Fountain Pens

August Palette Review

10 pens lined up horizontally, green, sparkle blue, blue/pink, sparkly purple, swirly purple, swirly magenta/pink/white, sparkly orange, swirly orange, metallic orange, swirly yellow, and clear with a sparkly orange ink visible.
August pens

Twelve pens is a lot of pens but I am happy to report that I really used most of them. There were two with weird nibs, but after I tuned them they were okay. There was a yellow that was mostly too light for me to read, so ended up doing mostly accents with it. My header pen only saw use on headers because I was worried about running out of that ink – didn’t have a lot of them. I will say switching out that one orange ink was a very good idea. 

I am now realizing how vague this is going, so let’s just list them all out instead! 

A pair of pages from the Ink Journal notebook. There are 12 pens listed by pen and ink manufacturer, then the pen and ink color, and then August, 2022. To the right (on the left page, to the left on the right page) is a stamped ink bottle, and the color of that pen ink is scribbled in there. Besides the ink bottle stamp is Shawna’s opinion on that combo. The pen/ink combos and written opinions can be found below this photo in a list.
Record of August pens and inks and FEELINGS

1. Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 
– Magic Green Pen! I adore it. The end. (Refilled 9 times)
2. Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat 
– New Forever Pen! Shall dub Forever Blue – pretty much identical experience to the Forever Purple pen, just a different favorite shimmer ink.
– “Pen is JUST long enough, but still smol, which I love. Fav nib. Ink works, comes out nicely, hasn’t gummed yet, knock on wood. :)” (Refilled 3 times)
3. James White – Nebula (Custom Nib) / Ferris Wheel Press Tumbling Time Blue
– Solid pen, didn’t use it a ton because low on ink. Ink good, dark tho, nice sheen, rarely any shimmer.
4. Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening
– Forever Purple Pen! Also adore this one. The end. (Refilled 7 times *yay*)
5. Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F) / Van Dieman Beetroot Relish
– “Esterbrook F nib is a good size. I like the handling of the pen. I LOVE this ink color! Solid purple – and no shimmer! Performed great too.” (Refilled 1 time)
6. Bearbarian Woodworking – Copper Eclipse Sunset (F) / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Raspberry Rose
– “I like the material of this pen a ton – the finger hold spot is a little slipper tho. Nib is a good size, performs well usually, slightly inconsistent. Really like the color of this ink, a magenta I like the depth of – performed well.” (Refilled 1 time)
7. Conklin – Coronet Orange (F) / Kyo Iro Moonlight of Higashiyama
– “Inconsistent ink distro, sometimes really heavy flow, sometimes really dry. Love the nib shape tho. Fascinating ink color – glad I switched it out! (Leave uncapped, gets wetter, caped, gets dryer?)” (Refilled 2 times – exploded a little bit once, maybe because I dropped it)
8. Kaweco AL Sport Limited Edition – Orange (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Pumpkin Patch
– “Nib/feed performance inconsistent…tried tuning it, seems to work better sometimes but then not others…I really like the subtle shading on this orange.” (Refilled 1 time)
9. Leonardo Officina Italiana Brooks PM4 Limited Edition – Supernova (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland
– Still love this ink. It ended up not really fitting in the palette – so when it ran out on the 20th, I just didn’t refill it.
10. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pen – Orange (EF) / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Peach Punch
– “This ink ended up being fine in this nib, but had a rough start. I love this ink color, a very interesting orangish that seems to be different shades depending on what’s next to it!” (Refilled 1 time)
11. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (EF) / Sailor Ink Studio 770
– “Nib scratchy, ink wouldn’t flow, tuned it (baby’s bottom?) and seems better. Ink very light, hard to read. A little disappointed in this ink 0 expected it to be darker consistently but you can see the difference. Readable now! Nib still a little scratchy.”
12. Majohn Wancai Mini Fountain Pen – Transparent Clear (F) / Diamine 2019 Inkvent Golden Star
– “Fav part of pen is seeing the ink swirl around. Solid nib, I like the way it writes – can handle shimmer! I think the cap may have cracked – humidity in there now?? Love this ink color – literally changes shades as you write down a page!”

So, if I had to pick a favorite (besides my Forever Pens) it would have to be either the purple Esterbrook with Beetroot Relish in it, or the Majohn with Golden Star in it. For different reasons. Oo! Or the Beardbarian with Raspberry Rose. It was a good month!

Fountain Pens

September Ink/Pen Palette: Fall

Picking colors for my September pens and inks was a little difficult for me because the theme is “Fall” and fall colors have a lot of red in them and I do not like red. I resorted to google and ended up finding a really nice set of 5 colors – and I have no idea how to describe them professionally, but here we go! Sort of like a teal, evergreen-y type blue, a kind of muted moss green, a rust reddish, an orange that is like a yellow-orange and a yellow that is closer to an orange. Yep. Doing great. 

Remember last month when I said I might keep my blue Sailor mini with Cat in it as part of my permanent pens? Well now we have the Forever Purple, Magic Green, and now a Forever Blue. Besides those three, I realized I was looking for colors really similar to my “sunset” theme, but the biggest difference for me was the colors for August were more vibrant and the ones for September are more muted. Insert something clever here about saturation? I am sure Aaron said something about saturation at some point and clearly that did not stay in my head. 

I’ve got 10 pens this month and besides the three forever pens, none of the inks/pens are being carried over from August. That’s not because I didn’t like them, but they just didn’t end up working with the muted theme I was trying. And yes, I ended up with a kind of rainbow again and I refuse to be upset by this. I like rainbows. 

Ten pens and ten sample cards in two columns. Each pen is laid on top of a sample card just below the swatch of color at the top of the card.
10 pens in two columns, one purple, two blues, two greens on the left, 3 red/orange and 2 orange/yellows on the right

  1. Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening
  2. Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat
  3. Esterbrook JR Pocket Paradise – Blue Breeze ( F) / PenBBS Break
  4. Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 
  5. Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves 
  6. TWSBI Diamond 580 – Iris (F) / Kiwi Ink Quetzalcoatl
  7. Beardbarian Woodworking – Copper Eclipse Sunset (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Candy Marsala
  8. Majohn Wancai Mini Fountain Pen – Transparent Clear (F) / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Vintage Copper
  9. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (1.1m Stub) / ColorVerse Rising Reflections
  10. Kaweco AL Sport – Gold (B) / Kiwi Liquid Gold

I picked up a 1.1m stub nib for one of my Esterbrook pens, and I am interested to see how it handles that shimmer ink. Yellows kind of need a broader application I think…who knows, I usually use fine nibs!

The Vintage Copper is going into one of those clear Majohn mini pens because I anticipate it being gorgeous like the one I was using in August. Twsbi diamond is one I usually enjoy, so looking forward to that, Kaweco is a known great – but a broad nib, so we shall see if I still like it. And I am reusing the Beardbarian pen because it is my favorite right now. 

Because I am not wild about all of the colors individually or in pairs, I am going to try using them as a whole palette instead of singly. I have been using a different pair of pens every day of the week, to distinguish the days, to use the pens more regularly, and the pair instead of one so I could have an easier time navigating my notes. This month I will be seeing how annoying it is to switch out every pen for every new line item in my work notebooks instead, in an attempt to not grow to dislike a single color so much I stop using it. Granted, if that does happen – and it might – I can just switch out the ink and/or pen. Still, might be interesting.

Because of the ink swap last month immediately after putting that one orange in a pen and seeing how mushy it was, I decided this month to try the inks on my usual paper before getting them into pens.

Notebook page, “Dip Pen Test,” each ink I am planning on using written out with the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” except for the three pens I am keeping. There is a shimmer green, a blue, then a red with gold sheen, two reds, a dark yellow shimmer, and an orange ish shimmer.
Each line is a different ink color

You may notice the 3 reds in there that look very similar. Because of this, the new rule (for next month) is to dip test the inks before I decide on a palette, instead of just before I put them in a pen.

Wish me luck!

Fountain Pens

September Daily Samples, Akkerman

I made a note of where I first saw an Akkerman ink referenced, and have lost it somehow. Sigh. I keep starting new notebooks so I can find things easier but I REFUSE to pull my ink stuff out of my Captain’s Log. Refuse. 

Besides, it was probably on the Pen Addict blog, let’s be honest. I am read that blog all the time. I have learned a thousand things from it. Highly recommend. Actually, I love it so much, I am working my way backwards, as I keep up to date with the latest. It is a little weird seeing posts from near the beginning of the pandemic – I think I’m back in early 2020 at this point. 

What decided me on this one for this month was the numbered aspect actually. Numbered inks are both satisfying and have the potential to make me go a little out of control – if for example, I only need 30 or 31 of them but there are 70 in total… And if any of these names are misspelled, I am sorry, I may have lost one or two battles with the auto correct. 

Two lime green trays, the bottom one holds 20 ink sample vials, the top one is set on top of those vial caps, and holds 11 more vials. Each vial has a label which says what the ink is.
Akkerman Ink Samples

01 Passage Blauw

02 Redidentie Blauw

03 Blauw 

04 Nassaus Blauw

05 Shocking Blue

06 Binnenhof Blues

07 Koninginne Nach-Blauw

08 DiepDuin Water Blauw

09 Laan van Niew Oost-Indigo

10 Ijzer-galnoten Blauw-Zwart

11 Treves Turquois 

12 Mauritshuis Magenta

13 Simplisties Violet

14 Parkpop Purpur

15 Voorhout Violet

16 Oranje Boven

17 Staten-Generaal Rood

18 Garuda Rood

19 Rood Haags Pluche

20 Pulchri Pink

21 ChinaTown Red

22 Hopjesbruin

23 Bekakt Haags

24 Zuiderpark Blue-Green

25 Denneweg Groen

26 Goenmarkt Smaragd

27 Bezuidenwoud Groen

28 Hofkwartier Groen

29 Hofvijer Grijs 

30 Het Zwarte Pad

I am pretending I can understand what some of those mean, like Groen – green, clearly. Rood – red. Blauw – blue. We’ll certainly find out once I break into these! 

Fountain Pens

Magic Green & Forever Purple

I have referred to my Magic Green pen and my Forever Purple pen a couple of times, so I figured I should explain what that is all about. So first, the pens and inks in question are actually:

Magic Green = Hongdian 5019 – Lan Tian May Flowers (EF), with Ferris Wheel Press Moonlit Jade ink

Forever Purple = Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Northern Lights (MF), with ColorVerse Hayabusa ink

Little bit of history to set context. I’ve only been playing with fountain pens and inks for about a year now, and when I first got started, believe it or not, I did not know shimmer inks existed. And when I realized they did, I went a little out of control on sampling as many as I could get my hands on. In December I sampled Van Dieman inks, mostly shimmer if I recall correctly, and I put Twilight Mist (?? Check) in a pen (???) and – it wouldn’t write. Like. At all. Not right after I inked it. Not after I tried my tricks to make it work. Nothing.

This was the first time I had run into this, so I started to do some research. I figured it had something to do with the shimmer particles gumming up the feed and I was right according to my research. Which…sucks. Sigh. I love shimmer inks AND fine nibs and they do NOT mix well sometimes…slash always. Always meaning I can usually get the pen to write, but it’ll get stuck some times. And I have a couple of ways to un stick them and I’m slowly figuring out which techniques work best with different pens. But still.

I picked up a Hongdian from a Truphae box in February (I think? That’s when this got inked for the first time at least, so pretty safe bet at the time). I wasn’t sure what to put in it. But shortly after that I picked up the Ferris Wheel Press Jade collection (of 2 inks) after a friend suggested it I check them out. I’d been trying out different shimmer ink manufacturer’s to try and find one that did not clog pens! I thought the pen looked a little odd with the two tone muted greens, but I liked the heft and the balance and I thought, hey green pen, green ink, let’s try it. I super expected it to clog immediately, due to it having an Extra Fine nib. 

Notebook page with the following text: “It continues to bring me joy, that this pen continues to operate beautifully, and I still love the color, the line, the wright of the pen. Yay Magic Green Pen!” In a dark green ink with silver shimmer. Below the text is a two tone green pen with silver hardware. Below that is a sticker of an old Victorian suitcase.
Magic Green pen with writing sample!

So imagine my surprise when my Hongdian pen wrote beautifully with a shimmer ink in it – out of an EXTRA fine nib! Yay! Then, like weeks later, when it wouldn’t write anymore, I rolled my eyes and assumed the feed was clogged, and started trying all my techniques to unclog it and none of them worked and I was so grumpy! I open it up to try to clean the bits more thoroughly and realize – it wasn’t clogged. It was out of ink! At this point, a pen NOT clogging on a shimmer ink at least a LITTLE bit was unheard of, in my experience to date. I immediately refilled it – and it wrote – and it continued to write without clogging. Then I needed to refill it a second time – so I did – still no clogging. Definitely not my normal at that point. (Still, really, not my normal out of a nib that fine.) And so, I decided – to do Science. 

I ended up deciding to carry the pen over from using it in March into my rainbow palette for April. I started doing palette’s in January and the idea was I would switch out ALL of the pens every month. This was the first time I carried a pen over. I felt guilty about it – I had other pens to try – but. I wanted to see how far it would go. For Science. Then I made it thru April with no issues, and decided to carry it over into May…then June…

Basically I decided to keep refilling it until it clogged. And I am still waiting, 6 months later (knock on wood). I have refilled it a total of 8 times to date, all with the same ink. I dip filled it (dib the entire nib into the ink and suck it up with the converter) 6 times, and the 7th and 8th I used a syringe to pick up the ink and put it into the converter before plugging it into the nib. And still no issues. 

Truly. A magic pen. Let’s see how long this goes! For Science indeed!  

The same suitcase sticker is at the top of this photo, below that is the following text: “I absolutely could not resist this truly wonderful pen, it fits my hand beautifully, it’s a gorgeous color, and the ink matches so closely! I love it! Yay Forever Purple Pen!” In dark purple ink with a pale gold shimmer. Below that is a purple pen with silver shimmer and a light blue color for the top and bottom and silver hardware.
Forever Purple pen and writing sample!

Which brings us to Forever Purple, the Sailor Pro Gear Slim. I forget which site sent me the email about the pretty purple Sailor pen but I made squealy noises when I saw it for the first time because it was the perfect purple and it had silver sparkles and I NEEDED it. It’s a fairly expensive pen, but it was around my birthday…so I decided it was okay to get it for myself for my birthday! (Husband helped haha). It was ONLY available at that point with the MF nib, which I had not tried yet, so figured I’d give it a go. I also had no idea what “slim” meant at that point, so when it arrived and I realized “slim” meant “smol” I was ecstatic. It’s a good bit shorter than regular pens (that’s a technical term “good bit” trust me look it up cough) and it has a slightly narrower (or slimmer!) barrel but not too narrow and it was light weight which is good for my hands. I was so very, very happy. And I had the perfect ink to put in it! Hayabusa was made for this pen. Not really, but LOOK at it. They match so well! 

I started writing with it, wrote well right off the bat, and the line this nib creates is so gorgeous. It’s such a clean line, not rounded, not to thick, not too spidery thin. Perfect. My new favorite thing. And I instantly decided to never put it down again haha. So I’ve been using it since April – and it does clog a little, like all of a sudden the ink I am putting down is ALL shimmer and then starts getting thinner and harder to get out of the nib. I usually just – gently – press down a little more than usual for some straight down lines and that solves the problem. I think I tried rinsing it once, but I am pretty sure that was another time I was all eye rolly about a shimmer ink not writing well and it was just out of ink, not clogged. I’ve been using it for about 5 months – and refilled it 9 times, ahem. I clearly use this pen more than the others by a good deal – even my Magic Green! The first seven refills were by dipping into the ink. The last two were with a syringe. 

These are my two favorite pens at the moment, and I do not foresee a time that I will retire them from my palette. I’ve come up with a lot of excuses to keep them in my rotation. For May I had a blue palette and decided the green and purple were helpful as accent inks. In July I had a summer theme – bright, vibrant colors – and I decided the green and purple were good grounding colors, because they are a little on the darker side. See? I can logic anything. 

And that’s it! Good story, eh? Thought so. I am sure I will add more to my Forever collection moving forward – for example I just inked up a Sailor Pro Gear Mini Slim MF that is blue with silver sparkles and put ColorVerse Cat in it. Which is a strong contender for possible future foreverness. I assume I will build a rainbow at some point, of forever pens. This sort of defeats the purpose of trying out new pens every month but I also think finding the perfect set of forever pens will take me a while, so I’ll allow it. 

The previous two photos combined.
Both pens and writing samples!
Fountain Pens

Apricot Tea vs Moonlight

I started the August Pen/Ink Palette with an ink called Apricot Tea from Kakimori in the Conklin pen. I pick my colors using my sample cards and the sample book where I wrote out some stuff on the kind of paper I usually use right now. I currently don’t pull the ink bottles until the day I am going to fill the pen – which might change in the future haha. 

A hand holding a very small clear glass bottle with a silver cap with an opaque orange liquid inside.
Look at this tiny adorable bottle of ink! Also check out the milky texture…

When I pulled this ink out of the drawer to ink my pen I hesitated. The consistency or texture of the ink was more…milky? Viscous. That’s the word I want. Instead of the watery consistency I am used to. It seemed odd. Different from the majority of my other inks. So I rechecked the sample book…seemed fine? And I shrugged and put it in the Conklin Coronet Orange to check it out. 

A notebook page with Kakimori Apricot Tea ink sampled on it in various ways. It is not blurry.
Kakimori Apricot Tea sample page, which is NOT blurry. Rar.
A sample card with an orange ish swap at the top, text reads “Kakimori Apricot Tea xxxooosssssss” and a silver cap is resting on the card, has a sticker with an orange ish dot and a sticker with (23) written on it. The sample card is resting on a notebook page. There is text written on the page, it reads “Why must this be so friggin blurry?? I love this color so much! Oh well.
Kakimori Apricot Tea – so blurry.

That’s when things started to go wrong. When I wrote with this ink in this pen it was really feathery. What I mean by that is instead of nice, crisp, clean lines, the ink sort of blurs and soaks further into the page, and if you look really closely you can see the ink sort of feathering out and blurring the edges of the line. I am sure there is a cool art application for this, but I am not an artist in the classical sense, so mostly this is just annoying to me. 

Zoomed in on the text “Why must this be so friggin blurry?? I like this color so much! Oh well.”
Look at the feathering! I actually had trouble taking this pick because I couldn’t tell if it was in focus or not!!! Do not like.
The backside of a notebook page where you can clearly see the ink showing thru.
Also look at this bleed thru??? It’s so bad! Moonlight didn’t do this at ALL and neither do my other inks, including the suuuuper dark ones I’m using this month!!

I thought maybe the ink just needed to settle, so I left the pen alone over night but the next day it was still blurry. Which makes me grumpy. So I started investigating what was going on – was it the ink? Was it the pen? Well, I had made the original sample in the sample book with my glass dip pen – which was not blurry, for the record. I figured a good place to start is by replicating that, glass dip pen, dipped into ink bottle, write on paper, see what happens. I was extremely disappointed to see that the ink blurred with the glass dip pen this time. I’m not sure what happened between when I sampled it originally at the beginning of the year, and when I sampled it this month. From what I’ve read it is most likely a difference in the paper between the books. But, it could be the ink deteriorating as well – or even something like temperature maybe? It requires more research yay! I do like research.

I had a bit of a conundrum – do I write with a blurry ink all month and be grumpy every time I do – meaning I prolly wouldn’t use the pen? Or do I swap it out, right now. After consulting with husband who I would need to help me with the psychical side of things (like rinsing out the nibs and converters for me), I decided to swap them. But which ink do I use instead?

Apricot Tea sample card looks more like the Moonlight page sample, and vice versa!

I narrow my inks down for the monthly palette usually into two sets of options. I have so many samples now that I can get some good variety and some subtlety, which means I sometimes end up with colors that are super close to each other in both palettes. For the Apricot Tea, it’s partner in the other palette was Moonlight of Higashiyama from Kyo Iro. They look very similar. This time, before putting it in the pen, I dip sampled it and wrote on the paper I’d be using it on the most. What was funny is the sample card colors are almost the opposite of the sample I wrote out that day.

There is a sample card on the right side of this image with an orange ish swap of color at the top, and the text says “Kyo Iro Moonlight of Higashiyama xxxooosssss” and has a silver cap resting on it. The cap has a sticker dot of the orange ish color on it, and a sticker dot with (6) written on it. To the left of this card on a notebook page is the following text, “So this one is a similar color but completely different look!”
Kyo Iro Moonlight of Higashiyama! And a clear line sample…

And the results were – Moonlight was not blurry, but was the right kind of color I wanted for that spot in my palette. Looks like we have a winner! I’ve used this one in the pen a couple of times now – just short writing – and it looks good so far. So I’ll use this one for August and report back when I’m done! 

This kind of thing happens often enough that I am trying to think of ways to avoid this. For September I will be dip testing the inks before I decide on the palette finally for sure. The glass dip pen doesn’t always give me a good idea of what it will look like coming out of a pen, so I picked up a new metal tipped dip pen by Pilot – hope it shows up before September! I am hoping this gives me a better idea of what I’ll be seeing from the pen. What I’ll be looking for is how the ink shows up on the page color wise, how thick it runs, or how dry is the ink, how crisp are the edges of the line (although that is often more influenced by the nib you’re using, I’ve noticed), and how long it takes to dry. I might try dipping the actual nibs I am planning on using in the inks I am thinking about…not sure how that would work out…I’ll think about it, maybe give it a try. And let you all know how it goes! 

Fountain Pens

July Daily Inks, Sailor + Robert Oster

For July I went with a theme for my Daily Ink Samples for the first time. I saw a post about an ink that was named after a state and I was like, hmmmm. July 4th, could do USA themed. Now I will say this – I am NOT thrilled with the USA in general right now. But, if I could find 31 inks that were state related, then. Thought it might be interesting. 

I could only find 24 inks from Sailor that had state names, so I filled in with another 7 from a Robert Oster series “Cities of America.” And I ordered the states alphabetically and put in the cities with the state if there was one, or where a state would be if it was missing. 

Sailor Ink has never given me any trouble, and this set of samples followed suit. Robert Oster was a manufacturer I did samples from earlier in the year, so it was nice to have some more from them. There was only one shimmer ink in this pack – and it was from Robert Oster – which made me realize I don’t know if Sailor even makes shimmer inks! So I will be going to look into that at some point! 

There were a lot of browns. I do not like the color brown. These were…nice browns. For that color. I suppose. But when the Georgia ink is brown instead of a peach for like Georgia peach, I got grumpy. Which is not the inks fault, but still!

A page from a notebook with a grey grid. At the top it is labeled “July Daily Inks, Sailor + Robert Oster “Cities of America” (when noted). The ink names are listed in a numbered column, and on each line is a dot of that ink. The inks are listed below the photo.
The tracking page I use to list all of the ink names and a dot of that inks color next to the name.

Sailor:

  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • California
  • (Robert Oster) Napa
  • Colorado 
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • (Robert Oster) Miami
  • Georgia 
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • (Robert Oster) Chicago
  • Indiana
  • (Robert Oster) Kansas City
  • Louisiana
  • Maryland 
  • Michigan
  • New York
  • (Robert Oster) New York City
  • New Jersey
  • (Robert Oster) Las Vegas
  • Oklahoma
  • (Robert Oster) Oklahoma City
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • South Dakota
  • Texas
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin
31 Ink Sample Cards in two columns. There are a variety of colors. Each sample card has a swatch of color at the top, a stamp of a fountain pen nib, a puddle of ink, the name of the ink manufacturer, the name of the ink, and “xxxooossssssssss.” There is a label on the bottom left, 22JulVent-#, and on the side it is labeled Standard.
31 Ink Sample Cards, in two columns.

Then things got weird! I decided to put all of the inks on a US Map – but the paper was regular printer paper, and the inks did not go down great. A lot of the inks bleed and made the soot sprites or candy stars look kind of creepy. But Aaron’s whole face lit up when he saw this – worth it.

A plain and unlabeled US map printed in black on white paper. There are soot sprites in all of the different ink colors from Sailor. And there are candy stars of the different Robert Oster inks. The soot sprites are adorable.
US map populated by different color soot sprites and candy stars.

Not sure I am going to theme my Daily Ink Samples again…I might just stick to a single manufacturer per month -for as long as I can. We shall see!

Fountain Pens

July Pen/Ink Palette, Review!

My theme for July was “Summer.” picked ink colors that reminded me of a pool, or a beach, or a beach ball. It is a very fun palette. I was able to match pens with inks pretty well, but I also started out with two wooden pens, which did not match (which is fine because they are soooo pretty). Over all I liked how this palette worked, although I did end up switching out one pen after the first week, because the nib needs some tweaking. There are several colors I would like to use again in the future, but first! The palette!

There are nine pens and ink sample cards laid out on a wooden table in two rows. The first row starts with a dark purple, then a lighter purple, then a bright blue, then a teal. The second row starts with a dark green, then a lighter green, then an orange and lastly a pink.The names of the pens and inks are listed below the photo.
July 2022 Pens and Inks
  1. James White – Monet (Custom Nib) / ColorVerse Mystic Mountain
  2. (Forever Purple) Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse Hayabusa
  3. Sailor Pro Gear – Gin Cocktail, Purple Fizz (MF) / Diamine Lilac Satin
  4. Kaweco AL Sport – Stonewashed (F) / Van Dieman’s Summer Collection Wineglass Bay
  5. Beardbarian Woodworking – Thuya Burl Birthday (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Mirror Mirror of Moraine
  6. (Magic Green) Hong Dian 5019 – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlit Jade
  7. (Originally) Beardbarian Woodworking – Walnut Burl Anniversary (M?) / Robert Oster Envy (swapped this out because the nib was really hard to write with and the line was much thicker AND the ink was really sticky in the syringe I filled the converter with which made me nervous for the pen. So when I got the Esterbrook, I switched it out.)
  8. (New) Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Key Lime (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Down the Don Valley
  9. Leonardo Officiana Italiana – Supernova (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland
  10. Twsbi 580 Diamond ALR – Punch Pink (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Pink Ice

(If there are no links it is because I could not find it, my apologies!)

I think my favorite in this set (besides my usual favorites like Forever Purple and Magic Green) were Wonderland in the Leonardo and Down the Down Valley in the Esterbrook. The Esterbrook matched the ink in it PERFECTLY which I was especially pleased by. The Wonderland ink is a very wet ink but it is really pretty, both the shine when it went down on paper and after it dried. Those blues are super pretty but the pens gave me some trouble. I was surprised at the Kaweco not feeding well, and I need to get a new nib for the two Beardbarian pens. Twsbi performed well as usual. And the Salior Pro Gear NOT Slim confirmed for me that I definitely prefer the Slim version haha. But it is pretty and the ink matched it really well. And the James White pen is a mesmerizingly pretty resin, and I really like the Mystic Mountain ink because it is so pretty when you can really get the shimmer out – there are a bunch of different color shimmers in that one ink – which I was able to do with that custom nib.

Overall this was a great palette. I liked all the pens and inks I ended up with by the end of the month. (And the one I had to swap out just needs a new nib, the pen itself is really well balanced and I enjoyed writing with it.) The colors contrasted really well with each other. And I had two of each shade – two purples, two blues, two greens, and I used the orange and pink as a pair which meant I could try out making my work notes more readable by alternating colors on bullet items and between meetings, and use a different pair each day (rainbows on Friday). It meant I got to use more of my pens every day, which I like, and it did make my notes more readable – which is awesome. 

A successful palette, my favorite kind! It was the third month this year that was basically a rainbow, since April was a rainbow palette because birthday month, and June was a rainbow because Pride month, and then July which was basically only missing yellow. Which made me pause when I was originally picking my colors. Then I remembered rainbows make me happy and also these are my pens and my inks and my notebooks so all that matters is I am happy. And I was very happy with this palette. 

Fountain Pens

August Pen/Ink Palette!

Tada! Pens and inks. I usually only ink 7-9 pens but! I am experimenting with a new carry case AND. August is the one year anniversary of me getting into all this. So! I’m going a little extra this time…

My theme is sunset, I was trying to think of good colors for the last month of summer and it made me think of a day ending, as the summer ends, and then I thought of a sunset! The idea of a sunset made me really happy at the wealth of colors I could try out. So that’s what we’re doing!

There are two columns of pens and ink sample cards laid out side by side. The left column starts with a dark green, then a blue, then a darker blue/purple, then purple, then a slightly lighter purple, and last a rose magenta color. The right side colum starts with a darker orange, then a slightly lighter orange, and then another slightly lighter orange, then a peach, then a darker yellow, and last a lighter yellow. The names of the pens and the inks are listed below the photo.
August 2022 Pens and Inks

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

2. Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat 

3. James White – Nebula (Custom Nib) / Ferris Wheel Press Tumbling Time Blue

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

5. Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F) / Van Dieman Beetroot Relish

6. Bearbarian Woodworking – Copper Eclipse Sunset, Diamine 2021 Inkvent Raspberry Rose

7. Conklin – Coronet Orange (F) / Kakimori Apricot Tea (Edit – switched Apricot Tea out for Kyo Iro Moonlight of Higashiyama on 8.1.22)

8. Kaweco AL Sport Limited Edition – Orange (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Pumpkin Patch

9. Leonardo Officina Italiana Brooks PM4 Limited Edition – Supernova (F) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 Wonderland

10. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pen – Orange (EF) / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Peach Punch

11. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (EF) / Sailor Ink Studio 770

12. Majohn Wancai Mini Fountain Pen – Transparent Clear (F) / Diamine 2019 Inkvent Golden Star

(You may notice the two yellow inks are in different pens than the picture shows, my mistake! The list is correct, the photo is not. And also – Apologies – I can’t seem to find links for the Diamine Inkvent inks – they originally came out in an advent calendar in 2021 or 2019. The place I grabbed bottles no longer has them – seems to be a very limited run.)

Now, where am I going to put these 12 pens you may be asking! I technically have pen loops for 7 pens across my two main portfolios. I can squeeze in 2 more by putting a smaller pen – like a Kaweco – across the top of my weekly portfolio, and another one clipped into the card slots in my larger portfolio. So that gives me 7 in my main portfolio and 2 in my weekly. See why I usually try to stay under 9 pens? Haha.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered Galen Leather makes tiny little cases for Kaweco pens. I clearly needed one, since I have entirely too many Kawecos. Once I got it I figured out I could fit 3 small pens in it. Tada! Space for 12 pens.

Here’s the thing – If all 3 of my smaller pens are in the extra tiny case, then I don’t technically have a second spot in the weekly portfolio. Oh no…but! I also picked up a full size pen case at the same time as the tiny one – and I happen to be using three Esterbrook pens this month. So! I’ve got 3 Esterbook in a big pen external case, the Sailor Mini, Orange Kaweco, and the clear Majohn in the tiny external case, and the rest of the pens in my large portfolio. Yay! This should be fun.

A purple folio with space on the right for a notebook. The one there is a more blue purple, with three stickers on it. One in the bottom right says “Don’t believe every thought you think.” And to the right is a unicorn with pink hair and sunglasses holding a sparkly fountain pen the same height as the unicorn. And above those is a lightbulb with a black cat and a garden inside. On the right side of the portfolio is 4 card slots, and 6 pens. The card slots are holding a grey cat paper clip, and two ring splints. Set on top of the portfolio in the center is a purple external pen case that has space for 3 pens. And on the top right corner of the notebook is a smaller purple case, one pen rests inside, and 2 pens are set below it.
Purple Portfolio from Galen Leather, all 12 pens, and a fresh purple notebook!

First Impressions!
I got the pens inked this morning and I usually fill them with a syringe, so sometimes I need to do a little bit of manipulation to get them to write. Then of COURSE I have to test them…ahem.
– Magic Green – writes as well as always! (Knock on wood).
– Blue Sailor – gorgeous. I love the mini slim, and I love the MF nib!! And Cat is one of my favorite inks. Gorgeous all around.
– Sparkle Stick – had a little bit of trouble trying to prime the feed on this one, so I rinsed it, and eventually got it to write, and this ink is going to be awesome in this custom nib.
– Forever Purple – also writing wonderfully as usual!
– Esterbrook Purple – very pleased, writes well, solid color. It’s a PURPLE without SHIMMER and I like it. How dare.
– Custom Swirly – yeeees I was worried the nib in this one would be wonky, but no! Writes well out of the gate, and this is a fun ink to play with.
– Conklin Orange – this ink is WEIRD. It had a weird consistency in the first place, and it feathers like bonkers on the page…I’m going to give it a couple of days but I might end up swapping this ink out.
– Kaweco Orange – ink is struggling to flow. I need to check the nib and feed alignment, I’ll keep using it and see if I can’t loosen it up. I think I saw a post about this with like, a nick name, because this happens commonly? Haha. I’ll look for it.
– SuperNova Wonderland – writing beautifully as it did all thru July!
– Esterbook Orange – ugh. Would not write right away – unsure why, although it does have an EF nib – but no shimmer in the ink?? I let it sit for a while and it started to write, but it’s still struggling. I’ll let it sit for a longer time and see what happens.
– Esterbook Yellow – same problem as the orange, so we’ll see how it does tomorrow maybe?
– Clear Shiny Yellow – pen is so wee and tiny and cute!! I hope this nib can handle a shimmer ink… I put a shimmer ink in this because it is truly gorgeous…
Check it out:



Keep in mind, this is all after a single use, testing the pens and inks for the first time. So much can change in a month! I will naturally complain on twitter, ahem, but I will also post a review type thing at the end of the month. It will be less in depth and more…Spoon’s weird opinions! Yay!
Enjoy!

Fountain Pens

August Daily Samples, Wearingeul

To be honest, I often pick which samples I am going to try out by what is actively available AS a sample because some things – like ColorVerse – seem to be almost impossible to find. Maybe I need to look around some more…

Which brings me to Wearingeul. I’d seen posts on Instagram of inks with some intriguing names linked back to this manufacturer, and I found a place that does samples last month. Hooray! The ink name that first intrigued me was “A Watery Star” which brought such an interesting image into my mind. I think the next one I saw was “A Taxidermied Genius” and I thought, okay where can I find more of this awesomeness. 

When I start looking for ink samples these days I just google the manufacturer + sample and see what pops up. Often I get vanness1938.com as a first result, which was where I did get these this time. But I also look for a site that will tell me anything about the inks. Which brought me to the Hamilton Pen Company. They have all of the series sorted out with a nice tool in the side bar, so I could easily see which inks belonged to which series. 

What further intrigued me about these inks is that the series are all associated with literature. One of them is even called “World Literature Series.” Ink colors associated with books? Yes please. I am a book lover, and the idea of inks associated with literature sounded awesome. I have also discovered that if an ink is named something and then the color of that ink does not match the name – let’s say the ink is named “Verdant Grass” but the color is like. Orange. Then it makes me super grumpy.

So a series of inks that are “re-interpreted novels”? I am expecting the ink colors to make SENSE. For example, one of the series is “Alice in Wonderland” and one of those inks is Alice, and the Alice ink is a light blue with light gold glitter. In my head, that matches what I think of when I think of the character from Alice in Wonderland. She’s blonde and wears a blue dress – matchy matchy. 

What will be trickier is some of the inks that come from an author I am unfamiliar with. But that also means I have some fun opportunities for research and also finding out about some new books to read. 

That was my thought process when looking at these – and the next thing I had to figure out was how to get exactly 31 of them. That was fun. I basically wrote down every single series and figured out which ones to Tetris together to equal 31. Then when I went to pick up the samples, an ink in one series was unavailable. Sigh. So I picked up a 2 ink series and have an extra yay. 

And here are the inks I picked up to sample this month:

20 sample vials from above, sitting in an orange tray. Each white cap has three sticker dots on them. One of the sticker dots says 8.22, the second is a number from 1-20, and the third is blank. They are laid out in numerical order by fives.
Sample Vials from above.

Yi Sang Series

  • 13 Children
  • A Taxidermied Genius
  • Architecture Infinite Cube
  • Me In The Mirror
  • Soyeongwije

Natsume Soseki Series

  • I am a cat
  • Mind
  • San shirt

Alice in Wonderland

  • Alice
  • Cheshire Cat
  • Mad Hatter
  • Queen of Hearts
  • White Rabbit

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

  • Cowardly Lion
  • Dorothy
  • Scarecrow
  • Tin Woodman

Jeong Ji-yong Series

  • A Watery Star
  • Floating Clouds
  • The Night Colored in Grape

Kim Sowol Series

  • Flowing Leaves
  • Half Moon with Dimmed Light
  • The Flowers on the Way
  • The Song of Reed

World Literature Series

  • Beneath the Wheel
  • Don Quixote
  • For Whom The Bell Tolls
  • Jane Eyre
  • Metamorphosis 
  • Resurrection

Demian Series

  • Lost 
  • Mature (this one is extra)

Now all we have to do is sample each ink, one at a time, and see how these turn out. I’ll be reading up on some of these authors I am unfamiliar with so I’ll report back if I find anything interesting! 

Fountain Pens

August Palette, Ink Colors Narrowed

Let’s continue where we left off, shall we? In my last post I showed you how I start to pick inks out for my monthly palette. I go thru all of the inks I have in my sample library and start – you know what? If you want to know more about how I started, go read THIS post. 

Today I narrowed down my choices to two different – but similar – palettes. I usually have a rather flamboyant ink in the pen I put my custom nib in. I had two options for August and I ended up picking the one I haven’t used yet, just for fun. It also happens to be a better option for my sunset theme.

2 sample cards laid on top of each other on a wooden desk. The swaps are both blue inks with red sheen and silver sparkle, but each is slightly different. The card on top is Birmingham Ink: Galactic (twinkle) and the one on the bottom is partially covered, but Ferris Wheel Press can be seen.
Ferris Wheel Press and Birmingham Ink
A single sample card on a wooden table of Ferris Wheel Press FerriTales: Down the Rabbit Hole Tumbling Time Blue. There is a stamp on the card that looks like a fountain pen nib with a cats face engraved on it.
Ferris Wheel Press
FerriTales: Down the Rabbit Hole
Tumbling Time Blue

Next, I need to match my new colors to ones I end up keeping. For August I am keeping two inks from my July palette, an orange I am way too in love with and what I am referring as my Forever Purple. (It’s ColorVerse Hayabusa, in a Sailor Pro Gear Slim Northern Lights – it is my favorite.) Because my theme for August is “sunset,” and purple is technically a color that can be found in a sunset, I used that as an excuse to start this whole process. Any excuse to start with purples really. I’ve managed to keep purples relevant to these palettes for months now, haha. So, I took the Hayabusa sample and started by comparing the purples I have to that one. 

Two cards, side by side but overlapping a little in the middle. On the left is ColorVerse Hayabusa and on the right is PenBBS Purple Sky. Hayabusa is a sparkly warm purple, and Purple sky is cooler purple with no sparkle.
ColorVerse Hayabusa and PenBBS Purple Sky

Every purple in the pile gets compared back to the first purple. I am looking for two things primarily this time – a color that is distinct from the Forever Purple, but also goes with it. I discard purples that look too dark or too light or fall outside of the theme. I ended up with a lot of options left over – which is intentional. I don’t want to narrow it down too much at the beginning.

Pile of sample cards of purple inks, ranging from cool purples to warm purples. They are overlapping so the writing on them is close to each other.
Pile of sample cards of purple inks, ranging from cool purples to warm purples.

Once I have a more manageable collection of purples, I start adding in the magentas. I’ve already made certain decisions which can roll into the next color – for example, the samples that are too dark or light, those can be discarded quickly. And I can get rid of obviously too bright magentas. I’m again looking for a color that is distinct from the purples I have picked and yet still has a smooth transition which is the effect I am looking for this time. I ended up with a decent set of options.

Lots of sample cards on a wooden desk. The purples have been narrowed down to 4 options, and there are magenta sample cards placed around it in smaller groupings or singly.
The magenta sample cards are circling the line or purple sample cards.
5 purple sample cards in an overlapping line on top, 5 magenta sample cards on the bottom.
Two lines of sample cards, purple on top and magenta’s on bottom.

Next up are the oranges. I actually had three fairly distinct oranges – a darker orange, a sort of straight orange which is a bit brighter, and then a kind of peach color. All of these would work well in a sunset theme, but I needed to see what worked with the purples and magentas I pulled. Choices so far continue to help me make some easy choices. I’m always getting rid of colors that are darker or lighter than I want for that month’s palette. Now I remove doubles – colors that are super similar to each other – or practically identical. I ended up not being able to narrow this pile down too far, because I really liked the three distinct oranges I started with. No worries, I still have another color to look at, that should help me decide. 
To pick the yellows I really have to look at the writing on the card to see how readable it is. Many yellows are too hard to read when written with the nibs I use. And for the palette I’m looking for, I got rid of the darker ones as well. 
Actually, I use the writing on each card to make my choices. So I’ll line up the cards so the writing is side by side. The swabs are gorgeous and good for picking broad swathes of color. But often the writing turns out very different from the swab. Close enough but when I am getting down to picking a color for sure, I want to look at the writing on the card. 

Line of 5 purple cards, underneath that is 5 magenta cards, below that is 5 darker orange cards, then 6 medium/bright oranges, under those are 3 peach colored oranges, next is 4 orange/yellows, then 5 brighter yellows. These rows are all overlapping the ones above and below and beside each other.
7 lines of sample cards overlapped so the writing on each card is closer to other cards writing.

Next I narrow things down, this time I end up with 3-4 options per color. Each color gets compared to the one before it. I want a transition that reminds me of a sunset, so I’m comparing each color to the ones on either side, so I don’t end up just matching everything off the Forever Purple. Frankly, if the palette I end up with doesn’t work well with that purple – it’s fine. I have two colors that have been constant for months now, and they don’t have to go with the palette because I am keeping them for different reasons. I’ll go into that in another post. 

Sample cards still laid out in rows by color grouping, with new group colors overlapping them from top to bottom. 3 purples, 3 magentas, 2 darker oranges, 4 medium/bright oranges, 3 peach oranges, 3 orange/yellows, 3 yellows.
Narrowed down choices for each color.

And lastly – my choices, and my secondary choices. This is where I narrow things down to two very similar palette’s. I do this for three reasons. Firstly, I want to be able to walk away and look at something else for a bit before making the final decision. At this point I will have been staring at these colors for at least a half hour. Second, Husband is the color expert in this house. He literally used to do that for a living, making sure colors were accurate. And third is that I like keeping him involved in my silly hobby. This is an easy for us to collaborate. And it’s fun explaining my thought process to him and what I am looking for. 

First palette option:
ColorVerse, Hayabusa
Van Dieman’s Harvest Collection, Beetroot Relish
Diamine 2021 Inkvent, Raspberry Rose
Kakimori, Apricot Tea
Diamine 2021 Inkvent, Peach Punch
Ferris Wheel Press, Pumpkin Patch
Diamine 2021 Inkvent, Wonderland
Diamine 2019 Inkvent, Gold Star
Sailor Ink, Studio 770
Second Palette Option:
Van Dieman’s Harvest Collection, Tasmanian Lavendar
Kyo Iro, Cherry Blossom of Keage
Kyo Iro, Moonlight of Higashiyama
Van Dieman’s Harvest Collection, Apricot
PenBBS, #517 Cold Dews
Kiwi Ink, Liquid Gold
PenBBS, #501 Spring Festival

And that’s where I’ll leave it today! When I’ve got these two sets of options like this I can start seriously matching pens to the possible ink colors. Often I have some ideas already – for example, I had already pulled all of my orange pens for this palette as soon as I decided on the sunset theme. I also have a new purple and a new tiny clear one I want to try. But I don’t always know which colors I am going to pick until the very end and sometimes I don’t know when a new pen might be coming in, so I keep my options open.

By next weekend – the end of the month – I will have picked both the palette and the pens, because I’ll need to set them up and I’ll reveal that next time! Until then, if you have a favorite color from this post, please share!

First palette option in a row on top, second palette option in a row on the bottom.
First palette option in a row on top, second palette option in a row on the bottom.