More Orange In Pen, Ink And Other Forms

One of these days I’ll get over my love of orange, but not today.

I’m not the only one either. Amazing orange ink swatches.

Diamine Bilberry Ink

Recently, Jet Pens sent Diamine Bilberry for review. It’s a very dark purple-blue ink that needs good lighting to show off its highly saturated color. In low light, it looks black. Does that make it a chameleon?

Kites, Bullets and Pens? Oh, my!

It’s National Kite Flying Day so go fly a kite. Not your cuppa? Maybe one of these links will take you to something more to your liking…

• CzipLee: Malaysian Back to School Kits Flood Relief Drive
• Nibs.com: Platinum #3776 Century Nice Pur LE (sale price includes optimization “for your personal writing characteristics”)
• Bullet Journal – analog note-taking system
• Ed Jelley: Sailor Jentle Four Seasons Miruai – Seaweed Indigo Review
• Monologue site is open for business. My review from 2014.
• EastWestEverywhere: Kickstarter: CursiveLogic
• 6 Ways to Be Your Own Health Advocate
• Edison Pen Company gets covered

Mnemosyne Word Cards And Fountain Pen Ink

More cataloging of fountain pen inks…

Writing from a fountain pen makes the color much darker in most cases, but for comparison purposes, the swatches are just fine.

Keeping Track Of Ink And Pens

Last year keeping track of the ink in my collection became a haphazard affair. That is not a good thing for an inkophile. Finally it dawned on me that I wasn’t using my system because it wasn’t getting the job done. After ten years, it was time for a change.

For flexibility the Mnemosyne Word Book is a good fit for ink swatches and I started using it several weeks ago. Squiggles and the name written with a dip pen is a simple format to view the color though it says little about the properties. The back of each card, which has less tooth than the front, will get a written sample from any fountain pen that gets filled with that ink. This will remind me of bad matches as well as good ones. No need to repeat past mistakes.

Eventually, there will be sets organized by color categories further divided by neutral, cool or warm bias. Just in the brief time I’ve used this system, my preference for neutral to warm colors has emerged as a significant factor in my rotation. That’s useful information when I cannot decide between colors that are similar.

Pens need written samples, so I’ve started a new system for them, too. Arc notebooks from Staples have fountain pen friendly paper that is attached to the notebook with discs making it easy to reorder or remove pages. (There are other companies that make a similar product, but Staples is located nearby. Convenience counts.) In the past, I used a spiral notebook that resulted in the order being based on date of acquisition. While historically interesting, an alphabetic arrangement makes more sense.

Getting started with my new system was easy. However, cataloging all of my inks and pens is daunting, but will happen eventually. No rush since I intend to enjoy the process.

Mostly Pen And Ink Links Plus How To Get Planted

Yep, how to get planted…

• Noodler’s Manhattan Blue (formerly an Art Brown exclusive) is available at FPH.
• Fountain Pen Scribbles: The Vacumania Pen Newsletter
• The Fountain Pen Inks Infographic
• Bios Urn (Well, that’s one way to give back.)
• Esterbrook J Series (An Estie in name only.)
• Junior’s Bullet Pens
• OfficeSupplyGeek.com: A Quick Tip on Getting Office Supplies at the Best Price

Which Discontinued Inks Would You Resurrect?

If you could bring back back from the grave a few discontinued inks, which ones would they be?

My list would include

• Parker Penman Sapphire
• Noodler’s Tahitian Pearl (A Swisher exclusive)
• Caran d’Ache Storm
• Montblanc Racing Green
• Sailor Brown
• Parker Penman Ruby
• Sailor Uranari Green (Pen Gallery LE)

There are others, but these are inks I’ve used enough to know I will miss them when their bottles are empty. There are substitutes and worthy replacements, but no true duplicates for any of these inks. But that just means I get to move on to something new. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Which inks would be on your list?