The Pentel Smash is one of my personal favorite mechanical pencils, and Pentel of America hooked me up with a slew of them to give away. I’m going with the Orange Katakana SE this time, so read the rules below and enter away.
Pennonia Vattacukor Cotton Candy Fountain Pen Ink Review
Pennonia is an ink brand born in Romania, and still based there, with the owner, founder, and ink maker - Máté Bikfalvi - currently residing in Hungary. Make sense? It doesn’t have to. What you need know is this: I really like the first bottle I’ve tried.
I chose Vattacukor, which is Hungarian for cotton candy, and learned something interesting along the way. When growing up, Máté had only ever seen white cotton candy, only discovering the pink variety from watching the Cartoon Network as a kid. How cool is that for an ink name origin story?
Vattacukor is on the darker side of standard pink shades, but doesn’t cross over into the Magenta/Hot/Purple shades that I am so fond of (see Akkerman #12 Mauritshuis Magenta.) This is a pink with a hint of red, but not enough to take it over. It’s a great writing color, which to me means it is easy to read.
On top of that, there is some decent shading going on with Vattacukor. If you look at my writing with the TWSBI 1.1 mm stub, you can see a good top half/bottom half color differentiation in the letters. It looks fantastic, and would make a great letter writing ink - if I wrote letters.
Since this is my first Pennonia ink I can’t compare Cotton Candy to the rest of the lineup, but I will say this ink leans towards the dry side. It could be because red/orange/yellow inks tend to lean that way from the jump, or it is part of the formulation. Either way, if you have a preference for wet, lubricated inks, this wouldn’t be a great choice for you. Otherwise, that hint of dryness does lead to a quick dry time, and it is definitely wet enough to not cause any issues when writing.
The ink bottle and packaging are simple but effective. Pennonia uses 50 ml amber glass pharmacy-type bottles, giving you good stability in the base, and a wide opening for filling any pen type you wish. The bottle also uses a label printed on a white Claiefontaine 60 gsm paper, making the the small swab on the front reasonably color accurate. These bottles are perfect across the board for me.
And finally, the price. $13 for a $50 ml bottle is almost impossible to beat. Not only do you get a great ink, you also support a small maker with a dream. That combination is hard to beat in my book.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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Misfill, Cut Cloth Edition
Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:
— Bisa Butler’s Worlds in Cut Cloth (Hyperallergic)
— Stationery Logos, 1960s (Present & Correct)
— Ink Is Everywhere (From the Pen Cup)
— Fountain Pen Quest Trail Log - May 9, 2021 (Fountain Pen Quest)
— Keeping the line alive. (Art vs. Entropy)
— My ink bottles stay at home (mnmlscholar)
— Dense Pencil Drawings of Retro-Future Worlds by Yota Tsukino (Spoon & Tamago)
— Ink Review #526: PenBBS #366 Heron Ink (Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
— Colorverse Pillars of Creation & Mystic Mountain (Mountain of Ink)
— Taccia Navy Blue Jeans on Leuchtturm1917 (Inkcredible Colours)
— Fake Lumographs (Bleistift)
— Sticky Fingers: Artists' Cut-Ups On World Collage Day (The Quietus)
— Why I Keep A Currently Inked Journal (And Why You Should, Too) (Fountain Pen Love)
— A practical guide to Sign Painting (Creative Boom)
— The Axe Handbook by Peter Buchanan-Smith (of Best... (Things Organized Neatly)
— David Stuart MacLean's Playlist for His Novel "How I Learned to Hate in Ohio" (Largehearted Boy)
— Why handwriting beats typing – On my Om (The Cramped)
— Pelikan M800 Stone Garden Special Edition, M800 18K 0.6mm CI, inked with Diamine Earl Grey (TooManyPelikans)
— Five Ways to Swab A Fountain Pen Ink Using Reusable Tools (Gourmet Pens)
— What The Doublé L? An Exploration Of Rolled Gold (The Pelikan's Perch)
— More Drafts Videos (MacSparky)
— Instructions for how to make shadow shapes (ZEN in TECHNICOLOR)
— The New Wave Of Post-Brexit Post-Punk, From Dry Cleaning To Squid (NPR)
— Galen Stack & Store pen trays: great if you come with the right expectations (UK fountain pens)
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