Colorverse X Opus 88 Horizon Ink Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

A few weeks ago I reviewed Colorverse Trailblazer in Space: Strelka and Pushinka ink. This week, I’m reviewing a different series of inks made to match the Opus 88 Picnic fountain pens. The ink I’m reviewing is Horizon, which complements the Opus 88 Picnic Blue fountain pen.

I tested the ink using my brand new Opus 88 Picnic Blue with a fine point (I mean, I /had/ to have the pen to go with the ink, am I right?) on Maruman Septcouleur paper. The ink is a light blue color with very little shading (in a fine point nib) and little color variation in the swab. The ink is fairly dry and is not waterproof.

On my Col-o-dex card, I used a Nikko G nib. With this nib I was able to get a little shading out of the ink.

Chromatography reveals that the ink has virtually no variation whatsoever. It is consistently light blue.

I also tested the ink with some wider nibs: a 2.4mm Pilot Parallel and my Handwritmic Brody Neuenschwander Ruling Pen. With wider nibs, this ink is much more exciting. It has nice shading and a tiny bit of sheen if you look closely.

Overall, I’m pretty disappointed with Colorverse Horizon. With a fine nib, it is so light as to be almost unreadable. In fact, in my Opus 88 Picnic Blue fountain pen--the very pen the ink is made for--it writes poorly on every kind of paper I tried (including Tomoe River Paper and William Hannah paper). If you want to use this ink, I suggest using it only with very broad nibs.

Tomoe River Paper

William Hannah paper

You can buy Colorverse X Opus 88 Horizon from Pen Chalet for $36.00, which includes a 65 ml bottle and a 15 ml bottle.

(Pen Chalet provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Colorverse Strelka and JFK's Dog Pushinka Ink Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Colorverse’s Trailblazer in Space Series pays homage to animals, insects, and rockets that were launched into space. The Strelka and JFK’s Dog Pushinka set is based on the following story: in 1960, two dogs named Strelka and Belka boarded Sputnik 2. They were accompanied by forty mice, two rats, and several plants, and they successfully orbited Earth eighteen times. Strelka later gave birth to a litter of puppies. One of them, Pushinka, was given as a gift to John F. Kennedy (Dogs in Space).

Photo Credit: Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston; Public Domain

The Strelka/Pushinka set comes with some pretty fabulous packaging. The outer box has pictures of both dogs with their respective color inks. The inner box is decorated with stars and the solar system.

In addition to the ink, the box contains some extra goodies: two branded napkins for wiping ink off nibs, a cardboard bookmark, a cardboard pen holder, and stickers.

Strelka

The Strelka ink comes in a 65ml teardrop-shaped bottle. It is a bright, peacock blue color with little shading or sheen.

I tested the ink using a Sailor Cross Point nib on Maruman Septcouleur paper. The ink flows extremely well and is definitely an eye-catching color. It’s a wet ink and is not colorfast.

My chromatography test showed little variation in color.

The color is really quite beautiful. But writers (like me) who enjoy shading and/or sheen will be disappointed that Strelka is so flat.

JFK’s Pushinka

The Pushinka ink comes in a tiny 15ml bottle. Pushinka is a rather odd color that looks tan in swabs. But with a nib it almost looks looks greenish. The ink does not contain any sheen.

I tested this ink using my Franklin-Christoph medium SIG Flex nib on Maruman Septcouleur paper. It exhibits a tiny bit of shading when you write with it, but is a flat tan color in swabs. It is much drier than Strelka ink, and it is not waterproof.

The chromatography test indicates that this rather bland color actually contains several interesting hues: gray, yellow, orange, and blue.

In spite of the cool chromatography, I’m not at all impressed with this drab color, though it does capture the tan colors of Pushinka’s ears and tail. Although the tiny bottle is adorable, it’s not practical for pens with large or long nibs. In fact, I filled the converter straight from the bottle rather than trying to draw ink up through the nib.

This is my first experience with Colorverse inks, and I’m definitely intrigued, even though the colors I tested didn’t have shading and sheen. I love the space themes Colorverse emphasizes, and I hope to try out some different colors in the future. You can purchase this Trailblazer set from JetPens for $33.00.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Colorverse Albert & V2 Rocket Ink Giveaway

Image via JetPens

The latest batch of Colorverse Inks are out, and as good as they have been in the past, this latest batch of colors is a knockout. I chose the Albert & V2 Rocket set to give away because ORANGE AND GREEN, but if you would like a different set I can make that happen too.

There will be one winner of this giveaway, so read the rules below and enter away!

Colorverse Albert & V2 Rocket Ink Giveaway