The product of a virtual café night

I stumbled into a bout of sociality last weekend. My friends and I had a virtual café night. We share a playlist and each write or work on our hobby while connected over Zoom. I have wonderful, artsy friends who jumped at the chance to gather and be creative. Gathering to write together is how Shelley initially drafted Frankenstein.

While connected, I invited my friends to crowd-source my ink palette for the week. They were generous and jumped at the opportunity. What follows is a collection of inks that work surprisingly well together. My workflow needs a healthy mixture of unsaturated colors and brighter accent inks. The crowd surely delivered.

Two pens carry over from last week: the Nakaya Neostandard (B) and the Franklin-Christoph 46 (F-SIG); and the latter just barely. I added a EF dual-nib for my daily driver. A handful of italic grinds will keep lesson planning and making lecture notes fun, especially since I’m teaching from home this week. Two round EF nibs round out the week’s toolset. EF nibs are lovely for taking quicker notes and for marking manuscripts.

Grey / black

TWSBI 580-ALR Prussian Blue (M/EF Predator Hybrid, by Nibgrinder). Monteverde Coal Noir. The EF on this TWSBI is perfect for managing tasks in a Hobonichi. The 3.7 mm grid demands fine lines. The EF on this predator nib is wet (and so smooth) and a true Japanese EF. And the TWSBI holds up well to the grind of being carried around, so long as your pockets are deep enough to accommodate the size. I’m digging this pairing enough to try using it for just about everything. Weekly spread and tasks, reading and lecture notes, and my pocket carry.

Blue / teal

Pelikan m805 Stresemann Anthracite (F-CI, by Custom Nib Studio). Monteverde Gemstone Sapphire. I typically shy away from the indigo range of blues. I’m grateful that my friends pushed me out of my comfort zone with this pairing. The Pelikan may have been a limiting choice as it pairs a wet ink with a firehose of a feed. This pen will be relegated to my journal, with some brief forays into meeting notes in my work bullet journal – which is Tomoe River paper.

Franklin-Christoph 46 (F-SIG). Diamine Enchanted Ocean. This lightly shimmery pairing has been a positive surprise these past two weeks. It works great for journaling, for lesson planning, and for outlining. The italic grind isn’t a great match for tasks that demand quick writing, like meetings or drafting.

Earth tones

Karas Kustoms Decograph Winter Wonderland (EF). Robert Oster Honey Bee. Honey Bee is a darker mustard in wet nibs, and so more versatile for use in my work bullet journal. The Decograph’s titanium EF is certainly a wet writer. Still, the ink is a bit too light for my taste. I’ll use it for short journal entries, for adding emphasis to notes, and for the odd lesson plan.

Nakaya Neostandard Heki-tamenuri (B). J. Herbin Vert Empire. The more I write with this combination, the more it cements me as a fan. I thought to myself “wow, I don’t recall liking Vert Empire as much as this.” as I rounded out a lesson plan outline this morning. The pairing brings out my favorite feature in fountain pen inks: shading around the outside of lines, or haloing. This pen is used to everything except task management, since the B nib is a bit too wide for a 3.7 mm grid.

Wild cards

TWSBI Vac700R Iris (F-CSI, by Pen Realm). Papier Plume Bootlegger’s Scarlet Letter. I like a well-behaved dusty purple. Papier Plume nailed that color-realm with Scarlet Letter. This has become my main journaling combo. It’s only Wednesday and the pen is already nearly empty. I’ve sought every excuse to use this pen.

Delike New Moon 2 Green (EF). Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Budo. This is, by far, the least expensive pen in the week’s toolset – and one of the best performers so far. Yama-budo has earned a great reputation for behaving on a variety of papers. A European F line-width adds a controlled pop of color to notes, outlines, and manuscript margins. I do wish the nib would reverse write, but it was ground to be a solid unitasker.

All in the family

The color palette for this week’s currently inked.