Showing posts with label written review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label written review. Show all posts

2016/12/07

Inky Goodness: Montblanc Miles Davis Jazz Blue

Went to Akkerman in the Hague yesterday and picked up this bottle of Montblanc Miles Davis Jazz Blue ink. First impressions; watery and a light washed out blue = me not really impressed 😒 inkswabs done on Maruman wordcards and herma smooth sticke
On a recent visit to Akkerman in the Hague I noticed the new Montblanc special edition ink on their shelves, Miles Davis Jazz Blue ink. I was super excited to try it out as I love blue inks esp if they lean toward turquoise hues so I bought it. Sadly, this is one of the very few times this ink is not the color for me and am disappointed with the special edition MB has released. Though the color on the ink swab looks like a nice saturated rich blue, it isn't. I had to swab it twice over to get some richness of color showing. The ink has a very watery consistency, almost looks like a diluted turquoise ink. Swabs on the left are done on Herma sticker paper, the top is swabbed with a q-tip once over, here you see the normal saturation and the bottom is heavily saturated. It could look good in writing with a flex nib as my test writing with the Swan flex pen looks nice on the maruman word card. Let's take a closer look at the ink. 

MB jazz blue flanked by Noodlers Revolution Blue which is more saturated and Toucan Royal Blue which has the same watery consistency but is darker in tone.
Here Montblanc Jazz Blue is flanked by Noodler's revolution blue on the left and Toucan royal blue on the right to show you similar ranges of blue in the same color tone. Jazz blue is lighter than both but in color tone it leans more toward Revolution blue, but the ink has the same watery consistency as the Toucan inks have. I inked my Sailor Sapporo Haruzora Sky Blue fountain pen with MB Jazz Blue to test how it writes in a medium nib.

Thoughts on MB Jazz Blue ink. Pen Sailor Sapporo Seasons Sky blue with HM nib. Paper Lyreca office.
This pen in particular is a dry writer. I don't often use this pen, in fact this may be the second time I have inked this pen. And even though this pen and ink combo does match nicely, the ink itself does not really "wow" me like say Dandy Turquoise does. In writing the color also looks a lot like Diamine China Blue. Writing is done on 70gms Lyreca office paper.

Testing MB Jazz Blue on tomoe river paper for sheen in this ink, I really doubt is has any. But well this will probably be dry like tomorrow or something before I can tell for sure. I do see potential for some pretty sky blue ink washes though!
I also did some tests on tomoe river paper to see if there is some sheen in this ink. This is the cream colored tomoe river and you can see that the ivory color does dull down the blue color of the ink ever so slightly. The ink is definitely better looking on stark white paper. I suspected this ink doesn't have any sheen and after drying time (this took a looong time to dry!) my suspicions were confirmed.

MB Jazz Blue ink
It does dry up with a nice blue halo, but no signs of redness caused by sheen of any kind. The drops look a bit pastel blue and with heavy saturation it's a high shading ink, but without any sheen. I do see a lot of potential for this ink in artistic endeavors, it definitely looks like a spring sky blue to me. Perhaps this would make a beautiful combination with Montblanc Pink in a sakura sky setting. Looking forward to test that out :)

Hope this was helpful to you, should you consider getting this ink for yourself. Let me know your opinions on this ink should you have tried it, I would love to hear it. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

namasté

2016/08/31

Paper Goods: Fabriano EcoQua A5 dotted notebook written review

fabriano

Not too long ago I was at Van Der Linde art supply store in Amsterdam and I noticed they had a whole section of these Fabriano EcoQua notebooks on sale for 50% off! Yeah, I was itching to buy one and then I remembered the promise I made to myself; not to buy more new notebooks, unless I would do an actual review on it. So that's what I did! It's a hand written review and I've tested it with fountain pens and various other pens like copics, fineliners, sharpies, and even blo-pens (I still have a set from like 15 years ago....).

fabriano
I chose the A5 dotted and glued on the long side notebook because of this color! Gorgeous deep purple color that reminded me of Montblanc Lavender Purple. I had my Pelikan M350 inked with de Atramentis Aubergine and that is what I used for the pro's and cons list of the written review.

fabriano review 001
This pen and ink combo showed a lot of ghosting and some bleed through while other combinations did not at all! All the pens and ink combo below showed almost no ghosting or none bled through!

fabriano review 002
The ink held up pretty well, even the flex with the waterman had no feathering! Also I have brought back my Raden VP into rotation and I am getting used to the clip/grip situation :)

fabriano review 003
I also tested a bunch of other pens and yeah that is some pretty well behaved paper! It's toothier than Tomoe River for sure, but I think you can definitely compare it to Leuchtturm paper, though that is a bit smoother to the touch. I had fun doing the above page. In the end i took my Blo-Pens out and spattered some ink over it :D

Fabriano bleed through and ghosting
To show you the ghosting/bleed through, saturated ink/pen combo's like my Pelikan M350 and DA Aubergine leaves a mark on the flip side, as do alcohol based markers like Copic, Letraset and sharpies. But other than that, pretty clean flip side pages so with the right pen, it can definitely be used for double sided writing!

fabriano
In conclusion, for only 1,55€ (which is the sale price at Van der Linde) you have an excellent A5 fountain pen friendly versatile notebook in one of 8 pretty colors! There are more sizes out there and I might pick up a set of pocket size notebooks next time I am near the store!

Hope this review was useful to you. 
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

namasté