noodler's purple wampum

noodler's kung te-cheng

suitably oriental-sounding name

diamine midnight

mysterious and blue, surprisingly like midnight

very majestic but not to be confused with majestic purple

Diamine Red Dragon

the worst

Private Reserve Avacado

WHY SPELLING WHY

Noodler's Squeteague

I cannot, for the life of me, spell this name.

Diamine Marine

Diamine Indigo

This scan is made of LIES

Sailor Jentle Grenade

J. Herbin Vert Pre

Ooh, bright.

Diamine Sherwood Green

Boring.

Online Lilac

J. Herbin Vert Empire

This ink scan bothers me so much.

Online Royal Blue

What's this? A scan?

Private Reserve Ebony Blue

Ah, the wonders of color-correction.

Private Reserve's Ebony Blue is a pretty difficult color to explain. It's a dark teal, but a lot of the time (especially in wet pens) it ends up being almost black. If you hold it up to a light, though, it has a red sheen around the edges of your letters, especially in places with more ink.

I put this in my Haolilai 850 - which is supposed to have a fine or medium-fine nib, but I accidentally pressed down on the nib while cleaning and it turned into a medium - and it really does not like to feather. You can probably find it feather sometimes, especially on cheap-o printer paper, but otherwise, you should be fine.

The ink is only somewhat waterproof. When I conducted my test, a majority of the ink lifted, but you can still see green-gray remains. It's still mildly legible. However, when I conducted a drip test followed by a soak test, the letters are almost gone; still there, yes, but you're going to be hard-pressed trying to read it.

I doodled with this color a lot. It's just incredibly fun to play with, for whatever reason. I like how it's dark, yet it has that tinge of color to it. Sometimes you want a dark color to play with, and black is too boring after you use it for a while.

You can purchase 50 ml. bottles of Ebony Blue at The Goulet Pen Company for $8.00.

JetPens Haul: J. Herbin Vert Empire and Vert Pre

A couple weeks ago I placed an order at JetPens. If you've never heard of JetPens, I openly weep for you. JetPens' warehouse is based in the Bay Area of California, with free shipping to non-international shoppers for orders over $25. They stock all kinds of goodies. Sometimes I spend an hour just browsing through everything. This tells you how much time I have on my hands.

Why do I mention they're based in California? Because I'm based in California. Orders usually arrive the day after they're shipped. I can't tell you how awesome this is.

So, what did I order?

Look at this lighting! Photoshop and sunlight are the best.

J. Herbin Vert Empire and Vert Pre, and two Pilot Petit1s.

Moooom, tell him to stop hitting me!

 Can I just tell you something about these two inks? They smell good. I took a big ol' whiff of the ink and was so happy. Noodler's sometimes has a strong chemical scent, not to mention Private Reserve. Diamine is usually just okay. But J. Herbin? It's like taking a breath of delicious. Seriously, a breath of delicious.

Reviews forthcoming. Until then, do a little exercise. If you have any J. Herbin with you, smell it. If you don't, imagine what it could smell like.

Noodler's Apache Sunset

Ooh, color swatches!

Ink Samples!

Ink is expensive. You would think it would be cheap because, for all intents and purposes, it's colored water. But I digress.

There's a lot of ink in the world. From the refreshingly cheap Noodler's to the jaw-dropping Iroshizuku, you probably won't run out of ink choices - unless you're looking for some sort of vomit-inducing sparklemess of pain and destruction. In that case, I wish you the best of luck.

Luckily, we have a magical creature known only as Brian Goulet of the Goulet Pen Company. We have a unicorn on our hands, folks.

I'll stop lavishing praise on him. It'll all be for the better, I think. We'll turn to the real star of this post (sorry, Brian).

Ink samples. They are the best thing since sliced bread. And no, I'm not just saying this because it's three in the morning. Ink samples will save your life - metaphorically. I'm not saying they'll jump up and become your Life Alert. I'm saying they're like little 2 ml. vials of water when you're in the desert.

We accept you, one of us.

Brian packaged the ink bottles like he expected them to be flung from the orbit of Jupiter. They came in these little sandwich baggies with bubble wrap, plus this big ol' honking FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE stickers. This could not have been delivered better if they had been brought down from the heavens by angels.

The sample bottles have conic bottoms, which sounds silly at first until you pull out a fountain pen and stare at it. Triangular nib plus conic bottom equals every last drop of ink is sucked into your pen like it's a greedy monster. And when you get 2 ml. to work with, that's a good thing.

So what did I get? Hold onto your eye sockets, my friends, this is a big one.

Diamine Indigo, Marine, Sherwood Green; Noodler's Air Corp Blue-Black, Apache Sunset, Kung Te-Cheng, Purple Wampum, Squeteague; Private Reserve Avacado (I shudder every time I need to type it like this), Black Cherry, Ebony Blue; and Sailor Jentle Grenade.

It was a very exciting experience, let me tell you that.

I currently have Ebony Blue in my Haolilai 850, and Apache Sunset in my Baoer 100. They've been excellent so far. I can't stop doodling.

But this brings me to my doodle...

It's a big issue.

(Sorry about the subpar photography. It's very late. And because it's late, there's no sun. Also, my desk is not a very good lightbox. This will be fixed soon... with an actual lightbox.)