May Appelboom inxperiment

I subscribe to the Inxperiment project by Appelboom, I pay out of my own pocket for it and receive nothing for this post only the joy of playing with ink and inky fingers. None of the linked sites offer me any reimbursement for linkage.  I've tried to link to the manufacturer website for the inks but if not I'm linking to companies I've shopped with.

I got distracted last month by life and Woollinn where I spent a breathtaking amount of money on Yarn. Then I went to Galway to visit my parents, the end of May has my birthday and I always take a few days around it to the Irish June Bank holiday.  It's also the weekend of Bloom and I went there on the first day before going to Galway on the Friday. I was off on the Wednesday and my husband wan't and the weather was lovely so I set up one of the outdoors tables and got playing with the ink from Appelboom's Inxperiment. 

The usual postcard came in with the rest, not a lot of space for painting this time.  This shot has what I used for the play.  The ink comes in a plastic bag each time, well sealed.





So the colours are (in the same order as tested)  Mont Blanc Swan Illusion - an interesting grey/brown); KWZ Honey - a colour that's somewhere between brown. orange and yellow, intense; Kyo-Iro Cherry Blossom of Keage - a pink that dries with an interesting texture; Diamine Beau Blue  - a bright summer sky colour; and last, but not least, Aurora Black - a deep, intense black.

 So I played with the colours and decided not to paint the background; the only colours I used were what was in the pack so the green is a mix of the blue and the honey, painting the honey over the blue made a slightly different green than vice versa. The black stayed very black even when I pushed water through the paintbrush.  I would recommend that shade if you wanted a solid black ink.

I also sampled up my ink journal.

I've been using last months KWZ Cappuccino in a pen all month, I may have to buy a full bottle for use another time.  I'm currently trying to use up the ink in pens because I want to use and test all the pens.

Flashback to the 90s

In case of any queries, I bought these many years ago, both the filofax and the StyleFax, possibly in O'Gormans newsagent in Galway (that's now Easons) I used my own moneys.

I should probably rotate this but I wanted to get a post up.  I'm working on a post about the latest Appelboom post, which should go up later today.

I found this in a filofax from back in the early 90s.  Back when they made books to go in your filofax!

Hamburg visit

So I went on holidays to Hamburg, Germany and went to only 4 shops. I failed to go to Papier und Feder because it was closed because of a flood.  However I did go to Manufactum, Karstadt (site in german), Thalia and DM and did the most damage to my pocket in Karstadt.  I could have spent much, much more. Everything in the photos was bought on the trip, so now I have a lot of stuff in the holder below like my dip pens and q tips for ink sampling.  I  had fun.  Forgot to get the one ink I really wanted to get, which is the Herbin Amethyst d'Oural or to check for it...
Karstadt almost broke my heart, I wish there was a department store with a stationery space like this, everything from cheap to expensive; tonnes of ink in cartridges and bottles, I almost had too much choice. If Easons had quarter as good a stationery department I would be in hogs heaven.
Normally I wouldn't buy this much but it will probably be a long time before I get to visit somewhere like that again.

Minor hack

So I have a few filofaxes and I like the notebooks mostly for the paper.  They come with a cardboard protector.  I have binned a few of these until recently when I was looking for a second pen holder for my flex.  I bought a Leuchturm 1917 Copper pen loop and put it onto the card and trimmed the paper just a little with a paper trimmer (Lidl's finest) and if you look at the photo left you can see a standard A5 cardboard page from a A5 notebook underneath et voila, a pen holder.  I could laminate it, I suppose but right now it's working.

Then I watched a YouTube video with Land of Jane N Rocco talking about pretty planners and I saw she had a hack for bigger pens, use a binder clip and space it to allow the pen clip go in.  The pen in the picture is too wide for the loop but the binder clip does a perfect job.  I'm not sure I'd leave it on the cardboard because I'm sure it would age it faster but it's a clever hack.  I'm sure it's known elsewhere but I've never seen it before.  Smart idea.

Two shopping trips to Pen Corner

All products purchased by me with no promise of review or anything to any parties involved 

I had two trips to The Pen Corner in the last two weeks, the first week I bought the Faber Castell pen, which came with a free package of cartridges, and I also got some of the Lamy Bright Pink ink, which isn't me, at all, in a big way, I'm very not a pink person.  I'm a maroon or deep pink person but not a bright pink person, I wanted to try the ink to see if there was a green undertone, I like colourchanging things.  I put it in my Lamy AL-Star that's a deep pink, I will use up the cartridge, I've already given the second awr ro a friend.  If my pink-fond workmate was a fountain pen user I'd give the last four cartridges to her, I'll find a home for them some day.  The Rhodia is for testing pens.I also picked up a couple of international standard converters.

I only really intended to buy some Caroube de Chypre but I discovered a problem with buying this ink... there's nothing on the package to say what it is, just these two logos on the bottle and a general shade of grey and brown on the packaging, and they were sealed with plastic wrapping.  The staff member didn't seem to be very sure himself, so I bought both, although it does turn out that I have the Stormy Grey already.  Ah well, I do like it.  Must add the latest amethyst to my wish list)  Behind it is the sample pages I use, they're a printed template laser printed onto relatively cheap watercolour paper.  They work quite well and I like them.  However where I bought them hasn't had the A5 for a while.

Now for some testing   The Lamy Al-Star with what's pretending to be a medium nib, it's quite a fine medium and the aforementioned Bright Pink Ink.  Also the Faber-Castel Loom (I think) with grey ink.  The quotes are from The Wisdom of the Pagan Philosophers because it was on a shelf near where I sit.I like this grey. I also like this pen but unfortunately it doesn't post comfortably for me and that's how caps go missing in my house.

The next thing I need to do is add it all to my Everyday Carry log that I found via Figboot on Youtube

Current Carry and in use

 All products in this are bought with my own money and no money or goods have been received or promised for this post.


 This is what I'm currently carrying almost every day.  The Blue Filofax Pennybridge underneath is my Wallet.  They both have a fold out full year spread (not liking the 2018 one, it's on a single side and is a bit unwieldy but it keeps my working days straight for the year and major events.  I love the fact that the pen case can take the smallest filofax notebook, which means that this is what I regard as an essential carry.  There's always a fine fountain pen and a medium, I also often have a ballpoint or mechanical pencil in here. The pocket filofax has a diary where I keep what my worked hours, major notes to self and what I have on loan from the library list.
The Filofax Flex's contents are below. Two A5 notebooks fit in, one for my thoughts diary and the other for writing.  The Bloggers Journal is probably going to start being left at home soon but in it I record what I'm thinking of doing for this blog, I'll probably create a page in my creative writing notebook and use it and then transfer it in later in the day.  In work I have an A5 notebook that I use as a Bullet Journal and as it has only been in use a month will see more changes before I settle the style.

These are the two notebooks the left hand one is from TK Maxx it came as a three pack and have quite nice paper that is pretty fountain pen friendly.  The Paper-oh on the right is from Easons and only really accepts Japanese Fine nibs



These two are my current use notebooks, the blue on the top has TV series I'm following and the Paperchase is my pen and ink log and I'm sure it will feature a few times, these are both A5..

Inxperiment

Materials: Ink from Appelboom's Inxperiment which I have signed up to with my own cash, Water brush from The Range, Business Card from Vistaprint many years ago, background notepad from Tesco. No company has asked me for any endorsement, though Appelboom have a competition associated with painting their postcard.


It came in an envelope nicely packaged with five vials of ink and a postcard
















I tested each colour on the back of some old business cards of mine (that need updating, one of the email addresses is defunct)







And the finished product, I only used the colours provided for this and had a lot of fun doing it.








I used this water brush from the Range (who have a branch in Liffey Valley in Dublin) I was curious to try them, I liked how it gave me some shading and colour depth.