Christmas Rose

A new one from Pelle Penna I received a couple of days ago, just in time for Christmas!

I’ve not had time to work on the blog lately because I’ve um…been ~~rather~~ very obsessed with a singing show involving 36 super talented and good looking men (some are half my age) (I KNOW!) who can er, sing very well, and look very good (but like to post ugly selfies). It’s a very funny show, I’ve only watched every 2hr long episode in its entirety about 10 times each, plus all the cuts and extra bits and individual performances I put on whenever I’m not watching an episode. My family, my cats, my friends and all my work colleagues know about it and have very kindly refrained from talking to me for a few weeks now because I need to listen to these men sing.

Anyway the new episode comes out tomorrow and one of my favourite men (I have many) supposedly sings Confrontation from the Jekyll & Hyde musical and kills off all competition so I thought I should get something written before that happens or it’ll never happen.

So here it is, a Tokiwa matsu lookalike that behaves rather interestingly on Midori MD paper (Top right in picture below). Now I need to try Tokiwa Matsu on Midori to see if it looks like that as well 🤔

Close-ups on Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo and Paperholic:

If you have any questions about the ink please let me know. My mind is elsewhere right now and I probably should’ve waited till I’m not crazy but I don’t know when that will be 😬

Oh and Merry Christmas!!

Happiness

Take two.

Late last night I accidentally published this page with just pictures, then fell asleep 🤦 I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t have minded anyway but I panicked and unpublished it so I could add my usual drivel in 😅

Happiness is my second ever Bungubox ink, and the first I picked up from the Tokyo shop myself. Normally I have a very hard time making big decisions: what to have for breakfast/lunch/dinner, but when it comes to inks, if it’s green and made by Sailor, I have to have it.

Since I already had Tsuyuhikari, the next most obvious choice for me was Happiness, because who wouldn’t like a brightly coloured green ink with a squinty looking animal on its label? It also piqued my interest because I recognised it as something that didn’t get nearly as much attention as some of its more famous siblings like First Love (Hatsukoi/Sapphire), L’Amant, 4B, etc etc. Look what a beauty this turned out to be!

Clockwise from top left, 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic

I’ve tried to find a dupe for this without much success. This isn’t the usual yellow leaning green that I mostly favour, but it hasn’t got quite enough blue in it (though it’s obviously there) to make it a blue green. It’s even got a bit of sheen to it if your pen is wet enough!

Ink Studio Ichou (custom)

So I thought I would start off with my own custom Sailor ink because I’m mean like that 😬

I was lucky enough to be in Tokyo earlier this year for an Ink Studio event that took place on my last day in Japan! Not wanting to miss out, I got out of bed super early to line up and was the first one there, being an hour and a half early…other people didn’t start showing up till about 15 minutes before the shop opened 😅

After showing him a picture of a colour I wanted Mr. Ishimaru to make,

he got straight into it and very soon came back with something for me to test. A couple of minor tweaks later I ended up loving the colour he came up with, which wasn’t quite the same as the picture but it was right up my alley and I was very happy with how wet and sheeny the resulting ink was!

Here are some swatches of my first bottle of custom Sailor ink. Clockwise from the top left: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic.

A closer look at each.

My mum was the one who came up with the name “Ichou”, which means gingko…but she didn’t specify whether it was the leaves or the nuts this colour reminded her of 😅.

If you’re heading to Japan and want to try having your own custom ink blended right in front of you by the master Mr. Ishimaru, you can check the calendar over at Sailor events to help you plan your trip. Have fun!