For December I decided to only use inks from last year’s Diamine Inkvent. The pens are just shiny and I like them. I also kept the Magic Green pen and the Forever Purple pen. I want to try to keep the green pen filled for a full year, so need to keep it going until March 2023. And I don’t think I could exist without a really solid purple ink, so had to keep that one! The rest of the palette inks are a mix of Inkvent ones I have used before and some I’ve always wanted to try but I couldn’t fit them into other palette’s this year.
December Pen/Ink Palette combos!
And just to list all of those out, if you’re curious! I couldn’t find links for any of the inks, my apologies, but if you google the names you can read a lot of different reviews. Or wait for mine in January! And the links for the pens are mostly going to be to the creator themselves or the model of pen from that creator. Most of these pens use resin blanks from various other creators, and aren’t available all of the time, but I wanted you all to be able to find the creators at least!
I am very excited to try these pens – picked up a couple of new brands. And I really like the ink palette, it feels nice, the colors are pretty. Wish me luck that they all work well!
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.
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.
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!
Ghost and Frankenstein, by Mad Science Pen Company.
Now for the rest of these! Check out thoughts below:
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
All 10 ink sample cards paired with 10 fountain pens.
(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:
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
Kakimori Apricot Tea sample page, which is NOT blurry. Rar. 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.
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. 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.
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!
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!
(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.)
(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.
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!
(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.
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!
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.
Ferris Wheel Press and Birmingham InkFerris 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.
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.
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.
The magenta sample cards are circling the line or purple sample cards.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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
Purple sample cards, grouped by tone. Magenta sample cards, grouped by tone. Orange sample cards, grouped by tone. Yellow sample cards, grouped by tone. 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 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)
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