Posts filed under Ink Reviews

Pennonia Méregzöld - Seafoam or Poison?

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Pennonia is a company founded by Hungarian fountain pen enthusiast Máté Bikfalvi who decided to launch his own line of inks in early 2020. There are currently over 40 different inks, not including exclusives like Inkdependence’s Cheerio Waterbus. I will be reviewing Pennonia Méregzöld, which we received for review from Vanness Pens.

Back in the day, Máté’s family computer had a seafoam teal Windows 95 background. Máté’s mom thought it looked like méregzöld, which is Hungarian for “poison green”. So when this dark teal ink was created, the name was an obvious choice and Pennonia Méregzöld was born. Pro tip: if you want to learn how to pronounce the name of this and other Pennonia inks, head over to this helpful pronunciation page

Pennonia Méregzöld comes in a 50ml glass bottle which is packaged in a white box with a round color swatch on top which I find super helpful for locating colors in my ink drawers.

Unlike Mike’s Cheerio Waterbus which is a little more green, Méregzöld leans a bit more blue. It is a fairly saturated ink that has average to slightly wet flow in the Broad Stub.

Dry times were pretty fast on more porous paper like the Hamelin index card, but was upwards of 30 seconds on 68 gsm Tomoe River paper and more than 60 seconds to fully dry on 52 gsm. If you want faster dry times, consider a finer nib, dryer nib/feed and less coated paper or all of the above.

Pennonia Meregzold — *Dries pretty quickly on this Hamelin index card.*

Pennonia Ink — *Dry times on 52 gsm Tomoe River - not surprising that this takes even longer to dry.*

I have had Pennonia Méregzöld inked up in a Newton Prospector with a Franklin-Christoph Nagahara Broad Stub nib for the past 3 months and it always starts up right away even if I haven’t written with the pen/ink in a few weeks. It is a lovely shade of teal that reminds me of the ocean. I picked it because it pairs beautifully with this Earth Magic material from Jonathon Brooks.

Pennonia Méregzöld sells for $13 USD for a 50 ml bottle, which is a good price for a nice amount of ink. I don’t care what the name really means, because Méregzöld definitely is not poison green but a beautiful teal ink that I am really enjoying using.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Pennonia, Ink Reviews.

Anderillium Purple Gallinule Purple 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 as fall is starting to appear and leaves falling, I'm already feeling the need to throw a bright ink into a pen and enjoy some nice pops of color as the last of summer for 2022 fades away. Anderillium Purple Gallinule Purple (or Purple Gallinule from here on) is a delicious purple ink that flies off the page and brings a smile to my face.

Just like other inks in the Avian Collection, Purple Gallinule is named after a real bird. The purple gallinule is a crane-like bird that has beautiful purple plumage along with some nicely contrasting green and turquoise. The bright purple is a great representation of the bird.

Like other Anderillium inks I've tried before, this ink is really well-behaved. The purple color is rich and consistent, the ink makes crisp lines that don't bleed or feather, and there's not much show-through on the back of the page even though this is a bright and fairly dark ink.

I'm a little disappointed that this ink doesn't have any sheen because I discovered that the purple plumage on the bird can actually change to green and turquoise in different lights. Seems like a great opportunity to add some green and/or turquoise sheen to this ink! That said, I don't have the first idea of how to add sheen to an ink, and the brilliant purple really nails the plumage coloration for a bird that, after all, has purple in its name.

One thing that shocked me about this ink is the dry time. I couldn't believe what I kept seeing when I starting timing the ink. I thought that surely I didn't get a good line or something. But after several more tests, I confirmed that this ink does dry extremely fast! When using a 1.1mm stub Monteverde nib, the ink was normally dry within 3 seconds, and always dry within 5 seconds. That's seriously impressive.

Whether you're looking for something that looks good during the fall or you want something to brighten up the upcoming dreary months, Anderillium has a color that can suite your tastes. And, for left-handed writers, this purple ink is stellar. Take a look at all the great inks that Anderillium have to offer. Purple Gallinule is a fantastic purple, and I look forward to having it in the rotation.

(This ink was purchased for retail price at the 2022 Atlanta Pen Show.)

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Posted on September 14, 2022 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Anderillium, Ink Reviews.

Pelikan Edelstein Apatite Ink Review

Pelikan Edelstein 2022 Ink of the Year Apatite

(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. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Pelikan's gemstone ink of the year is a light turquoise color called Apatite. Compared to past blue-green shades, it's lighter than Aquamarine and bluer than Jade. It's a lovely shade that will no doubt delight fans of the blue-green ink family.

Chromatography on this ink shows a basic cyan base color with a splash of bright green mixed in, which gives it a cooler aqua undertone. Think 1990s swimming pool. It shows some shading in print writing, but almost none in cursive writing. It does not have any sheen. Overall, it's an unfussy color. It's dark enough to read on the page without too much trouble, but it's too pale and fun to pass as a businessy color.

The closest color match I found was Colorverse Eagle, part of the Apollo 11 series, which has the same cooler blue undertone. They're not quite twins, but so close that they'd be difficult to tell apart in writing. Other colors in my swab collection all skew much greener.

I would consider this a dry ink. It flows well in the pen, but writing with it has a dryer feel, and the ink on the page dries completely in 20 seconds. This would make a good ink for lefties, or for writing quick notes where you want to turn the page or close the book as soon as possible.

There's no water resistance to the ink. There's no trace of a line left even when a water drop is quickly and carefully removed with blotting. When water is wiped away, it erases the ink completely.

The gemstone line comes in a 50ml glass bottle that sells for around $28, which is a fair price for a bottle of this size. The bottles are steady and easy to fill from, with wide mouths and a solid base, so there's little risk of spilling and even big pens can be easily filled.

I'm a big fan of the gemstone inks from Pelikan, and while this shade isn't my favorite from this line, its swimming pool summer vibes will be much needed in the winter months to come.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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