Review by Laura Cameron
I’m not going to lie. When Ana handed me the beautiful box of Banmi inks to swatch for a first look, I was sure I’d hit the jackpot. Ban Mi inks are produced by a Chinese company and are the latest in gold dust inks that are becoming super popular.
Though you can purchase Banmi inks separately ($6.90 per 15mL bottle), the box set includes 12 inks ($60.90 via YesStyle). Banmi actually produces more than 12 colorways (ed. note: knitterspeak for “color combinations”), so each box is its own mini-adventure to see what you get, although I am informed that the Dragon colorway is included in every box.
The color palette includes quite a few bright standard shades of ink, all represented by animals on the front of the bottle. In Ana’s particular box, the only color family I felt like was missing was orange. Otherwise we had a range of greens and blues, yellow, red, pinks and purples, and brown and black.
The gold dust ink is somewhat subtle and hard to capture for me. When the bottles sit for any length of time, the dust accumulates so you know it is in there. But once you shake the bottle and use the ink the sparkle is so subtle it is super hard to see and photograph. I found that most of my samples showed no sparkle, but then they dried and that sparkle was there when the light hit just right. My camera (or really rather the photographer) just can’t do it justice.
Overall, this was a fun set to get a sneak peek into!
Laura is a tech editor, podcaster, knitter, spinner and recent pen addict. You can learn more about her knitting and tea adventures on her website, The Corner of Knit & Tea and can find her on Instagram as Fluffykira.
Wow, that box is almost a paint set!
Tina
Are these fountain pen friendly?
I believe these are fountain pen friendly inks though I don’t think I’ve actually filled a pen with them. They appear to be water soluble but I would suggest testing them in a less expensive pen before risking a more expensive one until you feel confident its easy to clean.