Posts filed under Ink Reviews

Organics Studio Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue 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.)

Organics Studio inks are made in Maryland by Tyler Thompson. He offers several different series: Elements, Masters of Writing, Masters of Science, and Vintage Writing Ink. The Masters of Writing inks “attempt to merge a famous writer from previous centuries with a color that brings them to mind” (from the Organics Studio Masters of Writing page).

Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue is a dark blue ink with intensive magenta sheen. In fact, the ink is so sheeny, it’s actually hard to see the blue, especially in sunlight or bright light.

The ink comes in a brown cardboard box with a photo of Ralph Waldo Emerson, his signature, the dates of his life, and the date the ink was introduced (2017). The bottle is plastic and has a simple sticker with “O.S.” and “Ralph” with the photo of the writer.

For ink testing, I used my Oldwin fountain pen with a fine nib and Maruman Septcouleur paper white paper. Sometimes sheen doesn’t show up with fine nibs, but Ralph Waldo Emerson’s sheen certainly did. You can see the blue color best in the water test (the ink is not waterproof). The ink is also very wet. Even after 30 seconds of dry time, it smudged easily.

The chromatography test shows that Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue contains a base of peachy-pink with turquoise and blue tones.

The most striking feature of this ink is its exceptional sheen. I must say this is the sheeniest ink I’ve encountered so far. The magenta is so intense that it overwhelms the dark blue color.

Here are some close up photos of the sheen.

Although I am a big fan of sheen, Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue is actually too sheeny for me for a couple of reasons. First, I love blue inks, and I want to see the blue, but as I said before, the magenta sheen overwhelms the blue in this ink. Second, the sheen makes this ink sticky on the page. I used it in my Nanami Seven Seas journal, and it stuck to the facing pages and to my hand when I rested it on the page to write my next journal entry. Even after several days of drying, it still smudges and gets on my hand. Because of this, I doubt I will use this ink as a daily writer.

*I wrote this journal entry on June 1 and on June 3 it still transferred to my hand*

*The ink also smudges even after days of drying*

I love the innovative inks produced by Organics Studio. If you want an ink with intensive magenta sheen, then Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue is definitely the perfect choice. Just be aware that the ink smudges and is sticky even after several days of drying. You can purchase a 55ml bottle from Vanness Pens for $15.00.

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

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Posted on June 15, 2018 by Susan Pigott and filed under Organics Studio, Ink Reviews.

Montblanc Emerald Green Ink Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

Montblanc's color of the year for 2018 is a lovely, bright emerald. It's a rich color--nicely saturated and well-behaved. It's also the exact same color as probably a dozen other less expensive inks. This bottle was a birthday gift from my lovely husband, who likes to spoil me and knows to go to Anderson Pens to do that.

The ink comes in its sturdy ribbon-pull drawer box, which holds the beautiful rippled 50-ml glass bottle with the boldly logoed Montblanc lid. I really like these bottles. They're deep enough for a good fill, but squat enough to be sturdy on the desktop. They're beautiful in their construction--the sort of bottle I'd keep around if I could ever empty one.

One thing that did surprise me about this ink is that it's very wet. Most of my Montblanc inks are dry--some unpleasantly dry and almost unusable in a fine nib. This one is nicely lubricated. That does mean a long dry time, though. It took between 30 and 35 seconds for a fully dry line on Clairefontaine paper. For me, that's worth the writing experience, but lefties and folks in a hurry might find that a downside. If you routinely buy Montblanc inks because you like your inks dry, this one might not meet expectations.

It does have some lovely shading, from a pale spring eggshell green to a deep teal. There's no trace of any sheen, even where I've pooled the ink. But it definitely has character and depth to it. I can tell I've been writing with a snazzy liquid ink.

It has almost no water resistance. Don't even sneeze on your paper. If you soak up a spill very quickly, you might be able to see a few lines, but if water sits for even a few seconds, all trace of writing disappears.

Color-wise, it doesn't appear to be a very complex color recipe. It's a true blue-green. Which might be why it has so many twins on the market.

It's a good thing it's such a lovely color that I'm not likely to get tired of any time soon--because I now have a lot of it. There's a good chance you have some, too. So, unless you're collecting Montblanc inks, you can probably save yourself the $43 for 50 ml. Or, if you're super picky about ink behavior and prefer wet inks, this is the best one I've tried. Of all the emerald greens in my collection, this will be the one I reach for first. If this hadn't been a gift, I probably would have skipped it (don't tell my husband that; I'm trying to encourage this sort of behavior) but I am enjoying it a lot.

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Posted on June 14, 2018 by Sarah Read and filed under Montblanc, Ink Reviews.

Col-o-dex Rotary Cards: A 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.)

When Ana Reinert from Well-Appointed Desk came out with her Col-o-ring cards, I was thrilled. I wrote a review here, and discussed the nice quality of the cards and how convenient they were for doing ink swatches.

Recently, Ana came up with a new ingenious idea: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards. What a terrific brainstorm! The Col-o-dex cards work on any normal-sized Rolodex card system. So, no longer do you have to fiddle with rings, now you can put your ink swatch cards in a Rolodex and organize them with the Col-o-dex Tab Cards.

The Col-o-dex cards are 4 inches x 2.625 inches, which is plenty of room for whatever you want to include. On my cards, I put a large swatch at the top so that I can easily compare colors within color groups. I wrote the name of the company and the ink color in the middle. On the left side I did some swirls to test for shading, and on the right I did splats since those often are what show off an ink’s sheen. For all my cards, I used a Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin Calligraphy Pen Nib for consistency. Plus, this nib (for dip pens) is super easy to rinse off, so I could do numerous cards at once.

The Col-o-dex cards are made of 160gsm European pure white paper. The paper is thick enough that ink does not bleed, feather, or show through. It has some texture that you can see in your swabs, but the paper fibers do not get caught in your nib.

However, the cards do curl a bit due to the wetness of the swabs. I’m sure you could press them between heavy books to flatten them out before you put them in your Rolodex.

The best part about the Col-o-dex Cards is that you can organize them with a set of tab cards. I labled the tabs with color names and then organized the cards by company name alphabetically. This is an OCD-ink-fanatic’s dream system!

Another wonderful thing about organizing your ink swatches this way is you discover interesting things about your ink collecting trends. For example, I have a zillion blue and turquoise inks, which makes sense because blue is my favorite ink color.

But, I was surprised to discover that I own only three red inks: Montblanc Corn Poppy Red (my favorite); Robert Oster Astorquiza Rot, and Diamine Red Dragon. I don’t use red ink very often, so that’s why I don’t own many bottles of it, but it’s definitely a color I need to test more. In fact, I need to get out of my blue ink rut and try more pinks, yellows, golds, and browns.

I think the Col-o-dex Cards are an absolutely fantastic way to organize your ink swabs. The only caveat is that it is super hard to find a freaking ordinary Rolodex! Sure, you can find some models on Amazon, but most of them are for business cards or they get horrible reviews. I finally caved and bought this massive Rolodex 200-card File.

*This thing is TOO BIG, but it matches my triple-decker pen box, so . . .*

At first I thought, “This thing is way too big! I’ll never fill it up enough for it to work well.” And, it’s true. Right now, the cards just dangle like limp fish and won’t rotate when I turn the knobs.

I thought about sending the thing back, but then I realized how much ink I have. I spent several hours swabbing most of my bottled ink. But I haven’t even touched all the samples I’ve accumulated over the years. Maybe my Texas-sized Rolodex isn’t too big after all.

Obviously, you can find older, ordinary Rolodex systems on eBay or in your mom’s garage. I know I had my mom’s old Rolodex, but I think I threw it away when I cleaned my home office a while back. Now, of course, I’m upset that I didn’t keep it.

You can purchase the Col-o-dex Rotary Cards from Vanness Pen Shop for $15.00. The pack comes with 100 cards. I suggest also purchasing the Tab Accessory Pack ($5.00 for 20) so you can organize your swatches. The Tab Accessory Packs come in three colors: kraft brown, blue raspberry, and limeade green.

(Vanness Pens provided the Col-o-dex Rotary Cards and an Accessory Tab Pack to Pen Addict for review at no cost.)

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