In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: PenLux Mo Inks

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 3 Comments
Ink Review: PenLux Mo Inks

Today I have a set of three inks that I recently found at a pen show – Penlux Mo inks, Amber, Pine, and Rouge. These can be difficult to find out in the wild. However, when your eyes are open to new opportunities, the ink possibilities are exciting!

My favorite feature of the Penlux line is the boxes. Each box is cut from a single piece of cardstock and folded in such a way that no glue is necessary.

Ok, I was wrong. My favorite feature of the Penlux ink line is the colors. They are fabulous! The three inks I have here are in the vintage line of the Mo inks.

Penlux Mo Pine is incredibly close to Sailor Rikyu-cha. to the point that it seems likely that Penlux may have been utilizing Sailor’s ink manufacturing skills when producing Pine.

I also love the changes in Pine on various papers. Tomoe River paper brings out a subtle coppery sheen.

Penlux Mo Pine on Tomoe River (TR7) 52 gsm paper:

Midori MD paper shows off the yellow and brown undertones.

Penlux Mo Pine on Midori MD paper:

Pine looks like a completely different ink on Cosmo Air Light paper. The shading here is amazing.

Penlux Mo Pine on Cosmo Air Light 83 gsm paper:

Penlux Mo Amber has a lovely combination of rusty orange and brown, again with plenty of shading.

The shading seems more pronounced on Tomoe River paper with a hint of greenish sheen.

Penlux Mo Amber on Tomoe River (TR7) 52 gsm paper:

Midori MD paper has shading but some of the depth of the color is flattened out.

Penlux Mo Amber on Midori MD paper:

On Cosmo Air Light paper, I saw a touch of feathering in some of the writing. Here, the ink looks a bit dusty as well.

Penlux Mo Amber on Cosmo Air Light 83 gsm paper:

Penlux Mo Rouge is not a color I usually reach for. But as part of the set of vintage colors, I couldn’t pass it up.

Tomoe River paper shows more of the blue undertones for a burgundy ink with green-gold sheen.

Penlux Mo Rouge on Tomoe River (TR7) 52 gsm paper:

On Midori MD paper, Rouge has a dusty and faded appearance.

Penlux Mo Rouge on Midori MD paper:

The change in Rouge on Cosmo Air Light paper is dramatic – the blue undertones dominate the color for more of a grape purple.

Penlux Mo Rouge on Cosmo Air Light 83 gsm paper:

Do you have a favorite from this trio of inks? Have you found rare or beloved inks in strange locations?

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: 89 Answers to 21 Questions

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: 89 Answers to 21 Questions

This week is filled with more answers to #21penquestions, nib knowledge, love for Clairefontaine paper, a review of the Pacific Northwest Pen Show (that name is really long. It needs an abbreviation. Maybe Pac No Ps? Maybe we should workshop that a bit?) and quite a few tech-related posts.

Many folks are headed to DC this weekend or in throes of preparation for the SF Pen Show which is exciting. And for others, its just a couple weeks until back-to-school. Whatever this month has in store for you, may it be paperfull!

Links of the Week:

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Tech:

Other Interesting Things:

We need each other. Please support our sponsors, affiliates or join our Patreon. Your patronage supports this site. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In Paper Review

Ink Swatch Art: Colorverse Colorspace Hubble-C Swatch Art Card

Author Laura CameronPosted on 2 Comments

We also know some folks who create ink swatches so beautifully they could be considered art. Well Colorverse has tried to make some “out of this world” space art with their new Colorverse Colorspace Swatch Art Cards ($6-7 for 30 cards). Printed on Colorverse’s 200 gsm Nebula Paper, these cards reveal cool space themed designs when you apply ink. Each card measures 3.75″ x 5.75″ (9.5cm x 14.5cm)

I had a pack of the Hubble C Swatch Art Cards. This pack contains 2 designs. I went ahead and swatched inks based on the inks I swatched with the Wearingeul cards, just for comparison’s sake, although I think telescopes and planets on the Colorverse cards make them sort of incomparable?

These are really cool and could be used as wall or bulletin board art, postcards or more. But are they useable as swatches? That’s the only area where I’m not sure these cards shine. One of the best things about color swatch cards are that they can be used to inventory what inks you have in your collection, or what new inks look like. I use both my Col-o-Ring and Col-o-Dex cards because they are portable and can be stored either on a ring or in a Rolodex. They’ve accompanied me to pen shows when I’m considering purchasing new inks. I’m just not quite sure what to do with these larger cards. Photo album? Send as postcards to friends?

The cards do seem to show the inks somewhat accurately, as the comparisons to Wearingeul and Col-o-ring/Col-o-dex show. However, Robert Oster’s Fire & Ice is entirely missing any hint of red on the Colorverse Ink Card. The other issue I have is that, as you can see, ink washing causes the cards to curl. This could potentially be fixed with a long session under a heavy book though!

What do you think? Could you find a place for these in your swatching materials?

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.

In feature

Eye Candy: Sailor Manyo Dual Shading Mini Sets

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Eye Candy: Sailor Manyo Dual Shading Mini Sets

While working at the Dromgoole’s table in St. Louis, I was able to score both of the Sailor Manyo Limited Edition Dual Shading sets (4 each with 20ml bottles, $60).

Set #1 is a brighter assortment and includes  Haha, Nekoyanagi, Sakura, Nadeshiko.

I swatched each bottle on Col-o-ring paper and then used a 1″ circle punch to cut the swatches and glue onto the top of the lids.

It’s easy to see the range of colors in Set #1 when you view the cap swatches from above.

The Set #2 is a bit more muted and includes Ayame, Hinoki, Fuji, and Koke.

On the Col-o-ring cap swatches, there is a bit more diversity in the colors of Set #2 but it’s definitely a more wintery feeling palette.

I have debated endlessly with myself which set I like more and I can’t decide. Which set is your favorite?

Besides being a great option to get several inks in one kit, the bottles are smaller than the regular Manyo line (each bottle is 50ml) so its also great if you prefer smaller bottles of ink.

Unfortunately, Dromgoole’s is currently sold out of these sets, hence the eye candy post rather than a full review. These sets are an overseas exclusive so when they sell out they are gone! Full-sized bottles of the Manyo inks are still available for $24 each (50ml) and some other online pen retailers may still have them in stock so if you want to get your hands on these, I recommend googling ASAP. They won’t last long.

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

In feature, Paper Review

Paper Review: Kunisawa Notebook

Author Jessica ColesPosted on Leave a comment
Paper Review: Kunisawa Notebook

Earlier this month, I was able to head up to Portland, Oregon for the newest show to join the pen show circuit. The Portland pen show was small by way of the number of vendors, but large in number of attendees.

I met a new vendor at this show – the wonderful group from Oblation Papers – a nearby brick-and-mortar store. They have beautiful items that I rarely see at shows including handmade papers and vintage typewriters. I picked up several goodies from them including one that I’m showing today, the Kunisawa notebook called the Find Ring notebook.

The paper is only available in a 5mm graph ruling, and I chose the A5 notebook which has a heavy cardstock cover and ring-bound paper.

The 80 sheets in the notebook are made of a smooth, thick, and slightly creamy paper.

The shading in Sailor Homemade Tortilla is fabulous.

Even Van Dieman’s Wasabi shows distinct shading.

Sailor Manyo Kikyou gives a pleasant sheen – I was surprised at this – I hadn’t expected a sheen to show up on the paper.

Sailor Manyo Ume came through with a beautiful halo sheen in almost every letter.

Through all of the writing, scribbling, and heavy ink applications, there was never a sign of feathering, bleed-through or even ghosting.

My favorite small detail – the inside cover of the notebook includes a quote from Picasso:

At $15 for 80 pages, I do think this is a great purchase to add as an option for fountain pen lovers. beautiful sheen, shading, and it can handle any ink so far. Ring-bound notebooks are always welcome in this category as well!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Media & Stationery Diet

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Link Love: Media & Stationery Diet

This week, inspired by Kottke.org’s post about their “media diet”, I thought I’d post a short list of my stationery and media diet. What have you been watching, reading or listening to?

Watched:

Read:

Listened to:

Stationery:

Onward, to the links!

Links of the Week:

Pens:

Ink:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Your patronage supports this site. Please support our sponsors, affiliates or join our Patreon.  Without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In Paper Review

Yarn + Paper?

Author Laura CameronPosted on 1 Comment

For a girl whose first love is knitting, and whose second love is pens, a combination of yarn and paper sounds odd, and also like it hits the spot right? So when I got an email from Hedgehog Fibers about their new recycled yarn notebooks (€9.50) I immediately bought two (one for Ana of course!)

Hedgehog Fibers already creates yarn that includes waste from other yarn production and recycled leftovers, so why not add some of that waste to paper? The notebooks are A6 (4.25″ x 6″, 11cm x 15cm) featuring a cover made of recycled paper and combined and pressed with yarn scraps. The inside of the notebooks feature 68 blank or lined recycled-paper pages. Each notebook is hand-bound with string, and is a one of a kind creation!

So I’ll start by saying that I bought this notebook because I was tickled by it, and not because I expected the paper to be great. The paper is interesting – I don’t have any specifics but it isn’t super thin. It looks like it has been pressed because there’s a gridded texture to it. And it feels a little cottony, almost like money (specifically US money) that has been worn.

As I suspected, the paper didn’t perform terribly well with fountain pen inks – even with fine and extra fine nibs there was lots of feathering. It performed a bit better with fine liners, and just fine with gel inks. Surprisingly, even with the feathering there wasn’t any bleed through except when I swatched ink on the paper with a brush. That was enough to create a few spots.

I confess I was a bit disappointed when I realized that the paper inside the notebook wasn’t pressed with yarn as well, but given the way the back cover looks, that would have made for a bumpy writing experience. Overall, I won’t be stocking up and hoarding these notebooks as my favorite paper ever, but I’m really glad I took the plunge on such a fun object that combines two of my favorite hobbies!