Category: Stationery


Feb 24, 2022
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intothisshadow

J. Herbin Fountain Pen Inks

I’m so in love with several of the J. Herbin inks that I’ve been inking my two JInhao X750 pens with only them the last three or four months 😀 I didn’t expect to love them as much as I do – they’re my favorites along with Pilot Iroshizuku inks.

Image by J. Herbin

I bought six colors in international standard cartridges (they come in cute little tin cans! colors in the regular line shown in above image) instead of bottles just so I could give some of each color to my Mom – who relies on me to give her inks because she goes through ink a lot slower than I do, and doesn’t speak English so can’t order them online herself – and also, just so I would have some cartridges I could just snap in, especially if I’m out and about, instead of having to deal with filling from a bottle. I’ve also found I love using up cartridges – I seem to finish them faster than converters, and feel accomplished every time I do!

I’m totally in love with Violette Pensée and Rouge Caroubier, so much that I used two cartridges of both in row which is unusual for me, I usually want to switch inks when a pen runs out. Also love Corail des Tropiques and Rouge Grenat just may be my favorite dark red. Admittedly, I’ve only used them in the two Jinhao X750s so I don’t know how they behave in other pens, but in these, the these inks flow perfectly 😀 Especially Violette Pensée is delightful – so cheerful yet calm and a pleasure to write with, I always feel happy when I’m writing with it 😀

I’ve been trying to get Rouge Opéra and Orange Indien cartridges along with a few of the other J. Herbin colors while doing my last few online orders, but they seem to be out-of-stock every time 🙁

I don’t like majority of blue inks because they remind me of those cheap pens you can buy anywhere/work gives you which would dry up on after a couple of weeks of use. So blues even by makers such as Pilot Iroshizuku though they write excellently and might even sheen or shade, I still find boring. The association is just too strong. I seem to be favoring reds, pinks and violet inks along along with some teal ones. I have many reds/pinks and a few violets I love, but only three blues I even like: Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki, Organics Studio Copper Turquoise and my newest find Robert Oster Fire & Ice – at the moment I’m very much into this last one. I only have a sample of it, but definitely want a full bottle at some point down the line. Fire & Ice is a pleasure to write with and look at 🙂



Feb 21, 2022
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intothisshadow

Notebooks

So, wickedlittletown over at Dreamwidth had the idea to take photos of favorite notebooks… here’s mine!

My favorite size is A5, I love A4s as well but I don’t need large ones like that very much anymore.

EDIT: added Notebooks 5 because I forgot two important ones!

Notebooks 1

My functional, every day type of notebooks. The top row are all by Nikki Strange; the two A5 ones I use for making quick notes while at doctors, or at the unemployment office etc. The A4 one I use when I need to write a lot – usually assignments given at a rehabilitation program or some such. These do okay with fountain pens (at least the inks I’ve used on them so far) but don’t show sheen/shading, and very wet inks/wet pens might feather on this paper. But I’ve found it acceptable so far.

The bottom row are my most used notebooks. The first one I made myself, inspired by Lotus Blu Book Art‘s watercolor notebooks. I printed an image bought off on Etsy on cotton rag paper, used that as cover and 52gsm Tomoe River paper for the paper. It’s a simple pamphlet stitch, which I learned by following Lotus Blu Book Art‘s video tutorial on how to do it. It takes about 15 minutes so it’s really quick! This one is my inked fountain pens log – whenever I ink a pen, I use that pen to note what pen it is, what nib and which ink. This way I have examples on how the pen/nib/ink combo looks on 52gsm Tomoe River, and can easily reference back if I love or hate some combo.

The green one is a hard cover Rhodia Goalbook, which is for various record keeping and tracking – books read, new books I’ll want to read in the future, online orders I’ve made and am waiting to arrive, ink bottles I have, ink samples I have, vacuuming dates… all sorts of stuff that I can’t rely on my memory for. It’s an okay paper for fountain pens, but doesn’t show sheen/shading as well as Tomoe River or Oxford paper (below).

The last one is my most used notebook – my illness log. I log and track my symptoms here every day. It’s a hard cover Oxford Black n’ Red, it’s thin but surprisingly heavy notebook. It came in a pack of three, and I’ve almost filled the first of them up and I’m very glad I have two more waiting to go. It takes fountain pens beautifully, shows sheen and shading well; it’s my favorite paper right after 52gsm Tomoe River. It is rather boring (just white, lined pages) and because the content which I write is always neutral or bad it started to make me feel bad, which led me to pretty it up with stickers (MU print on stickers) and washi tape. So now it’s looks very nice, with pretty ink, stickers and washi tape. And now I’m happy keeping this particular log.

More behind the cut!

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