Ink Review: Tokyo International Pen Show Blackness High Tea

April 03, 2021 in Ink Review

Tokyo International Pen Show Highness Black Tea is a Sailor made ink that was, unsurprisingly, made for the Tokyo International Pen Show back in 2019. This ink is no longer available, as far as I know, and I was only able to get it via a friend last year. Two inks were released exclusively for the 2019 show, the other being Noble Green Tea which I didn’t get (disappointingly!). Some photos of this green ink can be seen here, here, and here.

High Res - Ink Collection (03-10-2020) - 1.jpg

Ink Overview: Sailor Manyo Series II Part 2 (Sakura, Shirakashi, Ukukusa and Ume)

February 27, 2021 in Ink Comparison, Ink Review

Sailor’s Manyo Series is a two-set series of inks available to the international market, not the Japanese market (there’s enough there already)! The series is based off Man'yōshū, or “Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves” which is a set of 4,516 Classical Japanese poems compiled from a variety of source and people in 759. The first set contains eight inks and was released late 2019; the second was released late 2020 and also contained eight inks. This is the final overview (for now?) and is part 4 of 4 starting the 2020 release in in alphabetical order with four inks per article. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.

A big thank you to Pen Classics NZ for discounting the inks. Check them out!

My Pen Collection 2021

February 18, 2021 in Pen Review, Miscellaneous, Pen Discussion

In early January I wrote about my ink collection and I mentioned that I’d be writing an update on my pens as well. It’s taken a while because there has been a lot of photos taken for this! This is a long, so I’d understand if you skim the stats and my thoughts on the pens and just look at the pretty pens (I think they’re pretty anyway)! This article is also more of a pet project, and more of a journaling and record keeping article. I’m hoping some people can get something out of it though.

In early 2019 I wrote about my pen collection then and in mid 2017 I first wrote about my pens.

Colour Palette No. 2 (Valentine's Day)

February 12, 2021

Very early in this blog’s life in 2017 I made wrote Colour Palette No. 1. I liked the idea of a fun simple post that groups inks together. The first Colour Palette, however, never sat right with me. There was no theme and it was just a bunch of random coloured inks that look generally OK together. I wanted to do more and I’ve been thinking about continuing the colour palette posts ever since but whenever I started thinking about themes I got caught up in the minutiae of it all rather than just doing it. Today I’m just doing it. Starting off with a Valentine’s Day theme for Sunday coming up!

I’ll always try to use my own photos!

An odd green Sailor ink I was able to pick up recently that was an excellent match for my Pro Gear Realo!

Retrospective: Tuesday February 8

February 09, 2021

🄼🄸🄽🄸 🅁🄴🅅🄸🄴🅆🅂 On Instagram!

Robert Oster Pinky
Bungubox Kothogikurenai 🌺
Camlin Scarlet Red
Noodler’s Empire Red 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
More coming (somewhat periodically)…

Articles I’ve read:

Sailor Ink Studio Reviews on Instagram (Mike Antkowiak) ✑ Mike it making his way through an ambition project of reviewing each of the 103 Sailor Ink Studio Inks. My overview took a lot of work so this project of his is huge!
General Feed Primer (Minabeko) ✑ A new fountain pen blog! Looks very promising as well! There’s a ‘blog’ feed and a ‘wiki’ feed for more instructional posts. The first post is an in-depth article on feeds (more interesting than it might sound)!
Ink Review #411: L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Cassis (Fountain Pen Pharmacist) ✑ I mentioned in my overview of my ink collection that Grey inks (along with Pink, Purple, and Yellow to lesser degrees) are ink colour families I need to focus more on compared to blue or green etc. so it’s been fun to read these grey reviews!
- Ink Review #421: Papier Plume Oyster Grey (Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
- Ink Review #438: Lennon Tool Bar Saira (Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
Why Fountain Pen Ink is Ideal for Monotone Painting (Nick Stewart) ✑ Nick’s artworks are always interesting and this showcases the results nicely!

Check out my Sponsors* and help out the blog:

Pen Chalet (10% off with MACCHIATOMAN) ✒︎ Always new sales going on. Good prices on some Pelikan pens worth checking out!
Bookbinders Design Australia (15% off code: BBDMACCHIATO) ✒︎ Bookbinders Design Australia have some very tempting prices on Pilot! They also have some in-house todo lists and monthly (and weekly) planners (which I reviewed here) as well as a custom Kaweco Sport! Also a very decent percentage off a Sailor KoP!
La Couronne do Comte (10% off with MACCHIATOMAN10) ✒︎ A new website! The new website has some welcomed features. They also added pre-orders for Diamine Writer’s Blood S.E. ink!
Goldspot ✒︎ Goldspot have quite a few interesting exclusives and a heap of items on sale and some purchase gifts.
Desk Bandit ✒︎ New OPUS 88 and Narwhal pens, and restocked Krishna inks plus always some interesting and more obscure brands and inks!
Pen Savings (12% off with MACCHIATOMAN) ✒︎ Excellent selection of Private Reserve, Monteverde and Noodler’s. My go-to for these brands!
Pen Classics ✒︎ Stocking Papier Plume’s excellent inks plus make sure to register for the new (old?) Lamy Safari Savannah and Terracotta pens!

*Due to COVID-19 I have extended all sponsorships throughout the pandemic.