, and that there were enough to fill a months worth of daily samples, I was very excited. This is probably what gave me the idea to deliberately try to find brands with smaller libraries of inks to fit it into a month, after the second month in a row of that working out well.

May: PenBBS – these are always named so interestingly, and weirdly accurately. And numbering them just makes me want to GET THEM ALL. Some day.
14. (520) Light Snow
15. (508) Grain Buds
16. (392) Black Bread

June: Sailor Inks + Robert Oster – these both have super big libraries, as previously mentioned for RO, and this set was themed ”America.” I think there are more being added to the Sailor set, because I had to add Robert Oster ”Cities of America” inks to have enough samples for every day and obviously there are more than 30 states anyway. Maybe next time!

July: Vinta – I was SO EXCITED about these inks when I first heard about them (I still am for the record) because they came with stories attached! I enjoyed it thoroughly. Looking forward to more of these! Also the name on the sample vial is not the full name of the ink AND I KNOW IT. I will add them in the review. The full names are what points at the stories involves, so, that is important context.
17. Ubi
18. Andrada
19. Pamana
20. Lakbay (Fairytale Collection)
21. Romblon

August: Wearingeul – I enjoyed the Vinta inks so much that I looked for something like it – something that gave me an excuse to DO RESEARCH. Serious fun. Oh – these vials were ALSO missing very relevant information which I will add in the review… Because it is the stuff that points back to the literature influence, which means I have just…a whole bunch of new books to read. Which is an EXCELLENT outcome. I get to sample pretty inks, learn about authors that are new to me, and read books that are new to me? So excited.
22. Kyonghui
23. A Star Spattered Hill
24. Shooting at the Moon
25. Mature
26. Stars in Autumn
27. Human Problem

September: Akkerman – only ONE LEFT. (I think?)
28. (00) Royal Akkermanblauw

October: Pennonia – This is the one that really triggered my decision to do this theme for November’s Daily Samples! Because there were only two left, and after Akkerman, I thought, you know what…
29. (032) Csontvarys Blue
30. Draculea

Which brings us to November!

When I was putting this together I quickly realized that if I tried to finish the inks with every one of these brand, I actually have about 2 months worth of Daily Samples…so. I’ll do half in November and half in January. Tada! 🙂 I picked the ones I will be using in November randomly, so this should be interesting. If I get all reds and browns I will be SO SAD. So sad.

Since I enjoyed every brand I’ve tried this year, I am looking forward to this! I especially want to play with the Vinta and Wearingeul inks again. They both have story elements to them, and I love that. Mmmm…research.

Fountain Pens

November Pen/Ink Palette- 2022 Review

A purple notebook and pen case, with 10 pens on the left side, and a notebook on the right side. The notebook has two stickers, the one in the top left corner is 4 ghosts peeking out of a front door holding a cupcake, and with a welcome mat. The one in the bottom right hand corner is a green octopus with a red knit hat, and a blue flannel coat. He seems to be playing in a pile of autumn leaves and holding a fountain pen, a pumpkin, and a drink.
10 pen and ink combos for November. One from each of the previous 10 months in 2022.

I was originally going to theme this months palette “Comfy” but I started thinking about which inks and pens I would deme comfy and then realized I was thinking of pens and inks I had used in palette’s already this year that I enjoyed using. Then it hit me – I was already going to do a sort of review of the Monthly Samples – I could use one combo from every month palette this year! Matchy matchy. Since April I’ve been keeping track of the performance of each combo, so the only ones that would be tricky is Jan – Mar. Those will probably be wild cards. (Oooo except Magic Green from March!)

And it was EASY. Because in each month there is usually a combo that I enjoyed memorably. There were two difficult months, and very little info on how I felt about the pens I used in January thru March, but I ended up with 10 pens I am extremely excited to use. I did end up swapping out the pen paired with three of the inks – I’ll explain in the list. And to determine the best choice for the January and February pens I had to sort of look at how long and how often I would use the pen. There were a couple I remember filling early on and then reluctantly keeping them filled but not wanting to use them… I did that, of course, until I remembered this whole monthly change of pens and inks is supposed to be fun. And if I don’t like a combo nowadays I give it a day or two and then clean it out. Hopefully that won’t be an issue this month?

10 pens paired with 10 ink sample cards.
Tada! The list of inks and pens is below.

Let’s look at our options this month, shall we!

  1. Twsbi Diamond – Prussian Blue (F), Diamine Inkvent 2021 Subzero
    – this ink was originally in a Twsbi Eco and I decided the Diamond is just a little step up.
  2. Twsbi Diamond – Punch Pink (F), Van Dieman – Underwater, Moon Jellyfish
  3. Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 
  4. Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening
  5. Bonecrusher7Studios – Monet (1.1stub), Ferris Wheel Press, April Showers 
    – this ink was originally in my Gravitas, but it was using the custom nib, so I figured I’d just put the nib in one of my favorite pens and go from there!
  6. Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat
    – Cat was originally in the Twsbi Diamond Prussian Blue soooooo…leaving it in the Sailor.
  7. Leonardo Supernova (F), Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland
  8. Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F), Van Dieman, Harvest Collection, Beetroot Relish
  9. Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves 
  10. Mad Science Pen Company, Modified Clingman – Ghost (F) / Vinta Inks, Fairytale Collection – Clouds of Grey

One of the things I liked about this palette was that I could use the three favorite pens without them just being extra to the palette, they are actually part of it. And I am really looking forward to a nice cozy month with pens I know I like, even when they get a little blocked and won’t write. Because the inks and pens are WORTH it. 

Some of my choices were combos that I continued using into the next month. And the palette actually really came together. I was sitting and contemplating it, and Husband looked over my shoulder and was like WHOA That looks incredible! 🙂 Hope it goes as well as it looks! 

November Palette Dip Test! And the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” written out ten times, each line in a different color ink.
Dip test! Look at those COLORS.
Fountain Pens

October Pen/Ink Palette: Spoopy Monsters, Review!

10 pens lined up side by side. There are a variety of types. There is a grey one, then white, then swirly purple, darker purple, lighter purple, light green, green and purple swirled, orange, red, and last a yellow.
Spoopy Monster Pens! From left to right, Skeleton, Ghost, Witch, Purple People Eater, Frank the Demonic Octopus, zombie, Frankenstein’s Monster, Pumpkin Head, Vampire, Werewolf.

I really like this theme! I did end up swapping out two pens because Mad Science Pen Company made them with the EXACT names of two of my monsters, and I NEEDED them. Ahem.
Solid palette this month. I think my favorites are definitely split between the Mad Science Pen Company pens and the Sailor pens. But it’s pretty close.

Four Sailor Pro Gear Slim pens, laid out horizontally with their caps off and nibs pointed to the left. The top one is sparkly blue, then a blue-purple, a darker purple and a sparkly purple.
Yep, had 4 entire Sailor pens in my palette this month.

I really like the MF nibs from Sailor and the shape and balance of the Pro Gear Slims. They feel effortless. Pretty pen colors too. And the inks behaved nicely as well.

A purple swirly pen laid out horizontally, with the cap off, nib pointed out the left.
Mad Science Pen Company, Hooded Ranger, Proton

Mad Science Pen Company was someone I’d had my eye on from Instagram for a while. What first hooked me was the ”hooded” aspect. I’d never seen something like that before and I ended up really enjoying the aesthetic. And then I missed a pen that had an awesome color – something lime green, if I am remembering correctly. And so it began – I needed one of these pens. And when the Hooded Ranger popped up in that lovely purple, I snatched it up. I really like the balance of these as well, and the decision to pick up the Ghost and Frankenstein was EASY. So Easy. Look at these!

Two pens laid out vertically side by side. The one on the left is a swirly white, the edge of the cap has a swoopy edge instead of a straight edge, kind of looks like a ghost. The one on the right is a green and dark purple swirly, the top of the cap is a little more squared off than this model usually is, and the cap isn’t a straight line, but sort of angled.
Ghost and Frankenstein, by Mad Science Pen Company.

Now for the rest of these! Check out thoughts below:

  1. Skeleton: Ohto – Tasche FF 10T (?) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 – Ash 
    – solid ink, decent writing experience, tiiiiiny pen
  2. Ghost: Mad Science Pen Company, Modified Clingman – Ghost (F) / Vinta Inks, Fairytale Collection – Clouds of Grey
    – switched to Mad Science Pen Company pen on the eleventh. I love this ink, the shimmer is gorgeous. LOVE this pen, writes well, good weight. The nib got a little clogged once or twice, but it cleaned up okay. Also? When this shimmer gets on stuff, it STAYS.
  3. Witch: Mad Science Pen Company, Hooded Ranger – Proton (F) / Wearingeul, Yi Sang Series – Soyeongwije 
    – Gorgeous dark purple ink, shimmer comes thru beautifully. Nib gets clogged – this is not the nib I got delivered with this pen. It took a bit to get unclogged. Gorgeous pen!
  4. Purple People Eater: Sailor Limited Edition Pro Gear Slim Sapporo – Demonstrator Wisteria Purple (MF) / PenBBS – #095 Lin Huiyin 
    – LOVE this pen model, works deliciously. Does not like to be left uncapped – takes a second to start flowing again. Subtle purple ink, really solid performance.
  5. Frank, the Demonic Octopus: Sailor Professional Gear Slim, Manyo – Dianthus (MF) / Diamine Inkvent 2021- Nightshade 
    – Yep, several pens inked that are the same model, BECAUSE I love it. Tada. I love this ink. It is blue, is it purple? Why not both!
  6. Zombie: Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves
    – Continued from September. Love the pen performance. I did hit a clog or two, rinsed it and realized it had run out of ink the first time haha. Beautiful ink, shimmer comes thru great, fun shade.
  7. Frankenstein: Mad Science Pen Company, Modified Ranger – Frankenstein (F) / Kyo No Oto – Moegiiro 
    – Switched to the Mad Science Pen Company pen on the 11th. Beautiful pen, love it, good nib performance. Fun ink color, dark with light popping thru in shading, performs great.
  8. Pumpkin Head: Kaweco AL Sport Limited Edition – Orange (F) / Troublemaker – Mango
    – This nib is still a little wonky, feels like I need to hold it at a low angle to get ink to flow. This ink is super shady – in a good way – and I love it, the dark pops thru in the shade.
  9. Vampire: Monteverde Strata – Red (F)  / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Vintage Copper
    – Sometimes ink does not flow great, but pulled from Sept, writing well enough. I love this ink, the end.
  10. Werewolf: Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (1.1m Stub) / Van Dieman, Midnight Collection – Howl at the Moon
    – This nib is FUN, and the ink is readable! I like how the dark comes thru, shimmer shows up pretty.
“October Palette Pen Test” in a dark purple ink. On the following lines “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Is written in 10 different color inks. Two grey, three purple, two green, one orange, one red, and one yellow.
October Palette Pen Test!
Monthly Pen/Ink Journal, with the ten combos sampled out. The text is the brand and name of each pen and ink, which you can find in the list above. The comments on how each pen/ink performed is captured in the same list above.
October Monthly Pen/Ink Journal!

I was impressed with these. Couple of wonky ones but not bad enough that I couldn’t use them. Very pleased!

Fountain Pens

October Subscription Box Review! Stipula + Krishna

Subscription Ink Samples! Truphae and Ink Flight, eh? Let’s take a look at those lovely inks. I’ve only tried one each of Stipula and Krishna before now, and I really enjoyed getting a look at more of them.

A lime green ink sample tray, 5 inks with the labeled plastic bag they arrived in. “Stipula, Fading Grey, Dark Red, Bright Green, Bright Blue, Dark Blue.
Truphae Stipula ink samples

Truphae sent me 5 Stipula inks, what do we know about them? Oooo Italian inks. Neat. They also ship 70ml bottles, which includes the best number, so obviously, I am a fan. The two dark inks are the ones that stood out to me, may use them in the future. 

The edges of three pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a grey, a bright green, and a dark blue. Only the edges of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on two of the pages. The top page you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Stipula Inks, Fading Grey, Bright Green, Dark Blue.

Stipula:

Fading Grey, solid medium grey, nothing jumps out at me about it. Looks like that brownish grey color a black shirt fades to over time. 

Bright Green, cool green? Sort of a teal color? But too green…like spearmint maybe?

Dark Blue, velvety dark blue, nice, work appropriate.

The edges of two pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a dark red, and a bright blue. Only the edge of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on one of the pages. The top page, Bright Blue, you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Stipula Inks, Dark Red, Bright Blue

Dark Red, wine red, touch of grape purple!

Bright Blue, pool vibes. 

A single page of a journal. The text reads “Oct 2022 Truphae, Stipula” in a shiny grey. Each ink name is written with that ink color, and has a smudged line underneath of the same color. “Fading Grey, Dark Red, Bright Green, Bright Blue, Dark Blue.”
All of the Stipula inks together!
Kaweco Sport pen, sitting on a dark wooden desk top. The pen is an iridescent white.
Kaweco Sport, Iridescent.

Kaweco Sport Iridescent – I am not a huge fan of the material the Kaweco Sports come in, but this one is heckin pretty. I like how the light plays on it. Will definitely need to use a shading ink with this pen. 

A lime green sample tray with 7 ink vials arranged in an upside down u around the edges of the Ink Flight note that comes with the pack. Text read “Ink Flight October 2022, Welcome Ink Travelers, Medical professional by day, ink connoisseur by night - Dr. Sreekumar is the mind behind Krishna Inks, a small ink manufacturing workshop based in Kerala, India. What started out as a hobby in 2010 has now become a passion appreciated by a worldwide audience.”
Krishna Inks, Ink Flight note!

Now, Ink Flight! 

They sent me Krishna inks, which I have read about, and I was very looking forward to sampling more of these. What do we know about these? Well, they’ve got some wild bottle shapes, which I always enjoy. The less stackable and easily storable the better, I say! Made in India, by a doctor, huh. This is his hobby apparently! Interesting.

Look at these COLORS.

The edges of four pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a tan gold, a bright purple, grass green, dark blue. Only the edges of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on three of the pages. The top page you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Krishna inks, Cassia Flora, Mountain Breeze, Ghat Green, Sailor’s Blue.


Krishna: (quoted text pulled off the paper they send with their inks – excellent descriptions!)

Cassia Flora, “Along with Bamboo Shoots and Mountain Breeze, Cassia Flora is part of Spring ‘22 ink collection of shading colors. Cassia Flora has a chartreuse hue with tones of teal and reddish brown.” Oh that’s what chartreuse looks like! Only really seeing the teal and brown it mentions in the pooling. 

Mountain Breeze, “This bright and juicy purple ink looks exceptional when used with broad, flex, or stub nibs.” I LIKE this color!

Ghat Green, “This lush olive green shades nicely. A fan favorite.” I think of this as a grass green.

Sailor’s Blue, “This vivid blue ink is well-saturated with a pop of magenta sheen.” I’ve seen a couple of this combo, but I like the balance on this one.

The edges of three pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a bright green, dark blue, and a bright red. Only the edges of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on two of the pages. The top page you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Krishna Inks, Bamboo Shoots, Mountain Breeze, Sindhoor.

Bamboo Shoots, “A fresh, light green ink that shades with a blueish halo and clouds of ochre.” Yep, I agree with that!

Golden Summer Blue, “Introduced in the summer of 2022, this ink has a blueish-purple base with a lustrous golden sheen.” Absolutely on the nose. 

Sindhoor, “A bright red ink with wet flow, some shading and a hint of sheen.” Didn’t see the sheen, but I know that can depend on the paper sometimes.

A single page of a journal. The text reads “Oct 2022 Ink Flight, Krishna” in a shiny grey. Each ink name is written with that ink color, and has a smudged line underneath of the same color. “Cassia Flora, Bamboo Shoots, Mountain Breeze, Golden Summer Blue, Ghat Green, Sindhoor, Sailor’s Blue.”
All of the Krishna inks!
7 ink vials lined up horizontally, underneath from the left to write: the message Ink Flight sends about the box, a pen loop, an octopus sticker underneath, a sheet of ghost stickers, and a Write notepad.
The full October Ink Flight box!

Along with these lovely Krishna inks I got a sticker of an octopus in a scary mask, wielding a fountain pen taller, and with one of those pumpkin halloween candy buckets but instead of being full of candy, it’s full of ink vials. Jealous. I’ll save this one for next October Captain’s Log. 

Also a pen loop that I can attach to something, and conveniently there is a notebook from Write – loop would go well with that. And lastly there is a sheet of absolutely adorable ghost stickers that I am super in love with from Midori. I definitely do what they recommend and draw little speech bubbles and reactions. SO CUTE. 

And that’s October’s Subscription boxes. Thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to the November boxes!

Fountain Pens

Origami Pen Dividers!

When I started this whole journey I probably should have realized I would end up collecting these lovely shiny pens, because this is what I do. When I finally did realize this I started looking into pen storage options. I went the cheaper route because I’d much rather spend my money on shiny pens, and ended up with a pretty standard two drawer with a top area display with glass. Not super well made, off Amazon, but it would work to see me through that time period I try to give myself when I first get interested in something new. If I abandon it quickly then I won’t have spent too much money. Once I can be sure I am going to really keep up the interest, then I start investing. As someone who is Autistic and ADHD it helps me curb unnecessary spending. But that’s another post!

So back to pen storage. Once I started getting close to filling the first box I looked for a portable option, ever hopeful that I’ll be able to go outside some day and if I ever went to a con, I’d want a way to carry pens I’d bought or wanted to trade or show off. Then THAT started to fill up and I got to thinking about how I would want to do this long term. And the biggest thing that bugged me about both of the ways I was storing pens at the time was that I can’t see the pens casually. There was only one place that was possible, and for only some of the pens, and it was top down. Not good enough! 

It was around this time someone I had recently started following on Instagram posted a photo of their pen storage – and it was amazing! Clear acrylic drawers, with clear acrylic inserts, and you could clearly see all of the pens, and it was gorgeous! I immediately wanted to replicate, fortunately there were links in the thread – Muji drawers, and specially made drawer inserts. So I immediately started sourcing the drawers, easy. But the specially made drawer inserts were a whole other thing. Then I saw that this lovely human was selling some! Immediately contacted, and we agreed on a price and suddenly they were on the way!

5 clear cryptic drawers, with curved clear acrylic drawer inserts, each row has 10 pens, the bottom two rows look like rainbows, the rest of the rows are various colors.
Pretty pen drawers! Look at my rainbows!

When they got here, I assembled everything, put all of my favorite pens in there, could see the rainbows I’d collected, the sparkle, all at a glance. I was so excited! It is so pretty! And then…I realized I was already running out of room. And there were no more drawer inserts. (Custom made.)

So I put my thinking cap on. 

Top down view of 7 pens seated on paper dividers within a clear acrylic drawers. It looks kind of messy, the pens aren’t all equally visible, and some of the pleats have flattened.
Attempt number one at paper dividers!

I tried this first, just folded it accordion style. I knew I couldn’t duplicate the graceful swoops of the acrylic inserts, but I thought I’d try the V’s, see if the pens would be separated and kept separate in a similar way. Not transparent, but at least the drawers themselves were still clear acrylic. After I made up a bunch of them, I put some pens in there, and realized the heavier ones would just flatten the fold. And the folds were a little imprecise, so it kind of looked like a jumble when all was said and done. I was not satisfied – I at least wanted the pens to have a little bit of separation. 

Close up of two clear acrylic drawers with the V paper inserts and various pens. It looks really messy, some of the v’s are taller than the pens, some of the folds are flattened, and the pens look jumbled.
Sad paper dividers…

Next I got to thinking about how Husband could 3D print these for me. I felt like the swoop bit was hard, so I tried to think of a simpler way to get what I wanted and realized it could just be square shaped. (According to Husband, the swoops are not hard, ahem.) THEN I realized I could make that out of paper, and a new idea was born!

Top down view of various pens, the edge of paper dividing each pen look like a uniform height, same height as the drawer, and it looks much neater.
Attempt Number 2

The first set I made was okay – I measured the width I needed correctly, but I made the “walls” too high.

Top down of a variety of pens with paper separators. The edges of the dividers are visible, but not intrusive, and the pens are cleanly separated.
Attempt Number 3 – a winner!

So my next set I made smaller, but it was turning out imprecise again. I stopped to think and decided I needed to math this. Next I measure a bunch of stuff, try a couple of things, and eventually landed on a solid process that gave me lower “walls,” was efficient with the paper I was using, sturdy enough to separate the pens, and looked much neater. 

I churned out the separators and I am really pleased with this. As I was doing it, I realized it was very much like what I’d been doing the previous afternoon, sitting in the same place. When I had been folding mini origami stars. I was folding paper to make pen separators – therefore! I declare these Origami Pen Dividers. Tada!

All 10 clear acrylic drawers, filled with various pens. The top five drawers have the curved clear acrylic dividers. The bottom 5 drawers have the squared off paper dividers.
Origami Pen Dividers!

Would you like to do this for yourself? I won’t drag you through all of the iterations, instead, here is the final result! These instructions are based on the Muji drawers I linked above.

Two halves of an 8.5 x 11” piece of white computer paper.
Step 1: Take an 8.5×11” sheet of white computer paper, cut it in half.
Half a sheet of paper, faint pencil lines every 2mm
Step 2: Measure out the folds – make a line every ~2mm
Half a piece of white paper folded and curled up by the folds.
Step 3: create the folds on the lines you’ve drawn, all folding in the same direction.
Half a piece of paper, flat on the table, with folded dividers, the folds are slightly separated.
Step 4: Pinch two folds together to create the wall
Two halves of a white pieces of paper, flat on the table, joined together, the paper walls are crisply defined.
Step 5: This step isn’t completely necessary but to keep the walls stable, you can add a little bit of tape to either end which will keep that fold from flattening out.

You’ll need to use one whole piece of paper for each drawer, so with 5 drawers, that’s 5 sheets of 8.5×11” paper, cut in half. You’ll need to fold both halves like the instructions above walk thru, and you’ll need both half’s in each drawer. 

I wouldn’t use paper any thinner than computer paper, but thicker would probably be fine. These are just the measurements I use, because I like the “walls” to be a little lower and 1.5mm is the width I got from some of my wider pens. Feel free to use different measurements if you’d like! I recommend tape instead of staples, because I think the staples would scratch the pens. I used white paper to make the colors of the pens pop, and I cut the page in half so that the separators were shorter than the depth of the drawer, to keep as much clear acrylic visible as possible but still have a nice set of separators. 

This is a neat, simple, home made set of drawer inserts. If clear acrylic display for your pens is something you are interested in, and you don’t have access to the clear acrylic inserts or your own 3D printer haha – then this is a decent solution to get you by for a while. Enjoy!