Both Seiheki and Yurushiiro come in 40mL glass bottles priced at $28 a bottle bringing the ink to $0.70 per mL – not an inexpensive ink, but far from the $1 per mL of some recent Sailor inks!

As soon as I opened the package, I noticed that the ink looked almost cloudy. Not opaque like pigmented ink, but not as clear as I would expect.

You can see a bit of particulate in the ink – it isn’t sparkling though.

Swatching the inks, it became obvious that the consistency is unusual – there is definitely an opaqueness present. This didn’t translate into an actual thickness of the ink while writing, however.

The first ink I’ll look at here is Kyo-no-oto Seiheki. From the Dromgoole’s site:

“SEIHEKI is a dull blue-green color that would look similar to the daytime sky. ‘Sei’ means blue and ‘heki’ means green-blue stone which originates from ancient times

The color of nature, especially the sky, would stay in the briefest instant. The shorter the time remain, the memory of the color may even be more beautifully remembered. Especially in the middst of the change of the seasons, the color will change every moment. ‘Shogyo-mujo’ is the Japanese word to describe the transience of all phenomena. Many things are impermanent and change with short lives. Those new colors are our message to describe such momentary colors with lyrical images based on traditional Kyoto colors.

*This is a new type of ink combining fine pigments and dyes. The hue changes at the beginning and end of writing.

To realize the special effect, this ink contains small particles of pigment. Please wash the ink feeder and pens completely before you will use other ink with the same pen.”

Seiheki and Yurushiiro are pigment inks, but only a small amount of pigment. While I have inked up pens with each of the inks here today, I have not yet had enough time to report on the writing experience.

Seiheki is a lovely blue-green close to Wearingeul Resurrection with a touch more blue.

On Midori MD paper:

On Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

On the same CAL paper as above, but angled to show a bit of the texture on paper:

And finally on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Tomoe River paper seems to bring out an almost pebbled texture in the swatch of ink.

The second ink in this review is Kyo-no-oto Yurushiiro. Again from the Dromgoole’s site:

“During the Heian Period, there was a color that was not allowed to use except for certain social statuses such as royalty. Safflower red was one of those colors because of its preciousness. ‘YURUSHIIRO’ means ‘allowed color’ for everybody. ‘YURUSHIIRO is a much lighter version of Safflower red. The ink color shade was allowed for every person and was often used for daily life during the Heian period.”

Again, Yurushiiro has the same consistency and comes with the same warning that the ink contains both pigment and dye and that pens should be cleaned out well before refilling with a different ink. In writing, Yurushiiro is close to Pilot Iroshizuku Hana-Ikada (one of the three new inks from Pilot)

On Midori MD paper:

On Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

Again the CAL paper but angled to show the color and texture of the ink:

And finally on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Again, the pebbled texture shows up only on the Tomoe River paper.

What do you think of this new type of ink? I’m thrilled to get a chance to play with it for a while and I’ll report back on the writing experience soon!

DISCLAIMER: The ink in this post was provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of this review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: New Kyo-no-oto Inks appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Kyo-no-oto is known for releasing ink colors inspired by places or cultural items in Japan. Ruriiro refers to Lapis Lazuli or Ultramarine. Ryokuyu is green leaves and I’ve found day spas associated

The sparkle in these inks looks purple and green in the bottles, but as far as I can tell, it’s actually silver in both.

Here are swatches of Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro:

Ruriiro is a beautiful ultramarine blue.

Ruriiro is in-between Diamine Regency Blue and J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis. In the swatch there is evidence of shading but not present unless there is a large amount of the ink.

I’ve shown writing samples on both Cosmo Air Light 83 and Tomoe River 52gsm. Both are from Musubi.

Cosmo Air Light:

Tomoe River:

Ruriiro was not dry in writing – not what I would expect at all from a shimmer ink or an ink from Kyo-no-oto. After about 15 or 20 minutes of writing, the shimmer did clog slightly. I was able to restart by agitating the pen, however.

Now for Ryokuyuiro; a dusty, soft green.

Ryokuyuiro is close to Sailor Studio 462 in color (although it has a touch more blue) and looks about as shimmery as J. Herbin Vert Atlantide.

Writing with Ryokuyuiro is noticeably drier than Ruriiro but not nearly as dry as other Kyo-no-oto inks.

Cosmo Air Light:

Tomoe River:

Again, I did have some clogging after 15 minutes of writing. I was able to get the pen unclogged fairly easily, but I noticed Ryokuyuiro was much drier than Ruriiro.

Both inks are listed as $30 for 40mL – on the expensive side but not as pricy as Sailor Studio. One or both may be worth this, depending on how you use ink. These are beautiful in very wide nibs – Pilot Parallel pens (which were used in these samples), dip pens, folded nibs – would be perfect. Finer nibs would probably have a tough time keeping up.

My favorite here is absolutely Ruriiro. The deep blue-violet is beautiful!

• 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: Kyo-no-oto Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro ($30 for 40mL each)

DISCLAIMER:  The inks in this review were provided free by Dromgooles for the purpose of this review.  All other items in this review were purchased by me.  Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Kyo-no-oto Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Kyo-no-oto is an ink line from the TAG stationery store in Japan with colors designed to represent traditional Japanese dyes. The latest release from Kyo-no-oto is Sakuranezumi or Cherry Blossom Mouse (maybe the cutest name ever).

From the box, the color seems to be a dusty pinkish purple that shades well. The box is a thick cardstock with the name Kyo-no-oto letterpressed into the material and is one of those boxes that I can never seem to open without a small tear in one corner.

Opening the bottle, the ink seems to be a very dark purple and on the thin side – very little ink stayed on the inside of the lid.

Sakuranezumi is an amazing shading ink. On my swatch card, the shading varies from a dusty rose to a plum with a dark halo and a hint of a goldish-green sheen on tthe edges of that halo.

In very heavy applications, Sakuranezumi can even move towards a violet. This only happened where I allowed a LOT of ink to dry.

As I compared Sakuranezumi to other inks, there was a wide range to match. The lightest areas seemed to be a good match to Robert Oster Claret while the heavier applications looked near the lightest portions of Bungubox Ink of the Witch.

Due to the sakura portion of the name, I was inspired to draw a few flowers. The shading is great here, just don’t judge the quality of the actual drawing!

Another large swatch of ink shows again the leaning towards blue undertones.

The biggest complaint about Kyo-no-oto ink is that the inks are terribly dry. I used a pen that is normally too wet for my taste in order to compensate for the dryness and I was pleased with the results! The flow seemed perfect. I would label Sakuranezumi as a dry-ish ink, although nowhere near the dryness level of Stone Road or Hisoku.

Wide nibs and script writing (rather than cursive) show the shading very well. In writing I would actually say Sakuranezumi is a medium shading ink.

At $28 for 40mL, Kyo-no-oto inks are on the pricy side, but, in my opinion, are worth the price for the original colors. Now I need to find a stuffed Cherry Blossom Mouse for my desk!

Tools:

• Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Refill ($30-35 USD)
• Ink:  Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi (Pen Boutique, 40mL for $25.20)
• Swatch Cards: Col-o-ring ink testing cards ($10 for 100 card pack)

DISCLAIMER: All materials used in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.