Jim Pingle

Father, geek, serial hobbyist.

I swatched several inks over the weekend so I could try out new things: New stamps, Hocoro ink bladder, and the Midori "swatch cards" I made by cutting up sheets and stamping them. Also tried using a swab in addition to the glass dip pen for the main swatch.

This sample of Endless Alchemy Magic Peach Fuzz was free from JetPens and I'm glad I tried the sample because I didn't care for it. Far too pale and not a color I like, subtle shimmer is nice though.

Photo of 3 ink swatches & chromatography strip for Endless Alchemy Magic Peach Fuzz which is a very pale peach colored ink with a little shimmer and some shading. Each swatch contains the ink name followed by "XX" 2 curlicues in both stub and EF widths. Swatch 1: Iroful swatch card with an outline of a paint palette and tube. The palette is mostly filled in with swirls of ink, a few areas are darker with some visible shimmer, and darker edges. There is an outline of a paint tube which is swabbed and looks similar. The writing is very pale and some areas with less ink are even more pale, barely visible. Swatch 2: Col-o-ring swatch card with a stamped outline of an Endless Alchemy ink bottle, which is flask-shaped and tilted. The outlined area is mostly full of an ink blob which is darker at the bottom and paler at the top in a gradient. Shimmer is visible only in the darkest area. Swab across "cap" is similar. The stub writing sample is slightly darker than on Iroful, but the EF is more pale. Swatch 3: Midori MD swatch card with a stamped outline of an Endless Alchemy ink bottle. The outlined area is mostly full of an ink blob which is darker at the bottom and paler at the top but in three distinct areas. Shimmer is visible only in the darkest area. Swab across "cap" is similar. Text is even more pale with pronounced shading. Chromatography is barely visible, pink first then some yellow.

Some microscope photos of Endless Alchemy Peach Fuzz:

Still not a fan of this one, but it makes another good example of the paper types and smoothness of the letters, shading, and such. Even when I forget to label or sort the photos between paper types it's not difficult to tell them apart from how the lines look.

Iroful is extremely smooth, Midori is sorta smooth, and Col-o-ring is rough.

Photo of ink on paper under magnification on Iroful paper. The ink is peach colored and very light. The edges of the lines are very smooth, and on the left side they are a little darker. In the upper part of a loop in the line a section is even more pale. There is a light amount of visible shimmer particles evenly distributed in the ink.
Photo of ink on paper under magnification on Midori paper. The ink is peach colored and very light. The edges of the lines are somewhat smooth, and on the left side they are a little darker. In the upper part of a loop in the line a section is even more pale. There is a light amount of visible shimmer particles evenly distributed in the ink.
Photo of ink on paper under magnification on Col-o-ring paper. The ink is peach colored and very light. The edges of the lines are very rough, and a little darker in some places. There is a light amount of visible shimmer particles evenly distributed in the ink.

I found stamps on Etsy shaped like ink brand bottles so naturally I tried to match the ink where possible. I also used a generic one on some since I don't have them all.

Stamping is easy/quick except for cleanup. I'll keep doing that but I might prep a bunch of cards at a time so I don't get caught doing everything all at once.

Hocoro ink bladder is a big win. Wrote all three cards with a single dip and had tons left.

Midori "cards" are also good, will have to make batches of those, too.

Now I have another fun question for myself: Do I go back and stamp over past swatches so they sort of match (not a ton of work, could do that when I'm stamping new ones), redo them entirely with the stamps (lots of work), or leave them alone (inertia wins).

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