Ink Review: Birmingham Pen Parcel: January 2019

Oops. So, I said last month that the Birmingham Pen Parcel was supposed to be their new “bright” collection. My mistake. This month is the bright collection. Which, I suppose, makes more sense. Last month was not so bright.

I cannot resist the Pen Parcels. The price is right. I love ink. Regardless of whether I like the colors or not, I enjoy getting these inks. And now, with few  (any really) other options for ink subscriptions left, what’s an ink junkie to do?

This month, the set included an orange (Albert Einstein Relative Cadmium), a blue (Wintergarden Snowflake), a green Bob Prince Green Weenie, a red (Herbert Simon Cranberry Nobel) and the oddball – Rodman Gun Gunpowder Tea. Cadmium, Snowflake and Green Weenie are all bright but not particularly unique. Cranberry Nobel is a lovely, deep red. It reminds me a bit of J. Herbin Rouge Opera but not as runny. And, if you were to have asked me to create a red for MontBlanc for their Shakespeare Red Velvet, I would have come up with something closer to Cranberry Nobel, maybe a little darker. And if you want to kill winter with orange, you wouldn’t go wrong with Albert Einstein Relative Cadmium.

Gunpowder Tea is a Matcha Tea Green which, while not being the brightest or most vivid color in the set, has turned out to be one of my favorites.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that my greatest desire is to find the perfect lime/matcha green ink. It has to be dark enough to be legible without losing its luminance. It can’t be too grassy or too brown. Some colors look great in a swatch and then write too lightly or vice versa. Rodman Gunpowder Tea has the potential to be “the green.” It is a matter of time though to be absolutely sure.  As you can see from the swatches above, my search has been on-going.

What is your white whale ink, your Moby-Dick?