My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Ink
Day 2’s ink is Garland, a shimmer and sheen ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Organics Studio Walden Pond is the best color dupe, but you’d need to cut it at least 2 to 1 water to ink to let the color show past the sheen. My custom mix is a pretty good color dupe as well; see the recipe below. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Posted in Ink
Day 1’s ink is Seize the Night, a standard ink. None of the inks I swabbed was a perfect dupe, so I made my own custom mix (recipe below). If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.
Enjoy, and happy inking!
Don’t worry, I won’t be sharing spoilers today (or any day, technically).
Diamine’s Inkvent Calendar returns with the Red Edition. After how little I actually used the 2019 Inkvent Calendar — I don’t use shimmer ink, and rarely use sheening ink — I couldn’t justify purchasing the even more expensive 2021 calendar. Lucky for me, the DC Metro Pen Crew is a very generous community. David was kind enough to allow me to borrow his calendar to replicate my 25 Days of Dupes idea from 2019.
As before, to avoid spoilers, I’ll be publishing each post the day after its ink is opened. Meaning, tomorrow, the 2nd, I’ll share the dupe for today’s ink, and so on. Because it’s 25 days — and 25 inks — these will once again be truncated dupes. I won’t include as much information about the inks (e.g. price, size, etc.), nor will I include the variety of comparison methods.
Unlike 2019, however, I won’t be sharing to Instagram every day — instead sharing a reminder of the posts once a week. So if you’re interested in following along, subscribe to my blog for daily notices.
Based on feedback from 2019, I’ve decided not to avoid dupes that are difficult to obtain or expensive. It’s likely that these inkvent inks will also be released individually, and people may choose to get them as dupes for those harder-to-acquire inks.
Posted in Fountain Pens, Ink, Paper, Pen Shows, Storage, and Stores
Since I finished my last Fountain Pen 301 post in October of 2018, I’ve written several updates to the different installments. To make life easier for those looking for a “one-stop-shop” I’m collecting all of the posts here. I’m also including some informational posts I’ve since written that aren’t updates to the original series. I hope it serves as a good resource for many.
I plan to keep this page updated if/when I write future updates or related posts. You can also access this page from the Fountain Pen Series link on my Tags by Category page.
My blog is not monetized, nor do I currently have any intention of monetizing it. So, point people here for information. To make it easier for you, I’ve shortened the page link for better sharing: https://bit.ly/fp-series-update. In the various installments, I link to resources from all over, including Goulet Pen Co, Jet Pens, Pentorium, Nibs.com, Vintage Pen, and quite a few more.
Now, enough preamble, time for the round up.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Ink
Surprisingly, I’ve got a short post for you today. I’ve written about my ink cataloging methods before. I’ve swabbed far too many inks at this point to change my system. That said, if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t choose my current system.
Having seen many methods, my favorite is the one used by many pen stores: pocket sleeves in a binder. Vanness Pens has a post on Instagram that shows one of their binders of swabs (take a look around the 4:38 mark). The biggest pro to that method — for me — is being able to reorganize the swabs. Beyond that, you can use any paper you want to. And the swabs are more easily portable/storable than the col-o-ring. You can easily use sticky notes or washi tape to note which inks you own, or want to buy.
Posted in Ink
The other day, I was going through my inks, and I couldn’t help but wonder what inks I use most. So, me being me, I dug into my data, and pulled out my 10 most-used inks. To figure out which they were, I looked for which inks have been used in my last four notebooks (since I started tracking inks). Only 6 inks were used in all 4 notebooks. The remaining 4 were inks that I used for both regular rotation in 3 notebooks and had in always inked pens.
Honestly, I was rather surprised by the results, as these aren’t my favorite inks. At least, not the inks I think of when asked about favorites. Maybe I’ll cover those in another post.
Note: This list is in alphabetical order. I scanned my personal ink swabs from my ink notebook. I’ve done my best to make the inks look true-to-life, but I can’t account for everyone’s screen settings, only mine.
Posted in Ink
Several years ago, as part of my Fountain Pen 101 Series, I wrote about inks. In that post, I mentioned how some “inks are considered “tried and true” in that they work well with virtually all pens and flow well.”I cited Diamine and Pilot Iroshizuku as two “tried and true” inks. I’ve since learned that Waterman inks have a similar reputation. However, in my own experience, I’ve discovered another ink brand that should have been on on that list: J(acques) Herbin.
Posted in Ink
Wow, I didn’t really think I’d do another of these. They’re a bit time consuming. But, I came across this pair, and knew I had to share. I’ve decided to leave off the chromatography strips, as they take the longest, and don’t tell you anything about how the inks look coming out of your pen.
Jim found Maruzen Eternal Blue a while back when a local pen peep was selling off some ink. He fell in love with it, and went out of his way to find a second bottle on eBay. It’s pretty hard to get a hold of, so I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that one of Taccia’s new Jean inks is a near perfect dupe.
This one was trickier to scan, since there is some sheen, so I also took a photo.
Maruzen Athena Inks Eternal Blue
Price: $40?
Bottle Size: 50ml
Price Per Ml: $0.80
Availability: Maruzen store in Japan or eBay
Taccia Navy Blue Jeans
Price: $18
Bottle Size: 40ml
Price Per Ml: $0.45
Availability: Readily Available
Posted in Ink
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. If you were unable to purchase the Inkvent Calendar, then I hope this settled your mind about experiencing the colors. If you fell in love with a color (or a few) from the Inkvent Calendar, then I hope this freed you to use them since you can get color dupes.
I want to provide an easy reference post so you don’t have to click through 25 separate blog posts to find the dupe names. I’m only listing the ink that I feel is the best overall dupe. If you want to see the comparison swabs or the other dupe options, you can click through to the corresponding post.
Posted in Ink
This the last day of ink dupes, although I will include a wrap-up post tomorrow with suggestions I received through comments. I hope you’ve enjoyed 25 Days of Dupes. Share this page with your friends, to help them find some new inks.
Day 25 is Happy Holidays, a sheening and shimmer ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Blue Pearl is the best color dupe.
The photo below is provided to showcase the sheen.
Posted in Ink
First off, Merry Christmas! I hope you have a great Christmas Day.
Day 24 is Purple Bow, a standard ink. Of the inks I have access to, I could only find one similar ink. It’s not an exact dupe, but it’s pretty close.
Posted in Ink
Day 23 is Roasted Chestnut, a standard ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Cocoa Shimmer is the best color dupe.
Posted in Ink
Day 22 is Solstice, a shimmer ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Sunspot is the best color dupe.
Posted in Ink
Day 21 is Fire Embers, a standard ink (please excuse the wrong name in the writing sample). Of the inks I swabbed, Firefly is the best color dupe.
Posted in Ink
Day 20 is Midnight Hour, a sheening ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Madame de Pompadour is the best color dupe.
The photo below is provided to showcase the sheen.
Posted in Ink
Day 19 is Gingerbread, a standard ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Caffe Crema is the best color dupe.
Posted in Ink
Day 18 is Holly, a sheening ink. Of the inks I swabbed, California Teal is the best color dupe.
The photo below is provided to showcase the sheen.
Posted in Ink
Day 17 is Poinsettia, a standard ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Red Candy is the best color dupe.
Posted in Ink
Day 16 is Seasons Greetings, a sheening ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Walden Pond Blue is the best color dupe and matches the sheen level.
The photo below is provided to showcase the sheen.
Posted in Ink
Day 15 is Festive Cheer, a sheening ink. Of the inks I swabbed, Aurora Blue is the best color dupe and has some sheen.
The photo below is provided to showcase the sheen.
