I always say (to myself and others) that I’m not a sheeny, shiny, glittery gal (I’ve only ever purchased one bottle of shimmery ink, and I gave it away soon after). Obviously a liar, I recently found myself craving some sheeny, shiny, glittery watercolors. The Boku-Undo Gansai Watercolor Palette in the Aurora colors (6/$14.75) looked mouth-watering.

Before I plant my face into the sheen, I thought I’d mention that I’m already a fan of the Boku-Undo mini palettes of unique watercolors. The E-Sumi palette I reviewed a few years ago are a lot of fun to use when I’m in a dark mood. While the e-sumi palette is subdued, the Aurora set is on the opposite end of the scale: It’s all about the dazzling light.

The set includes (from left) gold, silver, red, green, blue and purple. I used both my scanner and my phone to photograph swatches in direct daylight on black and white papers. Each time, the swatches look very different! 

On white paper, the shimmer is apparent in direct light, but the hues are difficult to differentiate and even seem to change. I’m not sure they are worth using on white paper. 

On dark paper, however, the effect is entirely different. The sparkly, metallic particles glow on black paper. I rubbed a finger across the dried swatches, and some sparkly flecks smeared a bit like powder.

It was obvious that I had to make a test sketch on black paper, so I used a black Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook. And I had just the right reference photo to use! During the summer months when the sun doesn’t go down until 8 or 9 p.m., my spouse guy and I take after-dinner walks through the neighborhood to enjoy the light. The gorgeous “golden hour” is too brief to sketch on location, so I snap a lot of reference photos to sketch from later (like the long, dismal winters when the sun goes down at 4). The photo I used wasn’t as dark as my sketch appears, but the low, warm light gave everything a lovely glow. 

Whatever gives these paints their sparkle also makes them thicker than typical watercolors. I applied them fairly thick to retain as much concentrated shimmer as possible, and they felt a bit creamy rather than watery.

Oooh, these paints are fun on black paper! I have fully embraced my inner glitter gal.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

The post Watercolor Review: Boku-Undo Gansai Aurora Palette appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Two of my favorite things: Colorverse ink and anything featuring my hometown: Chicago… how could I resist? If I were to guess what color someone might create for an ink that embodies Chicago, I am not sure I would guess a dark purple/brown with shimmer particles. I might have thought of the sky blue from the stripes on the city flag, or red to emulate the Fire/fire. Green for the St. Patrick’s Day river dye? Charcoal grey for the color of some of the more recognizable skyscrapers (Sears/Willis Tower, the Hancock building, or the Lake Point Tower)? Once I started playing with the ink, I was more convinced that Colorverse made an interesting choice for a color to embody Chicago.

The shimmer particles in the Chi-Town ink ($12.50 for a 15ml) are more iridescent than gold or silver which is more commonly found in shimmer inks. The particles look blue or green depending on the light, paper or angle.

In the close-up above the ink looks more purply than it did in person which, because of the gold/brown sheen looks more brown in person, at least to me. YMMV.

You can ssee in the close-up above how the ink can look sheen-y brown-black rather than purple.

My initial ink comparisons aligned CHi-Town with dark brown inks but on second look, I tried purple and more predominately black inks. I think its safe to say that Chi-Town is more of a purple/black with an emphasis on the BLACK.

Pent Kotobo No Iro Black Lizard and Diamine Winter Miracle are more purply when compared to Chi-Town. Birmingham Pen Co’s Philadelphia Friend Circuit and Coking Coal are closer though Coking Coal is a cooler blue grey undertone and Fried Circuit has a warmer, almost brownish undertone.

So, like the city of Chicago itself, this ink is a conundrum. Some people see Chicago as “the second city” some city it as the jewel of the midwest. The ink is similar. You see what you want to see. Some will see shimmer like taillights on wet pavement, others will see muddy waters or the dark sky of a crowded city. How do you see Chicago? Both the ink and the city?

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15), James Finniss Serendipity nib holder ($79AUD)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Silverwhite 1500s  Round #2

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items in this review were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Inkmas Day 7: Colorverse Chi-Town appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Lady Rose in Gold is one of those not-quite-brown, not-quite-pink inks PLUS it has wonderful gold shimmer in it that makes it truly unique.

The rosy color is definitely that of old rose petals and the gold shimmers like the rim of a fancy tea cup. This ink totally remind me of a set of vintage floral tea cups.

When writing with a finer nib, I see less of the shimmer but all of the faded rose color of old wallpaper. This ink is all Miss Havisham vibes — at least to me.

On Tomoe River 68gsm paper, the ink does tend to look a little lighter but it still has that feeling of a well-loved heirloom, a faded, ditzy print quilt or the sun faded cover of an old book.

Trying to find a pinkish ink with shimmer in my ink collection was more challenging than I expected. I realize with almost 1000 inks in my collection that’s hard to believe but its true! I even hunted for non-shimmer pinks and I had nothing like it at all. I suspect that part of the appeal of Lady Rose in Gold is that it is so unlike anything else in my ink collection.

I guess, my advice regarding inks like Ferris Wheel PressLady Rose in Gold, is not necessarily to give in to FOMO but, if you see something that truly speaks to you, invest in it. Yes, I’ve bought lots of inks just because it was the “in thing” to get at a pen show but sometimes, something crosses my path that just feels right. When that happens to you, my advice is to buy it, before its gone.

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet and Elia Notebook with 68gsm Tomoe River paper (RM145.00 MYR)
• Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15), Pensive Pens Serendipity hybrid dip pen ($79 AUD)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Scharff 3000 Fineline Round #3 ($34.50 — my favorite paintbrush)
• Ink:  Ferris Wheel Press Lady Rose in Gold ($20 for 38ml bottle – no longer available)

The post 12 Days of Inkmas: Day 10 Ferris Wheel Lady Rose In Gold appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

On Col-o-Ring paper:

I did several samples with the new Cloud Gate ink. On Col-o-Ring cards and the Oversize notebook, the ink is a very cool grey with a lot of evidence of the gold shimmer particles. When the ink was wet, the shimmer particles weren’t as noticeable as when the ink dried. Once dry, the shimmer particles were very easy to see especially on Col-o-Ring and Tomoe River paper.

When the ink pools in any way, the shimmer is much more visible.

I love how the shimmer looks when the light hits the ink.

On Tomoe River Paper:

On Tomoe River paper, the ink still shades a lot but is a little more neutral grey, the evidence of the blues and purples was not as evident.

Again, when the ink pools, the shimmer is really evident.

Ink Color Comparison:

When compared to other shimmer inks, the closest comparison would probably be J. Herbin 1670 Stormy Grey though Stormy Grey doesn’t have the multi-color range that Cloud Gate has. Diamine Snowstorm is  lighter and has silver shimmer rather than gold and Diamine Solstice is darker and features multi-chroma shimmer. On the furthest ends of the photo above is Starry Ink Lunar Halo which ends up looking much more brown (warmer dark) grey and features gold shimmer too while the Colorverse Glistening Anti-Matter is much more purply pink.

Final Thoughts:

The fact that Cloud Gate is (I think) Papier Plume’s first shimmer ink, and it’s a multi-chroma and a limited edition if you are an ink collector, this is a must-have. If you are new to shimmer inks, since this is Papier Plume’s first foray, the shimmer volume and particle size has not been thoroughly tested for flow and cleaning so it may not be the best place to start though I’ve not had issues with any of Papier Plume’s non-shimmer inks. However, I recommend new-to-shimmer to proceed with caution.

How Can I Buy This Ink?

The Cloud Gate ink will premiere at the pen show on Friday, October 1 and available at the Papier Plume booth. Any bottles left over after the show closes will be available for purchase online the following Monday, October 4, 2021.

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

The post Ink Overview: Papier Plume Cloud Gate (Chicago Pen Show Exclusive 2021) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

#406 Moon and Stars Shimmer

I didn’t really find much shimmer in this ink. but the coppery sheen is beautiful and plentiful.

#407 Carpodacus Roseus

#407 and my camera had a tough time agreeing if a color this bright should be photographed. It is bright but not neon.

#408 Xiamen

I don’t have a great match for #408 here. It’s closer to purple than either of these comparisons, but the saturation level is the same.

#409 Spring Lake

Another PenBBS ink, #272, is the closest color I have to #409. It is bright, minty and may be a bit too light for normal writing unless you have a broad nib or a stub.

#410 Year of the Rat Shimmer

Plenty of shimmer here in #410! Year of the Rat is a great gray ink with very fine silver shimmer.

#411 Purple Sky

Purple sky is the last of the six inks for today. This is another ink where my camera and I had words. it is a gorgeous royal purple that isn’t so dark that it looks black. The swatch of Dragon Night is close, but in writing, Purple Sky keeps the purple color.

Purple Sky is my personal favorite here, although Spring Lake and Xiamen are close seconds. I’ll be sharing the next six in this season next week before going on to season 30!

Tools:

• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
• Ink: PenBBS Season 29 ($16 for 60mL or $2.60 for 4mL sample at Vannesss)

DISCLAIMER: The ink in this review was purchased by me because I am obsessed with ink. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: PenBBS Season 29 Part 1 appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I had not heard anything about izumi before this. The store is in the UK which brings to mind overseas shipping costs. However, even for international shipping, the price is 11 pounds ($15.50 at the moment) which feels reasonable for distance.

In the bottle, the ink appears reddish orange with plenty of sparkle. LOTS of sparkle. One interesting observation – the sparkle seems to be present in more than one slake size. As the larger particles settle, a very fine sparkle stays suspended in the ink.

The ink only looks reddish in the bottle. On a Col-o-ring card, it is PINK. A bright bubblegum pink that leans just a bit towards blue.

Pink Rose Gold is a bit darker than ColorVerse Girls Just Wanna and a bit more blue than Private Reserve Rose Rage. Diamine Cerise is the closest, but Pink Rose Gold doesn’t have the sheen you find in Cerise.

I used a JOWO 1.5 stub in a Woodshed Pens pink ribbon demonstrator as an eyedropper. Pink was everywhere.

I found that the sparkle in Pink Rose Gold is quite dependent on the lighting and angle of the page to that lighting. In the photo below, I have tried to show what the page looks like with non-direct lighting.

But angle the same writing towards the light and it shines.

I noticed that the sparkle stays in the ink much longer than other sparkle inks, even others from de Atramentis. Typically, the first line of writing with a sparkle ink contains the shine but the sparkle is gone halfway down the page. Pink Rose Gold had sparkle during this whole page. This page is in a Cosmo Air Light notebook from Musubi.

I had to see just how much sparkle I could get in big drops.

In the right lighting, it is super shiny! While the ink was still wet, it was difficult to tell the color of the sparkle. Once dry in these large drops, though, the coppery rose gold is obvious. A small amount of feathering occurred at the edges of the drops but the ink didn’t bleed through the page! Plus one for Cosmo Air Light paper.

On Tomoe River paper, there was no feathering, but the bubblegum pink was slightly less saturated.

The sparkle was still everywhere, though.

Overall, Pink Rose Gold was not what I was expecting from a sparkle ink. The particles stayed suspended much longer than other sparkly inks I have tried but I never experienced the dry writing or clogging I have seen in other inks. In fact, I’ve had it in my pen for over a week now and have yet to see even a slow start.

For me, that means I will absolutely use the ink often, although I will keep it to large nibs and use it only in pens that are easy to clean out. One small note of caution – this sparkle will stick to facing notebook pages and your fingers even after the ink is dry!

I loved the personalized note included with this bottle of ink, complete with a store sticker. I look forward to seeing the future of izumi!

• Swatch Cards: Col-o-ring cards (100 for $10)
• Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Folio and Musubi Cosmo Air Light Folio (Approximately $35 for 384 pages and $25 for 208 pages)
• Ink: izumi Pink Rose Gold ink by de Atramentis (10.95 pounds ($15.50) for 45mL)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purposes of this review by izumi Pen Store. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: izumi’s Pink Rose Gold appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.