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Wearingeul – King Lear I’m sure I have more than enough inks already, but sometimes an opportunity rises to explore a new brand that wasn’t on my radar before. Some time ago Scrittura Elegante – a stationery shop from the Netherlands – announced that they would stop their business. Definitely a sad thing: this lovely little webshop carried some interesting and lesser-known brands, with Wearingeul being one of them. They started a sale to empty the warehouse, and I took this opportunity to place a last order, loading up on couple of Wearingeul inks. Wearingeul is a stationery brand from South Korea, that gets its inspiration from arts & literature. In their own words: “We re-interpret novels and poetry with colors. You can find characteristic inks with stories and also notes/papers which are suitable for ink users.” The ink under review is named after the tragedy of King Lear written by William Shakespeare. The bard tells the deeply sad tale of a king that falls into poverty and slowly descends into total madness. King Lear is an unsaturated grey-green with a red-pink shimmer (I don't use shimmer myself, so I haven't explored this aspect of the ink - I leave the shimmer particles at ease at the bottom of the bottle). The ink’s grey-green gives off an old-and-worn vibe that fits the desperation of the decrepit king, with the red-pink shimmer symbolizing his descent into madness. Again, Waeringeul delivers an ink that completely fits my personal taste. This pale and muted grey-green ink is really beautiful, giving off a firm vintage vibe. It instantly reminded me of J. Herbin Vert Empire that gives me a similar feel. The colours are fairly different though, with this King Lear being a much greyer-looking ink (see also related inks). Like other Wearingeul inks, this one also writes with sub-par lubrication, making it a bad ink for dry pens where the writing feel is fairly scratchy. Although the ink is pale and undersaturated, it still manages to provide sufficient contrast with the paper in most pens. But its sweet spot is definitely a wet writer with a finer nib, and this for two reasons: 1/ the increased ink flow of a wet pen compensates for King Lear’s sub-par lubrication, and 2/ you get a more saturated line which keeps the otherwise heavy shading of this ink under control. Again a beautifully complex ink for the ink connoisseur who is willing to spend some time to discover that perfect combination of pen/nib/paper where the ink shows its full glory. Wearingeul King Lear writes fairly light and unsaturated, and needs a wet pen to compensate for this. Surprisingly, contrast is quite ok even when using a dry-writing pen. Not so for lubrication, which is terrible when combined with a dry writer, resulting in unpleasant and scratchy writing. Using a wet pen solves the lubrication issue, and also increases the ink’s saturation. This combination is what the ink needs to truly blossom. King Lear works with a wide range of papers, and looks good on both white and more creamy ones. Personally, I prefer this ink on slightly off-white paper like Midori – absolutely beautiful. To illustrate the colour span of this Wearingeul ink, I did a swab on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper, where I really saturated portions of the paper with ink. King Lear shows a moderately wide saturation range, from a wispy grey-green up to a much more saturated version that still maintains that vintage feeling grey-green colour. This wide contrast range makes it a strong shader, especially with dry writers that lean towards the left side of the contrast range. On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – the ink behaved perfectly. There is no visible smearing at all. Water resistance is exceptionally good for a dye-based ink. The ink’s grey base colour remains firmly attached to the paper and can survive even longer exposures to water. Definitely an ink that can survive an accident. With its serious looks it won’t be out-of-place at the office, and make for a nice change from more traditional blacks and blues. I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap 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 my M-nib Lamy Safari The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Lamy Safari A small text sample, written with a wet writing M-nib Pelikan M120 Source of the quote, written with a Lamy Dialog 3 with M gold nib Drying times of the ink on the paper, with the M-nib Lamy Safari King Lear works almost flawlessly with all my test papers. I did notice though that the ink’s low lubrication shows more on very smooth and hard-surface paper: the nib doesn’t glide well and you need more force to draw the pen across the paper. Wet pens tend to compensate for this, but I still liked the writing feel better on the more absorbent papers that draw more ink from the nib. The ink can handle both pure white and cream-coloured paper, but it’s the slightly off-white paper where the aesthetics work best. The ink looks absolutely stunning on e.g. Midori paper. I used photos for the writing samples above to get the most accurate results. In scans, the contrast is exaggerated and the ink’s colour loses much of its punch. See the scanned image below: Below you’ll find some zoomed-in parts of writing samples. Notice the high shading contrast in the paper names, which were written with a dry Lamy Safari (B-nib). With wet pens, shading gets much more subtle, which I personally prefer. Writing with different nib sizes The photo below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing (written on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper). The initial lines were written with Lamy Safaris. The ink looks a bit undersaturated, but contrast is good enough to make for easy reading. Unfortunately, dry pens and low lubrication don’t work together well: the writing feel with the Safari is not good! Using a wet pen solves problems all over the board: saturation increases, flow and writing feel improve dramatically, and shading becomes more aesthetically pleasing. My personal favourite is the wet Pelikan M120 with M-nib, which shows off this King Lear in all its glory. Related inks To compare this Wearingeul King Lear 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. King Lear stands on its own among its peers. J. Herbin Vert Empire has a similar vibe, but cannot compete with the grey-ness of this King Lear. Inkxperiment – lost and FOUND (part 2) As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I really enjoy the couple of hours I spend on these monochrome little paintings – experimenting with the ink and discovering all the shades that can be extracted from it. Inspiration for this drawing comes from the Witcher 3 game I’m currently playing, with a Mountain Troll chasing after a damsel in distress. In this second drawing the flesh-devouring monster has FOUND the fair maiden. Too bad that she climbed into a high tower – out of reach from the hungry troll. I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper. I first used some washi tape and a paper mask to cover parts of the drawing. Next, I drew in the central background with water-diluted ink applied through a kitchen towel. Left and right parts were coloured in with cotton swabs. Finally I drew in the young woman with a fine brush, and added some finishing touches with pure King Lear. The resulting picture shows what can be achieved with this Wearingeul ink in a more artistic context. This grey-green ink surely is a dream to draw with! With this drawing, the two-part “Lost and Found” mini-series of drawings is complete. Below you see them side by side. These two pieces nicely complement each other: both muted, soft-toned colours with heavy grey undertones. 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. I started by using a “focal zoom” filter centered on the fair maiden, that softened up the picture a bit. Next I used an over-exposure filter, and brightened the colours. The result is similar to the computational troll version. The original inkxperiment drawing looks better though. Conclusion Wearingeul King Lear is a winner in my book: a beautiful grey-green that gives off a strong vintage vibe – a faded and toned-down look that I personally find truly wonderful. The ink’s lubrication is not so good, but that’s easily compensated for with a wet-writing pen. And for artwork, this King Lear is definitely a winner. Another great ink from Wearingeul! Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari M-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

Wearingeul – Moby Dick I’m sure I have more than enough inks already, but sometimes an opportunity rises to explore a new brand that wasn’t on my radar before. Some time ago Scrittura Elegante – a stationery shop from the Netherlands – announced that they would stop their business. Definitely a sad thing: this lovely little webshop carried some interesting and lesser-known brands, with Wearingeul being one of them. They started a sale to empty the warehouse, and I took this opportunity to place a last order, loading up on couple of Wearingeul inks. Wearingeul is a stationery brand from South Korea, that gets its inspiration from arts & literature. In their own words: “We re-interpret novels and poetry with colors. You can find characteristic inks with stories and also notes/papers which are suitable for ink users.” Moby Dick is inspired by Herman Melville’s iconic sea story of captain Ahab’s maniacal quest for vengeance against the great white sperm whale that bit off his leg. I must admit I never got around to reading the novel, but the 1956 black&white movie with the legendary Gregory Peck made an indelible impression on my mind. This Wearingeul ink perfectly captures the atmosphere of a storm-swept Pacific Ocean with its pale blue-grey colour. This is the third Wearingeul ink I tried, and I begin to see a pattern. This brand produces inks that seem to be personalized for my taste – pale, muted, toned-down and with sublime looks. But at the same time these are difficult inks, stubborn and unwilling to comply with just any random fountain pen or paper. Moby Dick is no exception: the ink looks absolutely gorgeous in a wet pen on pure white paper. Much too pale and under-saturated though for use with dry writers (like the Lamy Safari), where it is sure to disappoint. But spend some time with the ink, and you’ll stumble across just that right combination of pen and paper, with the ink fully capturing that stormy sea atmosphere. I totally love it! Wearingeul Moby Dick writes extremely light and unsaturated, being quasi useless with dry-writing pens – especially in finer nibs. When paired with wet pens, the saturation increases, and the ink’s colour comes to its full glory. Pale blues and yellow/creamy paper don’t go together well, and this ink is no exception: on such paper the ink looks underwhelming, suffering from the yellow shining through. But on pure white paper… absolutely beautiful! To illustrate the colour span of this Wearingeul ink, I did a swab on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper, where I really saturated portions of the paper with ink. Moby Dick shows a very wide saturation range, from a really faint light-blue up to a much more saturated stormy sea-blue-grey with a bit of a purple undertone. This wide contrast range makes it a strong shader. If you like heavy shading, use a wet pen with a stub nib. Myself I prefer the F-nib on a wet pen to bring the shading into my personal tolerance zone. On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – the ink behaved perfectly. There is no visible smearing at all. If you look very closely, you’ll see that smearing does occur, but due to its wispy-light-blue nature it’s almost invisible to the eye. Water resistance is mostly absent: a faint grey residue remains, but not enough to easily reconstruct your writing. The chroma clearly shows the grey, blue and purple dyes used in the ink’s composition, which together combine to form Moby Dick’s unique colour. A splendid job by Wearingeul’s ink masters! I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap 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 my F-nib Laban Rosa Lilac fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with an F-nib Parker Sonnet A small text sample, written with the F-nib Laban pen Source of the quote, written with an Edison Collier with 1.1 nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the Laban pen) Moby Dick is mostly useless with my standard Safari test pens: it writes way too under-saturated and with bad lubrication. It did write nicely with the B-nib Safari though, where it reaches the saturation level that this ink needs to shine. The ink didn’t like high-quality Japanese coated paper with its ultra-smooth surfaces: this type of paper isn’t ink-hungry enough, and capillary action is insufficient to suck enough fluid out of the pen. Also, the whiter the paper the better: the pale blue-grey needs that neutral white backdrop to really shine. All in all a quirky ink that you need to spend some time with to discover its goldy-locks zone. I used photos for the writing samples above to get the most accurate results. In scans, the contrast gets blown up, and looks totally unrealistic – see the scan below. My scanner really messed this one up! Below you’ll find some zoomed-in parts of writing samples. Unfortunately for me, Moby Dick doesn’t seem to like my Paperblanks journal, exhibiting visible feathering with the 1.1 Edision Collier. Damn! Writing with different nib sizes The photo below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing (written on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper). The initial lines were written with Lamy Safaris. Wearingeul Moby Dick is definitely no good match for the dry Safari pens – only the B-nib turned out to be usable. With the other Safari nibs, the ink is almost as pale as the square grid backdrop. But the ink really shines with the wet-writing pens. It takes some time and effort to find this perfect pairing, but it’s definitely worth it: the end result looks wonderful – a soft, muted, pale sea-blue-grey that is a feast for the eye. Related inks To compare this Wearingeul Moby Dick 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. Moby Dick is like no other blue in my ink collection. It stands on its own, making it all the more precious. Inkxperiment – LOST and found (part 1) As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I really enjoy the couple of hours I spend on these monochrome little paintings – experimenting with the ink to see all the shades that can be extracted from it. Inspiration for this drawing comes from the Witcher 3 game I’m currently playing, with a Mountain Troll chasing after a damsel in distress. In this first drawing, the troll emerges from its cave, angry and confused … where is that delightful morsel of tender meat that disturbed my rest? For the moment that fair maiden appears to be LOST… I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper. I first used some washi tape and a paper mask to cover parts of the drawing. Next, I drew in the central background with water-diluted ink applied through a kitchen towel. Top and bottom parts were coloured in with cotton swabs. Finally I drew in the troll figure with a glass dip pen, and added some finishing touches with pure Moby Dick. The resulting picture shows what can be achieved with this Wearingeul ink in a more artistic context. Oh… and I made a beginner’s mistake: I should have left the cave mouth white to provide more contrast in the drawing (instead of also colouring it blue). And photo-paper is really unforgiving – there’s no way to correct your mistakes 😉 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. I started by using a “focal zoom” filter centered on the troll, that softened up the picture a bit. Next I used an extreme over-exposure filter, and shifted the colour to a greener hue. The added contrast definitely makes the painting look more lively. Conclusion Wearingeul Moby Dick totally delivers on the colour front – a soft pale-blue-grey that simply looks wonderful on not-too-smooth good-quality white paper. But it’s also a difficult ink with a narrow goldilocks zone: you need exactly the right combination of pen, nib and paper to extract that beautiful pale blue-grey stormy sea-feel in all its glory. It makes you totally forget the dark side of this ink – sub-par lubrication, too unsaturated, a bit sick-looking on yellow paper. I personally love this ink, but can absolutely imagine that it’s not for everyone. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Laban Rosa Lilac, F-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

Wearingeul – Lost (Demian) I’m sure I have more than enough inks already, but sometimes an opportunity rises to explore a new brand that wasn’t on my radar before. Some time ago Scrittura Elegante – a stationery shop from the Netherlands – announced that they would stop their business. Definitely a sad thing: this lovely little webshop carried some interesting and lesser-known brands, with Wearingeul being one of them. They started a sale to empty the warehouse, and I took this opportunity to place a last order, loading up on couple of Wearingeul inks. Wearingeul is a stationery brand from South Korea, that gets its inspiration from arts & literature. In their own words: “We re-interpret novels and poetry with colors. You can find characteristic inks with stories and also notes/papers which are suitable for ink users.” Lost is inspired by Hermann Hesse’s book “Demian” (1919). Between the years 1916 and 1917, Hesse went through a personal crisis as a result of illness and death in the family. His personal distress led him to seek psycho-analysis with both Carl Yung and his student J.B. Lang. The novel Demian is based on his process of self-discovery through psycho-analysis. The psychological changes and conflicts that the main character experiences in the process of “finding himself” are expressed as the ink dries and the colour changes. This is the second Wearingeul ink I tried, and again I was completely knocked off my socks by the ink’s colour. What a beauty! The colour is a pale sea-blue with a muted and toned-down feel to it, that looks absolutely georgeous on pure white paper. When heavily saturated a mysterious yellow undertone comes to the surface, adding some extra eye-candy. Totally fits my taste! But Lost is also a difficult and stubborn ink, that will not always play along with your pens and paper. The ink is too pale for fine nibs and/or dry pens and is not too friendly for lower quality paper. But when the circumstances are just right, the ink delivers beautifully and is an aesthetic marvel. Wearingeul Lost writes very light but is still quite readable. On white paper, the result is soft and restful – a pleasure for the eye. But the ink definitely has its sweet spot: a wet pen, white and good-quality paper, and preferably a wider nib (M or above). The ink doesn’t look good on creamy paper – the yellow tones of such paper don’t combine well with the pale blue colour, and the result is a more or less sickly-looking blue – not pleasant at all. The ink also writes with fairly low lubrication in dry pens (like the Safari) and is therefore best paired with wet writers. To illustrate the colour span of this Wearingeul ink, I did a swab on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper, where I really saturated portions of the paper with ink. Lost (Demian) shows a very wide saturation range, from a wispy light-blue up to a moderately saturated sea-blue with yellow undertones coming to the surface. Due to this wide contrast range, the ink is a fairly strong shader. Dry pens favour the left side of the saturation range, where the ink is too pale to be useful. Wetter pens explore the right side where the ink looks superb and shows great aesthetics. On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – the ink behaved perfectly. There is no visible smearing at all. Water resistance is also remarkably good. The colour fades away, but a pale grey-blue ghost of your writing remains that is still readable without too much trouble. The chroma also clearly shows the yellow undertones hiding within the ink’s composition. Nice! I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap 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 Lamy Safari M-nib fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with a Lamy Safari B-nib A small text sample, written with an F-nibbed Wancher Dream Pen Source of the quote, written with an Edison Collier with 1.1 nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari) Lost writes scratchy in my Safari pens with bad lubrication. It really needs wet writers. Due to the ink’s paleness, it works best with wet pens and/or broader nibs. This Wearingeul ink also tolerates only the higher quality papers – otherwise you will get visible feathering, combined with see-through and bleed-through. And it’s best not to use it on cream-coloured paper: the result is guaranteed to disappoint - a sickly-looking pale blue. On pure white paper on the other hand, this Wearingeul ink truly is a feast for your eyes. Like I hinted at before: a quirky ink that you need to get acquainted with, and that only shines in its goldilocks zone. I used photos for the writing samples above to get the most accurate results. In scans, the contrast gets blown up, and looks totally unrealistic – see the scan below. My scanner really messed this one up! Below you’ll find some zoomed-in parts of writing samples. Unfortunately for me, Lost doesn’t seem to like my Paperblanks journal, exhibiting quite some visible feathering. Damn! Writing with different nib sizes The photo below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing (written on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper). The initial lines were written with Lamy Safaris. Wearingeul Lost is not an ink for these dry Safari pens – only the B-nib was more or less ok. But the ink really shines with the wet-writing Wancher Dream Pen and the Edison Collier stub. It takes some time and effort to find the perfect pairing, but it’s definitely worth it: the end result looks wonderful – a soft, pastel-toned, pale sea-blue that is a feast for the eye. Related inks To compare this Wearingeul Lost 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. Lost stands on its own in my ink collection. A close cousin is kyo-no-oto hisoku, which is also soft & pale, but more green-leaning. Inkxperiment – The Fall of Trantor As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I really enjoy the couple of hours I spend on these monochrome mini-paintings – experimenting with the ink to see all the shades that can be extracted from it. This is number two in my “geometry 101” series, this time with the focus on triangles. Inspiration for the drawing comes from the Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov – now also an Apple TV+ series that I’m binge-watching. On the right side sits Hari Seldon’s Vault on the planet Terminus. Top-left is a representation of the Prime Radiant, a multi-dimensional data storage device containing all of Hari Seldon's psychohistorical calculations on the fall of the Galactic Empire. This fall is symbolized by the collapse of Trantor’s Star Bridge, a space elevator linking the surface to a boarding station in geo-stationary orbit around the planet. I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper. I drew in the background with cotton swabs dipped in heavily water-diluted ink. I then painted in the triangles representing the different elements of the “Fall of Trantor” story, using self-made stamps. I finally added some accents with a fountain pen and pure ink. The resulting picture shows what can be achieved with this Wearingeul ink in a more artistic context. 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. I started by using a “warm” photo filter, and then used an “antique paper” filter to get a more grey-looking colour. For my “Geometry 101” series I want to use square formats. So I squeezed the end result to a square shape – and since I only used triangles in the drawing, the distortion resulting from the squeeze forms no problem at all … squeezed triangles remain triangles. Conclusion Wearingeul Lost is a stunning ink – a soft pale-blue that simply looks wonderful on good-quality white paper. But it’s also a difficult ink with a narrow goldilocks zone: you need exactly the right combination of pen, nib and paper to extract that beautiful pale sea-blue in all its glory. It makes you totally forget the dark side of this ink – bad lubrication, sick-looking on yellow paper… All is forgiven once you hit that exact goldilocks spot. I personally love this ink, but can absolutely imagine that it’s not for everyone. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

Wearingeul – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I’m sure I have more than enough inks already, but sometimes an opportunity rises to explore a new brand that wasn’t on my radar before. A couple of weeks ago Scrittura Elegante – a stationery shop from the Netherlands – announced that they would stop their business. Definitely a sad thing: this lovely little webshop carried some interesting and lesser-known brands, with Wearingeul being one of them. They started a sale to empty the warehouse, and I took this opportunity to place a final order, loading up on a couple of Wearingeul inks. Wearingeul is a stationery brand from South Korea, that gets its inspiration from arts & literature. In their own words: “We re-interpret novels and poetry with colors. You can find characteristic inks with stories and also notes/papers which are suitable for ink users.” For my very first experience with the Wearingeul brand, I decided to go with a green ink – “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (Mark Twain). And boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This ink’s colour is right up my alley... a muted, toned-down, pale grey-green that looks stunningly beautiful. It’s soft on the eyes, looks really delicate and shows lots of depth and complexity. Also an ink with a few quirks, that you need to get familiar with, and one that demands the right pen/nib/paper combination. For my part, I’m completely enamoured of this pale green beauty. It’s my loveliest discovery of the year! The Adventures of Tom Sawyer writes very light but is still quite readable. For me, the end-result works, with a soft & delicate look on the page. A really nice ink for personal journaling. The ink writes with fairly low lubrication in dry pens (like the Safari), and is therefore best paired with wet writers. I also enjoy it most with fine-nibbed pens: these tend to concentrate the ink on a smaller surface, making it look just a bit more saturated. You get less shading, but that’s a plus for this ink because its shading tends to be a bit too extreme and needs some taming. For this review, I had to resort exclusively to photos: my scanner greatly exaggerated the contrast between light & darker parts, and the results were definitely not what the eye sees. To illustrate the colour span of this Wearingeul ink, I did a swab on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper, where I really saturated portions of the paper with ink. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer shows a very wide saturation range, from a wispy pale grey-green up to a saturated grey-green with blue undertones. Due to this wide contrast range, the ink is a strong shader. Not really suited for dry-writing pens that lean towards the left side of the range – shading can become too extreme, with the light strokes showing insufficient contrast to their darker counterparts. For me, the ink looks best with fine-nibbed wet pens, that explore the right side of the saturation range. With these, the ink looks superb and shows great aesthetics. On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – the ink behaved perfectly. There is no visible smearing at all. Water reisistance is also remarkably good. A lot of the colour dissipates, but a light blue line remains that is still perfectly legible. Well done! That is much better than most non-waterproof inks. This is also evident from the bottom part of the chromatography. The chroma also clearly shows the complex mix of dyes that constitute this ink. Fascinating! I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap 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 Lamy Safari M-nib fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with a Lamy Safari B-nib A small text sample, written with an Esterbrook Estie with Journaler nib Source of the quote, written with an Edison Collier with 1.1 nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari) This Tom Sawyer ink writes fairly scratchy in my Safari pens with subpar lubrication. It really needs wet writers. Furthermore, I prefer the ink’s looks when paired with fine-nibbed pens – they tone down the otherwise a bit too heavy shading. This Wearingeul ink can handle all types of paper. It even writes well on Moleskine: no visible feathering, and just a touch of bleed-through. From my writing tests, I also discovered that the ink works best on rougher-surface paper. You get a thinner & sharper line! With very smooth coated paper, the ink spreads out a bit on the surface, resulting in a broader line with less defined edges, and it just doesn’t look at its best. Like I hinted at before: a quirky ink that you need to get acquainted with. I used photos for the writing samples above to get the most accurate results. In scans, the contrast gets blown up, and looks totally unrealistic – see the scan below. My scanner really messed this one up! Writing with different nib sizes The photo below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing (written on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper). The initial lines were written with Lamy Safaris. The EF and F concentrated the ink, and worked remarkably well (although lubrication is quite horrible). But M and above with the dry-writing Safari result in too harsh a contrast, and mess up the inherent beauty of the ink. I therefore added a couple of wetter-writing visiting pens. This Tom Sawyer ink is definitely a tricky one – you need to hunt for the right pen/nib combination. The ink looks great in the Estie with journaler nib (basically an M-based stub), and the Collier with 1.1 nib. Searching for this goldilocks combination is definitely worth the effort though: you are rewarded with a great-looking result – pale grey-green, pastel-toned, soft and delicate. Related inks To compare this Wearingeul 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 Adventures of Tom Sawyer is fairly close to fumisome chorlophyll – these are definitely related. The ink is quite different from the other grey-greens in my collection. Inkxperiment – Christmas Trees As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. For me, that’s where the fun starts: experimenting with the ink to see how it behaves in a more artistic context. I love doing these little drawings – always good for a fun couple of hours. Since it’s almost Christmas, I just had to do an inkxperiment that fits this time of the year. So I decided to draw a Christmas tree. And although I can appreciate the dressed-up versions that have entered many people’s houses, I do enjoy the trees more in their natural habitat where they create an oasis of tranquility. There are some pine tree woods just around the corner from where I live, and I enjoy an evening walk there to decompress after a long day. I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper. I drew in the background with cotton swabs, starting with heavily water-diluted ink, and gradually adding more ink to the mix. I then used a brush to draw in the trees, starting with heavily diluted ink for the background, and moving toward pure Tom Sawyer for the trees in the foreground. To complete the drawing, I added the man and his dog walking through the woods, and the couple of birds in the distance. The resulting picture shows really well what can be achieved with this Wearingeul ink in a more artistic context. A very fine ink to draw with, and one that hides a whole range of shades that can be extracted from it. Nice! 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. I started by using a neon filter to darken up the original scene. I then used a colour filter to add some contrast and brighten up the result a bit. This created a night-time variant of the original inkxperiment. Finally, I removed the birds from the drawing (it just felt wrong with these birds flying around at night). Conclusion Wearingeul The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a beautiful ink – a delicate and pale grey green that looks so lovely. Not an easy ink though! Don’t expect to just plop it in a pen and get good results. No, this is an ink you need to get intimate with, learn to know it … and once you do, it rewards you with some spectacular results. A wonderful discovery, and one of the nicest inks I’ve tried this year. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

I'm not one to enjoy Red ink and I have passed along barely used bottles of Red Dragon and Momoji, but this ink has become one of my favorites despite the fact it is a more troublesome ink. The base color and tone is lovely and is perhaps a dark burgundy? possibly has brown sheen? It has gold shimmer particles which flow well in Broad/Stub nibs. I had left my Pelikan OB sitting and forgot to shake it before use, the result was a lot of shimmer and poor ink flow. With that being said, I capped shook it a little, and it wrote out perfectly. One thing I will note is that when you're down to the last 10% of the ink, more problems arise w/ startup. I find it easier to just refill or clean if changing to a new ink. Otherwise a shake before uncapping and I don't have any issues. The other two pens are a stub nib and a flex nib; I have tried it in a medium nib and it wrote well w/out clogging but I don't enjoy the ink's qualities enough. The Gold shimmer is lovely; I have it in 3 pens now and am using all three regularly on a daily basis with no issues. That being said, I would probably use it even if there were no shimmer. The ink does take a long time to dry (80seconds) and I have found some spots can still smear. There is a slight degree of water resistance but as it's prone to smearing I wouldn't count on it. There's no feathering that I've noticed on Rhodia or Tomoe River and no significant ghosting to where I'm happy to use both sides. The bottle is cute w/ a hologram (it's neat when you have to shake it before filling). Unfortunately, it's a square shape and only 30cc so I suspect you'll need an ink miser or syringe fill after half the bottle is finished. All in all, an impractical ink that's just beautiful and fun to use. The above was written on Tomoe River (old). Sadly, I'm out of copy paper/laser paper; I'll add a picture of that when I can. I don't recall a significant feathering or spread.

Wearingeul - Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote