Adventures in Ink Mixing

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I put a poll up on my Instagram stories a few weeks ago, asking what content you wanted to see in 2021 and I had a few requests for ink mixing. I decided to try a faux Lamy Dark Lilac first. Lamy Dark Lilac (pictured above) seems to be one of those unicorn inks-it was released in 2016 and many of the ink-obsessed have been looking for a dupe ever since.

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I looked all over the internet for recipes for a Dark Lilac dupe and this one came up the most: Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo paired with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai.

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I mixed up three different testers:

  • #1: 3 parts Yama-budo + 1 part Shin-kai

  • #2 2 parts Yama-budo + 1 part Shin-kai

  • #3 3 parts Yama-budo + 1 part Shin-kai + 1/2 part Robert Oster Fire & Ice

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I tried out all three mixures but none lived up to Lamy Dark Lilac for me. I didn’t have any issues with the inks interacting together though, no funny consistencies or smells.

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I still haven’t found the perfect recipe for mixing up a dupe, but there are a few inks out there that are similar already. Which one would you pick?

Disclaimer: All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page and it is not sponsored in any way.

More Robert Oster Blues

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I had a request recently for a new comparison of Robert Oster blues, so I grabbed every RO blue ink currently in my desk (I don't know what that says about me that I was able to quickly come up with 25...) and started swabbing. I included Monsoon Sky, the newest ink I got and haven't even swabbed yet, but I feel like it's more green than the blue it shows on the bottle lid. Anyway, my top 5 RO blues: Blue Water Ice, Soda Pop Blue, Grey Seas, Evening Sapphire and Fire & Ice. Keep in mind that if you ask me tomorrow my answer will probably be different. What's your #1 favorite RO blue ink?

3 Year Anniversary & Pen Collection

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Today is my three year blog anniversary and I can’t believe I’ve made it this long! One of the most frequently requested posts is for my full pen collection but I’ve been hesitant so far. I never want to call it a “collection” since I don’t consider them collectables, rather as tools that are used everyday. 90% of my pens are inked up every month, the other 10% need repairs or are waiting to be given to a pen friend.

I decided to go ahead and round up every fountain pen in my house (minus my daughters’ 2 Pilot Kakunos), and take photos of everything. I actually don’t recommend anyone else do this-ignorance is bliss. My husband kept making snarky comments like, “are you sure you need more pens?” and “wow, that one’s pretty, can I borrow it?” No. He isn’t allowed to borrow my pens since he spilled Noodler’s ink all over one of my throw pillows and cracked the cap of my TWSBI 580.

I love buying used pens rather than buying new, but when I do I usually go to one of my favorite retailers.

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I love Pelikan pens so much. The M600 nib is my favorite, and that size fits my hand best. I would absolutely buy the M600 in every nib size, although I do prefer the M605 finish. Eventually I’ll find a M600 Pink for a good price and add it to my flock.

  • Pelikan M805 Stresemann-M, M800 Renaissance Brown-M, M805 Ocean Swirl-B, M805 Vibrant Blue-B

  • Pelikan M600 Vibrant Orange-M, M600 Vibrant Green-EF, M600 Turquoise-B, M600 Violet-F, M605 White Transparent-M

  • Pelikan M400 White Tortoise-M, M200 Gold Marbled-M, M400 Green (vintage), M205 Star Ruby-F

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Pilot is another of my favorite pen brands., especially because I love so many different pen models from their lineup. I use Pilot Vanishing Points to test out every ink I review.

  • Pilot Custom 823 Smoke-B

  • Pilot Custom 74 Merlot-B, Teal-M

  • Pilot Custom 912 Black-FA

  • Pilot Vanishing Point Crossed Lines-M, Galaxy-M, Crimson Sunrise-EF, Yellow-M, Tropical Turquoise-M, Twilight-B, Copper-F

  • Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop Purple-M, Turquoise-F

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Kaweco Al-sports are good sturdy pocket pens.

  • Kaweco Al-sport Black-M, Anthracite-M, Red-M, Petrol-F, Rose Gold-M, Gold-B

  • Lamy 2000 Black Amber-F

  • Lamy Studio Terracotta-M

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I love how many fun colors Kaweco Sports come in.

  • Kaweco Sport Blush Pitaya, Rose Quartz, Orange, Coral, Sunrise, Sage, Turquoise Demo, Lagoon Blue, Mint, Serenity Blue

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I swap nibs between my Al-star and Safari pens constantly. I love how easy the nibs are to swap.

  • Lamy Al-star Bronze, Vibrant Pink, Charged Green, Turmaline, Pacific Blue, Purple

  • Lamy Safari Pastel Rose, Mango, Pastel Mint, Petrol, Aquamarine, Bleu Macaron

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I use TWSBI Eco’s for inks I think might stain-since they are demonstrators it’s easy to see if any shenanigans are happening, and since they aren’t too expensive I don’t worry about needing to replace them. So far only the Transparent Purple has stained; Troublemaker Dona Victorina is a fickle mistress.

  • TWSBI Eco Blossom Red-M, Transparent Orange-M, Transparent Green-M, Transparent Blue-M, Transparent Purple-M, Pink-B, Pastel Pink-F, (Eco-T) Coral-B, Yellow-B, (Eco-T) Mint-B, Pastel Blue-F, 580-AL-M

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I love vintage Waterman and Mabie Todd pens, they have wonderful nibs and I love the ornate finishes. I keep 2 Jinhao pens as well as 2 Noodler’s Ahab’s for pen newbies.

  • Platinum 3776 Nice-B Architect, Nice Lavande-B

  • Waterman Ideal 752 1/2, dated 1903

  • 2 Mabie Todd Swan Ringtops

  • Waterman Ideal 0552 1/2V

  • Waterman Ideal. 452 1/2V

  • Jinhao 750-M

  • Noodler’s Ahab-Flex

  • Noodler’s Neponset-Flex

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The Visconti Homo Sapiens was one of my “grail” pens but the retail price is so far beyond what I’m comfortable paying for a pen that I never thought it would happen. A pen friend posted it for sale at a crazy low price within my pen budget so I jumped on it. I love the feel of the material.

  • Sailor Pro Gear Sparkling Rose-B, Sparkling Emerald-B

  • Sailor Pro Gear Slim Red Supernova-B, Purple Cosmos-Zoom

  • Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age-M

  • Conklin Durograph Forest Green-B

  • Esterbrook Estie Lilac-B

  • Fountain Pen Revolution Himalaya-Flex

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Last year I made a goal of buying more pens made by small US makers, and so far I love every one I purchased. You can find a list of small pen makers here.

  • Edison Collier Persimmon Swirl-M, Blue Steel-B

  • Edison Beaumont Unicorn-F

  • Franklin-Christoph 46 Autumn Oak-M, Blue Diamondcast-B, Green Diamondcast-B

  • Franklin-Christoph 45L Italian Ice-M, Salmon Glow-M

  • Franklin-Christoph 45 Vanness-B

  • Bonecrusher Studios Blue Diamondcast-Regalia Writing Labs Crossflex Nib

  • Montegrappa Copper Mule-F

  • Montegrappa Elmo Blue Cross Gentian-M

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I bought these shark pens as a set because I heard people raving about them, but I haven’t had the best luck. Right now I’m saving them to give to pen friends.

  • 12-pack of Jinhao Shark pens

Do you see your pens as tools or collectables? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclaimer: All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and is not sponsored in any way.

Ink Storage Tour

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We finally reached 1,000 ink reviews earlier this month! I never though I’d hit that many, let alone in the first three years. I try to do a favorites post every 100 ink reviews but decided to do something a bit different this time. I took a vote on Instagram, and the #1 request was for a tour of my ink storage, so let’s go for a wander through my cabinet.

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Ink Tower:

This cabinet is the Alex 9-drawer from Ikea, and is where most of my ink lives. This tower lives to the left of my desk.

I do own a lot of ink, but most of these inks have come to me in the process of reviewing inks. I occasionally take a box of ink to my local pen club to give away. The light inside isn’t the best so forgive some of the crappy lighting. Generally I take my photos outside but I can’t really move this whole tower outside.

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This first drawer holds my Sailor Ink Studio samples as well as my Birmingham samples (since the glass vials don’t fit in the vial holders) and some Thornton’s Luxury Goods inks.

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The next drawer holds 3 vial holders with samples divided by color: neutrals, orange/yellow and red/pink. In the front are some J Herbin, Thornton’s Luxury Goods, David Oscarson, Montblanc and Sailor Ink Studio bottles.

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Drawer #3 holds another 3 vial holders: green/teals, blues and purples. Bottles are from Blackstone, Troublemaker and KWZ (If you can ever get your hands on a bottle of the KWZ Meet Me in St. Louis Butterscotch-DO IT!).

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Next we’ve got Papier Plume and some random J Herbin, Montblanc, Callifolio, Noodler’s, TWSBI, De Atramentis and Colorverse.

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This drawer is mainly Sailor with some Kobe and Private Reserve mixed in.

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This drawer is all random: Noodler’s, Organics Studio, Rohrer and Klingner, Krishna, Vinta, Pelikan, Platinum, Cross, J Herbin, Sheaffer, Parker, Kaweco and some re-bottled Bril.

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Monteverde, some overflow Robert Oster and Diamine, the Colorverse Voyager set and the Sailor Nano inks.

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Robert Oster deserves his own drawer because I love his inks.

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Diamine gets its own drawer, and even spills over into some other drawers. I love these 30ml bottles-I think I paid under $2 per 30ml bottle.

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Here’s my Pilot Iroshizuku inks-one day I’ll own them all, some PenBBS, Lamy, Waterman, some overflow Diamine, and some Ancient Song bottles in the very back.

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This is a drawer in my desk that holds inks I’m currently working on reviewing and ones I want to review soon (ones that have been sent in by retailers or readers).

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Samples

After I’ve reviewed an ink if there’s any ink left in the sample then I throw it in these bins. I have one bin for neutrals, one for warm colors and one for cool colors. I try not to waste any ink, and I often search through these bins for a specific sample.

I love this Alex cabinet-it has held up really well for the past 5 years. I do put a cardboard support on the bottom of the drawers with the heaviest inks in them to prevent any sagging. You can probably tell what my favorite brands are, just based on which I own the most bottles of. My top 5 are (in no particular order): Robert Oster, Pilot Iroshizuku, Sailor, Monteverde and Diamine.

Discaimer: All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page, and this post is not sponsored in any way.

2019 San Francisco Pen Show

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I got my first fountain pen in 2015 and since then I’ve had approximately 1, 762 people tell me I need to attend a pen show. Since I have three little kids and have been in school for the last 5 years it’s been almost impossible for me to make it to one. I finally finished school in July so I promised myself I would get to the San Francisco Pen Show in August. Since this was my first pen show and my view may be a bit different than most I decided to do a bit of a re-cap. 

Vendors

Let’s talk about vendors first-there were a lot of them, but a few stuck out to me. Unfortunately I missed getting photos of Bungubox, Dromgoole’s, Edison Pen Co, Yafa, Luxury Brands and more.

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Curnow Bookbinders

The very first vendor I saw when I got into the show was Curnow Bookbinders. They make custom notebooks they mainly sell through Facebook and Vanness Pens. I’ve been looking into their custom notebooks for a while but never actually purchased anything. They recently started making notebooks with a new paper that’s supposed to be very fountain pen friendly so I purchased a set of 3 small notebooks to try the paper, and if I like it I’ll purchase a custom A5 journal through their Facebook page.

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Jessica Coles owns the Vintage Pen Shop and knows everything about vintage Esterbrooks (she also writes articles for the Well-Appointed Desk).

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She had vintage Esterbrooks in a ton of colors and even a vintage testing station where you could try out a bunch of different nibs. I was surprised by how small most of the pens were.

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Mark owns Rickshaw Bags and had a million fun things at his table.

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Mark had a ton of fun stickers he’d made for the show-I picked four to play with. I love that he gave the pens personality-I wish I had grabbed one of the mad ink bottle too.

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There were these fun pen sleeves in bright colors. I appreciated that he brought a variety to choose from. I ended up choosing a 6-pen wrap with art done by @pensivecandy on Instagram. It’s the perfect color palette for me-teals, purples and blues.

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Brad Dowdy is one of my pen heroes, one I’ve always wanted to meet in person. I am the queen of social awkward, but he gave me a big hug and let me ask him a bunch of questions about his pen cases. I walked away with a Nock Seed A5 in a gorgeous teal color.

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He also had some new Nock cases debuting at the show. I love the pink and green watermelon combo.

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Franklin-Christoph

Franklin-Christoph is one of my favorite pen companies. I’m always jealous of those who get to see the prototype pens at the shows so I decided to stake out their table before they opened for the day to make sure I got one. But let me tell you, it is BUSY. There are a ton of people who want to see everything so I ended up leaving and coming back. I was still able to find a pen I loved-this olive diamondcast 46. It’s my one pen show pen for this year. I’m pretty anti-glitter in my life but diamondcast materials just look amazing.

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One great thing about the F-C table is that they have a nib testing station where you can try out all of their stock nibs before you decide which you want. I ended up going with a broad nib on my pen and Audrey and Scott both worked on my nib for me.

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I enjoy Mike @Inkdependence’s YouTube channel so it was nice to meet him in person. 

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Here’s @allthehobbies-she and I have corresponded before, so it was great to meet her. You have to be careful though-she’ll help you spend all your money on F-C pens!

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I bought a F-C Penvelope 6 a few years ago and I use it daily. Of course I don’t just carry six in it-I usually stuff about 16 pens in it, but it has held up beautifully so I had to remind myself I didn’t need another one (even if that Suit Dark Blue one looks AMAZING!)

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I love Lisa from Vanness Pens-she’s fun and spunky and was crazy busy. I ended up with a ton of ink.

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Galen Leather was present but selling via Vanness Pens. Their table showed off some new items including this new Writers Medic Bag they’ve been working on. I talked myself out of buying the washi tape dispenser but now I’m wishing I had bought it.

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Additive Pens

These pen barrels by Additive pens look like so much fun and one day I’ll cave and try one out. I love how creative they are. 

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Straits pens has been branching out into their own ink and they had this fun ink mixing station. I appreciated the mixing card that showed a few of the colors you could make with them.

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BauerInk

 I ran into Claudia from BauerInks and of course had to take a look at all of her Robert Oster swabs. I’m a huge fan of RO inks and had to see if she had any new ones…

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…and of course she did. Astorquiza Olive is a new BauerInks exclusive and as soon as I saw this illustration Claudia’s daughter did I knew I had to give it a try-so look for a review of that in the near future.

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Musubi

I love Musubi’s social mission. They do a great job of helping minorities and providing jobs to the disadvantaged. They were sold out of the notebook I wanted by the time I got to their table, but I look forward to purchasing from them in the future. I think the cream little owl fabric is my favorite.

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Ink Testing Stations

One of my favorite parts of the pen show was playing at the ink testing station. There were multiple tables set up around the show where you could try a ton of different inks. I especially enjoyed being able to try some vintage and hard-to-find inks. 

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Kanilea Pen Co

Kanilea uses some of the most beautiful materials. I’ve been lusting after the Haleakala pen for quite a while, and someday I will get one.

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They had some extra lighting above their table so it was easy to see some of the iridescence in the materials.

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This is their newest pen-Aolani. It’s a purple swirly pattern.

The Nib Smith

Dan Smith is an amazing nibmeister. For this show I wanted to have one of my pens worked on and see how the process went. I have this Platinum 3776 Nice Pur that I bought used. It had an architect grind which I was excited about, but it had a very high sweet spot and I use a lower writing angle, so it never felt quite right to me-too scratchy when I held it comfortably. I finally decided I either needed to get it adjusted so I liked it or sell it. Cue the nibmeister! I showed up for my appointment with my clean pen. I told him what the problem was and demonstrated how I hold my pens. He looked at it for about three seconds and felt how it worked on paper and then took it straight to the grinder. This is where the trust comes in-it can be nerve wracking to see someone take a grinder to your pen, but trust me here, it’s worth it. After grinding it for a second he tested it out, went back to the grinder and tested it again. Then he smoothed it, flossed the tines and filled it up with ink for me to try. I asked that he make the flow a bit wetter which he quickly did and handed it back. I tried it again and it was perfect. The whole process took about three minutes, but it’s something I didn’t know how to do on my own and a lot of experience went into those three minutes. Would I do it again? Absolutely.

Pen Show Haul:

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So what did I end up getting?

  • Franklin-Christoph 46 Olive Diamondcast, broad nib

  • Nock Seed A5 in the Ooh La La color way

  • Yamamoto Paper Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection-This pad contains 5 sheets of 18 different papers to try

  • Logical Prime A5-B Notebook

  • Rickshaw 6-pen roll with art by @pensivecandy

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Small things:

Fun stickers from Rickshaw

Backpocket Journals from Curnow

Cal-o-ring and Col-o-ring oversize from the Well-Appointed Desk

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Monteverde’s new ink collection Sweet Life which includes:

  • Chocolate Pudding

  • Blue Velvet Cake

  • Mango Mousse

  • Pumpkin Cake

  • Blueberry Muffin

  • Iced Cookie

  • Strawberry Shortcake

  • Birthday Cake

  • Key Lime Pie

  • Cherry Danish

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Private Reserve Fall Sampler Set:

  • Shoreline Gold

  • Copper Burst

  • Fiesta Red

  • Chocolat

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  • Robert Oster Astorquiza Olive (BauerInk exclusive)

  • Monteverde DC Supershow Teal (Yafa)

  • Monteverde Malibu Blue (this ink was free with the welcome tote bag)

  • KWZ Honey (Dromgoole’s)

  • Papier Plume Marina Green

  • Monteverde Ocean Noir (Yafa)

  • Blackstone Lemur Lime (Lemur Ink)

  • Monteverde Smoke Noir (Yafa)

  • KWZ Sheen Machine (Vanness Pens)

  • Robert Oster Carolina Blue (Carolina Pen Co)

Struggles

I try to mix both pro’s and con’s in my posts. As much as I loved the pen show, I did have a few issues. Some of the vendors did not have great customer service. Some of the vendor helpers clearly did not want to be there and it showed in their interactions. After running a salon for years and handing a lot of customer service, it’s something I pay attention to. 95% of vendors were amazing, but there always seem to be a few issues in any crowd.

There weren’t a lot of options for food nearby the show. There was the restaurant attached to the hotel and a little market in the hotel as well, but it was open very limited hours. Outside the hotel there weren’t any close food options, so we mostly ate at the hotel, which was expensive.

It’s so easy to spend a lot of money on pens. I used a cash budget which worked really well. If I had used a debit or credit card I know I would have gone over budget.

Events with lots of people are not the easiest for me-I’m a true introvert and struggle when meeting someone new. I knew that there would be “pen show after dark” meetups at the bar in the evenings and there were-people congregated in small groups all over the bar area. I was often in the bar in the evening but found that since I didn’t know anyone personally in the small groups it was hard for me to try to involve myself. I think it would be best to attend a show with a pen buddy-someone who is in the hobby and can help you join in some of the groups and meet more people without feeling too awkward.

Favorite Parts

I was able to attend the live recording of The Pen Addict podcast on Friday which was great. I loved putting faces to the voices I hear every week. They interviewed the owners of the Kanilea Pen Co and it was interesting to learn more about the company.

Many attendees were very friendly. There are lots of people in the room-it gets hot. I went and sat in the little lobby outside the main room to take a break for a few minutes and ended up talking with a fellow pen lover-we discussed pens and he let me try his Nakaya. Seriously-pen people are the best people.

I often attend the Seattle-ish Pen Posse and I was surprised to find that seven of my pen friends from Seattle also made it to the show. We were able to have a mini Seattle meetup at the bar. I love seeing so many products in person. There have been many times I’ve held off from making a purchase because I want to see it in person first, and a pen show is a great way to do that.

Overall, I had a great time at the show. I would absolutely go again, but next time I would like to attend with a fellow pen addict.