In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: TWSBI Forest Green

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 1 Comment
Ink Review: TWSBI Forest Green

TWSBI released 5 new colors in their ink lineup – Grape, Tangerine, Navy, Crimson, and Forest Green. I purchased a bottle of each at Vanness where the 18mL bottles were $6.50 each, coming in around $0.40 per mL. Today I’ll be showing Forest Green. Don’t forget to read about Grape from last week!

Forest Green is a bit misnamed. I picture forest green as much darker, dustier. TWSBI’s take on forest green is a bright emerald green.

Forest Green fits right in with the standard green from several other lines – Lamy, Aurora, Monteverde, and Rohrer & Klingner are close matches.

The shading from Forest Green is great. I’ve used a medium nib from Narwhal for my writing samples and it produced the shading you see below.

Sheen! The best kind of sheen in my book – it only shows up occasionally and is never overwhelming. I’ve also never had smearing issues with this level of sheen.

As I showed with TWSBI Purple last week, the bottles are beautiful. They are made of thick, frosted glass and feel heavy for their size. Every bottle is clearly marked with the color and name.

I’ve included all five new TWSBI colors swatched on Tomoe River paper:

And on Cosmo Air Light paper:

The finish of Forest Green on the two paper types is quite different. Cosmo Air Light paper shows the ink as a bit chalky or dusty.

The entire set of new TWSBI inks can be purchased at most ink retailers. Even with the small bottle size, I’m glad I purchased a full bottle of Forest Green – a great standard green that looks even better with the shading and sheen.

DISCLAIMER: The items in this review were purchased by me and I was not compensated for writing this review. See our About page for more information

 

In Link Love

Link Love: Ink Aches

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Link Love: Ink Aches

I had grand plans this morning to write about all the Diamine Inkvent inks — both this year’s set and the Fountain Pen Pharmacist’s post about the 2019 set. However, I got whammied with a headache today so you’ll have to believe me when I say I had great wisdom about the inks. Or maybe I didn’t. Go forth and click links. I’m going to lay down until my head stops torturing me.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

We need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates. Your patronage will let them know you appreciate their support of the pen community. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!

In Ink Review

Ink Review: PenBBS #140, Bloom

Author Laura CameronPosted on Leave a comment

Occasionally I get a sample of something I must have a bottle of. Such was the case with PenBBS #140 Bloom (60mL for $16). If you’re looking for metallic dust, you CANNOT go wrong with PenBBS. They have the finest sparkle I’ve seen, and Bloom is a gorgeous orangey red with gold glitter.

The sparkle is actually incredibly hard to capture. It’s easily seen as you look at the ink swatches, but I have to turn the camera just right in the light to get that sparkle and shine there.

I think this one would be a fun one for the holidays; especially to address your holiday card with? It’s bright and cheerful and the hint of gold makes it feel super festive.

In terms of what it compares to in my ink stash, I was sure I had lots of comparisons and then didn’t find as many as I thought. It’s a little more orange than PenBBS #220, Watermelon Red, and parts of it actually look quite close to J. Herbin Corail des Tropiques which I really didn’t expect. I was eager to compare it to Papier Plume’s Heart of Gold, but I found that Heart of Gold was much more tomato/orange.

My only complaint about Bloom is that it comes out fairly lightly in writing – I wish I could get more of that color saturation. Maybe I’ll throw it in a wider, wetter nib and give it a try on this year’s holiday cards!

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature

Well-Appointed Holiday Giveaway

Author AnaPosted on 53 Comments
Well-Appointed Holiday Giveaway

This year it seems appropriate to give a little back to our fabulously supportive readers. In the spirit of giving, I am giving away ONE (1) $50 spending spree to either our Big Cartel OR Etsy shop. (That’s right our international readers can enter this one too.)

TO ENTER: Leave a comment telling me (1) either what you have always wanted to buy from our shop or (2) how you are “paying it forward” this holiday. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday December 10, 2021. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

In Art of the Day, photo

Ways to Swatch with the Original Col-o-ring

Author Laura CameronPosted on 2 Comments

When Ana developed the original Col-o-ring in 2017, she knew she wanted to make it the perfect ink testing swatch book. She spent months testing the paper, and swatching her own samples. But she had no idea how everyone would use them. From gorgeous swatches to doodles and sketches, we’ve all loved seeing how you use your Col-o-rings. Here are a few of our favorites!

We never get tired of seeing gorgeous rainbows:

 

Gorgeous things happen when you add a little gold to your swatches:

And how amazing are these little drawings? Ink swatching cards aren’t only for ink swatching!

And these beautiful watercolors!

How do you use your Col-o-ring? We’d love to see! Share your swatches (or doodles) with us on Instagram using the hashtag #coloringinktestingbook!

P.S. A Col-o-ring makes a FABULOUS stocking stuffer for an artist or fountain pen ink love…. just saying!

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: TWSBI Grape

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 2 Comments
Ink Review: TWSBI Grape

TWSBI has new colors! Most of the time, this announcement means a new 580AL or Eco from TWSBI, but today I’m showing one of the new TWSBI ink colors.

TWSBI released 5 new colors in their ink lineup – Grape, Tangerine, Navy, Crimson, and Forest Green. I purchased a bottle of each at Vanness where the 18mL bottles were $6.50 each, coming in around $0.40 per mL.

The bottles for the 18mL inks are a beautiful frosted glass with a bit of heft for their size and, my favorite, are square for easy storage with other bottles. The packaging is secure and not excessive.

TWSBI grape was not the color I had imagined – I was expecting a much more purple ink.

Instead, Grape is not what I would label as purple at all but rather a deep fuchsia. Although the color was a surprise, I still love it. plenty of shading and a touch of a dark halo.

A swatch on Tomoe River paper:

A swatch on Cosmo Air Light paper:

I love the crisp outline on the CAL paper. As usual, the ink shows as a bit more blue on Cosmo Air Light.

I’ll be working my way through these inks in the near future! For now, here’s a glance at all five on Tomoe River paper:

and on Cosmo Air Light paper:

 

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me and I was not compensated to write this review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: The First Day of Inkvent!

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment
Link Love: The First Day of Inkvent!

I was delighted to be able to open the first window on my Diamine Inkvent Calendar this morning. I am sharing a peek of the window but I will save the ink swatches for later so I don’t spoil the surprise for anyone. We will be doing our annual Inkmas starting Monday, Dec. 13 and leading up to Christmas. Leave a note in the comments if there’s an ink you’d particularly like us to include in Inkmas this year.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity (& Knitting!):

Other Interesting Things:

We need each other. Please support our sponsors and affiliates. Your patronage will let them know you appreciate their support of the pen community. Without them, and without you, we could not continue to do what we do. Thank you!