Finally Here! - Colors Of Australia!

[SNAK]

Tragedy - I was sent a set of sample bottles of the new Colours of Aus. The Daintree Green was only opened once to do post #23 above. I just now opened it again, and I have the Dreaded SITB.

 

--

 

Slimy strings of gloop dripping off the end of my dip pen.

 

I really hope it was just a pre-production glitch.

 

 

dcwaites, I have the same slime monster living in my Daintree Green and also in Uluru Red (lesser degree).

 

I got mine as soon as the set of 5 Colours of Australia 30ml bottles were listed on their website (early/mid November 2015), and didn't get around to opening the bottles until just before Christmas.

 

I opened the Green for the first time then, and didn't realise the stringy sliminess until I finished filling my vintage piston filler and lifted the section out of the bottle. Horror and tragedy indeed, as the pen is old and cannot be disassembled and it got a full load of slime in it. I flushed as much as I could, and filled with a mix of my regular use ink and a huge dose of Germall Plus (biocide/preservative for cosmetics and toiletries that I use for DIY hobby and for DIY ink mixes). I don't know if the pen will be okay but as it is hard to replace, I am treating it carefully and in the future always ink up this pen from a separate ink vial specifically put aside for that pen.

 

I hadn't opened any of the 30ml nalgine bottles until I found out about the SITB (the hard way) so it was definitely in there from the start. I checked the other 4 bottles too and I found the Uluru Red also was affected by the same stringy slimy SITB. I was going to report it to Kevin but kept putting it off. I received their January newsletter a couple of weeks ago and it reminded me to contact him about it too, but kept forgetting. But now I came across your post here, so I'm chiming up to say Me Too!

 

dcwaites, is your Uluru Red unaffected? Any other colours in the set? My two Blues and the Black appear to be fine in the bottle, but I have not inked up any others. The way I checked the inks (after I contaminated my pen with the Daintree Green) was to get clean toothpicks and stir the ink in the bottle for each colour. Only the Red had stringy thing come up with the toothpick other than the Green.

[dcwaites]

 

 

dcwaites, I have the same slime monster living in my Daintree Green and also in Uluru Red (lesser degree).

 

I got mine as soon as the set of 5 Colours of Australia 30ml bottles were listed on their website (early/mid November 2015), and didn't get around to opening the bottles until just before Christmas.

 

I opened the Green for the first time then, and didn't realise the stringy sliminess until I finished filling my vintage piston filler and lifted the section out of the bottle. Horror and tragedy indeed, as the pen is old and cannot be disassembled and it got a full load of slime in it. I flushed as much as I could, and filled with a mix of my regular use ink and a huge dose of Germall Plus (biocide/preservative for cosmetics and toiletries that I use for DIY hobby and for DIY ink mixes). I don't know if the pen will be okay but as it is hard to replace, I am treating it carefully and in the future always ink up this pen from a separate ink vial specifically put aside for that pen.

 

I hadn't opened any of the 30ml nalgine bottles until I found out about the SITB (the hard way) so it was definitely in there from the start. I checked the other 4 bottles too and I found the Uluru Red also was affected by the same stringy slimy SITB. I was going to report it to Kevin but kept putting it off. I received their January newsletter a couple of weeks ago and it reminded me to contact him about it too, but kept forgetting. But now I came across your post here, so I'm chiming up to say Me Too!

 

dcwaites, is your Uluru Red unaffected? Any other colours in the set? My two Blues and the Black appear to be fine in the bottle, but I have not inked up any others. The way I checked the inks (after I contaminated my pen with the Daintree Green) was to get clean toothpicks and stir the ink in the bottle for each colour. Only the Red had stringy thing come up with the toothpick other than the Green.

 

I have yet to check the others. Will probably do so on the weekend.

[Piper 987]

Right now it's so hot in Australia you just might see two trees fighting over a dog. Meanwhile, outside my door it's so cold I have to rug up on this side of the door.

 

So.... I'll wait until spring thaw to order these awesome looking inks. That is, unless ink makers in Oz actually worry about the stuff freezing. Somehow, I doubt it!!

[deacondavid]

Okay, I have to ask... SITB? I'm not familiar with the acronym. I've got some guesses, but it would be nice to know. Slime in the Bottle? Sludge in the Bottle? Sediment in the Bottle? Stupid Ink Tinting Blunder? Symmetric Ink Testing Blisters?

 

Curious minds want to know. I guess my relative newby-ness is showing.

Edited February 4, 2016 by deacondavid

[dcwaites]

Most polite people would use Slime in the Bottle...

[lapis]

Most polite people would use Slime in the Bottle...

Ahaaa.... and if I may ask, what would they use it for?

[deacondavid]

Most polite people would use Slime in the Bottle...

 

 

Ahaaa.... and if I may ask, what would they use it for?

 

It sounds like discussing what people use it for may be best left alone...

 

Anyhow, thanks for the clarifications.

Edited February 4, 2016 by deacondavid

[JustWrite Pen Company]

Tragedy - I was sent a set of sample bottles of the new Colours of Aus. The Daintree Green was only opened once to do post #23 above. I just now opened it again, and I have the Dreaded SITB.

 

Quelle horreur!!!

 

Slimy strings of gloop dripping off the end of my dip pen.

 

I really hope it was just a pre-production glitch.

 

We've received a few isolated reports of this happening and we're working on a solution now.

 

First thing is that it's not SITB (Slime In The Bottle).

 

It's the surfactant misbehaving although we don't know what is triggering it. We chose this particular surfactant because at high concentrations it acts as a gelling agent. We needed this for our ink concentrates to prevent the concentrate packing down like wet sand when it was pushed through a syringe. At normal concentration (when the concentrate is mixed with water) it is supposed to behave as a surfactant not a gelling agent.

 

What appears to be happening is that the surfactant is attempting to form a gel but all it can manage is to form long strings of gel like material.

 

I have replicated the stringiness here by mixing a new batch of ink and adding the surfactant last. It delights in forming gel like strings and resisting dissolving. A vigorous shaking dissolves the strings and in our tests here it does not reform.

 

If your ink has become stringy you could either give it a good shake to see if that fixes it or if you'd prefer, email me and I will give you a refund or a replacement.

 

I am sorry about this but we never had any reports of this happening throughout any of the testing and it only seems to have happened after it was released for sale.

[SNAK]

Kevin, your post made me so happy!

 

If it is just the surfactant behaving badly, I can feel safe that my favourite vintage piston filler pen is not "contaminated" with fungus/mould, yeast, bacteria etc. that could spread it to other pens and inks.

 

I will try shaking the Red bottle really hard (I have two bottles showing the stringiness; Red and Green and Green is the worse), and will see if it improves the consistency. If it improves, I will shake up the Green one too and may continue using it.

 

I am so relieved that it's not the dreaded SITB (I call it Stuff In The Bottle when I'm in a good mood and something else when I am in a bad mood), mostly because of the special (to me) pen that I inked up the stringy and stretchy Uluru Green with.

 

Thanks for the information Kevin. You have put my mind to ease.

[dcwaites]

Yay!!!

 

Now that the dipping nib concerned has spent two days wallowing in some meths....

[caribbean_skye]

FYI Anderson pens is carrying samples and the 30ml bottles of these inks.

[dcwaites]

Just resurrecting this thread.

As a result of the Inks a Week project, I tried my sample of Uluru Red, and it had the Thickening. So I shook it, and it improved.

Some little time later I shook it some more, and it improved some more.

 

However, from Kevin's posting

 

 

A vigorous shaking dissolves the strings and in our tests here it does not reform.

I have just confirmed, that my Daintree Green, which had the problem in Feb, and hasn't been touched since, has NOT reformed the thickening strings.

 

I still think that of the various brands that had a "Colours Of" series, the Blackstone Colours of Australia are the most evocative and accurate of their namesakes.

 

And they're BGIs

 

(Bl**dy Good Inks)

[tamiya]

Perhaps it's the heat of summer triggering polymerisation.

 

I see there's a 6th colour now - Golden Wattle yellow!

 

Is JustWrite best place to get these?

 

Been eyeing them a while but many seem OOS @ JW.

 

Toucan brand also seems hard to find nowadays.

[dcwaites]

Perhaps it's the heat of summer triggering polymerisation.

 

I see there's a 6th colour now - Golden Wattle yellow!

 

Is JustWrite best place to get these?

 

Been eyeing them a while but many seem OOS @ JW.

 

Toucan brand also seems hard to find nowadays.

 

For Malaysia, Justwrite in Brisbane is probably the best place for you.

It may just be that they are out of stock over Christmas, I would expect that they would re-stock after the holidays.

 

Americans can get the inks from Andersons, and Europeans from Appelboom.

[tamiya]

Nah mate, I'm cooking in Melbourne atm

 

Won't ever bother trying to get anything remotely "valuable" thru Malaysian mail, half of it gets damaged or just disappears...!