Like Iroshizuku Tsutsuji, this ink demands attention and urges you to consider smiling in its presence. A bright, super saturated pink-purple, it’s a color you should fill your pen with to spend letter writing on a rainy day.

The name of the color itself evokes nostalgia. Perhaps sepia can be used in very modern applications, but there’s no way to describe something using the word without implying “old”. It makes me think of Civil War tintypes and old family photo albums. And the ink doesn’t disappoint in those evocations.

Even though I don’t really associate this shade of blue with the sea, I love today’s ink. With a decent amount of shading, and just enough “cornflower blue” tint, I find this one a stunner. Plus I’m always happy to find quotes about the sea.

I’m not sure why, but I want this green to be something… different. Brighter or more muted, darker or more subtle, saturated or pale. Our reactions to color are as personal as can be, and there are times when two people looking at the same color will use two very different words (like “yellow” and…

The King’s Blue, or royal blue, is a terrific color ink. A few Mays ago, I wrote with a different color blue ink (in honor of the Blessed Virgin May during her month of May), and was amazed at just how different they can be. Today’s is bright, cheerful, and bold.

Strange name, but apparently this refers to a state in Brazil whose Portuguese name is Pernambuco. It’s a nice red with a hint of coral. Very pleasing to write with, especially since it seems like it’s the Ohio of Brazil in terms of size and population.

Here’s yet another blue that exhibits massive amounts of red (!) on fine stationery, and as a reminder the paper you see every day in these blogs is Tomoe River as found in the Hobonichi Weeks and Cousin planners. This is a great splash of color to start the month of June!

To me this is a greenish black, but it’s definitely one of these “office appropriate” fountain pen inks. Mid-saturation and a mid- kind of feeling to the hue itself, which produces a “soft black” look.

Today we have a stunner!! Just such a great, solid, bold, smooth, wet ink!