The Week of Ink

Anyone who has been my penfriend for any length of time has likely heard me moan and groan about not being adventuresome enough with the ink colors that I use.  And this timidity is entirely my fault, since I am a member of the very excellent InkDrop service of Goulet Pens.  (I highly recommend this service -- you really should try it if you never have.)  Every month I get five fascinating fluids to put into my pens (otherwise known as "inks," but I just couldn't resist the alliteration), and yet I stick with the same boring blacks, blues, and browns.

My ink sample box.  It's a little like a hidden object game -- can you find the Pilot Varsity pen that somehow made its way into the box?

Ink-wise I am at the same stage of color maturity that I was when my wife and I were first married.  Back then I insisted on dressing almost completely in earth tones, but I assure you it wasn't in order to make a fashion statement, unless the statement was "I am a very boring individual who thinks his head will explode if he tries on a green shirt."  Luckily, my colorful wife soon took me in hand and now I am (mostly) comfortable wearing almost any color.  In fact, I was wearing yellow shorts just this morning.  Outside.  In daylight.

But I digress.  Suffice it to say that my ink color adventures lag far behind my clothing color choices.  So here's my solution.  For a week, I am going to try a new random color of ink from my box every day, using the same pen (my trusty Kaigelu M nib pen) and the same paper (Bloc Rhodia No. 16) just for consistency of experience.  I will handwrite a mini review of each ink, just for reference.  At the end of the week, I expect to have found some new favorite inks, and I will have (hopefully) become more comfortable with using some of the wealth of ink colors available to fountain pen users today.

Let's have fun with ink!