Here’s the inks in the order purchased.
I managed to do the whole 8 floors of Itoya (Ginza, Tokyo, Japan) stationary, craft and art supplies in one hour. The inks I already know are mostly the same price from store to store but stock is usually limited or different. So I went with the rule of if I see it and like it and don’t have something like it already then just buy it. If you see it again cheaper and still love it and will use it then buy more.
I ended up just grabbing the colours I liked. There were some amazing new inks with fragrances. Itoya’s fountain pen floor had draws full of ink and pages of swatches to make choosing easier. I limited myself to the inks from Japan as the European inks whilst good are more expensive than buying online. For the iroshizuku I learnt my lesson last time of buying the big ink bottle which is cheaper per ml but I didn’t like the colour in the end so it’s just sitting in my drawer. This time I just grabbed the colours that I liked from the sample swatches and opted for the the smaller 15ml bottles sonic out try more colours.
I also noticed when swatching out the dipton ink and translating it that it’s designed for dip pens so have now just sorted my inks into those for fountain pen refills and those for dip pens. One of my new fountain pens came with instructions not to use shimmer ink in it so this will hopefully help me to remember to use the right ink with the right pen.
The fountain pen forums all say how the Athena (top left) is one of the holy grail of inks and is exclusively sold in Maruzen stores. The colour is sometimes different and because it is scarce, the resale value is good. So this time I made the point to look for and buy it when I was in Maruzen which in Osaka, is part of Takashimaya. Looking at the box and without translating the box, I could not tell what colour it was. You can find out from my swatches below. Takashimaya also offers tax free across all the shops but once you’ve finished your purchases across multiple stores, you have to go to level 8 and line up to get your tax back. If you’d ot his factor in at least another 30-60min for this. They offer to pay the tax to be returned in cash. This is pretty handy as we use credit card so it’s a handy way to get some spare change for vending machines without having to pay ATM fees.
The Ferris Wheel Press ink is called Blue Beryl Tonic is a light shading blue with rose gold shimmer and reminds me of a Cinderella dress.
Japanese tea ceremony from Tea time is a nice green but ont he darker side like a combination of the chiku-rin and shin-ryoku.
The guitar inks were just in such pretty boxes and the swatches looked nice. In particular night time soda is a blue purple dye ink with a bit of red when the puddles dry. Will have to use this in my Fountain Pen Revolution pens which write wetter to keep up with the ultra flex nib so will show the shading better.
Loved my haul from U-Arts, Osaka last year as they had the most stock avail of the travellers notebook range and a range of lovely art supplies, stamps. I was able to stock up again on the travellers notebooks. Also last year I bought the Neko No Me Nana green ink with gold shimmer from U-Art and it’s become my favourite ink I use every day. So it was good to see a larger range and also now a pink version called Neko Me jiro it is also beautiful a more delicate version of the Ferris wheel press rose gold ink I bought last year. I have this inked in my pink Lamy safari.
The nib holder seems to be designed to fit any nib… And the first time I’ve seen one come with not just one but TWO pen grips. I usually get sore hands from using calligraphy pens for any length of time and these pen grips are perfect. I have so far only used it for the swatches but think it would be fine for longer writing sessions.
Update: having pen grips on my pens levels it up and allows for much longer writing sessions. I picked up an adjustable silicone grip from Book 1st (or Takashimaya). It came in a 2 pack and just wraps around any sized pen so you don’t need to find the right size or bother which trying to squeeze it in. I’ve used it on my Ackerman back in action in the studio. I can use my favourite Leodnart Steno dip pen nibs for normal journaling.
Back to the U-Arts haul in the middle is a pack of 3 inks. I heard that the dye ink is where the shading is at and so when saw this 3 pack I couldn’t resist. It’s made in Japan and the three pack of Japanese colours is chosen baes on the season. It’s beautifully packaged so doubles as a nice souvenir. I chose Autumn as I don’t have these colours and foolishly thought I could use it whilst I was there. U-Arts have tax free so whilst I get my 10% tax off at the check out it was wrapped well I couldn’t open it for the trip. These kind of holidays are too hectic to be using inks anyway. I barely have had time to sketch let alone paint!
The blue and black ink on the left are the largest bottle of ink I’ve seen and for the price super cheap for 350ml glass bottle at only $18 each! No tax free at Morita’s fountain pen shop but the prices are so low you don’t need it.
Swatched out on Midori cream paper
Swatched out on white tome river paper 52 g/m2
Apologies for the poor quality, it’s hard to capture it at night without shadow in real life. The colours are a bit darker than in real life but you still get a sense of shading…
The muted darker colours look nicer on white paper.
It’s amazing that all the inks are different. Even the different shades of green. Looking forward to using this daily with my relatively new Fountain Pen revolution Jaipur V2 with my 14k gold nib. It’s such a wet pen I might even be able to use a different ink each week or even each day!
Rachel Fong Art 