For the first time I decided to treat myself to some quality paper so I got a couple of notebooks, one from Clairefontaine, the other from Rhodia, both ruled. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to write in them and I haven't even tried them out. I also got a nice Clairefontaine sketch pad with blank 90g paper and I did try this one. In fact I sketch in it regularly, just a little bit almost every day, exclusively with fountain pens. This pad is so awesome that I'm going to get more in the future. Not only is it cheap at a little over $4 but it has 80 pages and the paper is bleed-proof.
As for inks, you will notice the bottle of Noodler's Polar Brown. I wanted an "archival" quality ink and something different than black or blue. Brown is more somber and should be ideal for what I need it: namely to write an account of my life and my family's history.
One of the cool things that Goulet Pens offers is ink samples. Although the ink from these samples is much more expensive if you look at price/milliliter compared to buying a whole bottle, I think it's a great idea to buy these samples first and find out exactly which ink you like before committing to a bottle. Practically, for the price of the average bottle of ink, I can get almost a dozen samples.
As it happens, the first ink from these samples that I have already tried, Noodler's North African Violet, is so nice that I'm seriously considering ordering the whole bottle next time I place an order. Stay tuned for reviews of all these inks. Here they are:
- Diamine Graphite
- Diamine Grey
- Diamine Majestic Blue
- Diamine Sunshine Yellow
- J Herbin Gris Nuage
- Noodler's #41 Brown
- Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher
- Noodler's Bad Blue Heron
- Noodler's Burma Road Brown (V-Mail)
- Noodler's North African Violet (V-Mail)
- Noodler's Operation Overlord Orange (V-Mail)
- Noodler's Polar Blue
- Noodler's Yellow
As you can see, I got a bunch of grays and blues. I don't have a bottle of good blue ink yet so I need to try a few first. As for the grays, I might get one to use for backgrounds in my drawings.
I have to say, I'm most excited about the V-Mail series inks and North African Violet has already shown its worth. Back when I placed this order I didn't know much about V-Mail inks or I would have ordered samples of the entire series. Oh well, next time.
Nice haul. The Clairefontaine 90 g Graf It Sketch pad is certainly a good performer for the value, and it was one of my favorite samples from an Exaclair pack.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yeah that 90g paper is amazing, especially for that price. I guess that's because it's not a proper notebook.
ReplyDeleteNAV I have found to leave a slight residue, and is beginning to stain my petit1's feed (its orange, with areas that are slowly becoming purple..). It also has a strong smell, but an impressive colour. I found that 3:2 Baystate blue to Baystate Cranberry gives an identical colour, with no smell and dries VERY fast!
ReplyDeleteSunshine Yellow suffers from nib crud, less than the other diamine oranges (orange, pumpkin) that also suffer from it but it'll still be present. With an Airtight cap, it'll stay closer to yellow, but non-airtight caps will let the colour drift orange (as the nib crud builds up).
Love BBK and Polar Brown's colour, OOO feathers a bit much (tempted to try it out again though), and Polar Blue is rather flat (very similar to ballpoint)
Nice collection of samples though, good colour spectrum! BSB is addicting, so if you pick a sample up be careful. Diamine Sapphire Blue seems like a good standard blue to work with, although I don't personally use blue (Navy and BSB are my blues, along with some Pel Turquoise as a highlighter-ish ink)
Oh forgot to say something about the paper! I've found that Rhodia dot pads (and the graph so far) have been more bleed proof than Clairefontaine, while Clairefontiane is smoother.
ReplyDelete@Surnia thanks for the feedback! I can't wait to try out these inks but unfortunately my method revolves around completely exhausting one sample before refilling a pen with another. I only have 7 pens so far that are rotated between new colors.
ReplyDeleteBSB... I'm still hesitating. I love 2 things about it: the insanely bright color and the water resistance but I've been hearing tales of stained sinks and countertops so I'm not in a big hurry to try it :)
The Rhodia notebook is great. I've finally started using it and now I'm doing my ink reviews on it. It's amazing! Never knew paper could feel so good.
PearTreePens does ink samples as well. Just in case there's a color you'd like to try that's not offered by Goulet.
ReplyDelete