Celebrating a new job with all the cool new blue pens and nibs
Three weeks of interviewing for a new job kept my currently inked pens a demure, professional color palette. It’s time to whip out some novel color and a new wild nib grind now that I’m newly contracted and into my first week of summer break.
My three new Jinhao 82s all make an appearance in my penvelope. Each is a calming shade of cool blue: Blue, Sky Blue, and Snow. I’m taking baby steps back into fun colors. Celebratory baby steps.
Seeing three of the same pen model on my pen tray led me to pick two TWSBIs, to have another set of similars to hand this week. I’m a sucker for a good theme.
Excitingly, the Franklin-Christoph 45 now houses a brand new blue nib. And the nib itself sports a broad Naginata-togi inspired grind. Fun and on-theme.
I chose four blue-adjacent inks to fill out the week’s color palette: And’s pale blue-grey, Ink ‘20’s teal-denim, Celadon Cat’s grey-green, and Anti-Matter’s whispy purply grey. Just different enough to stand out from one another.
New, blue, and ready for the first week of summer as a newly-contracted educator.
Grey/Black
Jinhao 82 Blue (EF). Colorverse Anti-Matter. A moderate-to-dry EF nib and a fun shading-forward grey ink? Dry enough to provide pencil-like feedback and wet enough to write smoothly? Sign. Me. Up. My daily driver combo. The pair to hold down the center of my primary writing tasks. Task management, meeting notes, reading notes, and commonplace notes.
Blue/Teal
Jinhao 82 Snow (Bent, by Jinhao). Diamine Celadon Cat. Jinhao’s fude nib is particular as to writing angle. As a result, I need to write with deliberate speed. As such, slow writing tasks are best for this pair: annotating reading notes, annotating meeting notes, reflective journaling, and highlighting lesson plans.
Franklin-Christoph 45 Blue Diamondcast (Naginata-togi, by ??). Franklin-Christoph Ink ‘20. This is my first “anonymous” Naginata-togi nib grind. The nib easily swaps onto the 45. Paired with Ink ‘20, this writer lays down broad lines with healthy shading. Great for longform writing sessions, especially journaling. It’s fun to watch lines fill up quickly with only a few words. And the round nib accommodates awkward writing angles when writing onto a notebook on my lap. Lesson prep, meeting notes, journaling, and reading notes.
TWSBI 580-ALR Prussian Blue (B). Colorverse α And. Andromeda is a mean shading ink in this wet B nib. Letters show haloing throughout each word. The broad line widths contrast clearly against the Jinhao EF nib in my daily driver. Useful and fun. Virtual meeting notes, reading notes, D&D notes, and journaling.
Earth Tones
TWSBI 580-AL Lava (1.1mm Stub). Monteverde Pumpkin Cake. Pumpkin Cake is a dark brown-black in this firehose of a pen-and-ink pairing. The wide lines stand out against this week’s otherwise narrow line offerings. I was surprised to learn that I had some gold shimmer remaining in this TWSBI pen — so my Pumpkin Cake sports fun shimmer now, too. Bonus. Journaling, teaching reflections, D&D notes, and reading notes.
Wild Cards
Jinhao 82 Sky Blue (EF). Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi. I swapped a Delike EF nib in for the original F nib installed in this 82. An inspired choice. Sakuranezumi is a wet, mid-toned purple in this combo. Excellent for reflective writing, reading notes, and meeting notes. The EF is narrow, which limit this pair to writing that takes place on a table where I can attend carefully to proper writing angles.
