Category: Rhodia

Lennon Tool Bar Ganlan on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 19 October 2021
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Ink

Lennon Tool Bar is a Taiwanese company founded in 2014. Their focus is on producing and promoting the craft of indigo dying. Then they started producing fountain pen inks, and were known for their beautiful blue inks.

Ganlan is an ink from Lennon Tool Bar’s Indigo Series. On Shigure Inks website, it is described as a dark blue colour mixed with a tinge of reddish shade. Based on the description, you might think the ink leans a little purple because red + blue = purple. I didn’t notice any red or purple in normal writing, but the ink is less blue than some other blue inks. This is a lovely colour which (in my opinion) looks better on white-coloured papers.

In writing, this dark grey-blue ink has a wet flow. There is shading and no sheen. On Rhodia paper, there is a tiny bit of feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Diamine Rhodia

Diamine Eau de Nil on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 30 September 2021
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Ink

Diamine Eau de Nil is a medium teal colour ink that leans more blue than green. It has an average flow.

On Rhodia paper, there is shading and no sheen. There is a little feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Diamine Rhodia

Diamine Ancient Copper on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 28 September 2021
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Ink

Diamine Ancient Copper is a burnt orange ink with a wet flow, some shading and no sheen. In places where the ink had pooled, it looked brown.

I enjoy the wet flow and the colour of the ink. The orange-brown range of this ink makes me think of rust, but ancient copper sounds better than rusty metal, doesn’t it? In this writing sample, I spelt “ancient” wrong. For some reason, I forgot how to spell when I write in all caps. Does anyone else have this problem?

On Rhodia paper, there is a little feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Diamine Rhodia

Diamine Louise on Rhodia

Ink

Diamine Lousie is a dark yellow ink from the Deep Dark Inks series exclusive to Cult Pens. In smaller 30ml and 12ml bottles, it is called Little Lou.

Louise is one of the three inks launched in May 2021 that were named after Cult Pens’ three longest-serving staff. You can read more about Louise (the human being) on Cult Pens blog.

The colour ranges from honey to peanut butter, depending on how much ink is laid down and the paper used. The ink has a wet flow. On Rhodia paper, there is shading, no sheen, no feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper. I accidentally deleted the photos thinking that I had already uploaded them (there’s a lesson to be learned here). By the time I realised my mistake and had to retake the photos, I had already written on both sides of the paper.

Writing sample of Diamine Louise on Rhodia notebook

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Lennon Tool Bar Rhodia

Lennon Tool Bar Yundoumuhua on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 28 August 2021
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Ink

Yundoumuhua is an ink from Lennon Tool Bar’s Indigo Series. What I find fascinating is that depending on the language, the words “熨斗目花” on the label may be pronounced differently. A Mandarin speaker will say “yùn dǒu mù huā”. However if you take the same words and move them to Japan, it is pronounced as “noshimehana”.

It is from the Japanese name that we get an idea of the inspiration behind this colour. Noshimehana is the name of one of the 250 colours traditionally used in Japanese arts. It is a dark blue colour with a bit of grey. Lennon Tool Bar wanted this colour to evoke the look of an indigo-dyed textile that had became a little faded and dusty with use.

This dark blue ink with a tinge of grey. It has a wet flow. There is shading and no sheen. On Rhodia paper, there is no feathering but there is a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Birmingham Pen Company Rhodia

Birmingham Boysenberry on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 24 August 2021
No Comments on Birmingham Boysenberry on Rhodia

Ink

Birmingham Pen Company is a small family-run business that makes fountain pens and fountain pen inks. While the company started with making fountain pens, it seemed their focus is now on inks.

Boysenberry is from the Swift Formula collection where the inks were designed to be wetter than average and performs well in a wide variety of fountain pens. This ink is a maroon with shading and no sheen.

The ink has a very wet flow. Due to the wetness of the ink, it will perform well on some papers and worse on others. I think the ink will be more suitable in the finer nibs. On Rhodia, there is shading and no sheen. I would avoid this ink and paper combination because there is a lot of feathering and bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Lennon Tool Bar Rhodia

Lennon Tool Bar Pineapple on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 21 August 2021
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Ink

Pineapple is an ink from Lennon Tool Bar’s 2020 Spring Limited Series. The chinese words on the bottle’s label (as can be seen on Shigure Inks website) refers to the Hokkien name for pineapple. The name literally translates as “fortune comes” so the pineapple is a very popular fruit during auspicious events like Chinese New Year or the launch of a new business.

The Pineapple ink is yellow, obviously. I feel this colour too light and had a hard time seeing what I was writing. It has an average flow with shading and no sheen. On Rhodia paper, there is no feathering and some bleedthrough. I guess, as consolation, the ink is so light that the bleedthrough is hardly noticeable.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Birmingham Pen Company Rhodia

Birmingham Independence Grey on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 17 July 2021
No Comments on Birmingham Independence Grey on Rhodia

Ink

Birmingham Pen Company is a small family-run business that makes fountain pens and fountain pen inks. While the company started with fountain pens, it seemed their focus is now on inks.

Independence Grey is part of the Swift Formula collection where the inks were designed to be wetter than average and performs well in a wide variety of fountain pen. This ink is a dark grey, so dark that it looks almost black. There is some shading, if you look closely, and no sheen.

The ink has a very wet flow. I think the ink will be more suitable in the finer nibs. Due to the wetness of the ink, it will perform well on some papers and worse on others. On Rhodia paper, there is some feathering and bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper. (This is a new thing that I’m trying out. Depending on how much time and effort it takes, I may or may not continue with it.)

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Pilot Rhodia

Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 10 July 2021
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Ink

Pilot Iroshizuku is Pilot’s luxury line of fountain pen inks. The inks are consistent and well-behaved, garnering many fans. For a while, I hold off buying a bottle because they are more expensive compared to other ink brands. But of course, “expensive” is a relative term, and there are also ink brands that are much more expensive than the Iroshizuku line.

I decided to start with the Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki. A long time ago, Myke Hurley, co-host of The Pen Addict podcast, said that this was the only ink he used in fountain pens. Although he had expanded his ink collection since then, I believed that he still used the Kon-Peki ink in his pens.

The Kon-Peki (also known as Deep Azure Blue) is a beautiful medium blue that some would describe as a cerulean blue. It has a wet flow and lovely shading. There is also a tiny bit of sheen but I find it barely noticeable. There is no feathering or bleedthrough on Rhodia paper.

I really enjoyed writing with this ink. There is a quiet feeling of joy with each stroke and somehow my handwriting looked better. It felt as if I could go on writing forever. I look forward to trying the rest of the ink in Iroshizuku line.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Rhodia Taccia

Taccia Indigo Jeans on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 30 June 2021
No Comments on Taccia Indigo Jeans on Rhodia

Ink

In 2020, Taccia launched the Jeans collection, a range of inks inspired by the colour of jeans. This is the Indigo Jeans ink from the collection.

The ink is a dark blue with a wet flow. On Rhodia paper, there is shading and no sheen. There is also no feathering or bleedthrough.

Cleaning a pen filled with this ink is more troublesome. It leaves faint rings of colour residue that can be remove with a gentle scrubbing with a cotton bud. This may a deal-breaker for some.

I really like this shade of blue and like it enough to put up with the more involved cleaning process.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.