Thanks so much to everyone who was interested in the BB7B B5 binders! I wish I could send one to everyone who entered, but alas, I only have two to give away! The winners are:
Karen:
and Lauren:
I’ve still got a few more things in my stockpiles, so enjoy Inkmas and stay tuned!
Review by Tina Koyama
For Part 2 of my TWSBI 1791 ink set reviews, I’m looking at Orange and Sky Blue (see Part 1 for images and comments on the gift set).
Orange is vivid and vibrant as orange should be. I don’t see sheening, but there’s a bit of shading that shows more of its yellow side. If anything, it tends more towards red than yellow – but no coral at all.
Closest to the hues in my ink collection are Iroshizuku Yu-yake and Diamine Autumn Oak, though the former has more yellow and the latter has more brown.
TWSBI Orange is saturated enough that I thought it would be a good candidate in a waterbrush. I filled one up and took it to a local drawing event to give it a try (see end of review).
Sky Blue is a medium blue that leans slightly toward the green side of the scale. (Or maybe the sky over the Caribbean has the same turquoise-y shade, but Seattle’s sky is much cooler.)
I had nothing in my ink collection that came close, though I tried on Iroshizuku Ku-jaku and Sailor Jentle Yama-dori for size. Both are much darker and subdued; TWSBI Sky Blue is a happy summer sky.
Since Sky Blue is a bit pale with my fine dip nib, I went in the opposite direction for a better look: my fattest (6.0mm) Pilot Parallel with a nib I hacked myself (with helpful assistance from blogs and YouTubes). Now we’re talking!
I’ve lately been using the book People of the Twenty-First Century (Hans Eijkelboom) for drawing practice, and Sky Blue’s subtle shading came through with the Parallel’s crazy nib.
I took both the Orange-filled waterbrush and the Sky Blue-filled Parallel to Gage Academy’s Drawing Jam, where costumed models were a lot of fun to sketch with these inks. On this 10-minute pose, I used the waterbrush to broadly paint the initial gesture. Then with the hacked Parallel, I emphasized shadows and drew in a few details. I also used a water-filled waterbrush to smear the inks a bit. No signs of being waterproof here – the TWSBI inks wash richly. A fun combo for life drawing!
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
Update: 12/18/19 to add link to Gage Academy Drawing Jam.
Review by Laura Cameron
On the second day of Inkmas, my true love gave to me…
This Christmas I was looking for a rich red to use when addressing my Christmas cards. Spoiler alert: this isn’t it. (It’s still lovely! Keep reading!)
I ordered a sample of Robert Oster Astorquiza Rot (4mL, $2.50) to audition the ink. While this isn’t my perfect Christmas ink, this is a beautiful brick or blood red. The ink goes down quite red in larger quantities, as you can see on the Col-O-Dex card below.
But coming out of the nib, or in writing, as it dries the ink takes on a decidedly browner tone. When I took a quick sprint through my samples, I found it most closely echoes Birmingham Studio Duquesne Incline Station Red and Mont Blanc William Shakespeare which are both appear as browner reds to me.
Despite not being exactly what I was looking for, I kinda dig this shade so I’ll happily add it to the collection!
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.
Welcome to the first day of Inkmas! We are celebrating the impending holiday with 12 Days of ink reviews — a somewhat annual tradition here at the Desk. We are going to start off with Tina’s reviews of the new TWSBI inks so really, you’re going to get way more in the next 12 Days than just 12 ink reviews.
Enjoy, stay warm (or cool depending on your hemisphere) and happy Inkmas to all and to all a good ink!
TWSBI, the Taiwanese company known for its affordable, stylish fountain pens, will soon be known for inks with the debut of a limited-edition, six-color set in time for the holidays (six 18 ml bottles for $36; individual bottles also available for $7.50 each). The 1791 series is “inspired by the vivid scenes described in Cao Xueqin’s Dream of the Red Chamber. First printed in 1791, the novel is widely lauded as one of the greatest works in the history of Chinese literature.”
As part of this year’s 12 Days of Inkmas, I’m going to review them two at a time. This post will serve as an introduction to the boxed set and review of Pink and Prairie Green.
Packed in a sturdy carton with nicely rounded corners, the set would make a lovely gift for an ink-collecting friend or someone new to fountain pens. A diecut on the bellyband shows the TWSBI logo, which also appears on each faceted bottle lid. My favorite part of the design is the frosted glass – a distinctive touch among fountain pen inks.
On to the review of Pink and Prairie Green.
TWSBI Pink is a pure, lovely rose that is neither too orange nor too blue. I see no sheening, and it’s a little too pale to show shading. This pink evokes peonies and the centers of cherry blossoms. I forgot to test for water-solubility until after I photographed the swatches, but none of the TWSBI inks is in any way waterproof. All washed richly with a swipe of water.
Sampled with the fine Zebra G nib, the pink looked a bit pale for writing, so I tried it in my medium-nib Lamy Nexx. I like it better here, and it would probably be best with an even broader nib.
Closest in my collection to TWSBI’s Pink is Iroshizuku Kosumosu, though the latter leans more toward the coral side. Iroshizuku Momiji is more saturated and bluer.
Prairie Green might be my favorite in the set – a vibrant yellow-green of young leaves. Like Pink, Prairie Green sits squarely in the leaf green range without being too yellow nor too blue. Again, I don’t see signs of sheening.
It turns out l like this green because I found several others in my collection that come close. Caran d’Ache Chromatics Delicate Green is the most similar. Others are close but tend slightly toward either olive or yellow.
TWSBI Prairie Green struck me as a beautiful color to paint/draw with, so I filled a waterbrush with it.
At Gage Academy’s annual Drawing Jam event in Seattle, both nude and costumed models pose for short and long durations all day. For this five-minute pose, I used the Prairie Green-filled brush to make the initial gesture strokes. Then I used a hacked Pilot Parallel filled with TWSBI Sky Blue (coming up in Part 2) to emphasize the shading. They’re beautiful inks to draw with!
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
Updated: 12/18/19 to add link to the Gage Drawing Jam.
The latest limited edition from Baron Fig are the New York City Softcover Notebooks ($16) which feature three distinctly illustrated covers by illustrator Josh Cochran of city life. As someone who dwells in a considerably less urban environment than New York these days, I wasn’t sure if the latest edition would resonate with me or just make me homesick for city life.
One cover illustrates people on the daily commute on the train, another folks on the beach and the third out walking in the park. As a former Chicagoan, these scenes could easily be the L, the North Ave Beach and along Lakeshore Drive. I’m sure folks in other cities can substitute their own rail system (if you are lucky enough to have one), your favorite spot to lie in the sun and the best place to take a walk (be it park or parkway). So, the books give me a little bit of nostalgia for my hometown but also for warmer days as we all bundle up like sherpas for the blustery winter ahead.
Inside, the “Flagship” medium size softcover notebooks provide the same features we love about Baron Fig’s products already: 72pages of sewn bound 90gsm paper with 5mm dot grid and lovely rounded corners.
The Baron Fig medium still features their own unique dimensions at 5.4″x7.7″ (137mmx195mm). To compare, a standard A5 size is 148x210mm. A Baron Fig medium notebook will fit into a notebook cover designed for A5 sized notebooks but there will be excess space.
The NYC edition is an aesthetic treat and I love that Baron Fig is doing different things with their special edition notebooks than what Field Notes does. The original illustrations are a refreshing change and let Baron Fig shine on their own.
Kyo-no-oto is an ink line from the TAG stationery store in Japan with colors designed to represent traditional Japanese dyes. The latest release from Kyo-no-oto is Sakuranezumi or Cherry Blossom Mouse (maybe the cutest name ever).
From the box, the color seems to be a dusty pinkish purple that shades well. The box is a thick cardstock with the name Kyo-no-oto letterpressed into the material and is one of those boxes that I can never seem to open without a small tear in one corner.
Opening the bottle, the ink seems to be a very dark purple and on the thin side – very little ink stayed on the inside of the lid.
Sakuranezumi is an amazing shading ink. On my swatch card, the shading varies from a dusty rose to a plum with a dark halo and a hint of a goldish-green sheen on tthe edges of that halo.
In very heavy applications, Sakuranezumi can even move towards a violet. This only happened where I allowed a LOT of ink to dry.
As I compared Sakuranezumi to other inks, there was a wide range to match. The lightest areas seemed to be a good match to Robert Oster Claret while the heavier applications looked near the lightest portions of Bungubox Ink of the Witch.
Due to the sakura portion of the name, I was inspired to draw a few flowers. The shading is great here, just don’t judge the quality of the actual drawing!
Another large swatch of ink shows again the leaning towards blue undertones.
The biggest complaint about Kyo-no-oto ink is that the inks are terribly dry. I used a pen that is normally too wet for my taste in order to compensate for the dryness and I was pleased with the results! The flow seemed perfect. I would label Sakuranezumi as a dry-ish ink, although nowhere near the dryness level of Stone Road or Hisoku.
Wide nibs and script writing (rather than cursive) show the shading very well. In writing I would actually say Sakuranezumi is a medium shading ink.
At $28 for 40mL, Kyo-no-oto inks are on the pricy side, but, in my opinion, are worth the price for the original colors. Now I need to find a stuffed Cherry Blossom Mouse for my desk!
Tools:
DISCLAIMER: All materials used in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details.
This week, the lists (year end, gift guides and favorites) are more predominant than in past weeks. There’s the Pen Addict’s Stationery Products of the Decade, Pencilcaseblog’s Holiday Gift Guide, plus some creativity classes from My Modern Met and more.
December is a good time to plan, reflect and take time to think about how the past year (or years) have been and plan for the future. Certainly, we can pause and reflect anytime and hit our own personal reset button but the new year on the horizon always creates a natural reflection point.
2020 will ring in the tenth year of The Well-Appointed Desk and I’m ready to reflect, celebrate and reminisce. Are you planning to “reset” for 2020?
