There is no way to hide my love of inks. This love of inks actually drew me into the fountain pen world – there are not enough colors in the Gelly Roll line to satisfy my quest for more colors.
This is not a cheap thing, though. Bottles of ink can cost anywhere from $6 to … well, anything, really. Samples are a great way for me to get a taste of ink, try it for a while, and move on to the next quickly. I have lots of samples by now, though. Lots. But there is always more to try – more inks coming out, limited editions, inks you can only procure if you hike 50 miles up a mountain in isolated Japan and have a two-hour interview with the only person on earth who knows how to make an exact color. The list goes on and shows no sign of stopping. In fact, the pace of new inks brought to the market seems to be increasing.
Shigure Inks is new to the fountain pen world and the ink scene. This made it all the more impressive to me when I discovered they carried a variety of inks that are hard to find in the US – inks like Lennon Toolbar, iPaper, and Tono & Lims.
But with hard-to-find ink comes higher prices and usually smaller amounts of ink. I was only able to occasionally get one or two bottles of these inks and I despaired of ever being able to collect samples of each.
Then.
Then one day I discovered the ink sample order form.
I found that Shigure Ink will allow me to order ANY ink in ANY size. They are priced based on the per mL price of the specific ink plus a charge for the vial. ANY ink. I can order 1-2 mL of EVERY ink.
The sample form requires that you list the ink name and the volume desired for each sample. Once submitted, Shigure sends an invoice that, once paid, results in your order being shipped. Quickly!
A longer review of the actual inks themselves will be coming soon, but for now, look upon the amazing finds:
The last time I saw iPaper inks was at the San Francisco pen show where they were in short supply.
Take some time and look through the ink selection at Shigure. The inks have become so much more accessible! Small samples means more variety of ink!
DISCLAIMER: All items in this review were purchased by me to add to my ink collection. For more information, see our About page.
They are quite awesome! I also ordered a bunch of samples from them and they arrived quickly too! What I love about them besides the variety of hard to find brands in the US, but they allow us to specify the amount of samples from 2ml on. I’d recommend them too!