Tag Archives: Kaweco

Fountain Pens

December 2022: Palette, Daily Samples, and Subscription Samples, All together now…

Trying something different! Instead of multiple posts, I’m going to just share a couple things from each.

Let’s start with the Pen/Ink Palette.
December’s pen/ink palette theme was more of an intention to use only inks from Diamine Inkvent 2021 than a proper theme. My favorite over all ended up being one I added from the 2022 Inkvent however haha – so the favorite here will be my second favorite. I really liked this palette, I found it very comfortable over all.

A sample card with a color swatch at the top, and the text says “Inkvent (15) Nightshade xxxooosss, standard, 2021” all of this is in an ink that looks like a light blue in this photo.
One of my sample cards from the beginning times! I do them very differently these days. And the ink ends up looking more purple in the notebooks I am using, hard to catch in a photo.

Favorite: (second favorite…) Diamine Inkvent 2021, Nightshade and the London Pen Company Christopher 13 Jr. pens.
This ink was not in this pen this month – but they were my favorites respectively. I have actually used this ink in a couple of palette’s this year, but! The thing that makes it my favorite is that it’s one of those blue-purples. It operates really well, no skipping, good level of wetness, doesn’t smudge.

A crab pen stand holding a shimmery pen.
My crab stand is adorable, ahem. But this pen! Look at this gorgeous pen! It’s the perfect size and weight for me. And those colors!

I really enjoyed the shape and weight of this pen model. And the two I have are gorgeous colors.

Text reads: “December Pen Test” in a green ink. And the pangram “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” The pangram is repeated 7 times, each line is a different color.
Candlelight is the fifth pangram line down, it is mostly a golden yellow, there is significant shading from an almost unreadable pale yellow to a darker golden brown color. (Nightshade is the third pangram line down for the record.)

Least Favorite: Diamine Inkvent 2021, Candlelight
There is nothing really wrong with this ink, but I found it a little annoying to read as I was writing it and after it dried. It shades pretty significantly, I am hoping that is visible in that picture of my writing sample.

Learned: A balanced palette is really important for my mental health. This is more of a year long thing I learned, but it really solidified for me this month. So if there is a pen and ink combo I don’t like, as soon as I’ve realized that, swapping it is a good idea.

Now, Daily Samples!
This month I went through Diamine Inkvent 2022 Advent Calendar. A complete mystery set of samples is a double edged sword. There were more browns than I like, but at least there was a healthy dose of shimmer inks!

Close up of a sample card. All that can be seen is a piece of the swatch across the top of the card, a stamp of a nib, and a pool of the same ink that is seen in the swatch appearing to drip off of the nib.
Look at that pretty color! You can see the dark warm purple color with several different light colors of shimmer.

Favorite: Diamine Inkvent 2022, Solar Storm
Hands down my favorite. I liked it so much and so instantly that I added it into my palette right away. After using it all month I have decided it is a little dark for my tastes over all, and more of a warm purple, when I prefer cool purples. But the shimmer, is so fantastic. So really my favorite thing is the way the shimmer works in this ink!

Sample card with a long swatch of color at the top, and a stamp of a nib on the right side. There is text reading “ Diamine, Inkvent 2022, Pick Me Up, xxxooosssss, 22DecVent-15, scent/sheen”
Icky green/brown color. Where it looks sort of golden in this photo is actually a lot browner.

Least Favorite: Diamine Inkvent 2022, Pick Me Up
I do NOT like scented inks. And heck this one was scented. AND it’s brown, my least favorite ink color. And to top it all off, the scent was one of those things that I recognized but couldn’t place, and I still haven’t figured it out so it continues to bug me. Triple threat.
There were other scented inks, and since they were behind sealed Advent Calendar style doors, they were always unexpected. I hated it. Fortunately a friend of mine opened her calendar ahead of time and was able to give me warnings for the days they would show up. Very helpful! I’m not sure I would have been able to finish the set of samples otherwise.

Learned: There were a couple of inks in this set that look a lot like inks from the 2021 Inkvent. I saw some folks be upset about this on Instagram. But it made me think, what if they look really similar, but they are different somehow? How are they different? Why would they release the same shade of ink with a different name (beyond the obvious consumer marketing nonsense)? I want to look into this some more.

Last but not least – the Subscription Samples.
This month I received Kaweco Inks from Truphae (and a Lamy pen? Seems off that is isn’t a Kaweco pen??) and I received Ferris Wheel Press inks from Ink Flight. Unfortunately I got a lot of duplicates from Ferris Wheel Press, since I sampled all of the inks they had at the time in April for that months Daily Sample set. Also unfortunately overall, none of the inks really stood out either way.

A container of Wearingeul Smile Cat Ink Swatch Cards, 200g’m, 5 sheets and a single swatch card above it with a blue ink with purple sheen and silver shimmer.
I REALLY like these cards but I’m not sure what I should use them for…

Favorite: So instead of a favorite ink sample, my favorite thing from these subscriptions this month were the Wearingeul Sample Cards. They have a kind of hydrophobic impression in the shape of the Cheshire Cat smile from Alice in Wonderland and when ink is applied over it, over about a minute the ink will move off of the hydrophobic spots and reveal the smile. It is SUPER cool looking. I took a video, I’ll try to put it on my twitter when this post goes up.

7 sample vials with ink in them. They all have white lids, but only the front 2 have labeled dots on top.
I was able to sample 2 of them, and at least one of those was shimmer, so yay.

Least Favorite: Again, none of the inks stood out as my least favorite since none of them stood out in any way really. Maybe I am just indecisive this month. And while the Lamy pen I got from Truphae is purple…Lamy’s are not my favorite pens. I do really like the tear-off notepad from Endless. So! I guess my least favorite thing from the Subscription Samples was the duplicate inks I got.

Learned: My reaction to the duplicates was a high level of disappointment. This was not Ink Flight’s fault, for the record – I really enjoy the subscription boxes both companies send out. I just have a ton of ink samples at this point, so it’s my own fault! But the thing I learned is that I really need to figure out how to handle this better so I am not so disappointed.

Overall I most enjoyed the Palette I used this month. The Daily Samples and the Subscription Samples ended up being a little frustrating. Fortunately nothing super terrible and some new favorites mixed in, which I really appreciate.

Next month (next YEAR) I’ll be using a mix of brands for the Daily Samples, a bunch of Kaweco pens and shimmer inks in my Pen/Ink Palette (theme: Ice), and looking forward to whatever I get in my subscriptions! I expect to run into the usual problems with shimmer inks and fine nibbed pens – sigh – and I am guessing the mix of sample inks is going to be frustrating somehow due to the random grab bag effect. But, as usual, looking forward to finding some joy in all of this!

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 Pen/Ink Palette: Monsters/Spoop

A purple notebook and pen holder. There are 10 pens on the left, 9 of them in loops, 1 loose. From top to bottom, a light silver, a darker grey, a blue, purple, white swirl, a dark purple, a light blue/purple, a light green, a dark green, an orange, a red, and a yellow. Above the notebook/pen case is a 3 pen pen case, with the Forever Purple and Blue pens, and the Magic Green pen. On the right of the notebook/pen holder is a purple notebook with two stickers on it. In the top left corner the sticker is 4 ghosts looking out of a front door and a welcome mat. In the bottom right hand corner is a green octopus with a red knit hat and a blue flannel coat. He has a fountain pen in two tentacles, a pumpkin in another, and a coffee cup in another. He is sitting in a pile of autumn leaves.
These are the pens and Captain Log I will be using for October!

Yeah, the theme for this month is definitely not hard to puzzle out – Halloween is in October, Monsters and Spoopy things are Halloween related, therefore! Yeah, it’s not hard. I actually ended up picking out the inks themselves and then relating them to “monsters” – although that word was definitely stretched to fit in several cases…

I concentrated on Purple, Greens, and Oranges, specifically in a saturated fashion. After a WHOLE MONTH with only my one usual Forever Purple in September, I was very excited to play with purples again! Which, ahem, has nothing to do with why I picked purples, I mean, purples are totally a Halloween color, right? Right.

I am using a lot of shimmer, and a lot of inks from my August Daily Samples – Wearingeul – and I am very excited. So, let’s take a look at what “spoopy monsters” I used to justify the colors I picked!

On the left side is a grey ink paired with a silver pen, a silver ink paired with a dark grey pen, a sparkle purple ink paired with a purple and white swirly pen, a dark purple ink with a dark purple pen, and a blue ish ink paired with a blueish pen. On the righ side is a sparkly green ink paired with a light green pen, a light green ink paired with a dark green pen, a bright orange ink paired with a bright orange pen, a dark orange ink paired with a sparkly red pen, and a yellow ink paired with a yellow pen.
All 10 ink sample cards paired with 10 fountain pens.
  1. Skeleton: Ohto – Tasche FF 10T (?) / Diamine Inkvent 2021 – Ash 
  2. Ghost: Pelikan M205 – Moonstone (EF) / Vinta Inks, Fairytale Collection – Clouds of Grey
  3. Witch: Mad Science Pen Company, Hooded Ranger – Proton (F) / Wearingeul, Yi Sang Series – Soyeongwije 
  4. Purple People Eater: Sailor Limited Edition Pro Gear Slim Sapporo – Demonstrator Wisteria Purple (MF) / PenBBS – #095 Lin Huiyin 
  5. Frank, the Demonic Octopus: Sailor Professional Gear Slim, Manyo – Dianthus (MF) / Diamine Inkvent 2021- Nightshade 
  6. Zombie: Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves
  7. Frankenstein: Kaweco AL Sport Aurora Limited (F) / Kyo No Oto – Moegiiro 
  8. Pumpkin Head: Kaweco AL Sport Limited Edition – Orange (F) / Troublemaker – Mango
  9. Vampire: Monteverde Strata – Red (F)  / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Vintage Copper
  10. Werewolf: Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (1.1m Stub) / Van Dieman, Midnight Collection – Howl at the Moon

(Also the two forever pens and the magic pen – but technically they are not part of this palette, so! I will not be including them in this list.) 

I am very excited about the purple Wearingeul ink and the Vinta. Those look very promising in this dip test:

Each line is written in a different color. Each line reads the “monster” it is inspired by, and the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” I will describe the color of the ink and then the “monster” it was inspired by. . Dark Blue: “Oct “Monster” Pen Palette Dip Test” Dark grey: “Skeleton,” Ash Light Grey: “Ghost” Clouds of Grey Dark purple with shimmer: “Witch” Soyeongwije Purple: “Purple People Eater” #095 Lin Huiyin Blueish: “Frank, the Demonic Octopus” Nightshade Green: “Zombie” Flowing Leaves Light Green: “Frankenstein” Moegiiro Orange: “Pumpkin Head” Mango Red: “Vampire” Vintage Copper Yellow: “Werewolf” Howl at the Moon
October Monster INK Palette – it should say! Since I used a metal dip pen to sample each one.

Howl at the Moon seemed like an ink that is to pale to use very much when I first sampled it back in December, but now I have started using stub nibs and I want to see how well the ink shows up from a broader nib! And I got the Troublemaker ink in the September Ink Flight and I fell instantly in love, so barely looked at other oranges when I was picking those out haha. Oh! And Frank, the Demonic Octopus is a reference to a creature my Game Master for a game of Dungeons and Dragons introduced, we fought, and my character – an ambulatory wheelchair using Wizard Librarian, who casts spells with a fountain pen and ink – got a bottle of demonic octopus ink. 🙂 Really I am excited about all of these inks, but thought calling out those specifics would be fun. 

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

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 Palette, Picking Inks

Oh look, the internet! Clearly this place wants to hear about the fountain pen stuff I’m all excited about. Right? Definitely. Here we go!


So I got into fountain pens last October (2021). Since then I have been keeping a set of pens inked, sampling new inks, and trying new pens. I’ll get into all that as I back track in future posts. Today I am going to wax eloquent about my current stage of fun.


I forget when I started this but I decided to stop carrying around 20 inked pens at a time, and started trying to keep to 7 at a time. Ish. This was after reading a post on the practicality of it and realizing that more than about 7 meant I just didn’t use all of the pens. Since pens can’t stay infinitely inked and still work well, it ended up being kind of a waste. Then I decided to swap them out monthly. THEN I started to pick themes for both the inks I used that month and the pens I put them in.


Which brings us to August. About half way thru the month before – so in this instance, right now, middle of July – I start looking at which inks and pens I’m going to use for the following month. I usually think of a theme a couple months before – for August I was planning on using a sunset palette. Fortunately I’ve been picking up orange pens lately – convenient eh?


I create a new sample card every time I pick up a new ink. Since I have been sampling a new ink daily for a couple of months, I have a decent library at this point. What I like to do when I am picking out my inks is I literally walk thru every single card for whatever colors I am looking for on the next palette. In this case I was looking for purples, magentas (I do NOT like pinks usually), oranges, and yellows. I pulled from this painting my husband and I have from one of our anniversaries:

A painting of a sunset with purples, pinks, reds, oranges, and yellows. There is a lighthouse in the foreground in a dark silhouette. The ocean around the lighthouse is reflecting the sunset's pinks and purples.
Painting, Angela Ferrari

And yes, I pulled all of those colors – ALL of them. Every single purple, magenta, orange, and yellow I had in my sample card library. Wheeeee.


When I am first pulling these colors, I do it very loosely. Is it purple? Yep. Goes in the pile. Is it green? Yep. Put it back. I look for nuance after I’ve pulled all of my main colors. Like, a purple that is so dark it’s closer to a black. Or a yellow that is too faint to read easily. I put all of those back and then I do the next thing.

5 piles of ink sample cards. Each card has a swatch of ink at the top of the card, with the details of the ink - Brand, series, name - and an ink drop below that. There are a couple of smaller sample cards are mixed in, they only have the swatch and the inks details on them. There is a dark blue/purple pile at the bottom, and then above that there is a pile or purples. Above that is a pile of magentas. To the right is a pile of oranges. And below that is a pile of yellows. All are sitting on a dark wooden desk.
Piles of sample cards grouped by color.

Next I start to group them by color feel – there is more than one kind of purple for example. Some are more blue, some are more red. You get the idea. I like to do this because the same ink colors can show up across different manufacturer’s. Often you can get very similar colors but also they can end up having really subtle differences which is super fun! This is what I got from that step:

The larger pile of purple sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. The purples range from a blue/purple, dark reddish purples, dark blueish, to lighter reddish and blueish purples.
Purple sample cards, grouped by tone.
The larger pile of magenta sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. There are only three piles, one is more neon pink, another sort of a rosey pink magenta, and then the last one is a magenta that leans into the red tones.
Magenta sample cards, grouped by tone.
The larger pile of orangeish sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. There are some dark oranges, ones that are more peach colored, some with more red in them, some more variable, and some more yellowish.
Orange sample cards, grouped by tone.
The larger pile of yellow sample cards have been separated out into smaller piles, grouped by tone. They range from a very vivid yellow to darker ranges with touches of gold or orange.
Yellow sample cards, grouped by tone.
Seen from the top down, it's clear the top edges of each card has been colored as well. There is a nice range from yellows to oranges to magentas to purples.
All of the sample cards piled, seen from the top down.

You should be able to see how similar the cards that are grouped together are, usually by tone or temperature or color or whatever you want to call it. They look similar. Moving on.


I REALLY like what I have come up with so far. But I need to keep narrowing it down, obviously. But rather than do that today, I’m actually going to sit with this stack for a bit. It’s got the range I think I like, it’s narrowed down to some good options – too many good options. And while I could make final decisions today, I don’t have to. Having this stack set aside, colors I can look through whenever I want to check something, colors I can visualize in my brain, I find this a very enjoyable experience. It’s part of the whole thing for me, being able to get to this step, and just think about it.


I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the things going on in the world right now are kind of the worst. So I like to put good things in my brain, so I can concentrate on that for a nice break.


I have also picked out the pens, or at least most of them. This can change depending on which ink colors I end up picking, or a new pen might come in that I want to try. Or a new ink comes in last minute. It can change a lot of things. These are the pens I picked out:

9 pens, starting from the left: two tone green, sparkly purple, sparkly blue, sparkly and swirly blue/purple/pinks, swirly purple, swirly and sparkly orange/purple/blue/green/yellow/pink, sparkly orange, a metallic orange, completely clear and tiny.
9 pens laid out in a row.

I typically keep 9 pens inked. I’ve been pretty consistent about that since I started using the 2 portfolios I keep my main notebooks in. There is intended space for 7 pens but I can get creative and fit in 2 more. This month I want to try using a tiny pen case for Kaweco pens – but I’ll only be putting 1 Kaweco in it, with 2 other tiny pens. Which means. Technically. Ahem. I could carry…12 inked pens. Just saying.


I have some favorite pen makers these days, although I am always keen to try new ones. And I very much love tiny pens. Husband and I both super like Kaweco AL Sport, for example. We have entirely too many of them, haha. Sailor has turned out to be another favorite – the MF nib is my favorite! I tend to like finer nibs, so I’ve stuck mostly to those so far. I do have a custom nib that does a very broad line but I can also write “upside down” with it and get a finer line – closer to a medium nib I think. I use that one for Headers when I am writing dates and notes. I have also used Twsbi a great deal – they were some of my first pens, and I continue to enjoy them. I try to experiment with new kinds of pens when I can, but I definitely have favorites. For example, I have been using the two tone green pen and the sparkly purple pen on the left side of the photo above for several months in a row!


In fact, this month I am trying out two pens that are fairly new to me. I did use an Esterbook for the first time in July, and I’ll be using a second one in August. The other new one I got on Amazon haha – a friend found it, it’s adorable and tiny, and completely clear. And it doesn’t take a converter or a cartridge – it’s called an eye drop pen. You fill it with a syringe, which I’ve started using lately. Looks like fun! Depending on how many pens I do end up inking, I may end up changing my line up, but this is what I am planning on so far.


And that’s it! I do this every month. There are many steps to this…process? Project? I don’t even know what to call this – it’s woven thru my day, become critical to my sense of calm, and something I continue to find solid joy in. Whatever it’s called – there are things I do a certain way, and I plan on talking about them here. So, if you’re into fountain pens and what not, enjoy!

There are entirely too many inks to list for this post, but I will list the ones I end up choosing in another post. Here is a list of the pens in that photo:

  • Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF)
  • Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF)
  • Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF)
  • James White – Nebula (F)
  • Esterbrook JR Paradise Pocket Pen – Purple Passion (F)
  • Leonardo Officina Italiana Brooks PM4 – Supernova (F)
  • Conklin – Coronet Orange (F)
  • Kaweco AL Sport – Limited Edition Orange (F)
  • Majohn Wancai Mini – Transparent Clear (F)