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Ink View: Ivy 108 - Papier Plume’s Chicago Pen Show Exclusive! I first came to know about this and the Lake Michigan Summer a couple of weeks ago while conversing with Papier Plume on new upcoming inks. At that point the inks weer already created and I was just at the tail end of it. I was lucky enough to receive a small sample of each. As teh main batch hadn't been done yet, I got what was left from what was sent to other reviewers. Still I was happy to tryout these inks, specially since I dont have an Ink Hookup at the Chicago Show to get me some these ink bottles. Still! Many thanks to Papier Plume for providing the sample. I meant to have this out a few days back but I was tasked with painting our Condo.... and lets say it has been time consuming to say the least. I do hope you enjoy reading this (re)view as much as I enjoyed writing it. A small evident warning: This is a limited ink to 60 Bottles only available at the Chicago Pen Show. I do not know any plans for re-releasing these inks in the future, one can hope Ivy 108 the name, the ink. As noted this (ink) is one of the two exclusive inks for the Chicago pen show , and it is customary , it is inspired in some meaningful aspect of the city or the people, in this case Chicago and what is one of Chicago Passions? The Cubs. I dont claim to be baseball fan , so please bear with me as I go a little bit more into the story of this ink's name The number 108, is number that any a Cubs fan should know, as the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 after 108 years. To quote Fountain Pen Follies from his review: “As for the ivy, the Cubs play in Wrigley Field, an old gem of a ballpark known for its tiny size and its ivy-covered outfield walls.” I later learned that the ivy is called the Wrigley Field Ivy, and was planted in 1937 to make the playing field similar to the Perry Stadium (which had it until 1996). Wrigley field is the 2nd oldest in the United States and the only field that has Ivy in the outfields walls, Every other field has padding as per regulation. Today the Wrigley Field Ivy is part of the Field’s landmark designation and, when in use, ground rules apply to how to handle a ball going in and staying stuck in the ivy. So how does the ivy look? Just like this: http://i.imgur.com/Msi27zG.jpg I couldn’t find a picture of a ball stuck on the Ivy (when is green). I did found a few videos, if you have time here is a link to a recompilation Here is a shot of the bottles for the Ivy 108 ink: http://i.imgur.com/4wFd4Pr.jpg How true is the inkcolor reflecting the actual color of the Ivy? Well .. Pretty, pretty close. This as most of PP’s inks has great shading properties, is medium saturated and with good flow. As for water resistance not the strongest suit for this ink but it looks amazing on paper Let’s see the swab in the Mnemosyne card: http://i.imgur.com/qAq5A23.jpg I found out that the shading does show on medium nibs and broader. I won’t say it can’t work on fine or finer nibs for that matter, but I would recommend a wetter nib in that case. So on to the tools: Pens: Franklin Christoph – Medium Stub and Van Graf FB – Sand – Medium. Paper: Tomoe River, Rhodia, Tomoe River 68 gr, Clairefountaine Thriomphe (CF), traditional copy paper, Velum paper and Oxford Optic 90gsm paper. Tests: Flow, saturation, shading, sheen, bleed-through, see-through/show-through, feathering and pooling. With other tests such as water, bleach and alcohol and dry times. Sometimes it will be a yes/no answer, sometimes 1-5 (1 being poor, 5 being excellent) CrossOver Card As with my other reviews here is the ink behaving across all papers . - PLease note that I poured bleach and alcohol in reverse order http://i.imgur.com/7TgfIuD.jpg http://i.imgur.com/OpwcZdc.jpg You can see that each column is representative of the paper used. Thoughts on the ink-paper behavior Flow: Flow is good, consistent in most papers, some feathering in traditional copy paper I would say this is a wet ink.Saturation: Medium, it will vary on how wet your pen is, but there is not a heavy saturation sometimes it looked more saturated depending on the paper, but it was within my expectations if I was looking for good shading.Sheen: None, Zip, Nada. Even when supersaturated there is no sheen on this ink.Shade: This is where PP’s trade mark all about the shade. with the exception of copy paper,I was able to get shading across the papers used. Bleed-through: Some bleed was observed on the copy paper, under normal writing circumstances. That being said when doing the sketch I was using a really fine nib and some did bleed at that point, but I was also scratching the paper. Extreme pooling will also make this ink bleed.Show-through: There is show through with Tomoe River 52gr and clairefountaine, copy paper and Vellum. in some you wont be able to write both sides .Feathering: The ink was fairly resistant to feathering in all papers but copy paper, and thiss to a point was expected.Pooling: (This is not the shading but more on the pooling on the edges of the letters, I enjoy when the inks provide this). There was none that I could observe in any of the papersWater Resistance: The tests shown on the card were done using an eyedropper, leaving it a few seconds then using a tissue paper to retrieve the excess. with this most of the ink on all papers with the exception of copy paper was almost gone. Alcohol Resistance: Very consistent across. You would be able to recover from this one – almost no effect. (remember that I poured this one where the bleach should have gone )Bleach Resistance: None, Zip , nada. (remember that I poured this one where the alcohol should have gone )Dry Times: As noted this is a wet ink and the drying times were between the 20 and 30 second mark. Cleaning: as with PP's inks fairly easy to clean up from the pens used. Here are some other inks for comparison http://i.imgur.com/yOWt4AG.jpg From the top and then left to right: Ink Name / MakerComparison NotesKingdom Note - Sailorgold like green great shading Jade - Robert Oster an olive ink with good saturation - medium shadingVerde de Rioa lighter green than I was expecting subtly similar to jade, some sheen and medium shadingGreen Bay - Anderson PensOne of the most similar to Ivy 108. has more yellow in it and it is more muted. A very dry ink. Ivy 108 - Papier Plumen/aEmerald - Parker Penmana known ink with shading and red sheen properties more green than Ivy IG Green #3 - KWZIdarker green when dry with good shading even for an IGIG Green #4 - KWZIMore muted than #3 and with a touch more of blackStreet Car Greenanother limited of PP an ash green to better describe it And here is a quick sketch http://i.imgur.com/p2wppXy.jpg and writing samples http://i.imgur.com/SZysHNL.jpg Opinion I Like this ink. it sits on a sweet spot between of all the inks that I have, that I don't have. I always like a big story behind it and this is a nice one, but the ink itself has good things going for it, and it is safe for office use. Availability As noted at the beginning of this view this is an exclusive ink to the Chicago Pen Show and limited to 60 bottles. If you are going to the pen show, or have a friend that can pick up a bottle for you, and you are a fan of greens I strongly recommend it. Thank you again for keeping up with me up to this point ! Papier Plume notifies their ink availability through their newsletter first, then Instagram, then Facebook, and finally twitter (in that order).