Bung Box Sweet Potato Purple Ink: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Bung Box inks, which are made by Sailor, are truly to-die-for inks. I hoard my First Love Sapphire (review here) in its gorgeous bottle for special occasions.

Because Bung Box inks are so expensive ($43.00 per bottle at Vanness), it’s hard to shell out the money for one of these inks, especially now that they are packaged in the boring, regular-shaped Sailor bottles.

Photo credit: Vanness

Still, I am fascinated by the Bung Box colors, with awesome names like “Clown Tears,” “Fresh Oranges of Lake Hamana,” and “Ink of the Witch.” Samples cost $5.00 for 4ml at Vanness, so I ordered 4B (which seems to be many people’s first choice for a blue-black ink; Jeff reviewed it recently) and Sweet Potato Purple.

Sweet Potato Purple is a lovely, deep burgundy ink. It is one of the most interesting inks I’ve done chromatography on, with shades of pink, purple, orange and blue—so much complexity.

In my ink tests, it dried fairly quickly, so I would call it a medium-wet ink. It is not waterproof. It doesn’t exhibit much shading or sheen in my tests with a TWSBI stub nib.

But in the ink splats you can see some pretty green-gold sheen.

In wide nibs, the ink shades and sheens beautifully.

I tried to find some close matches to this ink, considering how expensive it is. The closest is Diamine Tyrian Purple which I reviewed here. But Tyrian doesn’t have the depth or complexity of Bung Box Sweet Potato. None of my other purple/burgundy inks were even close.

So, even though it hurts my pocketbook, this is one ink I’m going to have to purchase.

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Posted on January 27, 2017 by Susan Pigott and filed under Bung Box, Ink Reviews.

Stabilo Pen 68 1.0 mm Neon Marker Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The Stabilo Pen 68 Markers are a favorite of many marker lovers. Their huge variety of vibrant colors allow for infinite creativity and they're priced at a point where you don't have to feel too weird for collecting multiple, similar shades of the same color.

Stabilo's latest addition to this marker line is neon shades--six electric bright colors for when your work needs an extra pop or highlight. There's neon red, pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue. The ink is much brighter than it appears in pictures--these could even be used as highlighters, with the 1 mm tip perfect for highlighting finer print. The tip can also be held at different angles to produce different line widths. The tips are bullet-shaped and quite firm for felt tips. They hold up well for sketching, coloring, and lettering, and they're great for coloring books.

The ink is super bright. It's odorless, water-based, and dries quickly with no smearing--so it's great for lefties. Though it dries quickly on paper, through some sorcery it doesn't dry out in the tip. They can be left uncapped for up to twenty-four hours without drying out. That's insane. And great for long coloring sessions. A twenty-four-hour coloring session sounds pretty nice right now. This feature also makes them good kid markers, where creative enthusiasm can sometimes lead to forgotten or lost caps. The small caps are a choking hazard, though--so keep them away from younger kiddos.

The body of the pen is hexagonal, so it won't roll on tabletops. It's a rather long marker at 6.6" capped, 6.2" uncapped, and 7.1" posted. It's also fairly narrow--similar to a pencil in feel. There is no clip and no specific grip area. The body itself serves as the grip section, which allows for some nice flexibility in grip preference, and the hexagon angles are subtle enough that they aren't uncomfortable to hold. Which is good if you're planning that twenty-four-hour color-a-thon. The cap is ventilated and clicks in place. It also clicks to post, and is nicely secure there. The cap is really small, though, and it twists freely so that the hexagon angles don't line up. I confess I've lost some valuable coloring time to fiddling with the caps so that they line up with the body. But I'm also aware that if they put the engineering into aligning the caps, the markers would probably cost more. So I'll let this one go. I mean, I'll probably have to fix it every time, but I'll try not to complain about it.

I generally prefer colored pencils or gel pens to markers, but if I was going to invest in a big set, I'd consider these a good value. I'd personally prefer a finer point, for the tiny spaces in adult coloring books.

I think everyone needs a little pop of brightness and fun in their day--and there's not much more bright and fun than neon art supplies.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, which I am very grateful for.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on January 26, 2017 by Sarah Read and filed under Stabilo, Marker, Pen Reviews.