In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Monarca Part 2

Author AnaPosted on Leave a comment
Ink Review: Monarca Part 2

Two weeks ago I started a multi-part review of Monarca inks – you can read part one here. Today’s review was delayed a week by the newest Sailor inks – they are quite distracting. But now I will continue on with part 2 of the Monarca inks and show Arena Blanca, Nopal, and Manglar.

These inks are still a bit hard to find although I have been assured that more retailers will be carrying Monarca but the ink has not yet arrived. In the meantime, you can find this ink at Dromgoole’s.

The first ink today is Arena Blanca. This is a strange color, somewhere between brown, orange, and gold. Arena Blanca shades beautifully and in large swatches, it shows a peach halo. I didn’t have a great match for it. Krishna Oak is close in color but can’t compare in the shading category.

Nopal is a pleasant yellowish-green – a medium avocado green that shades from light green to very dark, almost black, at its darkest. This darkest green shows up as a halo when writing as well.

The third ink today is Manglar. This one is a bit wetter in writing, as seen with a few blobbish letters from my dip pen. The closest color I had was Robert Oster Graphite – Manglar isn’t quite green and isn’t quite gray. The shading is beautiful, however. It reminds me of storm clouds in Kansas – the kind that could turn into a tornado at any minute! This is a perfect office ink that is still interesting enough to be fun.

And here we have all three inks together! They are strange colors to be in the first round from a new brand, but I do find them a refreshing change from the normal first colors. The three I’ve shown here today are wonderfully earthy and all amazing shaders.

These are the same photos from Part 1 on Tomoe River (top) and Cosmo Air Light (bottom) papers. I love how Arena Blanca changes between the two paper types. I love finding inks that surprise me every time I write.

 

Don’t forget that each bottle of Monarca is accompanied by a holder for the ink complete with a cutout for a pen rest!

The cost of Monarca inks varies from $20 to $29 for 30mL (and a pen rest), bringing the ink to $0.67 to $1 per mL. While still not as expensive as some specialty inks, the price is on the higher end. However, the color and quality of the ink will not disappoint!

DISCLAIMER: The ink included in this review was provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: DST Forever

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Link Love: DST Forever

Yesterday, the US Senate passed (by unanimous vote) The Sunshine Protection Act which would mean the US  would stay on Daylight Saving Time FOREVER. While there are debates on whether Standard Time or DST is preferable, we all seem to agree that changing times twice a year is exhausting. As to whether you would have preferred Standard Time over DST at least now, as our good friend Julia said, “We don’t have to suffer jetlag twice a year without ever leaving our homes”.

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In Paper Review

Paper Review: Other Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook Options (Part 1 of 3: Whitelines Link)

Author AnaPosted on 4 Comments
Paper Review: Other Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook Options (Part 1 of 3: Whitelines Link)

Originally, my plan was too include THREE different Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks in one post but it was going to be way too much for one post.  So, this will be part one of three.

Most pen enthusiasts are familiar with Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. Leuchtturm 1917 is often considered the step-up from a Moleskine and a favorite with Bullet Journalers since the light dot grid lends itself to building page spreads. What might be surprising is that there are other options available from Leuchtturm other than the standard (AKA classic) paper/dot design. Of course, Leuchtturm offers lined and blank papers as well as their beloved dot grid and they even have a sketchbook option now. But I’m not covering those in this series. No, I am going to be talking about the Whitelines notebooks, the Bauhaus Edition and the new 120gsm editions.

To start, I am going to review the Leuchtturm 1917 Whitelines Link edition (A6 Pocket, $13.46USD). Whitelines Link was originally created to be Leuchtturm’s answer to an analog-digital solution, the paper is pale grey with white dots. While the notebook came with instructions for using the digital syncing options, I was more interested in the potential of the subtle grey paper with white dots.

The Whitelines Link notebook comes with all the same features that other Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks feature: back gusseted pocket, ribbon bookmark with finished ends, stickers to use for archiving your notebook, elastic band, perforated pages in the back and assorted promotional sheets. The A6-sized notebook only had one bookmark compared with the two ribbon bookmarks included in the A5-sized notebooks.

In the corners of the pages are QR-style icons which help to align and square pages when scanning or photographing them to use with a digital app like Dropbox or Evernote.

The notebook came with a booklet explaining the process and development of the analog-to-digital system.

But like I said earlier, I was more interested in the paper and the grey with white dots design and how it might perform in a strictly analog method.

The short answer to this question is: not well. What I didn’t realize was that the process for making the paper grey was to print the entire sheet and leave the white of the paper exposed. As a result, there is an inky coating over the whole page. Most printing inks are oil- or plastic-based making water-based inks like fountain pen and rollerball inks resist the surface.

(Think or those drawings you might have done as a kid where you drew with crayon and then went over the page with a watercolor paint. Same theory applies here except the whole page is covered with a waxy film.)

The paper seems to also be a slightly different texture to the standard Leuchtturm paper or the process of printing on the entirety of each sheet altered the paper. Fountain pen inks bled and showed through in ways I haven’t experienced before with Leuchtturm.

In testing other non-fountain pens, some of that some resist behavior I experienced with the fountain pens was apparent with felt tip and brush pens. I also had a run of dead or dried up pens. Honestly, I started to wonder if this post was cursed!

There was less showthrough and bleedthrough with the non-fountain pens which was somewhat heartening. Because of the toothier quality of the paper, pencils performed particularly well and, of course, if you prefer a ballpoint pen, this paper would be just fine.

I extended my fountain pen tests to verify that the results were not specific to one particular ink. There is clearly evidence of the ink resisting the paper and makes the ink look lighter, and kind of blotted. I can;t think of any other way to describe the subtle voids in the strokes.

Further non-fountain pen tests revealed that most water-based inks like rollerball pens could bleedthrough.

All-in-all, I would not recommend the Whitelines Link to fountain pen enthusiasts. Even if you are looking for a method to digitize your notebooks, I believe there is probably other methods that can be used that would allow use of good paper and pens and STILL be able to digitize your notebooks. This initial foray into the Leuchtturm 1917 “other notebooks” was a huge disappointment. I’m glad I didn’t invest in the larger, more expensive A5 version of the Whitelines Link. Let’s hope Part 2 & 3 of this review series will be a little brighter.

DISCLAIMER: Some items featured in this review were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature

New Sailor Inks

Author AnaPosted on 5 Comments
New Sailor Inks

This post comes with a warning. There are mind-altering inks presented here and we cannot be responsible if they break your head. Also, these inks are sold out everywhere right now so you may be required to wait for the next shipment to arrive at your retailer of choice. I purchased my ink from Dromgoole’s who is also sold out but will be restocking as soon as such stock arrives.

Sailor introduced yet another line of inks recently – the Yurameku line. Yurameku consists of nine inks: Kyokku, Kyokuya, Kitsune Biyori, Byakuya, Amamoyoi, Itezora, Seki, Yoi, and Kangyou. The boxes lull you into thinking you know the color of the ink inside. This may be the last time you know anything about the actual color of these inks.

 

You see, you can’t actually put a color name to most of these inks. You may think you can. You are wrong.

My journey with the Yurameku line began late one night when I came across a post on Reddit where an individual had shown a few ink swatches. It took a while to track down any retailer who had these inks, but I eventually found a store in Australia that had them in stock. The next day I went to order them. They were sold out.

 

* My first quick look at the Yurameku inks when I received them. Tomoe River paper.

Same page, different light. These photos were taken one after another, so the ink was at the same point in drying.

I eagerly awaited these inks to be stocked by my closer, US-based retailers. And waited. And checked daily. Sometimes more than once a day. These inks took their sweet time showing up in the US.

At first, I purchased the three inks I found the most interesting from the nine. As with the most recent inks from Sailor, the Yurameku inks are so pricey – $20 for an 18mL bottle of ink. An ink that costs over $1 per mL. Three colors were more than enough for now, right? Within half an hour I had purchased the rest of the line. Goodbye, self-control.

* Four of the Yurameku inks on Tomoe River paper

Inking up four pens, I started testing the ink on various paper types and Tomoe River and Cosmo Air Light are always my first choices.

Do you remember in Mary Poppins (the first one – it’s old but I grew up with it) when everyone takes a spoonful of medicine after being out in the rain? Each person gets a different color of liquid from the same bottle.

That was the same experience I had with the Yurameku inks – each paper showed the ink as a different color. These inks look different on the same paper when they are under different lighting conditions.  Not only that, but the color changed as I wrote. It changed as it dried. It changed after it dried. It changed in the middle of a sentence.

* Same ink, same pens, same lighting, same order on Cosmo Air Light paper

So I’m sorry to report to you that I cannot tell you the color of these inks. I thought trying to describe the color of multi-chromatic or chromo-shading inks was tough. What color is Sailor 123? What color is Sailor 162? How about Troublemaker Petrichor?  How naive I was.

At this point, the name for the ink line – Yurameku – suddenly makes sense. The name translates to shimmering, but not like sparkle. Shimmering as in flickering or shifting. Shaking, tremoring, jolting, vibration. Yurameku is the perfect description for the ink.

My first attempt at communicating the true color of the Yrameku inks – comparing the swatched inks to the package color:

 

 

Sailor did a good job at communicating the overall color of each ink, but couldn’t capture the breadth of the color.

I tried.

That’s how I now know less about the color of these inks. I tried to match them to colors that most people have seen or have perhaps used in order to give everyone an idea of the color.

I settled on grouping the inks and showing several colors that were close.

Kangyou and Kyokkou:

Byakuya, Seki, and Kitsune Biyori:

Itezora and Byokuya (again):

Amamoyoi, Kyokuya, Yoi:

Yurameku inks on Tomoe River paper:

Same inks on Cosmo Air Light paper:

I promise those are the same inks.

Cosmo Air Light paper on the left, Tomoe River paper on the right.

 

int!

DISCLAIMER: The ink included in this review was provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Letter Love

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: Letter Love
So much wonderful mail!

When I opened my new PO Box, I asked you lovely readers to send me a card or note and you all came through with flying colors! I checked my box to discover it was chock full of delightful cards and notes. I can’t thank you all enough for making my day and filling my mailbox with happy, good mail. Every note that included a return address will receive a reply. For those who didn’t include a return address, allow me to thank you here. If you sent a card and you’d like to receive a reply, use the Ask The Desk link to drop me a message with your address and I’ll try to reply soon.

Link Love this week reminds me that I always define wet and dry inks backwards. I think of wet inks as “watery” and hence more likely to be shaders, etc. MNMLScholar reminds me that wet inks are actually the other inks — and dry inks are the ones that dry faster like shading inks. I don’t know why the terminology always leaves me so befuddled. Let me know if I am still missing the concept.

Love AnaFinally, Dapprman reminds us that not everyone in Russia supports the invasion of Ukraine, including our pen pals, BENU. It reminds me that politicians and governments often do things that we, as citizens, do not agree. However, we are not always in a position to do anything to change their minds that might not also put us at risk. I’m not saying that there are not causes worth fighting for but being imprisoned or killed because one opposes government decisions is not a situation many of us have experienced. Just be cautious in condemning those who have not spoken out against Russia, especially if they have connections to or live in Russia.

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In photo

Life Hack: Washi Tape Storage

Author Laura CameronPosted on 11 Comments

Sometimes at the end of the day instead of doomscrolling I flip over to TikTok with the idea of watching a few inane videos. But every now and again something catches my attention and I’m sure my husband is tired of me saying “hey I saw this great hack on TikTok.”

We all have washi tape right? Fun, colorful, inexpensive by the roll, you can’t stash just one? Well what do you do when your washi tape stash gets out of control? Sure there are storage systems you can buy, but what if you could make your own?

I’ve been waiting (im)patiently to share this one until I finished my most recent roll of aluminum foil. I think this would work better if I got a dowel from the hardware store to run through the center of the rolls, but it’s pretty brilliant right? All stored neatly in one place, an upcycled sturdy container we all buy from time to time, and you can use the serrated edge to get a nice clean tear on your tape. I used a bit of leftover bubble wrap to fill the end, but I’m sure that’s a temporary fix until I order 10 more rolls, right?