In Ink Review

Ink Review: Robert Oster Avocado

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 10 Comments

Review by Jessica Coles

I don’t know about any of our readers out there, but I can’t resist picking up a sample of new Robert Oster inks when I see them. Like the new Robert Oster Avocado ($17 for a 50mL bottle).

All new inks are fairly thrilling in the pen world, especially so to those who grew up when the best you could hope for with color was the pen that had the four ink colors — I’m sure you remember.  The one where you would inevitably try to push all four down at the same time and get all of the refills stuck.  Red, Green, Blue, and Black.

Now the world seems to have no end in sight to the number of fountain pen ink colors that will come out.  I love trying the new colors, but Robert Oster inks seem to be on an entirely different level.  Some Oster inks sheen, others shade deeply, all of his inks are extraordinary.  Each new ink holds its own surprise.

When I saw a couple new inks when placing an order from Vanness Pens, I threw them in the shopping cart before checking out.  Avocado and Smokescreen are their names — I’ll post the review on the Smokescreen a little later.

I wanted to get this information out as soon as possible, though.  Because this ink has even more strange quirks.

What a wonderful ink!  The shading is there, even while writing in cursive.  Sometimes cursive keeps the ink flowing along the page rather than letting it settle to form darker pools.

Avocados are not a single color.  The unripe fruits are a light, dusty green, the ripe fruit a deeper green with tones of brown.  The inner flesh is a spring green while the edge of a halved avocado is a dark ring.

Robert Oster Avocado ink does the same.  In writing, the ink looks like the dusty light green of an unripe avocado.  As the ink shades, the darker areas are the color of a more mature fruit.  The pooled ink in a heavy swab is the color of a ripe avocado and includes a dark halo that appears to sheen a very dark green or black.  The pooled ink also shows a strange phenomenon.  The yellowish brown appears in the dried ink but appears a lighter color than the unpooled ink.  Lighter where the coverage is heavier? I have never seen this before in an ink.

The chromotography of Avocado shows distinct bands of color — a dusty pink, magenta, a very light yellow to bright yellow and a thin band of cyan at the very top.  The original band of ink is nowhere to be seen, indicating that the ink is absolutely not water resistant.

I highly recommend this new color.  Maybe we will even have a new term for inks that show an entirely different color when laid down heavily!  At least the ones that don’t really sheen.  Morphing inks? Lighter shade inks? This is the best thing that could happen with a new ink — a whole new category!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were paid for by myself purchased from Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review.

In Paper Review

Notebook Review: Nanuk

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 7 Comments

Review by Jessica Coles

I love notebooks.  Doesn’t matter what they look like.  What size they are.  I love to look at them and buy them and then… well, I have a harder time actually using them.  What if I mess up something that could have been an incredibly lovely piece of art?  What if I waste the pages? It doesn’t matter that I have more notebooks than a resonable person should have at one time.  I want each one to be perfect.

When I first saw the Nanuk notebook ($14), I was intrigued by it – the dimensions are unusual, the creamy paper cover has no exterior markings, and the logo is a bear face.  How could this not be a fabulous notebook?

The notebook is packaged in only a plastic sleeve to protect the cover and contains a slip of paper with the details of the paper and dimensions. I had been correct about the unusual dimensions of the Nanuk notebook.  It’s nearly B5 size, but just a bit off – 252mm x 162mm.

For those of you who aren’t well versed in B sized dimensions (I admit that I personally have no idea about the dimensions whatsoever and had to look them up), B5 is traditionally 250mm x 176mm, or 9.8in x 6.9in, or right in-between A4 and A5 (A5 is often the size of bullet journal notebooks or the larger size of paperback books). You can somewhat see the size with my hand holding it, but I have pretty small hands.  So take that into consideration as well (that’s my pinky finger by the way).

The Nanuk notebook uses 180 kg paper for the cover and 83.1 gsm paper for the pages.  This comes in around 55lb pages.  For comparison, Rhodia uses 80lb paper in their standard line of notebooks. The paper is a lovely light cream and has a bit of tooth to it, but not much.  The cover has a flap in the front and one in the back – I always use flaps like that as bookmarks.

The notebook is only made of one signature, or one stack of paper that is folded in half to form the notebook. The binding is a single row of red stitching and looks great against the cream paper, plus it does it’s job perfectly.  No loose pages and the notebook will stay open to any page, even the first page. I did need to press firmly opening each page, but then the notebook remained open on its own.  I didn’t need to bend it backwards on itself at all.

Since I got to test this notebook, I dove in.  I pulled out all of my currently inked pens (ok.  Not all of them.  But several) and got to playing, I mean got to work. I have a terrible time starting a nice, clean notebook for myself, but I seem to have no trouble whatsoever jumping in to test one.  I should probably keep that in mind in the future.

 

Here you can see the front and back of my test page.  I may or may not have had a lot of fun with this one. As you can see, there was a lot of show-through with this paper, but that’s fairly normal in my world since I also love Tomoe River paper.

 

The lovely and talented Well-Appointed Desk Ana also joined in the doodling – testing – of this Nanuk notebook with me.

There were a few times that ink bled through, but it was mainly with the brush pen and the Pilot 912.  What did concern me, though, was the feathering.  Feathering occured with the brush pen and with bold and medium nibs from several brands using a variety of inks.  However, there was no feathering at all with fine or extra fine nibs!

The Nanuk loved any type of fine or extra fine nib.  Organic Studios Nitrogen was allowed to sheen with all its might.  Kyo-no-oto Nureba-iro was able to sheen it’s beautiful silver.  Shading stood out with most inks and the J.Herbin 1798 Amethyste de L’oural sparkles away on the paper.  Gel pens, Micron pens and pencils look and feel amazing and glide over the surface.  It’s also great for sketching (although I’m not brave enough to show that here!)

Overall, I enjoy this notebook — beautiful color, unique dimensions, smooth and creamy paper texture.  I was rather disappointed with the feathering, though.  I wouldn’t recommend this notebook for use with fountain pen inks other than very fine lines, especially at the price point of a 96 page notebook for $14.    However, if you plan to use a Nanuk notebook for non-fountain pens or, even better, for sketching, by all means this is a great notebook for you!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were loaned free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Other items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Pen Zero

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments

Post of the Week:

  • Pen Zero. (via Leigh Reyes: My Life as a Verb)

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

In Fountain Pen Review

Fountain Pen Review: Opus 88 Picnic Purple (Fine nib)

Author Laura CameronPosted on 1 Comment

Review by Laura Cameron

When I first saw the Opus 88 Picnic in Purple ($99), I really wanted one.  So I was delighted when Vanness Pen Shop asked if we wanted to review it.  Ana already reviewed the Picnic in Green, so she suggested I try the Purple.

The Opus 88 Picnic is a resin pen with chrome accents that comes in a variety of bright colors.  The cap is a screw cap, and is postable, though that makes the pen quite long.  The Picnic is an eye-dropper filled pen, with a piston and blind cap that allow for undisturbed ink flow.  To keep the pen from leaking, it is sealed with two small black o rings, one where the nib and section meet, and one where the section and barrel meet.  The instructions don’t call for silicon grease, but I used a dab anyway and had zero problems with leakage.


The nib is a steel Jowo #5, and is available in Fine, Medium or Broad. I chose to test drive a Fine Nib.


The Picnic is a bit bigger than I’m used to.  It isn’t so much heavier than the other pens I use, but it is a bit longer, and the grip is a bit larger in diameter.

 

L to R: Sailor Pro Gear Slim, Kara’s Fountain K, Opus 88 Picnic, Pilot Metro Pop

As you can see, it does indeed come in a bit bigger and longer than most of my other pens.  It’s a bit closer to the Metro Pop uncapped, but that section is definitely still bigger.


Overall I found the Opus 88 Picnic to be an enjoyable writer, but it really was a bit on the big side for my hand. I did fine in testing the pen in short bursts, but I have a feeling if I were to take notes for a meeting or use it for a longer length of time, my hand might feel fatigued.

That said, if my hand was bigger this would probably be jumping to the top of my buy list.  I love that it holds lots of ink, is easily refillable and the bright colors just sing to me.  The ink flow quite smooth, and the piston and blind cap made it easy to start writing right away.  I didn’t experience any leaking or any burps of ink; just smooth clean lines.  I tried to match my ink and I think I didn’t do too badly with Diamine Purple Dream.  I feel like the price point for the Picnic is quite reasonable, and it’s a nice pen if you don’t have small hands like me!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were loaned free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Ink Review

Ink Review: Jacques Herbin Cornaline d’Egypte 1798

Author AnaPosted on 7 Comments

Jacques Herbin 1798 Cornaline d’Égypte (MSRP $28) is the second color in the 1798 ink line and the sixth (!?) in the J. Herbin specialty line of metallic-ish (I say “-ish” because I don’t know how to explain Rouge Hematite) fountain pen inks. The ink was officially released this week so it should be available from your favorite retailer (check the sidebar for all our favorite retailers that stock J. Herbin).

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte

The packaging for Cornaline d’Égypte is just as deluxe as the previous releases and features the same wider opening as the Emeraude de Chivor last year which means a pen nib will actually fit into the bottle.

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte Swatch

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte

I don’t know what it is with me and ink names but I managed to get the name of the ink wrong when I was writing out the header on the page! I kept trying to tell myself “It’s not called Coraline, it’s not called Coraline.” So, I wrote Corinne instead of Cornaline which sounds like the Iowa State Fair Corn Princess to me. The color is sort of reminiscent of a sunflower too so its not far off. Anyway, leave it to me to mess up the spelling of an ink name and not notice it until I am uploading it to the blog. Sorry, folks. I sometimes letter nicely but I don’t always spell well.

In writing, the particles of glitter are not nearly as apparent but the deep, burnt orange color is legible and has a good deal of shading. I stopped and agitated my pen several times in hopes of getting more glitter to show in the writing but it didn’t seem to improve the outcome.

In a wider nib or with heavy application, the color starts to look more reddish. With lighter application, the color is a bit more of a yellow orange but not a clear, clean yellow orange. It’s still got a slightly ruddy undertone.

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte

I tried to get some close-up shots of the ink to show it catching the light. The 1798 inks contain silver metallic flakes instead of gold. The particles in Cornaline d’Egypte are very tiny which helps the overall ink flow but they still sink to the bottom of the bottle or the pen quickly. There is some evidence of the glitter flakes in the close-ups, but not much.

Jacques Herbin Cornaline d'Egypte swatch comparison

I don’t have a lot of other metallic inks to compare Cornaline d’Egypte to but Pen BBS #218 ($16 for 60ml bottle) and Diamine Shimmer Brandy Dazzle ($20 for a 50ml bottle) were the closest ink colors I had and both had gold sparkles, not silver.

Diamine Brandy Dazzle

Diamine Brandy Dazzle

I took some close-up images of both Brandy Dazzle and PenBBS #218 as well, even though the flecks are gold rather than silver. Both seem to have more apparent light reflecting particles and the gold does seem to match the orange hue better than silver.

Pen BBS #218

Pen BBS #218

In the fine, small writing, PenBBS #218 had the most metallic reflection of all three inks. So, if that’s a feature you are looking for I’d hold out for a bottle of PenBBS over the Cornaline d’Egypte. If you are an ink completionist, then you’ll probably want a bottle of Cornaline anyway, just to have to whole set. Thankfully, Herbin only releases one color per year so its not a huge investment each year.

Tools:

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Exaclair/QuoVadis for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Fountain Pen Review

Pen Review: Opus88 Fantasia Fountain Pen (Fine Nib)

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Pen Review: Opus88 Fantasia Fountain Pen (Fine Nib)

The Opus 88 Fantasia ($125) is a colorful pocket-sized pen with ebonite, striped cap and translucent acrylic body. This fountain pen model uses the same nib and filling mechanism as the Koloro and Picnic though I’m discovering that each nib seems to perform differently.

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen PackagingOpus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen Packaging

The Opus 88 Fantasia Fountain Pen comes in the same sort of packaging that the Picnic and Koloro pens shipped. The box is paperboard with a magnetic closure and the inside is lined with foam cut to hold the pen and an eyedropper. On top was a small paper booklet with information about the company and filling instructions.

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen

I have yet to actually use the eyedropper included in any of the Opus 88 sets. I prefer to use a syringe knowing that I can more accurately control the filling and clean-up.

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen

There is a screw thread on the end of the pen allowing the cap to be threaded securely to create a fairly long, full-sized pen.

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen Nib

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen Comparison

The size of the Fantasia compared to the Koloro on the far left, followed by the Picnic and a Kaweco AL-Sport on the far right.

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen Comparison

The above photo shows both the Fantasia and the AL-Sport pens posted. One of the things I tested side-by-side was writing with the Fantasia then the AL-Sport, being one of the most ubiquitous pocket fountain pens. The grip section of the Kaweco Sport (plastic, metal or otherwise) is longer than the Fantasia and has a slightly more fluted taper shape where the Fantasia is more conical. Also, the Fantasia’s threads were a bit more noticeable, as was the step down from the body to the cap threading. The overall width of the Fantasia is greater than the Kaweco Sport as well. If you find the Sport size a bit dainty, than the Fantasia might be an improvement for you.

After using the Fantasia for over a week, I found the short grip section to be less noticeable but I did not use it for long writing sessions – nothing longer than a page in a journal or notes in a meeting.

Weightwise, the Fantasia unposted and filled is 12 gms which is a decent weight for a small pen. With the cap posted, it weighs 28 gms which puts more of the weight on the top end but gives it weightier feel. If you have larger, adult-sized hands, this will probably make the pen feel comfortable for regular use. In my small, child-like hands it just felt unwieldy.

Weights are listed for filled and capped/posted.

Opus 88 Fantasia Green Orange Fountain Pen Writing Sample

One thing I did notice is that compared to the other two Opus 88 fine nibs in my possession, the Fantasia is the wettest and widest of the three. This seems like a peculiar thing to say since all three pens have the same size nib with the same fine indication on it. Theoretically, they should all write almost identically barring differences in inks chosen but they actually write noticeably different to me. Go figure. I feel like I should put them in front of someone who is genuinely a nib expert and ask their opinion so I don’t feel like I’m insane.

I included writing samples at the bottom of my writing sample for my own edification.

The Fantasia is definitely a step up in cost from a Kaweco Sport and its more expensive than a steel, brass or aluminum version as well however it has a very unique look and the eyedropper filling system means it holds considerably more ink than a Kaweco. The wider barrel and screw-on posting means that the Fantasia becomes a bigger pen than a Kaweco. So the only things holding me back from recommending the Fantasia is the inconsistent nib performance and the grip section/threading which may or may not be comfortable or a sticking point for some people.

I’d say I recommend the Fantasia with some reservations. The nibs are not bad, just a bit of a crapshoot and the grip section may or may not be an issue for some people. They sure are eye candy!

Tools:

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Other products may also have been provided from other vendors as well and links are included.

The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

In Ink Review

Ink Review: Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Ink Review: Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve

UPDATE: It’s come to our attention that this formulation of Australian Opal Mauve was mis-mixed. According to Robert Oster, about 1/3 of the bottles formulated reached retailers and were sold as is. The correct color of Australian Opal Mauve is considerably more blue-purple and is what is currently available. The ink color shown in this review is no longer available as “Australian Opal Mauve”. Maybe it will re-appear in the future under a different name?

Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve ($17 for 50ml bottle) is one of my favorite, and most recommended ink colors. When people as me for “something different” I recommend either Opal Mauve or Caffe Crema (I still need to do a review of this ink too!). These are two of the non-blue Robert Oster inks that prove Oster knows color. They are unique, complex and have layers of depth that make them appealing beyond just a cool-looking swatch. That said, it swatches fabulously!

Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve

The ink ranges in color from plum to violet to indigo and even hints at pink.

Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve

I wouldn’t say that it sheens necessarily but look at the variety of shading!

Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve

Even writing with a Fine Firm #9556 nib, there is a range of shading and the color is fully legible.

I often use this ink in my Carolina Pen Company pen which is a soft matte pink color as it coordinates nicely. (See? Nice combo, right?)

Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve

Comparison wise, Opal Mauve is a good alternative to PR Arabian Rose if you are a little skeptical of the stability of Private Reserve inks (though I’ve heard they have been improving their inks of that which I’m happy to hear). Opal Mauve has way more color variety than Einstein Ring and Alt. Bordeaux and those were the only colors I could find that were even close colorwise. All the other inks in my collection were either more violet or more magenta.

Opal Mauve is definitely a highly saturated color so it may be a bit dry for some pens but the color is worth the effort.

TOOLS

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided free of charge by for the purpose of review.

Other items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.