Thank you to Dromgoole’s for letting me review this set and feel like I can be part of the cool crowd.

I never did have those markers. Either I was too old when they were introduced to the market or I wasn’t cool enough – I’m not sure. However, now I can relive that disappointment with a new set from Monteverde – Color Changing Inks.

The set comes in a nice magnetically closing box that looks great on a bookshelf, saving you space in your ink drawer. It consists of 9 colorful inks and one clear color changer bottle.

The color changer ink is a bit thicker than normal inks but has little to no odor and leaves no trace of a mark on paper.

I decided to start with filling up a few Kakimori refillable felt tip pens, but I swatched the following cards as I normally do – paintbrush and a dip pen.

This part was so fun! Each color changes differently with the addition of the color changer ink. Some, like the black and brown, change rather slowly and can take several minutes to fully change. Others, especially the Green and Blue, change as soon as the color changer touches them.

I learned through trial and error that you should let the first ink totally dry before adding the color changing ink. Also, be careful if you go back over your clear ink with a second coat as it can spread.

The color changer ink acts almost like a bleach pen, but not as harsh to the paper.

You can see in the swatch below that the color changer pushed slightly to the edges of the heavier swatch. A fun effect to watch.

As a graduate from Virginia Tech, I deeply appreciate the Burgundy to Orange color since it is the school color combination.

You can see a dark version of the color changed pink haloing the entire swatch of the Dark Blue ink below – almost like the deep blue portion shrank back to reveal the color underneath.

The Fuchsia ink was nearly bleached to white with the color changing ink, but the ink itself feathered quite a bit in the swatch below – Cosmo Air Light paper.

The Pink that came from the color changing ink on Green ink is a unique combination – the pink comes through as rather dark at first but lightens over time.

I also loved the Purple to Yellow combination – a very dark ink that lightens dramatically to Yellow.

The Red ink seemed to be closer to orange than actual red.

You can see on a few of these swatch cards that some colors performed poorly in the feathering department, although this is not enough for me to not use the ink.

Below is the Monteverde Color Changing lineup on Midori MD paper:

The Monteverde Color Changing lineup on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Finally, the Monteverde Color Changing lineup on Cosmo Air Light paper:

The set as I have shown it is available at retailers who carry Monteverde inks for $124 or $13 per ink bottle and $7 per bottle of color changer.

Which color duo is your favorite combination?

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items in this review were provided at a discounted rate for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Monteverde Color Changing Ink Set appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Tinterias is a Spanish language podcast run by Jeffrey Coleman who is a professor at Northwestern University who also seems to have excellent taste in ink. He teamed up with Sailor to create a group of exclusive inks – Spicy Chipotle, Homemade Tortilla, Blue Corn, and Agave. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to get to the Tinterias table, they were sold out of one bottle, Spicy Chipotle, but that only means I have one more bottle to hunt down…

The first ink is Homemade Tortilla. This is a beautiful golden brown ink that shades dramatically and is very close to KWZ Honey with a touch less yellow in the mix.

Sailor x Tinterias Homemade Tortilla on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Homemade Tortilla on Midori MD paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Homemade Tortilla on Midori Cotton paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Homemade Tortilla on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

The next ink is Blue Corn, a deep blackberry purple. I love how well this ink matches the actual color of blue corn – although I don’t think blue corn sheens at all. I could be wrong, though. Blue Corn is a touch bluer than Robert Oster Claret, but it is close and it is a few shades lighter than Vinta Ubi Mulberry.

Sailor x Tinterias Blue Corn on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Blue Corn on Midori MD paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Blue Corn on Midori Cotton paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Blue Corn on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

The last ink today (due to being too slow on Spicy Chipotle), is Agave. Agave is a wonderful blue-grey ink that could be classified as a light blue-black ink. It is close to Wearingeul Mature but is better at shading and is slightly darker than Akkerman Koninginne Nach Blauw.

Sailor x Tinterias Agave on Tomoe River (TR7) 52gsm paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Agave on Midori MD paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Agave on Midori Cotton paper:

Sailor x Tinterias Agave on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

I’ve been enjoying these three inks thoroughly since picking them up. Homemade Tortilla and Agave shade gorgeously! I played around with Agave and a Sailor Fude nib for a while – not artistically, but it was fun seeing what the color can do!

I highly recommend all three inks I’ve shown here today. You can find them on the Tinterias podcast website where they are listed for $30 each (although both Homemade Tortilla and Spicy Chipotle are sold out currently) – I did not find shipping costs, however. The square glass bottles are 50mL each, so you’ll have plenty to play with as well, and at $0.60/mL, these inks are very well-priced for Sailor!

The post Ink Review: Sailor x Tinterias Inks appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The Write & Draw ink line consists of 50mL glass bottles that I have found for $17.33 at Vanness Pen Shop. This works out to about $0.35 per mL – a great deal for colorful water resistant inks.

The color lineup today isn’t as colorful as part 1. Here we have the blues, grays, greens, and the one black ink. Blue Koi is a brilliant sapphire blue, Grey Meerkat is a neutral grey, and my favorite blue – Blue Lynx.

Grey Fox is one that I would classify as a blue-black.

I have a feeling that Petrol Axolotl will be a popular choice in this line – a dark teal that reminds me of the popular Taccia Sabimidori ink. Green Eagle is a nice bright green that leans a bit towards yellow, but not much.

The last three colors – Green Squirrel, Grey Frog, and Black Elephant make quite a trio. Green Squirrel is a fun muddy green and Black Elephant is a deep, dark, opaque black – as a pigment ink, it can achieve the true black not found in dye based inks.

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Midori Cotton paper:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Tomoe River 52gsm (TR7) paper:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Midori MD paper:

Octopus Write & Draw inks on Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper:

In part 1 of this review, I promised to test the water resistance of the Octopus Write & Draw inks. To test this, I first sprinkled several drops of water on every color swatch – here I’m showing the test on Midori MD paper.

After letting this sit for one minute, I blotted each swatch with a clean paper towel.

Not a single trace of ink on the paper towel.

I repeated this with the inks from part 1. The same result. I could not get the ink off the paper.

I decided on another test – I held the Black Elephant swatch under running water for 30 seconds and again blotted the paper dry. Nothing. The swatch looked identical before and after the flowing water.

I am truly impressed with the water resistance of the Write & Draw inks. Colorful waterproof inks are hard to find, but I have found all 25 colors to withstand brutal levels of water. I would consider these a great purchase at their price point.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided at a discount by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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The external packaging for the Taisho inks is almost identical to some of the Taccia inks, perhaps giving hints to the actual ink manufacturer. The bottle contains 40mL of ink and has a small tag attached with space for a tiny swatch of the ink although the paper used for the tag is too absorbent to show the ink color accurately.

The three ink colors I have here are Gentle Green, Smoky Navy, and Opera Rose.

Opera Rose is an interesting color – a bit under saturated terracotta or salmon orange/pink/brown. It shades but not dramatically.

Papier Plume’s 011 ink is a few shades darker than Opera Rose, but the color is a match.

Smoky Navy has some great shading and is a lovely blue-black ink. Occasionally a hint of sheen shows up but only in the swatch.

I had a hard time finding a match to Smoky Navy in my collection. The lightest portion of the swatch is a match with Diamine Prussian Blue, and the darker areas appeared to match Robert Oster Thunderstorm, but the camera brings out much more green in Smoky Navy.

I saved my favorite of the batch for last. Gentle Green. It immediately reminded me of Taccia Sabimidori with the way is wrote blue but dried to a definite green.

When comparing Gentle Green to Sabimidori, though, the colors were further apart than I had imagined. The heavier applications of Sabimidori are close to the color in Gentle Green, but the overall color is quite different. Wearingeul Mad Hatter is a good match.

The first page below is Tomoe River (TR7) paper

Next is Midori MD paper – this paper is cream rather than the white of the other two examples.

Finally, Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper.

Here’s another shot of the Cosmo Air Light paper, turned to catch the sheen in both Gentle Green and Smoky Navy.

Scrolling through the photos of the paper types, you may have noticed how different the Taisho Roman inks appear on each. Gentle Green is the most obvious, but all three colors change between papers. I’ve photographed pairs of notebooks to show how much they can change.

Tomoe River 52gsm is on the left with Cosmo Air Light 83gsm on the right.

Cosmo Air Light 83gsm is on the left with Midori MD on the right. These don’t even look like the same inks.

So which ink and paper combination is your favorite?

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

The post Ink Review: Taisho Inks, Part 1 appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I do love the detail in the packaging for all of Ferris Wheel Press inks and Lapis Lullabies is no exception. This is the first ink that starts into the tale of Sleeping Beauty, so the heavy bed curtains are surrounded by roses with spinning wheels carved into the bed posts.

As with all of the FerriTales inks, Lapis Lullabies is in an adorable bottle – a miniature version of the full sized inks in the normal ink line.

Lapis Lullabies is closer to a deep sea or dark teal color than a true lapis. The ink has a reddish-copper sheen with gold sparkle added – not unlike Emerald of Chivor (although Lapis is bluer).

The base color of Lullabies is close to Lamy Petrol.

Even the sheen in Lullabies comes close to the same sheen in Petrol.

My writing below is on Tomoe River 68gsm paper in a notebook from Odyssey Notebooks.

I love the more coppery tone in Lullabies’ sheen rather than a bold metallic red.

The FerriTales inks each come in a small, 20mL bottle for $21 at most ink retailers which places the ink at about $1.05 per mL – rather expensive on my charts. It is, however, a beautiful ink for a special treat. As with each of the small bottles from Ferris Wheel Press, I must warn about the small opening – large pens will not fit into it. The largest diameter pen I can fit into the bottle is a TWSBI Eco – this pen is a tight fit. Please keep this in mind when deciding to purchase!

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

The post Ink Review: Lapis Lullabies appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I have to say, this is the first ink from Diamine that I’m sort of underwhelmed by. It is a gorgeous dark blue, and in certain lights I get the reddish pink sheen. However, I shook my bottle well and there was nary any shimmer to be seen?

In terms of color, this one is quite like Dromgoole’s special Colorverse NASA Blue ink, right down to the red sheen. The blue is also similar, though not quite as dark as, Diamine’s 150th Anniversary Blue Velvet.

I’m having a hard time with this one. In the sample swatches it looks to be a gorgeous shimmery, sheeny blue, perfect for my non-denominational holiday needs. But the real ink just isn’t as exciting, and so given the bottle I got, I’d give this one a pass.

• Paper: Crossfield Journal ($24)
• Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80)
• Swatches: Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Inks: Diamine Blue Edition Happy Holidays Shimmer & Sheen ink (50mL for $22)

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.

The post Inkmas Day 9: Diamine Blue Edition Happy Holidays Shimmer & Sheen appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

There are three inks in the set: Glimmering Greige, Chidori Cherry Blossom, and Dearest Navy.

Dearest Navy is a strong blue-black ink with a touch of purple undertone and just a hint of a red sheen occasionally – it is very close to KWZ’s iron gall blue-black (a gentle iron gall).

Hints of the red sheen show up on Midori MD Light paper:

Cosmo Air Light paper shows no sheen at all, and the purple undertones drop out:

Tomoe River paper (TR7) shows the sheen clearly in a swatch and haloing in the writing.

Glimmering Greige is a lovely warm grey with gold sparkle. The base color is close to Kirk-same – Kaweco Smokey Grey was the next close grey I could find in my collection. It isn’t very close.

Glimmering Greige on Midori MD Light – the glimmering portion didn’t show well here.

Cosmo Air Light paper shows the gold sparkle very well and brings out the blue in the ink base. On CAL paper, this ink looks like a cool grey rather than warm.

Tomoe River Paper (TR7) shows the sparkle through the swatch and the writing plus a warmer grey than the CAL paper.

The final ink today is Chidori Cherry Blossom. It seems to be exactly in between Strawberry Macaron and Lady Rose Gold (this one was a limited edition).

Again, the sparkle doesn’t show well on the Midori MD Light paper. The base ink color also comes out very pale.

Cosmo Air Light paper shows plenty of the rose gold sparkle. CAL paper also seems to let go of the sparkle fairly easily – not rubbing off, but rather spreading on the page. I’ve noticed this with other sparkle inks in the past.

Tomoe River (TR7) paper doesn’t spread the sparkle like CAL paper, but it doesn’t show as brightly, either.

Here is an overview of the three inks (plus a bonus ink that I will be reviewing soon) on Midori MD Light paper.

The inks together on Cosmo Air Light paper:

Finally, the inks together on Tomoe River Paper (TR7)

It is interesting how a change in paper can drastically change the base color of an ink. Glimmering Greige is a great example of how Cosmo Air Light paper draws out the blue undertones more than Tomoe River paper:

The three inks colors I’ve shown here today are each $22 for a 38mL bottle (or about $0.58 per mL), a price per mL comparable to Sailor Manyo inks, Montblanc standard line inks, or Diamine Shimmertastic inks. I love the idea of ink collections that celebrate special events of stationery stores and bring attention to retailers that I don’t yet know about! Glimmering Greige is also a unique grey to my collection. Thank you to Ferris Wheel Press for sending these for review!

DISCLAIMER: The ink in this review was provided free of charge by Ferris Wheel Press for the purpose of this review. The other items in the review were purchased by myself. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: Ferris Wheel Press Curious Collaborations: Paper Tree appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

First, take a look at these boxes! In San Fransisco, I was stationed at a table near a window with direct sunlight shining through for part of the day. I had to move the FerriTale inks out of the sunlight to keep the reflections from blinding anyone!

The FerriTale inks are on the expensive side – 20mL bottles for $21. The bottles are adorable – a miniature version of Ferris Wheel Press’ large 85mL bottles. The bottle lid is heavy – solid metal rather than plastic.

Today I’m covering Adventurtine, Blue Beryl Tonic, and Blushing Mushroom.

First, Blushing Mushroom. The base ink color is a slightly under-saturated dusty purple with medium shading and rose gold sparkle. In keeping with most Ferris Wheel Press sparkle inks, the shimmer is fine enough that it doesn’t easily clog a pen. I had a bit of a tough time finding a second matching ink – Pen BBS #404 is close but Blushing Mushroom is darker.

On Midori MD Light paper, Blushing Mushroom is a bit lighter and it shades even more. I love how many layers this ink can show in a single swatch.

The second paper in my tests is Tomoe River paper Tomogawa #7. This is the “old” Tomoe River paper and you may see it labeled as TR7 as the paper types become more differentiated. I’ll review the newest Sanzen Tomoe River paper in a future review.

In the meantime, Blushing Mushroom ink on Tomoe River paper. The shimmer was a bit out of control here! I’ve found that shimmer and Tomoe River paper don’t agree with one another as well as other paper types. I don’t mind shimmer all over my page, but it may be something to keep in mind!

Finally, Cosmo Air Light paper. Blushing Mushroom shows a greater amount of blue on CAL and the edges are crisper – the shading isn’t as dramatic as the two previous papers in my review, but it is still present. I love how easy it is to read the lettering I did on through the swatched ink. The color isn’t greatly different, but the letters still stand out nicely.

When I first saw the three inks I am reviewing here, I thought Adventurtine was the least exciting, but it became my favorite of the three once I swatched them. It is a light grey with undertones of pink and blue plus rose gold shimmer. With a dip nib, the ink resembles graphite, while wider nibs shade beautifully.

On Midori MD Light paper, the pink undertones show clearly and the ink swatch is haloed in a dusty blue. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shimmer showed up on this paper.

Adventurine on Tomoe River paper (TR7) is fairly unsaturated in the swatch but shows up well in writing. TR7 gives the ink a watercolor character to the swatch.

Cosmo Air Light paper brings out more of the blue undertones in Adventurine while the pink nearly disappears. The first layer of the ink looks like a watercolor wash, but the writing is easily legible – it also looks less like graphite.

Blue Beryl Tonic also shades well, with several shades of sapphire blue and grey and pink undertones and rose gold shimmer. It reminds me of Troublemaker’s Milky Ocean ink in the swatch, but in writing, Blue Beryl Tonic is closer to grey.

Midori MD Light paper shows the layering Blue Beryl Tonic can lay down. This ink can get fairly dark around the heavier areas in the swatch and haloing is dramatic.

On Tomoe River Paper, Tomogawa #7, the sparkle in Blue Beryl again gets carried away. The tone is bluer and stands out well from the page in writing.

On Cosmo Air Light paper, the ink is again even bluer. The lettering below the swatch almost pops off of the page but the shading is scaled back.

I’ve been enjoying all three of these inks since I first received them. It took a while to obtain all three since they have been selling out at several retail stores each time a shipment is received! While the FerriTale inks are quite pricy ($1.05 per mL), I do think it is worth picking up one or two of the colors. The shimmer particles are small enough that the ink flows smoothly in medium nibs or wider, all colors are clearly legible, and the bottles are adorable. Which one of the three is your favorite?

DISCLAIMER: The Blue Beryl Tonic included in this review was provided free of charge by Ferris Wheel Press for the purpose of review. The other items in the review were purchased by myself. Please see the About page for more details

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The ink was first sold on the first day of the pen show, 9am Friday. By 9am Saturday, the entire show was sold out of this new ink set (don’t worry, retailers are now restocked) and there is no question why it flew off the ink racks. The artwork on the box is the gorgeous Butterfly Nebula.

ColorVerse reversed their normal glistening/non-glistening arrangement for this set; the large, 65mL bottle contains the sparkle while the smaller, 15mL bottle is a standard ink.

NGC 6302 is an interesting teal that reminded me of Robert Oster’s Muddy series, but Muddy Swamp is much darker and much less green. I would call NGC a dark version of Lennon Tool Bar Plastic Sky.

Butterfly Nebula was the big surprise of the set – a dusty, under saturated periwinkle with a beautiful pink sparkle! The sparkle is difficult to see until the paper is angled like the photo below.

I’ve had a TWSBI Eco inked up with ColorVerse Butterfly Nebula for a full week – I have had no issues with dry starts, the ink continues to flow well through the feed. I had a bit of a problem with NGC 6302, however. It turned out that I forgot how dry my Ritma can be! The ink itself is not dry at all.

The paper shown above and below is wheat straw paper – the sparkle shows well and is a touch darker than the ink on Tomoe River paper.

Below are ink swatches on Tomoe River paper (original):

And the beautiful sparkle angle:

Again, the same inks on Cosmo Air Light paper:

And the sparkle:

Finally, ColorVerse NGC 6302 and ColorVerse Butterfly Nebula on MD Light paper:

The sparkle here is not quite as dramatic:

Here at the end of the post, I wanted to include a photo of the ink when the sparkle has settled to the bottom of the bottle:

Since I don’t have a video of the clear view of Butterfly Nebula, this photo was the best way I could show the sparkle in the pen:

Again, thank you to Dromgoole’s for the ink shown in this review!

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Review: ColorVerse Butterfly Nebula and NGC 6302 appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I appreciate that Sailor has been adding more inks to this line on a regular basis and that Manyo inks are a North America-only release. It seems to make up just a tiny bit for the hundreds of inks that are only available in Japan.

The four Manyo inks in this review were recently received by retailers. All four – Koke, Fuji, Ayame, and Hinoki – are described as dual-shading inks by Sailor; they could also fall under the popular term magic inks or multi-chromatic inks.

First up today is Sailor Fuji. This is a dusky purple with grey and blue shading and reminds me of clouds that are lining up to cause major destruction.

Sailor Koke is next, a dark teal with grey, green, and blue showing up in the layered ink. While Koke is very close in color to Sailor 341, Koke has greater depth to the shading and is a touch greener.

Sailor Ayame reminded me of Sailor 123 when I first used it, but it is much darker (and easier to read). The color is closer to Sailor 224 but in Ayame, the tones are more dramatic, swinging from grey to green to purple with a halo of dark green that looks nearly black.

Finally, there is Sailor Hinoki. While it looks close to Ayame, Hinoki is much bluer, shading in grey and purple with just a touch of green in the background. It is similar to Van Dieman’s Morning Frost but Hinoki is slightly darker.

Since Sailor recently released their amazing multi-shading inks (in 20mL bottles), it may help to show these Manyo inks in comparison. Manyo Ayame is darker than Itezora, but close in the mix of colors. Ayame also shows a darker halo in the swatch.

Sailor Manyo Hinoki and Manyo Fuji are similar to Kangyou and Kyokkou in color. The Manyo inks do not show as much color variation, but they are easier to read.

Sailor Manyo Koke didn’t have a good equivalent in the “magic” ink lineup

For those who need more quantity than the 20mL Sailor “magic” inks, the Manyo dual-shading release is a great alternative.

I had a great time playing with these four inks on various paper types. First is Tomoe River paper (old stock). On Tomoe River paper, these look even closer to the “magic” Sailor inks.

The next paper type is Cosmo Air Light paper. Some of the dual-shading quality disappears, but the colors are crisper and darker.

On Midori MD Light paper, Fuji almost glows while the remaining three inks show quite a bit of the dual-shading property.

Typically, the above three paper types are the paper I use in ink reviews. This time I thought it would be interesting to see how Bank paper took the dual-shading Manyo inks. I thought it would be similar to the other paper types. I was wrong.

Where did all of this green come from?? All swatches were done with the same paintbrush and dip pen. One after another. But when the ink touched Bank paper, the result was not the same color at all.

I am also including two comparison photos so the color differences are easier to see. Hinoki and Ayame are quite different colors on Midori MD Light and Cosmo Air Light.

Hinoki on Cosmo Air Light paper versus Tomoe River paper (on the right) is again dramatically different. All four inks look softer on Tomoe River paper while Cosmo Air Light paper shows crisper lines and darker colors.

I will again say that I am a huge fan of Sailor Manyo inks. The newest four dual-shading inks are a fabulous addition to the lineup and I highly recommend them along with all Manyo inks.

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

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