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TAG Kyoto – kyo-no-oto #13 seiheki TAG is a stationery shop in Kyoto (Japan) that produces some interesting soft watercolour-style inks. With the kyo-no-oto series they produce a line of inks that replicates traditional Japanese dye colours. According to available online info, the manufacturing process of the kyo-no-oto inks follows traditional dying techniques dating back to the Heian era between the years 794 and 1185. The inks come in 40 ml bottles, packaged in luxurious thick paper with a texture that feels like heavy watercolour paper. In this review I take a closer look at seiheki, a pale green and blue that takes its inspiration from the colour of the daytime sky. In a deviation from previous inks in the kyo-no-oto series, TAG Kyoto decided to produce a pigment-based ink. It’s described online as a light pigment ink, with a combination of fine pigment particles and dyes. Just to get this out of the way: this was a really bad move! Where previous kyo-no-oto inks were a joy to use, this one is a pure nightmare! This ink just doesn’t work with fountain pens. It dries in the feed like crazy: after a day or so, my pens didn’t write anymore. I had to clean them first, just to get them writing again for the purposes of this review. And this behaviour was consistent across the 3 test pens I use below. You are warned! This ink is for dip pens only. Seiheki gets my points for biggest disappointment of the year! On the positive side: the pale green and blue colour of Seiheki is really beautiful…. I totally love it. The complexity is simply stunning: when writing/drawing with the ink you see blue and green and even yellow, clearly visible in one and the same ink. It must be seen to be believed. The ink manages to walk a line between blue and green that meanders between both sides. One time you definitely see a pale blue colour, the next instant the ink imprints itself on your brain as a green. Simply wonderful. Seiheki is a pale and unsaturated ink. This makes it soft and wispy and delicate, but it also makes it difficult to read. You really need a very wet writer to get enough contrast with the paper – e.g. by using a dip pen. But to be brutally honest: I think the ink is way too light to be usable for normal writing. For me, this ink should be dedicated to ink artistry: it looks great in ink drawings. To show you the impact of saturation on the ink’s look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I really saturated portions of the Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. Seiheki has a medium dynamic range, going from a wispy green/blue that’s barely there, to a slightly more saturated pale colour. With most inks, a medium dynamic range translates to soft and elegant shading. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. The lighter strokes are simply too light, and barely visible. As a result, the writing feels broken, with choppy shading that looks quite ugly (especially in person – the photos in this review softened up that choppy shading. I assure you that it looks a lot worse to the naked eye). The chromatography clearly shows the colour components that are present in this ink: blue, green, and yellow. These usually mix together to give a more-or-less uniform colour, but not so with Seiheki. Here the colours manage to live their own lives and can surface independently from one another. Maybe that’s because of the pigmented nature of the ink, where the colour particles live in a suspension rather than a solution? It’s a mystery to me, but the result is a multi-chrome ink with a lovely complexity – just take a look at the inkxperiment at the end of this review: all this colour variation from one ink! I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On every small band of paper I show you: An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation An ink scribble made with a wet Parker F-nib The name of the paper used, written with a BB-nib Kaweco A small text sample, written with the F-nib Parker Source of the quote, with a wet-writing Edison Collier 1.1 stub Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the F-nib Parker) Due to the pale colour of the ink and the fact that it struggles with fountain pens, I couldn’t use my normal Safari test pens for the writing samples. Instead, I used some of my wettest pens, and even those struggled mightily with this pigment based Seiheki. Overall the writing samples confirm that Seiheki is too light to be usable for everyday writing. Also, that choppy shading looks horrible. There is one interesting fact though that really surprised me: Seiheki writes at its best on crappy paper. The more absorbent the paper, the better the writing experience. My impression was that the absorbent paper helped ink flow. In contrast, with hard surface paper, the writing experience was terrible. I’ve also added a scan of some writing samples to give another view on the ink. As you can see, my scanner couldn’t cope with the paleness and high-contrast, and made a mess of the representation. The photos look more realistic, although they softened up that choppy shading too much. Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. Kyo-no-oto seiheki is very pale with low saturation, making it a bad match for my dry-writing Safari test pens. The wet visiting pens did a little better but suffered mightily from the ink drying in the feed over a short span of time. I got the best results with dip pens – saturation increases, and there are obviously no issues with ink flow. Related inks To compare this soft green and blue seiheki with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. The comparison shows the uniqueness of seiheki’s colour – I have nothing in my ink collection that comes close to it. Inkxperiment – park playground With every review, I try to create an inkxperiment using only the ink I’m working on. These one-ink drawings are a great way to show off the colour-range nuances that are present in the ink. I really enjoy doing them: it’s fun, and a good way to stretch my creativity and drawing skills. This is the third and final drawing in a series – “Counting … one two THREE”. This final picture shows a scene with three trees and three persons. In this case, a young family enjoying their time together at the park playground. Life is good! I started with a piece of HP photo paper on which I drew the sky with cotton swabs dipped in water diluted ink (covering up the sun and foreground). Blue and yellow tones come to the front. I next used a fine brush to draw the trees, and added the family grouping in the foreground. Finally, I used the rough side of a dish-washing pad to add the foliage in the trees with pure seiheki. Notice the green tones that dominate here. I really enjoyed using kyo-no-oto seiheki for drawing … there is a lot of complexity present in this ink! This inkxperiment drawing shows quite well what can be achieved with this blue/green ink in a more artistic setting. Inkxpired – computational art I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper, and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper. For this computational derivation, I kept is simple. I first used a “warm” colour filter, and next applied the same urban art filter I used with the previous drawings in this series. The resulting pictures works well for me. This concludes the “Counting… one two three” mini-series of drawings. Below, you can see the three paintings together. I enjoyed the format of the mini-series a lot: a set of drawings developing across time, telling a story that slowly develops. Conclusion I’ve tried a number of TAG Kyoto inks to date and loved them all. Until now! Coincidence or not, this number 13 in the kyo-no-oto line turned out to be a disaster as a fountain pen ink. Totally unusable, and it should be kept away from fountain pens. But what a great colour for drawing! I won’t be using this ink again in my pens, but will most certainly revisit it for more artistic playtime. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper Back-side of writing samples on different paper types

Ink Review : Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine (Ink of the Year 2016) Pen: Lamy All-Star Ocean Blue, M-nib Paper: Rhodia N° 16 notepad 80 gsm Review In 2011 Pelikan introduced the Edelstein series of boutique inks, available in a variety of colors: aventurine (green)jade (light green with bluish undertones)mandarin (orange)onyx (black)ruby (dark red)sapphire (purple-blue)topaz (light blue)The initial offering did not include a blue-black, but in 2012 Pelikan was quick to remedy this, and added tanzanite to the line-up to complete the offering. The overall theme of the Edelstein ink series is the gemstone - each color corresponds to the beautiful color of a gem. The inks themselves are presented in 50 ml high-value bottles, which are truly stunning, and an ornament on every desk. After releasing the original line-up, Pelikan started the tradition of releasing a yearly "Ink of the Year". These inks are produced for a year only, and quickly become bottled treasures. Once inventories are depleted, these inks are gone forever. 2012 : turmaline2013 : amber2014 : garnet2015 : amethystThe ink of the year 2016 is "aquamarine". Pelikan itself describes the color as "neither blue nor green; it's something in between". This is also the second time that Pelikan turned to its Facebook fans to help choose the color. And I must say - they've chosen wisely. I really like the color of this ink, and - as Pelikan stated - it sits nicely between blue and green. In my opinion, it's very similar to other blue-greens I like: iroshizuku ku-jaku : this one remains my favorite, and is a touch more on the blue sidediamine schubert (music collection) : this one leans more towards the green side Pelikan Edelstein inks are known to be on the dry side, but this is a wetter ink, with drying times in the 20 second range. It behaves beautifully on a wide range of paper: Rhodia N°16 notepad 80 gsm - drying time ~20 seconds, no noticeable feathering, no show-through and no bleed-throughPaperblanks journal paper - drying time ~20 seconds, no noticeable feathering, a ghost of show-through, no bleed-throughGeneric notepad paper 70 gsm - drying time ~20 seconds, no noticeable feathering, a ghost of show-through, no bleed-throughMoleskine journal - drying time ~10 seconds, no noticeable feathering, show-through and some bleed-throughThis definitely is a very well-behaved ink. Water resistance is on the poor side, but still acceptable. The color disappears quickly, but a greyish ghost image of your writing remains, which is still perfectly readable even after 30 seconds under running tap water. Conclusion Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine is a very well-behaving ink, even on lower quality paper. Blue-greens are not for everyone, but if you happen to like them, this one is definitely a winner. A stunning color worthy of a gemstone ! My overall score: A

L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Ohlanga L'Artisan Pastellier is a small company in southern France that specialises in natural pigments, and offers customers authentic and reliable products in beautiful colours based on mineral or vegetable pigments. In a collaboration with Loic Rainouard from Styloplume.net, the chemist Didier Boinnard from L'Artisan Pastellier created the line of Callifolio fountain pen inks. These pastel-coloured inks are traditionally crafted, and can be freely mixed and matched. Overall these inks are only moderately saturated, and have low water-resistance. The inks were specifically designed to work well with all types of paper, and all types of fountain pens. Being pastel-tinted, these inks have a watercolour-like appearance, and are not only fine inks for journaling, but are also really excellent inks for doodling & drawing. I only recently discovered them, and they are already the inks I gravitate towards for personal journaling. In this review I take a closer look at Ohlanga, one of the many blue inks of the series. The Callifolio blues are typically named after bodies of water - this one takes its name from the Ohlanga river in South-Africa. This Callifolio ink is a nice teal - representing the blue-green water of its river namesake. In my opinion, teals are difficult to get right. Ohlanga has an interesting colour, but is not really special. I personally prefer the more green-heavy Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine or the more blue-heavy iroshizuku ku-jaku (see the comparison chart later in this review). Ohlange looks good, but is not an ink that captured my attention. Technically, the ink feels well lubricated even in my rather dry Lamy Safari test pens. That's a welcome change from other Callifolio inks that often feel a bit dry on the nib, and work best with wetter pens. Ohlanga shows subtle shading with only minimal contrast between the light and darker parts. This shading is even visible with finer nibs, but more pronounced in broad or italic nibs. It certainly enhances the character of your writing. To show you the impact of saturation on the ink's look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I fully saturated portions of the paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. Ohlanga shows a broad dynamic range, ranging from a wispy light teal to a very dark and saturated colour. On the smudge test - rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab - Ohlanga showed a lot of smearing, but without impacting readability of the text which remains crisp and clear. Water resistance is remarkably good for a Callifolio ink. After a 15 minute soak in still water, the text remains perfectly readable. And even with running tap water, a purple-blue outline of your writing remains that is still readable. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Ohlanga is a water resistant ink, but your writing will be recoverable if you spill some fluids on it. I've tested the ink on a wide variety of paper - from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. For the Callifolio reviews, I'm using small strips to show you the ink's appearance and behaviour on different paper types. On every band of paper I show you:An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturationAn ink scribble made with an M-nib fountain penThe name of the paper used, written with a B-nibA small text sample, written with an M-nibDrying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib)Ohlanga behaved perfectly on all the paper types, with no apparent feathering even on the lower quality papers in my test set. Only with the infamous Moleskine paper, a tiny bit of feathering is present. Drying times are mostly around the 5 to 10 second mark, making it a fast drying ink. Not really suited for lefties though, because it lays down a rather wet line, albeit one that dries super fast. The ink looks at its best on pure white paper. In my opinion, teal inks don't work well with more creamy / yellow paper - if you like your paper that way, Ohlanga might not be a good choice. At the end of this review, I also show the back-side of the different paper types, in the same order. With the low-end Moleskine there is some show-through and bleed-through. With the other papers, Ohlanga's behaviour is impeccable. The ink copes really well with a wide variety of paper types. Writing with different nib sizesThe picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. All samples were written with a Lamy Safari, which is typically a dry pen. I also added a visiting pen - a Kaweco Steel Sport with BB-nib. This pen shows a much more saturated line, with more pronounced shading. Related inksI have recently changed my format for presenting related inks to a nine-grid format, with the currently reviewed ink at the center. The new format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test - all in a very compact format. I hope that you'll find this way of presenting related inks more useful. It's a bit more work, but in my opinion worth the effort for the extra information you gain. Inkxperiment - urban industryAs a personal experiment, I try to produce interesting drawings using only the ink I'm reviewing. I find this to be a fun extension of the hobby, and think of these single-ink drawings as a nice challenge to stretch my drawing skills. For this sketch I chose 300 gsm rough watercolour paper. For the lighter parts of the drawing I used water-diluted Ohlanga. The heavy industrial buildings were drawn in with a cotton Q-tip using pure ink. For the gritty industry dirt, I used a rough dishwashing sponge to apply the ink. The brick details were penciled in with my Lamy Safari test pen with M-nib. Overall I'm satisfied with the result, which gives you a good idea of the colour span that Ohlanga is capable of in a more artistic setting. ConclusionOhlange from L'Artisan Pastellier is a rather standard green-blue ink, that looks at its best on pure white paper. Technically, this is a good ink: it writes well on all paper types (even those of lower quality), dries fast and is quite water resistant. But overall, the ink failed to convince me. Teals are difficult to get right, and this one didn't totally nail it. Not a bad ink, but in my opinion definitely not an ink that is at the top of its class. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0621.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0623-3.jpg Verdigris (unadulterated) and Zebra "G" nib on Original Crown Mill Pure Cotton paper http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/01626_PhthaloBlueGreenShd-l.jpg Old Holland Pthalo Blue, Green Shade acrylic color swatch (DickBlick) Verdigris was one of my early favorites when I became interested in inks. I quickly got over it, though, when I realized just how unresistant to water it is. Still, it's an interesting ink and looks good diluted, too. Care was taken to ensure color accuracy.

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0620.jpg http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0623.jpg #27 (unadulterated) and Zebra "G" nib on Original Crown Mill Pure Cotton Paper http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ0623-2.jpg #27 (diluted 1:1 w/ water, plus gum arabic) and Zebra "G" on OCM Pure Cotton Unfortunately, I don't have many inks in the color range for comparison. Care was taken to ensure color accuracy. I've had this on in my pen for a couple of days and I'm really enjoying it.