Tag Archives: Monteverde

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

September Pen/Ink Palette: Fall – Review

I enjoyed my palette this month. Fall is not my favorite season weather wise but the house I grew up in was always very very decorated for fall. Very decorated. So I guess now as an adult, I find a fall palette pleasing. I spent a lot of my growing up years in Maine, and the fall leaves there are literally a thing people will take a vacation to go see. Worth it. 

I used a dusky blue, a darker green and a light green, three different shades of orange and two of an orangish and darkish yellow. I felt that this spread covered what I remember of the woods in the autumn, on long drives in Maine. I googled fall palettes, and found one that looked about right and then winnowed down until I had what I ended up using. 

I got to try out a bunch of new inks and a couple of new pens. I made a couple of changes for the pens I started out using:
1. Sailor Pro Gear Slim – Purple Northern Lights (MF) / ColorVerse 54 Hayabusa Glistening
– This is my Forever Purple pen, continues to perform admirably! 
2. Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini – Night Blue (MF) / ColorVerse Cat
– This is my new Forever Blue pen, had a couple of issues with it sticking a little bit, but that seems to be something I am just going to have to deal with when using ColorVerse Cat. Sad pants.
3. Esterbrook JR Pocket Paradise – Blue Breeze ( F) / PenBBS Break
– This blue ink is really perfect for a fall and I enjoyed writing with it, zero problems. Soothing, really.
4. Hong Dian 5019, Lan Tian – May Flowers (EF) / Ferris Wheel Press Moonlight Jade 
– My Magic Green pen, continues to be magic. 
5. Esterbrook JR Picket Paradise – Key Lime (F) / Wearingeul Flowing Leaves 
– I already knew I liked this pen but I ended up really adoring this shade of green. And the shimmer behaves beautifully. 
6. TWSBI Diamond 580 – Iris (F) / Kiwi Ink Quetzalcoatl
– I do love my Diamond pens. And I’ve used Quetzalcoatl before and it was as lovely as I remember. Although, it’s supposed to be a sheen AND shimmer ink, but the shimmer never comes through on page. I have two theories – one is that the paper I am using just shows sheen better. The second is that sheen always trumps shimmer. I really need to experiment more with papers…
7. Beardbarian Woodworking – Copper Eclipse Sunset (F) / Ferris Wheel Press Candy Marsala
– I really love this pen. Marsala came through lovely, and only got a little stuck once or twice, but resolved on it’s own. 
8. Majohn Wancai Mini Fountain Pen – Transparent Clear (F) Monteverde Strata – Red (F)  / Diamine 2021 Inkvent Vintage Copper
– I switched pens purely because this Monteverde pen was a sparkly red and came in my monthly Truphae box. It writes okay, gets sticky sometimes. Vintage Copper is one of my very favorite inks, but fun fact – I accidentally put some Raspberry Rose back in here when I was emptying some pens about a year ago. It doesn’t seem to have changed the color of this sample bottle of Vintage Copper, but who knows. 
9. Kaweco AL Sport – Gold (B) PenBBS 456 Fountain Pen – Autumn (F) / Kiwi Liquid Gold
– I kept finding ink inside the lid and all over the nib even when the pen hadn’t been dropped, so when my new PenBBS showed up, I switched over. I still haven’t figured out vacuum pens, but that’s on me. I love the way both of my PenBBS pens look, and the writing on this one was mostly fine. The color variations and shimmer came thru nicer with the broad nib, but this wasn’t terrible. I think the times where it felt like the ink wasn’t flowing well was something to do with me not using the vacuum part correctly. I’ll figure it out eventually. 
10. Esterbook JR Pocket Paradise Pocket Pen – Yellow (1.1m Stub) / ColorVerse Rising Reflections
– This is the first time I have used a 1.1m Stub nib and I loved it! Shows off the ColorVerse Rising Reflections shimmer beautifully!


I am considering keeping Flowing Leaves and Vintage Copper for my “Monster” palette in October. I like how Flowing Leaves flows and decided it worked well for Zombie – and Vintage Copper looks good for Vampire. 

I really want to figure out how vacuum pens work. Must science it. My favorite discovery of my palette this month was the 1.1 Stub nib – it’s so good! I wish I wrote larger when journaling, I only ended up using it for headings. It was odd not using any Kaweco’s. I count this palette as a success! 

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.