(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. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
Ink tracking, testing, swabbing--how else are we supposed to perfectly match our ink to our pen, or remember what very specific shade of purple is our favorite? Selecting the right ink for your mood or activity is important to pen folk, so naturally many of us have become ink archivists. And we need the right tools for this job.
There are a variety of ink swab cards or swatch books available these days, and this new Kamiterior set from JetPens gives you several options for how you'd like to document your ink library.
There are Inkflip swab cards shaped like wee ink bottles made of a special cardstock that shows off the variety of shades that liquid inks offer. The set has 50 cards on a ring, which should be plenty, right? Well, it's a start. You might need a few decks.
There is also an Inkcards notepad with sheets of heavy paper that have spaces for swabs and a bit of information about your ink. The cards are bound with a glued top edge and they tear away cleanly to be stored in your catalog. There are 100 cards in the pad, plus a handy sheet of blotting paper.
The third piece is an Inknocci Booklet. The paper inside is very thin, but it displays the ink nicely, with room for a small swab and some writing. I did experience some bleed-through where the ink was more heavily applied. There are two entries per page and 30 pages, making room for 60 inks.
Each of these pieces, sold separately, shows off the ink a little differently, depending on the paper type. The book is perhaps the truest to what the ink will look like when writing, but the cards are better for showing off the ink's features like shading or sheen. Overall, the set pieces work well together to get a whole picture of your ink, but it would be a bit redundant to use all three. Fun, but redundant.
While these are great for keeping a personal catalog of your inks, I think they'd be especially fun at an ink testing party or pen show, where you can swab and sample a variety of colors and formulas to see what you like best. They're great for comparing shades, finding color-duplicates of beloved limited releases, and keeping track of the fact that you have way too many teal inks and probably should not get any more for a while.
The Inkcards and Booklet sell for $7.75, and the Inkflip cards are $9.50, which isn't too bad, though it can add up if you need...a few sets. I will definitely continue to use these when my current cards run out, but I think I still prefer the plain ink cards like the Col-o-Ring. Still, it's great to have these different formats so you can pick to suit your own preference.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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