The Final Ink Drop

Yup, you read that right – this is the last one. Goulet Pens announced earlier this month that they were discontinuing the Ink Drop program. Oddly enough, the main reason was because it was too popular, which doesn’t seem to make sense. So much so that I mentioned to to our business teacher as a possible case study for his students. They explained it rather well, though.

The end of the Ink Drop was a bit anticlimactic, and a lot of comments seemed to be, “But what about ME?!” I admit, it would have been nice to end with a bit more flourish (a writing joke -get it?) but it is what it is, and I’m thankful that I was able to benefit from the program for as long as I did.

That said, here’s this month’s colors! The theme is “Forest Foray”.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a fan of brown fountain pen inks. Walnut ink passes muster, but not much else. Indeed, Earth Brown has a little more yellow in it than I would like, and while Terracotta is more on the red end of brown, if I wanted an orangy ink, there are a lot of others I could go with. But that’s just me – your mileage may vary.

As for the greens, They’re all good. Forest Green is dark and rich, Sherwood green is a little more obvious in its Green-ness, and Magical Forest… Well, it’s one of Diamine’s “Shimmertastic” inks, and it lives up to the label. It’s almost ostentatiously shiny.

As an aside – I don’t think I’ll ever use a Shimmertastic ink in a pen. The glittery bits settle pretty quickly, and if there’s one thing you never want to do, it’s shake a fountain pen. I’ve been getting lots of use out of them for calligraphy, though.

So there we are. That’s it for the Ink Drop, which means several things:

1. I’ll finally be able to start running down the trillion little ink samples I have on my desk, and
2. I’ll need to find something else to put on this blog. Damn you, Goulet, for making me actually put effort into something!

I’d like to extend my appreciation again to Goulet Pens for having provided this service, and I really can’t recommend them enough. I’ve bought from them many times – pen, paper, ink, supplies – and they will continue to be my first choice in this regard.

Now. What else to write about…?

Ink Drop Limerick for August 2015

Once again, it is time for the Ink Drop – thanks to the fine people at Goulet Pens. Let’s see what this month has to offer!

 

First of all, Edward Gorey was awesome, no doubt about it. Going to have to see if he did more when Halloween comes around.

The Faber-Castell Stone Grey is quite lovely. It’s got a wee bit of pink to it in large quantities, but on a small scale, it’s a solid dark grey. The second ink is an outright lie – It’s called Sahara Grey, but there’s no way in any kind of world that this ink is grey. It’s green – in fact it’s really close to J. Herbin’s Vert Olive, just with a little less yellow. The name aside, it’s a good pale green, and in a broad-nib pen it would probably work just fine.

Faber-Castell’s Moss Green is green. Mossy enough, I suppose. It’s got a little bit of blue to it, but it’s green through and through.

Little more needs to be said about Apache Sunset – it’s a fan favorite for a lot of fountain pen holders and calligraphers who deign to use fountain pen ink. It shades from a pale orange to a deep red, and always looks good. I have a nearly-full bottle of the stuff. Can’t go wrong with Apache Sunset, I always say…

And the Burnt Sienna is a good reddish-orange, as the name implies. And what probably doesn’t show in the scan, but I can see it in person, is that there’s a greenish sheen to the edges of the heavier letters – the “h” in “he’s” stands out best from where I’m sitting.

So, some good inks this month, and I think I can find uses for all five. As for the limericks, if you know any good ones for future Ink Drops, let me know in the comments – but keep them clean!