Organizing Color Cards

[WaskiSquirrel]

I group mine by color and then alphabetically from there.

[lgsoltek]

Lgsoltek, Cultpens in the UK have them in stock.

 

Great, thanks Liz!

 

(But it's almost double of the US price )

Edited July 3, 2017 by Lgsoltek

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

I am amongst those who group by Hue then by Value (light-dark); and for the 'borderline' inks (e.g. Dark Blue to Blue-Black) I just make duplicate cards. The name of the ink is on the card, so that is the X-ref to where the bottle should be. (Though I suspect Jill's cats are rearranging things - Visconti Green appeared on the top shelf, but its not a cuddle buddy for P4BlBk.)

 

Bye,

S1

Edited July 3, 2017 by Sandy1

[migo984]

Sounds wonderful! I'd love to see images of your arrangement!

I'm in Aus at the moment so the bulk of my inks & cards (both ring system & artist card display binder) are back in the UK. I've got about 175 inks/cards here though, organised pretty much in the same system as your own. I'll try to take photo later.....

[Chrissy]

 

Great, thanks Liz!

 

(But it's almost double of the US price )

 

Possibly because it includes free shipping in the UK

[HalloweenHJB]

Ah, but to France? Probably not. But perhaps a different option may be found...

[HalloweenHJB]

[Barkingpig]

I believe these card are suggested as being able to be used on BOTH sides, although I have not tried mine. I am kinda worried about using them, for fear I will then "know better" how many inks I have! I admit counting bottles when I consolidated into one cupboard, but that has been more than a year ago & I suspect they may have "multiplied." ("Received one today, watching for another & ordered two today," may have happened more often than I want to acknowledge; especially since I have one paid & being held for other inks arrival @ Andersons & maybe 10 bottles paid for @ LCdC, awaiting something that is back ordered.)

Edited July 3, 2017 by Barkingpig

[HalloweenHJB]

I suppose both sides could be used, but that seems to me to be an unnecessary complication. And thanks so much Barkingpig, for the great inspiration of these cards, and many special inks!

[Cyber6]

Just a heads up... The Col-o-ring cards are FANTASTIC ... but are not the most accurate cataloguing system for inks.

 

Nothing wrong with the cards, I personally loved them, just that I keep in mind that some inks will show on them very saturated, when in fact they are not...

 

 

Example below... this is a drastic example. Most saturated inks will translate very well.... but if you are buying ink solely on how they look on a col-o-ring card, you might be dissapointed.

 

 

Card on the right is the old nemosyne cards. Robert Oster Viola is a delicate violet colour.. and the nemosyne card shows it perfectly (written with a wet pen).

 

 

[HalloweenHJB]

Thank you for the example.

[ErrantSmudge]

I started making ink samples on a small Clairefontaine notepad, and like most people I group by color. I keep them held together with binder clips. I've had to split out to separate clips for blues, greens, reds, etc. since they were getting too much for one stack.

 

Even though Clairefontaine is somewhat heavy paper, I wish I had chosen something heavier, like card stock. I didn't know about Col-O-Rings when I started, but I have too many now to go back and redo all those samples. Plus some of the inks are no longer in my possession.

Edited July 4, 2017 by ErrantSmudge

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi all,

 

These color cards are beautiful and all... but aren't they also a little too optimistic?

 

I do my ink samples on 4x6 index cards because they're easy to organize and better reflect the grade of paper stock you'll be using in the wild, so the ink will appear more like it will in the "real world."

 

I'd show you one of my cards, but I'm not home... I'm out with friends who all left me alone at the table to go "powder their noses"... I hope they come back... ... I see the waiter coming with the check.

 

 

- Anthony

[ParkerDuofold]

Hello all,

 

Those Col-o-Ring cards are beautiful and make the inks look stunning... and perhaps I still do not get it... I usually don't...... but I get what Cyber6 was trying to say.

 

Actually, I like the index cards because they not only show how the ink will most likely appear on "real world" paper, but they also give you room for notes.

 

I suppose one option is to maintain two sets... one showing optimum, true color and the other showing "real world" color and appearance.

 

I've included a couple of pics of my system, including one of my very early cards, (you can see how primitive they were... and how much I didn't know yet ). The "L2K" reference under "wet" swab was an off-handed remark on that one card, inspired by the fact the L2K always seems to make colors look a little diluted.

 

Actually, the "dry" swab/"wet" swab idea came from FPN member, "Old Griz," who, like Toaster Pastry, doesn't seem to be active here anymore, but he recommended the wet swab to depict how the ink would appear in a dry writer.

 

 

I also included a couple of pics of the fireworks show my friends and I went to last night, showcasing yet another example of my crack(ed) photographic skills.

 

 

BTW, my friends did abandon me and left me to pick up the check,... but then later in the evening, each of them slipped me their share of the tab, (and I wasn't grousing about it, I just said, with a smile, something like, "thanks for leaving me to pay the check; you're a great bunch," when we left the restaurant...

 

... I must wear a sign that says, "tease and torment me."

 

 

- Anthony

Edited July 5, 2017 by ParkerDuofold

[lgsoltek]

Well personally I love index cards with ink splashes on them even though I know they are much more saturated than in actual writing. Just because they are pretty to look at!

[LizB]

I think I'm going to have to go the filing cards route. I have an old G Lalo correspondence cards box which I use with samples from all the common papers I use. But it is stuffed full now and I can't find the samples I want, and I can't get any more samples in. I've looked for the Lalo boxes online but I can't seem to get them anymore in the UK. So a filing card box will work, I'll still use my own papers for the samples though.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by LizB

[ParkerDuofold]

I think I'm going to have to go the filing cards route... ...So a filing card box will work, I'll still use my own papers for the samples though...

Hi Liz,

 

That's not a bad idea; using the paper(s) you normally use...

 

...it gives me the idea of using the cards, but stapling a strip of your favorite paper(s) to the bottom of the card for the writing samples.

 

Then you'd have the upper part of the card for the details and notes and the lower area, on the actual paper you use, for the swab and samples.

 

I like it.

 

 

- Anthony

 

EDIT: You still want to use the card as a backbone, to give your samples some rigidity for easy filing; just using the paper by itself... will lead to curled-up & crinkled samples.

Edited July 5, 2017 by ParkerDuofold

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Just to add a bit:

 

I do not consider 'ink cards', swab samples etc to be definitive. IMHO they indicate a starting point rather than a destination.

 

perhaps I have so many inks that the level of granularity is rather fine, so I turn to my inky folios to see examples of different pen+paper combos and similar inks before getting on with writing.

(My history of picking a 'warm' ink + pen combo is fraught with queues of pens awaiting clean-up.

 

Oh well, 'No' is always a valid answer, but some days I wish 'Yes' was a little closer ... My compass rose is still bedevilled by curiosity

 

Bye,

S1

Edited July 5, 2017 by Sandy1

[HalloweenHJB]

 

I do not consider 'ink cards', swab samples etc to be definitive. IMHO they indicate a starting point rather than a destination.

 

perhaps I have so many inks that the level of granularity is rather fine, so I turn to my inky folios to see examples of different pen+paper combos and similar inks before getting on with writing.

 

My compass rose is still bedeviled by curiosity

 

 

 

Exactly; well said. I don't know if I had inadvertently suggested that ink cards are absolutely faithful images of the ink, but that was not my intent. I just like to have a rough idea of where an ink falls in the spectrum, which colors are contiguous and most similar, etc.

 

Occasionally, I'll flip through and see an ink that I hadn't thought about in quite a long time, and realize that it wants to come out and play.

 

I imagine, Sandy, that your compass rose must be spectacularly colorful!

[Barkingpig]

I am sure the Nemosyne cards are the "Gold Standard" for showcasing inks; people have extolled their virtues for years in posts here. I wasn't aware they were still obtainable; if so that is a wonderful thing!

 

I also believe these posts have shown excellent examples different users have developed for their representative ink samples; the important thing is that each person has a system they use & enjoy. File cards, paper slips, whether in a file folder, box, or even shoe box, whatever WORKS for them, to further enjoy their inks is surely a good thing.

 

I appreciate everyone's sharing of their examples & know each is better than my haphazard approach to searching through several notebooks, to see writing examples of my inks, in different pens. As long as inks are used & enjoyed, the mission is accomplished, whatever approach one chooses.