Supplies For Mixing Inks

[sadiemagic]

Sorry for the newbie question, but I'm thinking of trying my hand at some mixing of inks. I've never done it before. What supplies or tools should I be getting -- besides empty bottles, I mean? eye droppers? syringes?

 

I plan on wearing latex gloves, I had one bad experience with a spilled bottle of PR Tanzanite and it took three days for my fingers not to be tinted purple, LOL.

 

Claudette

[jBeckett]

Mixing: 5ml bottles, blunted syringes, paper towels

 

Testing: watercolor paper or other highly absorbent paper, glossy/non-absorbent paper like Rhodia, brush, dip pen.

 

You don't need to use a brush or two kinds of paper, but it helps you see the qualities of the ink before you put it into your pen better and more accurately guess how it'll look on different papers and with different nib sizes. So say I mix J. Herbin Yellow Button with Iroshizuku Momiji, it'll look a lot different with a broad stub on an absorbent paper than it would on Clairefontaine/Rhodia Pad with a standard find nib.

[encephalartos]

Mixing: 5ml bottles, blunted syringes, paper towels

 

Testing: watercolor paper or other highly absorbent paper, glossy/non-absorbent paper like Rhodia, brush, dip pen.

 

You don't need to use a brush or two kinds of paper, but it helps you see the qualities of the ink before you put it into your pen better and more accurately guess how it'll look on different papers and with different nib sizes. So say I mix J. Herbin Yellow Button with Iroshizuku Momiji, it'll look a lot different with a broad stub on an absorbent paper than it would on Clairefontaine/Rhodia Pad with a standard find nib.

 

The Right Fill kit has the syringes. Plastic pipettes (Pendemonium used to have them) are

handy for picking up more than a syringe does. The Container Store has useful small

plastic bottles. Distilled water if you want to dilute inks that seem too thick. The

small bottles, filled with distilled water, are easier to use than the large jug.

[jBeckett]

 

The Right Fill kit has the syringes. Plastic pipettes (Pendemonium used to have them) are

handy for picking up more than a syringe does. The Container Store has useful small

plastic bottles. Distilled water if you want to dilute inks that seem too thick. The

small bottles, filled with distilled water, are easier to use than the large jug.

 

Those kits are overpriced, dispenser syringes cost like 97 cents for a pack of 10 and are easily found at drug stores. They also hold 10-15ml, I don't know why you would be moving more than that at a time.

[sadiemagic]

Great, thanks.

 

Any suggestions for where I can find the Right Fill Kit? I googled it and the results seem to have more to do with waterbeds, ponds, Japanese Koi supplies - nothing that sounds like it would be right for mixing inks.

[Viseguy]

Pen and paper -- to write down the ingredients and proportions of a good mix when you find one. As I often forget these, many of my mixes are destined for The Journal of Irreproducible Results.

[Sandy1]

Scott Air-Pak

Orange fish-net stockings

Nomex bunny suit

Remington SP10

[Possum Hill]

Scott Air-Pak

Orange fish-net stockings

Nomex bunny suit

Remington SP10

Until now, it hadn't occurred to me that ink mixing was a spectator sport.

[corniche]

Hello Sadiemagic,

 

I think the list of what you need has been covered, except for the goggles and hard-hat.

 

That said, let me just give you my 2 cents on HOW to do it. First, keep careful notes- write things down BEFORE you even physically do it, e.g., write down mixed 12 drops Sheaffer Blue with 6 drops Sheaffer Red and 3 drops Waterman black- then do it. This way, if it comes out well, you won't forget what you did and suffer from non-repeatable beauty. Second, as my example suggests, keep the ratios easily divisible; this way if you like your results, they will be a lot easier to duplicate with larger quantities later, i.e., when it comes time to "do the math," it will be a lot easier.

 

Also, when you're mixing inks of different brands, make sure you set them aside for 24-48 hours to see how the inks interact with each other. Sometimes there will be chemical reactions and the inks will either breakdown and separate or turn to goo. It is far better to have this occur in a test vial than in your pen.

 

That's about it- enjoy and if you have any further questions or concerns, either drop me a line or put up a post here and you'll get plenty of help before you know what hit you.

 

All the best,

 

Sean http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/ribbons/black2.gif

 

* Edit, fixed typos.

Edited February 22, 2011 by S. P. Colfer

[lapis]

All you really need (apart from an empty bottle) is a good pipette (medical science pipette) with disposables tips. Instead, a good balance which can weigh down to 1-10 mg.

Start off small with 1-2 ml plastic disposable vials. After you have 1-2 ml of a potentially good mix, before you expand, use a swab ands a dip pen or any other FP and, as said above, keep a page or 2 of notes for later. Only then can you know how to make a whole bottle full and save time and money.

If you use blacks, start off there, too, exceedingly small. E.g. for a blue-black, don't start of with a 1-to-1 mix because that'll end up practically as black as the black itself. Start off with e.g. 1 black to 20 blues, then go up to 1 black per 10 blues etc.

IMO you don't really need any rubber gloves. Forget about your hands. They'll wash off sooner or later and a few coloured spots on you skin will demonstrate that your are a real, genuine FP ink freak (seriously). The gloves are only really good to keep the inks in the bottles relatively clean. Do everything in the sink or on a glass or metal tary. Take care of your desk and floor!

 

Mike

[lapis]

Sean, thanks for reminding me: it is very important is to at least try and use "sensible", well-reproducible values, again in ml or mg (1 ml is usually almost exactly 1 g of ink).

Mix 1 A plus 1 or 2 or 3 B etc. or, if you have to, get more complicated -- like me being a perfectionist -- and use exactly 1 to 7 (like for a martini dry) or 1 to 2 to 5 (like for a whisky sour). Do not use anything like a quarter of a bottle of A plus a few drops of B.

 

Mike

[Possum Hill]

...

 

IMO you don't really need any rubber gloves. Forget about your hands. They'll wash off sooner or later and a few coloured spots on you skin will demonstrate that your are a real, genuine FP ink freak (seriously). The gloves are only really good to keep the inks in the bottles relatively clean. Do everything in the sink or on a glass or metal tary. Take care of your desk and floor!

 

Mike

And ink spots are an essential part of the secret FPN handshake.

[Truppi327]

Read the threads on recipes in the index. You learn a lot from the mistakes and successes of other FPNers!

 

[sadiemagic]

Thanks to everyone for the good advice, especially on record-keeping BEFORE mixing. I'll be following the suggestions - well, maybe not the bunny suit and fishnet stockings - I hate it when the netting gets between your toes.

 

Claudette

[penspouse]

I have a bunch of 1 ml syringes without needles, Shoot me a PM if you want any for mixing your inks.

[cowdad]

There was this guy around here named Melnicki, or something like that, and he mixed ink all the time, and he told me he mixed it in the cartridge, using a syringe. He said the reason he mixed it up in the syringe was because he was tight with money and didn't like to waste ink. I told him I was tight with money too, and I started doing the same thing, and still do it.

 

He told me about Goldfinch, a Noodler's yellow ink, as a mixer, and I got a bottle of that, and mixing it with blues and blue greens I have come up with some of my really favorite greens, but I have trouble duplicating it. Noodler's yellow is good for mixing too, but it doesn't give the same results as gold finch.

 

My most recent decent mix was some waterman's red with that Roher and Klinger yellow. I came up with what I think it a brighter orange than Diamine orange. And a good red-orange too.

 

Painters take a few colors and come up with hundreds of colors. You can go buy some Liquitex Basic paint for a few bucks a tube, the primary colors, and read some book on on color theory and you'll save a lot of wasted ink.

 

I sent Melnicki an email the other day but I haven't heard back from him. I've been gone from here a couple of years myself. I hope Melnicki shows back up. That guy was so tight with money he even sewed his own journals together and wrote on those. He sent me one in the mail that he had made and it was like writing on paper bags out of the grocery store. I tossed it in a drawer and it's still there.

[TMA]

Scott Air-Pak

Orange fish-net stockings

Nomex bunny suit

Remington SP10

 

My fish-nets are black. Will that affect things?

[Sandy1]

Scott Air-Pak

Orange fish-net stockings

Nomex bunny suit

Remington SP10

 

My fish-nets are black. Will that affect things?

Switching to black is very possible. It is a matter of maintaining the balance of the ensemble, and not compromise full-functionality for ink mixing. So I suggest matching black fish-nets with a simple red garter belt. Its all about balance; balance & function. Yet choice of foot ware seems to have no effect!

[penspouse]

Scott Air-Pak

Orange fish-net stockings

Nomex bunny suit

Remington SP10

 

My fish-nets are black. Will that affect things?

Switching to black is very possible. It is a matter of maintaining the balance of the ensemble, and not compromise full-functionality for ink mixing. So I suggest matching black fish-nets with a simple red garter belt. Its all about balance; balance & function. Yet choice of foot ware seems to have no effect!

:roflmho: