(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!.)
At this year’s SF Pen Show, I was excited to get the set of 3 exclusive inks made by Troublemaker Inks for Flax Pen to Paper, a stationery shop in Los Angeles, CA. The 3 inks are Momo Mochi, Sage Green, and Into the Depths.
I like that the labels on the front give you an idea of what the ink color is.
Ditto the labels on the tops of the bottles. I don’t know why the Momo Mochi bottle is transparent while the other two are opaque (and it’s not because the inks are dark.)
As in the past, all swatches were done on Col-O-Ring cards using a Kakimori steel dip nib and the non-brush end of a paintbrush, while writing samples were done with a TWSBI Go with a Medium nib and a Lamy Vista with a steel Medium nib. The TWSBI Go is a wetter writer and the Lamy is a drier writer, so these two give me a good idea of how an ink will look from different pens. The notebook used for writing samples is from Endless Recorder with 68 gsm Tomoe River paper. Dry times may be a bit slower on 52gsm TR or faster on papers like Rhodia, copy paper, Cosmo Air Light or with drier or finer nibs.
Momo Mochi is a bright peachy coral-y color that is in between orange, pink and other inks that have peach in the name. You can see its shades of orange, yellow and pink in a drier pen like the Vista, but it was almost too light for my personal preference. The wetter nib made it more readable but you don’t get as much shading. There are varying levels of shading depending on nib wetness and no sheen.
Chromatography of Momo Mochi shows light yellow and pink.
You can really see the orange and yellow shades in the smear.
What a difference a pen makes! Hard to believe these are the same ink!
Inks similar to Momo Mochi: Sailor 2023 Pen Show Ink (it is more vibrant irl), Sailor Manyo Sakura, Sailor Ink Studio 173, Laban Apollo Orange (which is the most similar in tone but lacks the chromashading), and Colorverse Space Needle. Neither the Robert Oster 2020 Dutch Peach or Diamine Peach Punch inks were a good match as they were too red.
Sage Green is a nice olive green with hints of brown. It is a medium to medium-wet ink (depending on nib) and dry times ranged from 50-90 seconds depending on nib wetness. As with Momo Mochi, the level of shading will depend on the wetness of the nib; there is no sheen.
I wouldn’t have guessed that there would be so much bright pink from this ink!
The Lamy Vista really shows off the brown undertones here while the wet TWSBI produces a nicely saturated darker tone.
Inks similar to Sage Green are Monteverde Olivine (a bit too green), BUngubox Dandyism (not enough yellow), Diamine Salamander (ditto), Diamine Oliva (too dark), and both Montblanc Homage to Brothers Grimm and Robert Oster Eucalyptus Leaf didn’t have enough brown undertones.
Since the color is so different from the drier nib, I decided to find similar inks to match. Montblanc Jonathan Swift is a better match irl than the photo suggests and J Herbin’s Vert Empire was a really good match too.
Into the Depths is a dark blue that borders on blurple, depending on nib wetness and paper. It is a medium to medium-wet ink (depending on nib) and dry times ranged from 40-80 seconds. The ink is either a very saturated and dark blue or a medium blue with some shading. The sheen was difficult to pick up in the writing samples but you can see it on the swatches.
Pinks, blues, some purple and then pink again??
The difference between the two writing samples is pretty drastic. I liked the tones and writing experiences with both pens.
Inks similar to Into the Depths are Ferris Wheel Press Tanzanite Sky, Cult Pens Michael, Diamine Regency Blue, and Diamine Bilberry (a bit too purple.)
Here are two matches if you’re using Into the Depths with a drier nib: Sailor Ink Studio 543 and Robert Oster Evening Sapphire.
All in all, the inks behaved well, though Momo Mochi felt too dry for me in the Lamy Vista, but I liked it in the TWSBI. This was a great reminder that the pen & ink (and paper) combination really makes a difference, not just in the color & saturation of the ink but also in the writing experience. You may prefer the color or writing experience that a wetter or drier pen/nib will produce, and that preference might be different depending on the ink/pen combination too. I liked the wetter pen/nib for Momo Mochi but the drier one for Sage Green and I liked them both for Into the Depths. So, before you judge an ink too harshly for being too dry or too wet, etc, consider trying it in a different pen/nib and give it another chance!
These Troublemaker inks sell for $15.00 for a 60 ml bottle and are available exclusively at Flax Pen to Paper’s website or in-store at 1078 Gayley Avenue, Los Angeles.
(Flax Pen to Paper provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
