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.
