Tag Archives: August

Fountain Pens

August Daily Sample Review, Wearingeul

“Did you know” is often followed by an Autistic info dumping and the joy and excitement is contagious. I ended up with half a dozen pages of notes and hit 2000 words without getting to the end of the inks and was thinking, oh maybe I should have several posts… Which is when I realized, oh wait I can edit things. 🙂 So I present to you the heavily edited version of the info dump Aaron ended up listening to. I am lucky he finds me adorable. 

This was an AWESOME month of samples, I absolutely loved it, because each series gave me a new-to-me author to look into or old classics to check out again. I ended up doing a bunch of research, just for fun! I found out a bunch of stuff and ended up picking up most if not all of these books in book book form, and I’m still reading them, and looking into more things, because one thing leads to another! For me the enjoyment this month was both sampling these neat inks and also the other stuff I found out, so that is what I will be sharing with you today! I can’t WAIT to try out more Wearingeul inks. I’m using one in a pen for September, and it is currently one of my favorites. (It’s Flowing Leaves, for the record.)

Oh, also? FOUR grey shimmer inks. Five if you count Tin Woodman that has a matching vial of shimmer to mix in. (Yes, you heard that correctly – the shimmer is SEPARATE from the ink itself…on purpose…)

5 sample cards, stacked on top of one another so that four are only visible by their ink swabs at the top of the card. The last card is full visible and the text says: Wearingeul “Yi Sang Series” Soyeongwije xxx ooo ssssss 22AugVent-5 is written on the bottom left hand corner, and Shimmer is written on the right edge of the card. The cards are colored a light blue, a pink, a brownish, a gray and a purple.
Yi Sand Series, 13 Children, A Taxidermied Genius, Architecture Infinite Cube, Me In The Mirror, Soyeongwije

Did you know…Yi Sang was a Korean poet who died at 27 from tuberculosis and grew up in a Korea occupied by Japan. His work plays with identity, imagery, spacing, pacing, and rhythm. I read a couple of really interesting pieces that seem to be referring to his illness and how it affects his home and family. I empathize with this, being disabled myself. I saw a lot of playfulness tempered by a grief that was multifaceted in nature. ALSO he was one of the first Surrealist poets – which is neat. His poetry is engrossing, for the record, I kept reading the next one and then the next one and then the…

Three cards stacked on top of each other, the first two cards are only visible by the ink swabs at the top of their cards. The bottom one is fully visible and says: Wearingeul Natsume Soseki Series Sanshiro Xxx ooo ssssss 22AugVent-8 is written in the bottom left of the card, and Standard is written along the right edge of the card. The cards are colored a shimmer grey, a light blue, and a saturated yellow.
Natsume Soseki Series, I am a Cat, Mind, Sanshiro

Did you know…Natsume Soseki was a Japanese novelist who is well known for writing a book still used in Japanese schools today titled “I am a cat.” It is a satirical novel from the point of view of a cat, and it plays with formal speaking and classism. AND there is a video game called Ace Attorney, the protagonists name is Soseki Natsume – sound familiar? And the character has a cat named “Wagahai” which is the narrator cat’s preferred pronouns from “I am a cat” and is rarely used nowadays except to refer to pompous and anthropomorphic animals.

Oh also, I fell down a ridiculous rabbit hole when I started looking for one of his novels which I thought was called “The Mind” – the name of one of the inks I sampled – but couldn’t see it in the Wikipedia article list of his work. Ready for this? 

When I couldn’t find “The Mind” in his book list, I googled what “the mind” was in Japanese – it’s “kokoro.” Neat, so I went back to the list, sure enough, Kokoro is listed as one of his novels. Naturally I look at THAT Wikipedia article, which declared “kokoro” translates literally to “heart.” What? Wait a sec…I double checked my google search – what a scholar am I – and translated “heart” to Japanese – and got “shinzo.” So. Completely different. Let’s try translating “kokoro” to English – got “heart.” Great. That clears up nothing. WELL. Back in the Kokoro Wiki article, it elaborates that the word has shades of meaning and could be translated to “the heart of things” or “feelings.” I know only enough about Japanese to make my “yep, that sounds right,” about how complicated this is face. And moved on. Wait! The ink bottle label has Japanese characters on it – what does that translate too??

See? Rabbit hole. Such fun. 

This series had the second grey shimmer. Delightfully distinct, I will say.

Whew, that was a lot. Trust me when I say there was MORE.  

5 cards stacked on top of one another. The first four are only visible by the ink swabs along the time of the cards. The last card is fully visible and the text says: Wearingeul “Alice in Wonderland” White Rabbit Xxx ooo sssss 22AugVent-13 is written in the bottom left hand corner, and standard is written on the right edge of the card. The colors are a sparkly blue, bright pink, forest green, sparkly brownish maroon, and a pale tannish pink.
Alice in Wonderland Series, Alice, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit

Speaking of rabbit holes…I was really pleased by how the ink colors matched with the characters – when the ink names don’t match the color it bugs me. 

I haven’t ever read the original Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) – I am looking forward to it, I’ve read that it is WEIRD. 

Did you know… Alice in Wonderland is considered “literary nonsense” which is a thing, seriously, I looked. Literary nonsense started being recognized in the 1900’s and is categorized by the conventions of subverting “language conventions or logical reasoning.” This effect of nonsense is usually an excess of logic, rather than the absence of it. Humor comes from it’s nonsensical nature rather than a punchline. Also, L. Frank Baum thought it was incoherent. Fun!

4 cards stacked on top of each other, the first three only visible by the ink swabs at the top of the card. The last card is fully visible and the text says: Wearingeul “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” Tin Woodman Xxx ooo ssssss 22Augent-17 is on the bottom left hand corner edge of the card, and standard is written along the right edge of the card.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman

Speaking of L. Frank Baum…

Did you know…The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was in part influenced by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland? Yep, despite thinking it was incoherent, both authors believed children’s books should be fun, and not just moral lessons.

These inks were really muted which made me sad and THEN I discovered that there are 5 “glitter potions” which I got all excited about! Brain, Brave, and Heart make sense, because there is a Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and Tin Woodman  inks, but the other two are Emerald City and Silver Shoes – Didn’t Dorothy wear ruby slippers? Are they different in the book? I have to check out the glitter potions still – could be interesting. 

I haven’t read this original either. Yay books!

3 cards stacked on top of each other, the first two are only visible by the ink swabs at the top of the card. The bottom card is full visible and the text says: Wearingeul “Jeong Ji-yong Series” The Night Colored in Grape Xxx ooo sssss 22AugVent-20 is written along the bottom left hand edge of the card, and standard is written along the right edge of the card. The colors at the top of the cards are a sparkly blue, a pink and a purple.
Jeong Ji-yong Series, A Watery Star, Floating Cloud, The Night Colored in Grape

Did you know…that Jeong Ji-yong’s work has three phases, the first of which is a sort of sensual phase, then a religious one, then a more traditional one. These three inks are pulling from three poems from his first phase, which called into imagery of the sea often. 

A Watery Star is from “Windowpane” (1929)

Floating Cloud is from “Home” (1927)

The Night Colored in Grape is from “The Dream of Wind and Waves” (1922)

He was also a Korean poet! That’s two at this point. 

4 cards stacked on top of each other, the first 3 are only visible by the ink swabs at the top of the card. The bottom card is full visible and the text says: Wearingeul “Kim Sowol Series” The Song of Reed Xxx ooo sssssss 22AugVent-24 is written along the edge of the bottom left hand corner, and standard is written along the right side edge of the card.

Did you know…Kim Sowol is our third Korean poet? I didn’t find a ton on this one – but I found it interesting that all four of the authors from Korea/Japan at this point were all writing in the same time periods. I couldn’t link the inks with his poems, but I did find a note that his poetry called Korean folk songs to mind, and these titles make sense with that in mind haha.

6 cards stacked on top of each other, the first 5 are only visible by the ink swabs at the top of the card. The bottom card is full visible and the text says: Wearingeul “World Literature Series” Resurrection Xxx ooo ssssss 22AugVent-30 on the bottom edge of the left hand corner, and standard written on the right edge of the card. The colors of the card tops are a bright green, a pale pink, a dark color, a lighter purple, a maroon, and a light blue.
World Literature Series, Beneath the Wheel, Don Quixote, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Jane Eyre, Metamorphosis, Resurrection

Alright this was a series of books by different authors that have nothing to do with each other! They’re all from different countries, come from different time periods, and deal with different topics. Which is probably the point of a World Literature Series… Here is a random fact about each one:

Beneath the Wheel (Hesse, 1906) was reissued in 1957 as The Prodigy.

Don Quixote (de Cervantes, 1605) often labeled as the first modern novel.

For Whom The Bell Tolls (Hemmingway, 1940) title comes from John Donne’s series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness.

Jane Eyre (Brontë, 1847) revolutionized prose fiction – a Bildungsroman which is a literary genre reflecting “coming of age” themes. 

Metamorphosis (Kafka, 1915) this is a super weird book, seriously. Starts with a dude turning into a giant bug. And continues from there. 

Resurrection (Tolstoy, 1899) was the last of his major long fiction works published in his life time. 

Only one card is shown, fully visible. The ink is a lighter blue, and the text says: Wearingeul “Demian Series” Lost Xxx ooo ssssss 22AugVent-31 is written along the edge of the card in the bottom left hand corner, and standard is written along the right edge of the card.
Demian Series, Lost

Dieman? Nope – Demian! I only sampled one of the two inks from this series – saving the second one for Catch All Month in November. So tune in next time. 🙂

Can you tell I had a heck of a lot of fun here? I wonder if I’ll be able to do something similar with the other inks. I know Vinta inks are all linked to stories and fables and stuff – so that could be a fun historical review? That’s a good idea, thanks internet! 

Fountain Pens

August Truphae Review, Caran d’Ache

Funny story, a friend of mine wrote a book with a character name Caran and I texted her to show her I’d just found this ink and she told me that is where she got the name! Small world, eh? By the way – excellent book, check it out: Resonance, by Dora Raymaker

Notebook page with the following text: August Truphae (‘22) Caran d’Ache Inks! (Written inside of an ink bottle stamp) Delicate Green Divine Pink Electric Orange Infra Red Magma Blue Each color name has a line of color matching it underneath
Qtip line swabs of each Truphae Sample

These are really fun colors! Two of them remind me of other inks I already love – Down the Don Valley by Ferris Wheel Press and Wonderland by Diamine. I will definitely use the other three, altho reds are not my favorite so…maybe not that one. It was kind of interesting how 4 of these inks were vibrant and bright and the blue was a lot darker. But the ink wasn’t sticky, it wrote smoothly, it didn’t feel dry, and it does not bleed thru the page. All good things. Overall solid inks! 

5 sample cards, they are stacked on top of each other so only the swatch of color at the top is visible on the first 4. the last one is fully visible and the text reads: Caran d’Ache Magma Blue xxx ooo sssss And the word “standard” written on the right edge of the card. The first four cards are a bright green, a brigh pink, a bright orange, and a bright red. the last one is a darker blue.
Sample Cards for the Caran d’Ache Truphae inks I sampled in August.
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!