As your resident orange, purple, and pink ink fan, I would be lying if I told you that bright blue fountain pen inks didn’t excite me more than any other color when inking them up for the first time. There is something about that bright color on the page that makes me smile, and want to show off.
Yoseka Ceramics Ink Ming Kong Que Blue is definitely one to show off.
This series of inks was produced in collaboration with Taiwanese ink maker Ink Institute and ceramic artist Li Yan Xun. The 8 inks in the Ceramics Series were designed specifically to represent the colorful glazes found throughout the history of Chinese ceramics. Ming Kong Que Blue was formulated to represent the Peacock, or Turkish Blue, glaze found beginning in 12th century ceramic works.
As a modern product, this fountain pen ink pops off the page. It is a bright sky blue, with a hint of red sheen around the edges in heavier applications. To test it out, I inked up the new Tesori Venezia pen I picked up at the Orlando Pen Show, and fitted it with a Nemosine 0.6 mm stub nib I picked up from Birmingham Pen Co. earlier this year. This is a perfect match all the way around.
Ming Kong Que Blue works well with this setup. The ink has medium wetness and flow, with great dry time. There is some shading in the lines, and less sheen in my standard writing than I would expect from seeing the product pictures online. A wider, rounder nib that allows for more ink on the page will provide more sheen around the edge of the lines.
The color is bright, and I won’t profess it to be unique. Browse enough bright blues in enough product lines, and they all begin to favor each other. I would like slightly more sheen, too. There is little to none from the nib-I only found it on the edges of some heavy ink splatters I spread around. The product pictures on the Yoseka page concur with this assessment if you look close enough.
That’s no knock on the ink itself. It’s very good. At $20 for 30 ml it is fairly priced for a limited run, and I would recommend it from a performance perspective. As an added bonus, a portion of the proceeds will go to support the Yanshan Art Museum to support the work of Li Yan Xun. That is something I am fully behind.
I’m behind the Ceramics Series as a whole, and look forward to reviewing a second bottle I picked up from Yoseka Stationery in the same order.
(I purchased this ink from Yoseka Stationery at full price for purposes of this review.)
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