I doubt that I’ll be the first person to point out that the name of Herbin’s Bleu Pervenche ink doesn’t make much sense. If you didn’t speak French and ran across this ink, you’d probably be surprised to learn that the name translates to “Periwinkle Blue”; periwinkle is of course a color midway between blue […]
This ink used to belong to my mother; it was given to her by my dad along with a Waterman pen in the early to mid 1990s, I believe. I remember using it when I was in high school, and I inherited them both along with a bottle of Levenger Amethyst several years ago. I […]
For at least a year of my life I was firmly of the opinion that this was the blue ink and that none of the rest mattered. Baystate Blue is the most vibrant, in-your-face blue that I’ve encountered. I love the hue, I love that it dries quickly, and I love the fact that it […]
Before I found Baystate Blue and I was looking for a vibrant, saturated blue for everyday use, I ran across a Private Reserve ink that looked great. It was called DC Electric Blue, but I couldn’t find it in stock anywhere at the time, so I decided to try American Blue instead, since it looked […]
When I first started getting interested in sheening inks, this was the first bottle that I bought, not because it was clearly the best, but because it was recommended by Brian Goulet in a YouTube video about sheening inks, it was easy to find and not too expensive. As it turns out, the ink is […]
In all of my time in India I somehow failed to encounter Krishna inks, which is unfortunate because they offer some very unusual and beautiful inks, and they’re on the expensive side (by volume) in the USA. Moonview 2 is the higher-sheen formulation of their popular ink, and it is enchanting. The base color is […]
Kon-Peki was the first Pilot Iroshizuku ink that I ever purchased, and I’ll admit that a big part of my choice was the fact that the bottle is so gorgeous. That thick, heavy glass, the smooth curves, the ink well in the bottom center, the minimalist label… this is the sort of thing that makes […]
If it isn’t obvious yet, I have a thing for bright blue inks; the more saturated and vibrant the better. My first love was Noodler’s Bay State Blue (still near the top of my list), but I had some concerns about using it in some of my pens, and I wanted something with a little […]
I was in India just over a year ago, wandering around a high-brow shopping district in Delhi. I’d been in the country for several weeks and was out of ink, and I was just looking for any bottle of anything. I stepped into an art-supply shop and asked for ink, hoping for something interesting… and […]
For the past few years I’ve seen a lot of glittery inks hit the market, but I’ve mostly avoided them. In part it was because the ones I had run across were expensive ( J. Herbin bottles were close to $30), and in part it was because there was something about them that reminded me […]
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