Review by Jessica Coles
ColorVerse has been just amazing in the last year with the number and variety of their new inks. And there’s no end in sight!
Season 4 of ColorVerse includes 5 ink sets made up of two different inks. The inks come in a 65mL bottle and a cute little 15mL bottle which cost $36 for the set. This season pay homage to pioneers from the early stages of space exploration. For this review, I’ve looked into #45 and #46, Strelka and JFK’s Dog Pushinka.
Strelka (the name translates into Little Arrow) was one of a pair of dogs who were the first dogs to go into space and return alive. Dogs Belka and Strelka spent a full day in space along with an ark full of other creatures. After returning to Earth, Strelka had a litter of 6 puppies, one of which was watched carefully to see if there were any effects from his mother’s trip in space. Another puppy, Pushinka (this translates into English as Fluffy), was gifted to President Kennedy after his wife asked Nikita Khrushchev about the puppies during a state dinner. A puppy arrived shortly after with no explanation. Years later, Pushinka’s puppies were jokingly referred to as “pupniks”.
I deeply appreciate that each of these inks has such a story behind them! These are details of the space race that I have never would have learned otherwise.
This set first caught my eye because the smaller bottle, Pushinka, is a grey-brown shade that I don’t often see in inks.
The shading is beautiful with this ink! I’ve been obsessed with inks in this strange grey-brown-green area. I would compare it to a bottle of vintage Sheaffer Skrip Brown that I found in the corner of an antique shop (of course I use this vintage ink! Otherwise, the ink would be sad at having wasted its life). This ink isn’t the best shader ever, but it can absolutely hold its own in that department. I wish this was the larger bottle of the set. The 15mL bottle won’t last long with me!
LT1917 cream paper, Franklin Christoph broad steel nib
LT1917 cream paper, Regalia Writing Labs EF Semiflex steel nib
On to the Strelka ink. Now here is a heavily shading ink! The color is a wonderful aqua blue but quickly changes to a dark turquoise as it shades. It almost looks like I am writing with two separate inks rather than one, although it may be that I am writing with a nib that flexes very easily. Perhaps the nib is exaggerating the heavier downstrokes, but it also doesn’t seem to behave like other shading inks. This is blue is either light or dark with no in-between shades.
This is one of the best ink sets I have seen from ColorVerse yet. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up the set next week at the San Fransisco Pen Show!
- Paper: Seven Seas Writer Journal ($26.00) and Leuchtturm1917 Dot Grid ($19.95)
- Pens: Franklin Christoph Amber Ice 45 with a broad steel nib, Frank.in Christoph Neon Pink Prototype Pocket 66 with a Regalia Writing Labs Semiflex steel nib
- Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
- Inks: ColorVerse #45 Strelka and #46 JFK’s Dog Pushinka (65mL and 15mL for $36)
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
