#artsupplyproblems

First off, this ink looks fabulous in the vial. It’s a bright, warm blue packed with blue shimmer and as it stands, matches my PenBBS 471 ‘Storm’ very well.

In the pen, I’ve found the ink shades a bit, darkening and sheening to a purplish red. 

Whereas a sample pass using a folded nib shows a much darker ink in concentration, this ink seems to stay in mostly midtones, darkening only in areas where a wet stroke pools. It remains quite bright when dry.

The shimmer remains present but not overpowering, and I have yet to find any clogging issues to date.

Drying time - Pretty quick! 30ish seconds.

Waterfastness - Not waterfast

Shading - Yes

Sheening - Yes, Reddish-purple.

Colour - Bright warm blue with blue shimmer

Feathering - No

Bleed - No.

Bonus: Head to head with J. Herbin Emerald de Chivor (top), Troublemaker Inks Nautical Highway (bottom)

Whereas Emerald de Chivor has slight greenish hints to it (and has gold shimmer), Nautical Highway is more blue (and its shimmer is a silver tinted blue).

As inks go, I don’t often buy reds, as I am seldom in need of them. I feel like it can take quite a bit of trial and error to find Just. That. Right. Red.

This one is bright and deep red when wet. It thins and shades quite a bit depending on wetness of the nib.

As reds go, it seems rather neutral - it appears to be very similar to cadmium red when wet, but shades towards scarlet, ultimately settling a bit less bright and more neutral. 

Drying time - 60s+

Waterfastness -

Shading - Yes

Sheening - No

Colour - Neutral red - bright when wet, dulls a bit when dry.

Feathering - No

Bleed - No

Lasting impressions: I like the brightness of the ink when wet and as it tries. Hints of that do remain in areas of heavy application, but this ink shades quite easily, looking somewhat anemic in the process. I would probably put this in a pen with wet feed and nib to maintain colour and shade intensity.

Troublemaker Inks is a relatively new ink company operating out of the Philippines. They pride themselves on making inks with an honest price and homage to places and people local to them, so it‘s always nice to open a package and see inks and names with a hint of the culture that inspired them.

Today, I received Troublemaker’s Spring sample line, and from them I decided I’d try España Boulevard first.

This is a pale, greenish-brown ink with slight gold shimmer. It shades nicely and smears green. In concentration, it darkens to a raw umber.

On Tomoe River 68gsm, there is very slight ghosting, but no bleed-through. It’s not feathering so far either (with a Wahl-Oxford 14k semi-flex nib). 

Drying time - expect complete dryness in the 45-60second range. 

Waterfastness - Not waterfast.

Shading - Yes

Sheening - No

Colour - Brown with pinkish undertones, smears to green. Mid to light toned.

Feathering - No

Bleed - No

To be honest I had been looking for a good pale ink like this due to some issues I’m having with a Leuchtturm notebook (which I’ll discuss later). As pale inks go, this has just enough contrast in the shading that it’s not hard to read in normal lighting.

Overall, I am quite positive with this ink. It compares well to inks like PenBBS Liberte Guidant le Peuple (which is more straight desaturated brown) and Sailor Rikyu-Cha (which has similar brown/green properties, but is a bit darker).

If I were to criticize it in any way, it would be from the perspective that the shimmer arguably isn’t very noticable unless seen in the right light. I quite like this ink already on its own and without the shimmer, it makes for a very calming, conservative sort of look. I don’t *dislike* the shimmer exactly, but I think I would probably either buy this without the shimmer or just fill it unshaken for pens which may have issue with shimmer. As it stands, it just seems a bit extraneous. 

One of the more striking samples from the Spring collection, TransCentral Highway is a strong veridian ink that shades deeply to black and sheens to purple.

It’s really quite striking and compares well to Diamine November Rain, or perhaps Colorverse Schrodinger.

It’s like a thick coniferous forest, where light fades quickly as you reach the ground. 

This is probably not a colour I would use all the time, but the shading & sheen truly are remarkable. 

This pen has a number of things going for it. Beautiful acrylic resin, well machined parts, effective faceted roll-stop band, reliable feed & nib that writes smoothly with no feedback (here, #Mnemosyne notebook paper). Capped, it's 87mm long. Posted, it's 130mm. Unposted, 80mm, but it's a little strange to hold and unbalanced that way. That said, the girth of the pen makes such a short pen feel like writing with a full sized pen. It's an eyedropper pen and comes with a rollerball adapter should you prefer (but y tho?). Capacity is roughlyt 1.5-2mL? To a certain extent it matches the concept, so while I personally prefer greater volume, I am OK with this.

With that said, I have some issues with this pen.

I have no issues with the materials nor construction. Instead, it’s the design. It’s not even really that I hate it all - I actually like many of the size and material choices - but the pen just seems... unfinished.

I get what they are going for - a small eyedroppered pen with a cap you can’t lose, since the pen begs to be posted... but because the pen has exposed threads on top of the cap as well as the bottom of the roll-stop, the pen looks like it’s missing something when fully capped and never truly escapes this feel when posted, since we still see the underside of the cap. 

You could feasibly screw together a whole series of these very pens together... but why? The look conjured is reminiscent of Crayola markers - the kind that let you clip multiple together in a big long stick of markers. It’s something neat you can do that will amuse for a moment, but how practical is it really?

I will admit that, posted, the pen looks great in my small hands. I just find the exposed cap underside a bit annoying. But capped, this looks like half a pen - not due to size, but design. 

All in all, though, it’s not a bad pen. I will still be 100% okay with using the ones I purchased - This would just probably not be a pen I would gift someone else, unless they specifically asked for one.

Ink: PenBBS 261

Krishna seems to be trying a variety of things and looking to set itself apart from its contemporaries and this is no exception.

When I first wrote this review (in a Life notebook), I wrote the following:

The base colour can be generally assumed to be green, however it actually has a strong red component while wet. As the liquid evaporates, the red acquiesces and darkens, usually giving it a shaded appearance in volume. I Say 'usually' because in extreme cases, the ink concentrates in to an earthy, opaque yellow-orange, which is actually what most people would classify as ochre.

 So - the titular ochre appears to refer not to the base colour, but the unique concentrated residue. What's more odd to me is the residue is matte, not metallic, so I don’t know whether it would be accurate to describe this as sheen.

 Looks greener on Tomoe River, trends more toward yellow on wheat sheet copy bond. This yellow tone becomes even more obvious over time (like over a few hours).

 Relatively quick drying, not waterproof when droplets reapplied, red tones begin to re-emerge. Ink also lifts easily.

The reason why I call this out is this:

I woke the next morning to find my (seemingly) dry writing sample had completely turned a deep yellow, except for the spots where I'd added some water droplets to test for water-fastness. At this point, I am left wondering whether these areas will turn yellow eventually as well? Of note, there doesn't appear to be any major shift for my samples on Tomoe River paper, while the colour change and lightening varied on Muji notebook and Profolio Oasis notebook paper as well.

Roughly 12 hours after first use, I would say this ink does actually resemble a raw ochre on most papers. If you enjoy the novelty of colour shifts in ink as well as yellow as an ink colour, this one may be for you.

As for me, I like finding things like this that might be considered imperfections... but i can't help feeling the unpredictability might put some people off. This will be a novel addition to my ink collection - There are aspects of this ink on particular paper which I love, but I am still warming up to the full-blown yellow this turns out to be on most papers. The naming is accurate, but it takes time for this to become apparent. It might be a good match for some of the brighter yellow pens I've seen recently (the Kaweco sunrise/sunset pens come to mind, as well as the Ferris Wheel Pen Co. Brush pen in yellow)

Here’s something that came in the mail earlier this week.

This is the PenBBS 323 in Sky Blue.

Despite the nib being a bit stiffer than I prefer, I haven’t been able to put this pen down since I got it. Something about the form factor, ease of writing and overall aesthetics just hits me the right way!

I’m guessing it’s some sort of turned acrylic. Has a slight smell to it, no mold lines. The swirl is lovely & translucent.

Not postable, but the weight and length work well without the cap posted. I only wish the pen had some sort of roll-stop, but would be at a loss as to how to incorporate one in such a way that would not mar the form factor.

The nib is fine - between 0.3-0.4mm with a very smooth, slightly upturned tip.

Comes with a converter, seems also eyedropper-ready. The barrel fits snugly to the section by threading that is additionally sealed with an o-ring.

Filled with PenBBS 275 ‘Claude Monet’, which matches the pen perfectly and is very well behaved. No skips or false starts so far. Generous feed, medium to wet writer. No priming needed so far, through 3/4 of my current ink fill.