I want at least a baker’s dozen of pens inked up at all times … and for most of them to be filled with BRIGHT COLORS. Like these in Stipula’s Calamo collection I got to sample in last year’s August Ink Flight.
Scribbling with ink samples of Stipula Calamo collection
I’m still new enough to collecting that I don’t have that many pens … and I definitely don’t have that many bottles of ink, or even the knowledge and money to confidently go out on limbs buying inks that might not be worth investing in whole bottles. Like I *almost* feel brave enough to buy this Stipula purple (I want something lighter and brighter than my one purple ink: Diamine Imperial Purple), but I can only find one store selling it and they don’t have enough of my high-priority needs to fill up a basket enough to qualify for free shipping. And I don’t really *need* it.
Plus, it might be silly to buy any inks from this collection when they didn’t really write well for me. At the time I wasn’t sure if it’s because I’m just not good at using a glass dip pen, but after experimenting with more samples from a wide variety of other ink manufacturers, it seems most of these Stipula inks were just drier than I like.
I can’t tell you how much I wanted the Sapphron to cooperate with me, though — I *love* the bright golden orangey-yellow, but even with my trusty broad-nibbed Diplomat magnum that does well with other inks, it got skippy and scratchy. Actually, NO it didn’t! I just doublechecked my larger writing sample, and it doesn’t look skippy at all … it’s just full of beautiful shading that would probably do better under a more skillful hand wielding a flex nib:
Stipula’s “Sapphron” ink via a broad Diplomat Magnum, quoting LaVey’s Devil’s Notebook on “The Importance of Keeping a Secret”
Anyway … there is something so lovely about seeing splotches of a whole collection of ink in a range of distinctive bright colors all together. Today I feel both delight and longing looking at these smudges, smears, and pen strokes from this collection of summery-feeling inks.
Maybe I will get the samples out again (I have a little left of all of them other than Sapphron) and try them in different applications … or just, like, fingerpaint with them for the pure fun of it.
