Wearingeul - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

[namrehsnoom]

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

 

 

[amberleadavis]

I love your reviews. I also think the pen was an inspired choice.  This ink is not my retina-searing preference, but I can see the beauty. Thank you again for such a great review.

[LizEF]

You had me with the shading from the first written text image!   Love me some serious shading.  That it's a murky green only makes it more tempting.  It's a little too grey for my liking - but the samples on cream / ivory paper make up for that. This went onto my list of inks to try before I got half way through the paper samples.

 

And, as always, love your Christmas Trees art - the man and dog bring it all to life.  Hope they find a good tree.   The computational variant, under the stars, is nice too - a calm and quiet evening in the forest.

 

Thank you, @namrehsnoom, for the usual treat of eye candy and thorough ink review!  May your 2024 wishes become reality!

[inkstainedruth]

@namrehsnoom Thanks as usual for the comprehensive review.  I'm now curious about how this ink would compare to Paper Plume Bayou Nightfall and Robert Oster Muddy Swamp (I have samples of both and have been meaning to do a side by side of them at some point but got swamped with other projects).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mizgeorge]

Beautiful.

I want it.

Nuff said.

 

Thank you as always @namrehsnoom for an inspiring review and some wonderful seasonal artwork.

[yazeh]

Every time, I see your reviews, I want to take my time to truly appreciate every line and appreciate your hard-work in small doses.  With this ink you have the perfect recipe as it has the dreaminess quality that I love about certain greens. My few experiences with Wearingeul inks has been that they indeed lack in the lubrication department. 

I especially loved your inkexperiment. It's one of your best of 2023.

 

Thank you @namrehsnoom for bring grace to a season of excess and chaos 🙏

 

[txomsy]

Thanks for a beautiful and detailed review. Now you've stirred my curiosity.

[Stompie]

It is the first time I have seen a review from you and I must say, it is very comprehensive so Thank you for the work you put into it.

The word Inkthesaurus comes to mind as you put so much info and so many samples in the review!

I clicked on this topic because I too have only recently ventured into Wearingeul Inks and am quite enjoying them. This Tom Sawyer is now on my wish list.

[gone]

Very nice review. 
 

What has this ink got to do with Tom Sawyer?

[InesF]

Thank you, @namrehsnoom, for your always so comprehensive ink reviews! 

You are totally right, there are already more than enough inks in my collection. From where did you know?  

I like this green, but I would stick with GvFC and/or with the Pelikan Edelstein Olive (Green).

 

The Wearinguel Tom Sawyer ink seems to be fit for some writing but looks so much more interesting as a foggy forest drawing!  

Have a calm Christmas time, all the best!

[PithyProlix]

Love it! Thanks for yet another incredible review!

[PithyProlix]

Oh, and I'm interested in those Fumisome inks and curious to know your impressions of them, if I may.

[RedPie]

@namrehsnoom. This is a wonderful review and all the information you are giving! I just love it and I did read through all of it. Perfect. Happy Holidays to you! 🎄

[namrehsnoom]

On 12/18/2023 at 3:12 AM, inkstainedruth said:

...  I'm now curious about how this ink would compare to Paper Plume Bayou Nightfall and Robert Oster Muddy Swamp ...

Here they are ... side by side. The PP and RO inks are blue-based, the Wearingeul starts at green.

 

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks!  The Tom Sawyer ink is REALLY different from the other two....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[SashK]

I'm a sucker for inks like this.