12 Days of Inkmas: Day 9 Kala Island No. 38 Sweet Potato Balls

It’s hard to decide what my favorite food is at the holidays, but I admit that my family’s sweet potato casserole is really high up there on the list. We steam fresh sweet potatoes, then add peaches, pecans, brown sugar, butter and a few toasted marshmallows at the end. It’s sweet and decadent and I love it.

So when I saw Kala Island No. 38 Sweet Potato Balls (30mL for $13), I decided it would be a fun ink to try for Inkmas.

Sweet Potato Balls is a rich orange which really looks like fresh steamed sweet potatoes. There’s no shimmer sheen in this one, but you can get some really nice shading.

In terms of comparison, I think It’s probably closest to Lamy Bronze. J. Herbin Orange Indien isn’t a bad match for the darker bits, and Mont Blanc Lucky Orange is quite a bit lighter and brighter.

If you’re looking for a reddish orange with nice shading, I’d give Sweet Potato Balls a try!


DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 8 Kingdom Note Dangouo Konpeito

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 8 Kingdom Note Dangouo Konpeito

For my next Inkvent adventure, I thought I would spend some time with an ink that’s a little more obscure. I scanned my ink collection with one goal in mind: could I find an ink that would be new to both Ana and Jesi? Pretty lofty goal, but let’s give it a go.

I remembered a series of inks I purchased directly from Japan. There are five inks in the “Dangouo” series which are part of the the larger “Japanese Biological Series.” The Kingdom Note website describes “Dangouo” as “popular among divers due to its small size and round and lovely appearance.”

The series as a whole is a post for another day, but for Inkmas I focused in on the green ink of the group called… are you ready for this name?…. Konpeito (Eumicrotremus asperrimus). The Kingdom Note site says this particular ink is named for “a dangouo whose name is already cute.” There have already been several great green inks this Inkmas, including Pen BBS398 and Van Dieman’s Styx Valley Forest Green (Green is the Well-Appointed color after all!)- so we have a lot to live up to!

An Inkmas Wreath

One thing I noticed immediately is that this is one of those inks where the ink is not a very close match to the color of the bottle. In the world of green inks Konpeito is somewhere between what I would consider “jade” and “olive” greens. It is darker than other lime greens I have, but lighter than forest greens. It has yellowish undertones instead of blue undertones like the emerald shades I own.

Of the inks I have swabbed in my collection Konpeito is probably closest to Robert Oster Jade. It is a little lighter than the Jade and has less shading and much more subtle sheen. When it does sheen however, it sheens towards black similarly to the Robert Oster Jade. Although I love the complex brown sheen of inks like Sailor Epinard, it’s nice to have an olive-ish green that doesn’t lean brown and stays true to green.

In writing (and doodling) it has just enough shading to make the color interesting. Although it is missing the pizzazz of shimmer or mega-sheen, it gets full marks from me for the shade/ hue of green. I’ve shared similar sentiments before, but it always seems to be worth repeating: sometimes just the right color is the ultimate pizzazz.

Extra pizzazz points when the ink shade matches a pen in my collection this well!

Although obtaining a ink from Japan requires some extra hoops and shipping costs, I’m not a total grinch because this ink is still available at the Kingdom Note site at the time of publishing this post. I would also be curious to compare this ink to the another olive-leaning ink (Pen BBS #342 Matcha Green Tea) Ana suggested in her epic More than Top Ten Fountain Pen Inks post. I’ve been meaning to pick that ink up for months. Do you think Santa is still taking last minute requests?


Tools:

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 7 Pennonia Mustvörös

After I found a great green, I decided to search for a beautiful red. Again I hit up new-to-me ink brands and ended up ordering Pennonia Mustvörös (60mL for $13).

Mustvörös is Hungarian for young wine, and this red definitely leans toward wine colored. It went down almost a brick or blood red, but dried nicely into a more wine color. This one doesn’t have any sheen or shimmer, but it shades really nicely.

When I went looking for comparisons, I didn’t have anything that was super close. Kyo-No-Oto 6 Adzukiro was probably the closest. Birmingham Pen Co. Mt. Washington Sunset was close, but a little more orange (as was Duquesne Incline Red Station). I also looked at a few of the Mont Blanc reds, but those weren’t right either.

I’m always happy when I add an ink to the collection that doesn’t have an exact match since it’s a new shade to me!


DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 6 Pen BBS 398 Morning Ink

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 6 Pen BBS 398 Morning Ink

I am not sure what the general consensus is in the pen community about Pen BBS ink but it is in my TOP FIVE brands. I freaking LOVE Pen BBS ink. Their colors are wonderful, I’ve had no issues with staining or clogging, they make far and away THE BEST shimmer inks and their ink prices are the best. Pen BBS large hexagonal 60ml bottles with the embossed caps are really unique. If you haven’t added any Pen BBS inks to your collection yet, what are you waiting for?

All that to say, if you’ve been reading this blog for any time you’ll know that green is my favorite color (see the header above) so I’m always looking for the perfect green ink. Not too light, not too bright, not too dark. Finding the perfect green has been the most challenging ink to find.

Pen BBS does make one of my favorite greens thus far, No. 224 Tolstoy. It matches my Ranga Bamboo pen perfectly and the two have become an inseparably pair. For everyday use, Tolstoy is a little darker than my dream green so my hunt has continued. Pen BBS No. 398 Morning Ink (15ml bottle for $8) was my next foray into citrus greens. It’s a much brighter green. Why it’s “Morning Ink” I can’t fathom. No. 398 is a brighter, lighter citrus-y green with lots of shading though.

In writing, there are points where the shading is a little too light for my liking however. If I were to use a more cream or ivory colored paper stock, I think I’d lose the writing altogether.

On Tomoe River 68gsm, Morning Ink looks a tiny bit lighter than on our standard Rhodia testing paper.

When compared to some of the myriad of other citrus green inks in my stash (a term stolen from my knitting posse), you’ll see I have several that are quite similar.

When spread out, it’s a little easier to see the subtle differences in the inks. Pen BBS No. 159 Bitter Herb is another citrus green ink that I really like from Pen BBS. It’s a bit darker than No. 398 Morning Ink which is a little more festive. Pen BBS No. 398 is probably closest in color to Diamine Light Green. Robert Oster Australis Tea is a little muddier version of a very similar color.

I think Pen BBS No. 398 is a fun, citrus green but not my “grail green”.

Do you have a color that you are always on the hunt for the perfect ink to match? The color of your childhood roller skates? The color of your grandmother’s wallpaper? The color of the flowers in your wedding bouquet?  Have you found it yet?


Tools:

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 5 Diamine Earl Grey

Diamine Earl Grey (30ml for $7.50) is probably my favorite grey ink. Anyone present at last week’s Patreon-only meet-up wouldn’t believe me because I unceremoniously spilled the entirety of the bottle off my desk onto the floor. Trust me when I say I was doing my tired floors a favor. The floors now have a lovely Jackson Pollock-spattered treatment to them that at least give them character which is more than they had before. At least it was a good ink color!

Diamine Earl Grey is similar to Sailor Jentle Chu-Shu in that both these inks are a cool, purply grey though Earl Grey is ever so slightly darker. What I would give if Diamine would scent Earl Grey with a little bergamot so it actually smelled like a delicious cup of tea!

I confess that, in writing, Earl Grey is cooler grey than what actual Earl Grey tea looks like but I will forgive Diamine their creative liberties because this ink is such a lovely grey color. Is it too much to ask for Diamine, a UK-based ink company, to actually mix an ink that looks like English Breaky, Builder’s Brew or Darjeeling? Embrace your Englishness, Diamine, give us your pinky’s-up most-tea-ish tea colors! Please?!?!

Regardless of the lack of genuine tea-like color, Earl Grey is still a favorite, even after it stained my hands for three days. The ink has a great range of shading from deep grey to pale lavender. No sheening though.

On both Rhodia and Tomoe River paper, Earl Grey gives a full range of shading, dries in a reasonable amount of time. Diamine Earl Grey is a more cost effective option than Sailor Chu-Shu and available in the smaller 30ml bottles as well as the massive 80ml tankards that are still cheaper than the 50ml bottles from Sailor.


Tools:


12 Days of Inkmas: Day 4

12 Days of Inkmas: Day 4

Inkmas 2020 Header

Merry Inkmas! Keeping with our traditional celebration, we are sharing some of our favorite inks for 12 days. Today I’m showing off the first ink from the Diamine Inkvent calendar 2021, so if you are still waiting to open day 1, avert your eyes!

I’ve had so much fun opening up a small bottle of new ink every morning this month. The first day surprised me because it didn’t seem to be Christmas-related; instead I would call it celebration-related.

Seize the Night is a very dark purple ink with a bright gold sheen. The sheen is not overwhelming. It complements the purple beautifully and is only apparent in certain lights/angles.

Seize the Night is a perfect name for this ink – it reminds me of a cocktail dress with gold sequins or a dark night sky lit up with dazzling lights.

When viewed on Col-o-Ring paper straight on, Seize the Night looks incredibly dark with no sheen – perfectly acceptable for work-related writing. An off-purple ink.

But then the party side shows. When angled towards the light, the gold sheen shines.

The base color in Seize the Night is a match for Van Dieman’s Sweet Fig ink. It is also a close match to Bungubox’s Ink of the Witch.

Large droplets of Seize the Night almost glow. The above photo is on Cosmo Air Light paper. Below is the same amount of ink on Tomoe River paper – the sheen is a bit more subtle on TR paper.

The writing I show here is again on Cosmo Air Light paper with a fine cursive Italic nib. It’s not difficult to get sheen from normal writing.

I’ve already put Seize the Night on my list to purchase after Inkvent is done. I hope that it will be available! After the 2019 Inkvent calendar, Diamine offered full 50mL bottles of each ink for sale under their Blue Edition collection. Hopefully they will offer this year’s inks under a Red Edition collection!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Link Love: Peri-inkle?

This week was a very Peri-week. Every design-related blog I follow posted about Pantone’s 2022 color of the year: Very Peri. Or to the rest of us, periwinkle. After 2021’s bi-polar color selections of isolation mopey grey and hopeful pale yellow, Pantone suggests that 2022 will be a more vibrant year. I love color and I think Very Peri is a pretty lavender purple but I still think its a little ambitious to designate a color for a whole year. Look at 2019. Pantone chose rosy “Living Coral” and we were all more “Cheeto Orange” in our lockdown homes. While I appreciate the effort, I’m also a little amused. What’s your take?

Posts of the Week:

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:


We need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates or join our Patreon. Without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!