(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
Brad handed me a set of Anderillium Cephalopod Inks at the Atlanta Pen Show earlier this year and I’m finally getting around to trying them out! Some of the inks from the Avian series have already been reviewed here including Shoebill Stork Grey and Purple Gallinule Purple. Rather than reviewing them one by one like a normal person, I thought I’d go crazy and do them all at once!!
The 8 inks in the Cephalopod series are as follows: Vampire Squid Red, Flapjack Octopus Orange, Bobtail Squid Green, Spirulina Green, Blue Ringed Octopus Blue, Flying Squid Blue, Cuttlefish Brown and Colossal Squid Dark. The inks come in 1.5 ounce (about 44ml) sealed glass jars that look like adorable little jam jars.
The plastic seals are perforated for easy removal. (Sometimes, it’s the little things that make me happy, ya know?)
I always add a label on top of bottles so I can easily find a particular bottle. Bonus that it looks neat too!
All swatches were done on Col-O-Ring cards using a Kakimori steel dip nib and writing samples were done with a TWSBI Go with a Medium nib. I decided to “use my shhhhhhiii…” as they say and busted out, not one, but TWO new notebooks for ink play/review - both of them are Endless Recorder notebooks with 68 gsm Tomoe River paper. Dry times may be a bit slower on 52gsm TR or faster on papers like Rhodia, copy paper, Cosmo Air Light or with drier or finer nibs.
Vampire Squid Red is a red that has a hint of pink and coral to it. It had average wetness and pretty fast dry times. There is minimal shading and no sheen.
Inks similar to Vampire Squid Red: KWZ Thief’s Red, TWSBI Crimson, ST Dupont Flamboyant Red, Robert Oster Santa’s Helper and Roher & Klingner Fernambuk.
Flapjack Octopus Orange is a nice bright orange with a slightly wet flow, which was surprising since it felt a touch drier during writing. There is minimal shading and no sheen.
Inks similar to Flapjack Octopus Orange are Akkerman 16 Oranje Boven, Kobe 25 Tarumi Apricot, Leonardo Arancio Tarocco, Diamine Orange and Sailor 50 States Florida.
Bobtail Squid Green is a lovely, bright spring green with average flow and slightly longer than average dry times. I kept thinking of Iroshizuku Chiku-rin while I was writing but it’s definitely not that similar. Usually this type of green can feel dry but this one was not. It has nice shading as well.
Inks similar to Bobtail Squid Green include Diamine Meadow, Akkerman 28 Hofkwartier Groen and Robert Oster Citrus. Iroshizuku Chiku-rin is lighter and more yellow.
Spirulina Green is a straight up green ink that I was surprised I didn’t have more matches for. The flow is average and had dry times all over the place. I would have to rate it as medium to slightly longer dry time since I was still able to smear it at the 60 second mark. There is minimal shading and no sheen..
Inks similar to Spirula Green include Montblanc Irish Green, Pelikan Edelstein Aventurine and KWZ Green #2. Other “regular greens” either had more yellow, more blue or were lighter or darker.
Blue Ringed Octopus Blue is a nice bright turquoise blue, not quite green enough to be cerulean, that has an average flow. There isn’t really any shading or sheen. Dry time is average to slightly long. There are quite a few “common turquoise” inks that are similar in color.
Inks similar to Blue Ringed Octopus Blue include Caran d’Ache Hypnotic Turquoise, Kaweco Turquoise, Lamy Turquoise, Pelikan 4001 Turquoise, Pelikan Edelstein Topaz, Waterman Inspired Blue.
Flying Squid Blue is an interesting color that sometimes looks like a blue black and other times a dark blue-leaning teal. It is a fairly wet ink that has no shading but can have a hint of pink sheen on the wettest edges. The sheen is more prevalent in bigger swatches. Dry time is pretty long (anything over a minute is plenty long).
Inks similar to Flying Squid Blue include Pure pens Westgate Hotel, Fanyantan #24-8 The Sea, KWZ Walks Over Vistula and Colorverse Cape May (though there isn’t much sheen in the latter two.)
At first glance, Cuttlefish Brown looks like a regular dark brown but after watching the swatch dry as well as doing the dry time tests, it is definitely a little more interesting. It is a dark brown that has hints of green/olive. It is not warm a yellow-toned brown, but the green adds some complexity. It has average flow and average to slightly long dry times. There is no shading or sheen. I was surprised that I don’t really have a lot of inks that were very similar to this one.
Inks similar to Cuttlefish Brown include KWZ Dark Brown (which has more red), Robert Oster Motor Oil (which has a touch more green) and Bungubox Espresso (which is a bit too warm.)
Colossal Squid Dark is a color that goes down dark and shows its true color when dry. When I first swatched it, I thought it was black but once it dried, I could see that it was a very dark green-leaning teal. It had average flow and average dry time (some of the other inks had average flow but longer dry times). There is some shading but no sheen. Again, I was surprised that I didn’t have many inks similar to this.
Inks similar to Colossal Squid Dark include Lamy Petrol (which is a touch greener) and Diplomat Black (which has similar undertones but is more, uh, black lol.)
All in all, the inks behaved well, some were a little wetter than others and had slightly longer dry times. If I had to pick favorites in the bunch, they would be Vampire Squid (which surprised me since I’m not a big red ink fan) and Bobtail Squid. I would have liked to have seen a purple ink in this set as it would have made a nice balance since the last two inks felt so dark..
Anderillium inks sell for $14.50 per bottle, $45 for 4 bottles or $85 for the 8 bottle set. I think the colors are nice and they are worth the purchase if you don’t already have similarly colored inks.
(Brad purchased this ink at regular price from Anderillium Ink at the 2022 Atlanta Pen Show.)
