Anderillium Shoebill Stork Grey Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Just a few weeks ago, I looked at an Anderillium ink that was quite interesting, but only had limited use cases for me. Today, I'm excited to be talking about another Anderillium ink -- and this one is great for all writing purposes.

Anderillium Shoebill Stork Grey is a beautiful gray ink with a lot of great shading behavior. In most cases, ink descriptions in the marketing materials are brief, but I recommend reading about the bird that serves as a namesake for this broody ink.

A tall and terrifying bird. (Image via Audubon.org)

Naming and birds aside, this is a solid ink. It comes in the same jam jar as other inks in the same Avian series, which makes it incredibly easy to fill pens due to the large mouth. The small glass jar and flat lid also make it easy to store. At 1.5 oz or 42 ml, it holds a good amount of ink as well. You likely won't run run out quickly.

Looking at the color of this ink, it's really similar to Diamine's Earl Grey or Robert Oster's Chicago. It's in the same family of hue, and looks fantastic on paper. The shading is the real star of this ink, though. The main color is a medium-dark gray, but the thinner areas have a delightful light gray that adds a lot of visual interest to your writing.

Another surprise that definitely goes on the "pro" list for this ink the amount of time it takes to dry. In my tests with a fairly broad nib, the dry time hovers around the 10-second mark. Not bad at all. You can find other inks that dry faster if that's what you need, but this performance is nothing to criticize.

The other characteristics of how this ink performs are excellent as well. There's no feathering or bleeding, and there's only minimal show-through on the back of the page. It's well-behaved and easy to clean out of your pen when it's time for something new.

What I especially about this gray ink (or any gray ink, for that matter) is that it's decidedly gray. Even in the wettest areas, you can tell it's a gray ink. This isn't a gray-black or a gray-brown. It's simply gray, and it provides several different shades of beautiful gray that remind me of a bird's plumage.

This is a fantastic gray that goes well in any collection. If you'd like to try some out, head over to Anderillium's site to pick up a bottle. At $14.50 for a 42ml bottle, it's a pretty good value. The shading and excellent performance make this an easy choice if you like the color.

(Brad purchased this ink at regular price from Anderillium Ink at the 2022 Atlanta Pen Show.)

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Anderillium Avian Series: American Goldfinch Yellow Ink Review

A relative newcomer to the fountain pen ink scene, Anderillium has some exciting lines of nature-inspired ink colors. Anderillium are based in Tampa, Florida and currently have two collections of inks: Cephalopod and Avian. The Avian series features eight colors that represent different feathered creatures. The ink I've had the opportunity to test out first is called American Goldfinch Yellow.

American Goldfinch Yellow is a happy, cheery color, which is representative of the bird. The color is fun, but it's so light that it has difficulty showing up on white paper. As such, I can't really see myself using this ink very often since it's difficult to read what I've written on white paper.

The behavior of this ink is fantastic, though. The ink flows well and hasn't shown any bleeding or feathering on the several types of paper I've tried. The edges of the lines are crisp and sharp, which is something I particularly enjoy with any ink.

There's no shading to speak of, but that is probably a good thing if you intend to use this ink for highlighting — which is also the exact purpose I'd recommend this ink to anyone. It's a lovely highlighter yellow! Load it up in a broad-nibbed pen and use it to highlight printed words or even hand-written passages as long as the dark ink is fairly permanent. In my writing example, I've highlighted over a black gel pen ink. Looking at the sample closely, you can see that the underlying dark ink is still crisp and un-smudged or diluted. And, the yellow highlight is bright and transparent to call attention to what's beneath!

The main downside to this ink, aside from it being a non-starter for me in terms of normal writing situations, is that the dry time is extremely prolonged. In my tests with this 1.1 mm stub nib, it took the ink between 45 and 80 seconds to fully dry to the point that it didn't smudge with light pressure. Pretty sure I can say that this is the longest dry time I've encountered so far. This will be problematic if you're using this ink in a notebook where you intend to close it up after jotting down some notes or making some highlights with this ink. The yellow ink will transfer to the page on the opposite side of the notebook. While this might not be a disaster due to the super light shade of the ink, it still requires a concerning amount of time to properly dry.

While American Goldfinch Yellow won't be in my regular rotation, I'm intrigued to see what else Anderillium have to offer with their other inks. If you'd like to give this ink a try, head over to their website to pick some up. A 1.5 fl. oz. (44 ml) pot of ink is just $14.50. The glass pot that the ink comes in reminds me of a small jam jar, which is an instant bonus. The wide mouth makes it really easy to fill your pen.

(This ink was purchased directly from Anderillium at full retail price at the 2022 Atlanta Pen Show.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!