The Well-Appointed Desk

Ink Review: ColorVerse Butterfly Nebula and NGC 6302

The DC pen show is closed, cleaned up, and everyone is back home, but you can still find a piece of the show at your favorite ink retailer. Butterfly Nebula and NGC 6302 debuted at the 2022 DC pen show alongside the appearance of a cover photo in Pen World. A big thank you to the Dromgooles for sending a set home with me for a review!

The ink was first sold on the first day of the pen show, 9am Friday. By 9am Saturday, the entire show was sold out of this new ink set (don’t worry, retailers are now restocked) and there is no question why it flew off the ink racks. The artwork on the box is the gorgeous Butterfly Nebula.

ColorVerse reversed their normal glistening/non-glistening arrangement for this set; the large, 65mL bottle contains the sparkle while the smaller, 15mL bottle is a standard ink.

NGC 6302 is an interesting teal that reminded me of Robert Oster’s Muddy series, but Muddy Swamp is much darker and much less green. I would call NGC a dark version of Lennon Tool Bar Plastic Sky.

Butterfly Nebula was the big surprise of the set – a dusty, under saturated periwinkle with a beautiful pink sparkle! The sparkle is difficult to see until the paper is angled like the photo below.

I’ve had a TWSBI Eco inked up with ColorVerse Butterfly Nebula for a full week – I have had no issues with dry starts, the ink continues to flow well through the feed. I had a bit of a problem with NGC 6302, however. It turned out that I forgot how dry my Ritma can be! The ink itself is not dry at all.

The paper shown above and below is wheat straw paper – the sparkle shows well and is a touch darker than the ink on Tomoe River paper.

Below are ink swatches on Tomoe River paper (original):

And the beautiful sparkle angle:

Again, the same inks on Cosmo Air Light paper:

And the sparkle:

Finally, ColorVerse NGC 6302 and ColorVerse Butterfly Nebula on MD Light paper:

The sparkle here is not quite as dramatic:

Here at the end of the post, I wanted to include a photo of the ink when the sparkle has settled to the bottom of the bottle:

Since I don’t have a video of the clear view of Butterfly Nebula, this photo was the best way I could show the sparkle in the pen:

Again, thank you to Dromgoole’s for the ink shown in this review!

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Loss and Absences

AnaAugust 24, 2022August 24, 20224 Comments

Many of you may already be aware that Vanness Pens was not at the DC Pen Show nor will they be attending the SF Pen Show. Lisa’s daughter, Lauren, was taken ill a few weeks ago and the illness was swift and incurable. On Saturday, they held a memorial service in her honor. Of course, now is when the real struggle begins as Lisa and her family must figure out how to survive and continue after such a sudden and unexpected loss.

For more information about helping the Vanness family, please watch Lisa’s video.

Since I usually help Lisa at pen shows, I will not be at the SF Pen Show either. My apologies to everyone who I had promised to visit with in SF but, under the circumstances, I am sure you can understand why the trip was not possible.

Pens:

A few new pens (via Liz Steel)
Kaweco Collector’s Edition Liliput Fountain Pen Review (via Pen Chalet Blog)
Market Watch: What’s Up With All the Rainbow Pens? (NOT A COMPLAINT) (via The Gentleman Stationer)
Zebra bLen Ballpoint Pen Review (via The Pen Addict)
these violet delights: platinum Plaisir (via A Fleeting Ripple)
Finding novelty in what I already have, a mnml digest (via mnmlscholar)
News: M205 Apatite Special Edition Demonstrator (via The Pelikan’s Perch)
Kickstarted – BIGiDESIGN Dual Side Click Pen (via The Poor Penman)
ScriBo Write Here (via dapprman)

Ink:

Monarca Cardona (via Mountain of Ink)
Van Dieman’s Tassie Salmon on Midori MD (via Inkcredible Colours)
Inkebara Pale Violet (via Mountain of Ink)
surprise: diamine blue black (via A Fleeting Ripple)
Papier Plume Moss Green bbbb (via Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
Ink Institute Jade Vine (via Fountain Pen Pharmacist)

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In news

Giveaway Winner: Enigma Blanks Limited Edition Striped Jellyfish Fountain Pen

AnaAugust 24, 2022August 24, 20228 Comments

A big shout out to everyone who shared their favorite sea creature in order to enter our giveaway for the Enigma Blanks Limited Edition Striped Jellyfish Fountain Pen.

Lots of praise for octopus, whales, dolphins, a whole school of fish, crabs, jellys and even a lot of praise for sea otters, walrus and penguins. Maybe Enigma Blanks will use these ideas for their next pen collab.

And now, for our winner:

Congrats, Jorge! I will be emailing you directly to arrange delivery!

Thanks again and we will have more giveaways in the future so stay tuned.

In photo

Did you miss me?

Laura CameronAugust 23, 2022August 23, 20221 Comment

Apologies for one more non-stationery recap, but hopefully I’ll make up for it with gorgeous pictures. I got back about 1am last night (this morning?) from a 12-day trip to Norway. It was in a single word: amazing.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a more beautiful country. Every day we were surrounded by forests, waterfalls, fjords, lakes, sheep and too many beautiful sights to document. There was a lot of running and walking, enjoying being outdoors, sampling new cuisine (surprise: not as much fish as I thought there would be), and meeting new people. There was also a little drinking, some journaling, and lots of making memories that will last a lifetime. You can find my full Flickr album here, but I’ve added a few of the highlights below:

Waterfalls everywhere (this one in Lillehammer)

Maihaugen “open air” museum Lillehammer – featuring traditional Norwegian houses dating back to the 1400s and 1500s

Ronadane Nasjonal Park

Lots of sheep!

Gjendesheim Lake

Reindeer sighting!

Geiranger Fjord and waterfall

Salty licorice anyone?

Running the Atlantic Ocean Road – an archipelago at the western-most point of Norway. Also featured in the most recent Bond movie!

Traditional Norwegian cuisine (and coffee) on top of a mountain!

The final run – not pictured rocky paths, SO MUCH MUD, boggy marshes.

Galdhoppigen – the tallest peak in Norway (and glacier sighting!)

More new toys and reviews next week!

In Paper Review

Product Review: Nebula Guide Sheet Set

AnaAugust 22, 2022August 21, 20225 Comments

Nebula is the notebook/stationery brand for Colorverse. Many folks may have tried the Nebula notebooks but did you know they created a set of Guide Sheets?

The Nebula Guide Sheet set includes five pages, printed on cardstock with guides printed on both sides of the sheets. The sheets fit into A5 notebooks. This set is unique in that it features swatch style guides a well as various grids, lines and cursive angled lines.

Surprisingly, the only online shops I could find carrying the sets were in Australia and Italy. When I googled Atlas Stationers came up but the link was “404”. Weird.

What I found surprising is that the insert sheets in the set that provide the front and back sheets in the cello bag are bright white, matte finish cardstock.

In a tear test, the cover sheets appear to be Yupo or similar tear proof paper. When I initially saw the set I thought “How genius!” Of course, you’d make guide sheets on a plasticized paper so ink or water could be wiped off and the tear-proof quality would make it more durable for long term use than traditional paper.

However, the actual guide sheets are printed on a soft white, textured, uncoated cardstock. It’s lovely paper and I bet it would take ink beautifully but that’s NOT THE POINT of a guide sheet!

In a perfect world, Nebula would read this post and follow my recommendation to print all the guide sheets on Yupo paper as they would be much more durable.

As the guidesheets are right now, they are 100% functional and the variety of page layouts provide lots of standard options as well as some great ink sampling layouts. The line weights are dark enough to show through Tomoe River paper just fine. Some thicker papers may be more difficult to see the guide lines but in most situtaions, these sheets will probably work just fine.

Please email your favorite pen shops and ask that they start carrying this nifty little product. Otherwise, I might have to stock it in our shop.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Luxury Brands USA for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Art of the Day, Tools

Product Review: Ink Lover’s Soap

AnaAugust 19, 2022August 14, 20226 Comments

I set up this post before I realized that this product is no longer available. So, please don’t be mad at me. Instead, let this inspire you to seek out locally produced soap makers and ask if they can craft a soap for artists and other folks who end up with a lot of ink and paint on their hands. There are also a lot of handmade soaps available on etsy so you might just find something you love there.

This bar, called The Original Ink Lover’s Premium All-Natural Soap has a light scent and a waffly texture on both sides which helps with scrubbing ink off your hands (or wherever you end up getting ink on you).

Yes, my bathroom is PINK. Is anyone surprised? Focus! Look how lovely and sudsy the soap is.

Ah, the joys of being a lefty. Ink all over my knuckles.

Ignore the chipped polish and notice how much cleaner my hands are!

I won’t go into too much detail into this soap since it’s not available any longer. It was a gift but it did bring up the joy of handmade soaps. My skin felt clean but not dry after using it. It definitely made me want to seek out more handmade soaps both for inky hands and for general use. I know a lot of people favor liquid or foaming hand soaps for their convenience but I like being able to use up the whole bar and have no additional plastic waste like a bottle or refill container.

Is this me turning into the old “back in my day” lady? Whatever… I want to save this planet and I’d be happy to do it, one handmade bar of soap at time if I have to.

In feature

Giveaway: Enigma Blanks Limited Edition Purple Striped Jellyfish Fountain Pen

AnaAugust 18, 2022August 24, 2022152 Comments

If you read the epically long review of the Enigma Blanks x Shawn Newton x Custom Nib Studios Purple Striped Jellyfish Eastman Fountain Pen with Reverse Architect Nib, then you know what this post is all about. Yep, Enigma Blanks is letting us give this gem of a pen away. So… for all you folks who might not make it to the San Francisco Pen Show to have a chance to purchase one of the 23 of these pens left to buy, this giveaway is for you!

This giveaway is for the PEN only. The ink and notebook that would be included in the set will not be included in the giveaway. Pen includes converter, packaging, stickers and certificate of authenticity.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me your favorite sea creature. 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 Monday, July 22, 2. 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.

Pens:

Ink:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Pen Show Recaps:

Other Interesting Things: