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Happy New Year. (Please, please, please… any chance you thinking of selling the “Yellow” Esterbrook)

What a positive message! :) Thanks for sharing <3

Consider myself lucky to have ink flowing!

wowowow! what a thorough and useful breakdown of these inks. i love the testing methodology and the side by sides. i ordered a ku jaku as im partial to the red teal pairing but ill be saving this video as reference for a potential yume budo or momiji purchase in the future.

Hi Kristen - Was browsing ink reviews and found this video. Thanks for a great demo and detailed swatching magic.

looks like the 2 pinks you like will be going, as well as the brown gray. I hope to order a bottle of each soon. May I ask what you use for the swatch cards, with the hole punched in the top? I could not find it listed in your thorough list. Thank you...for the great comparison...I have never seen anyone be so thorough as you. I love that yellow green...the paler one...for mixing different colours....yellow magenta and cyan...will make great browns....Janis

I really appreciated the side by side editing. Good work!

Small world! I put ku-jaku in a twsbi eco smoke rose gold tonight! Loving the color!

😂 to the reference to Mercurochrome (aka ‘The Orange Stuff’, I can still feel the burn!) I skinned my left knee horribly (infected a whole mess) when I was about 4. My mom came at me with the orange stuff so many times (I mean, it was for every cut, sore, whatever) but this was a big scrape (I still have a scar!) and she painted it on. About 20 yrs ago when my step-son was little, he fell and scraped his knee, and I went to CVS to get some Orange Stuff for it. Couldn’t find it anywhere, and thought, how am I supposed to take care of this?!? (The fact that we had like 3 tubes of Neosporin didn’t occur to me…kid + scrape/sore = Orange Stuff. I asked the pharmacist where it was and he looked at me like I was crazy. He said, “um, they took that off the market a long time ago.” I asked why, and he said, “cause it’s mercury and chromium…it was putting dangerous heavy metals into your body.” Having just seen Erin Brockovich and the chromium poisoned water, that made sense 😂 Long story, not so short…the result of that painted daily for at least a month skinned left knee has resulted in me getting pulled aside every.single.time I go through TSA to be carefully wanded over my left thigh/knee area (usually in leggings…not sure what’s hiding in there) and nicely, and politely frisked all over. So, I guess I have a lot of heavy metal in my knee…at least enough to make the TSA detector think I’m dangerous. (P.S., the TSA agents are always very polite, professional and I am not bothered at all that they do this…they’re keeping us safe!) Anyway, seeing all of the Iroshizuku line swatched up is something I’ve never seen (they sure do have a lot of blue!) I agree that Yama Budo is gorgeous. Thanks for the swatches on the different paper also.

Have you tried Sailor 50 states Maryland?

Pelikan ❤❤❤😮😮😮

Definitely wanna get one some day, but they're over 1000usd in my country which seems a bit excessive, though it includes a 25% sales tax, so I guess it's not terrible. Just love the look of it! It's classy while still looking modern and sleek!

What a gorgeous pen. Thank you for sharing this with us !!

Wow now I want to put an Edison pen on my list!

You can send off that Magna Carta nib to get fixed. pretty easy fix for nib smiths

I'm jealous of your touch with medium nibs. I have to stick with fine because mediums are too flowy for me. Thank you for the vid!

A pen/ink blerd?! Instant follow. Also, the content was great. Thank you for it!

Love this video for the explanation and exploration of pen and ink pairings. I too am learning that certain inks will not work for some pens. I thought it would be Pelikan and then Pilot 823, those are my two top gold nib pens so far. Bummer, about the Magna Carta pen. The Grace you are showing, I really hope it can’t be fixed. Just thinking about the possible cost , I’m probably more stressed than you. Jesus fix me.

That’s sad about the Magna Carta - hoping you can get it fixed. You have me interested in oblique nibs now haha…I’ll definitely look into it.

So sorry to hear about your Magna Carta - it’s a gorgeous pen. I hope to see it back working like it should soon. I’ve only used one ink in my black Diamond 580 <M>: Sailor 683. It was amazing. Nice and smooth and lubricated. I currently have Diamine Glacier in my Iceberg Blue Diamond 580 and while no issues (we’re in month 2), there’s light feedback and it’s definitely not a smooth experience like the dark Sailor 683. I haven’t used Diamine Tranquility since early this year, I thought because I wasn’t really feeling the color but maybe there’s more to the story. I used it in a matching TWSBI Eco, I think with a medium nib. I’ll have to try it again and see if there’s more to it. Thanks for your detailed observations, so helpful!

This Visconti medici catches the light and seems to be gorgeous 😍 are you going to make some "top 10" videos for the end of the year ?

What's up Kristen! 2:12 - So when I like the look of a pen, I really like the look of a pen. That Visconti Medici is so delicious looking. I hope you bring the Medici out to play in more so I can hang out with it. 2:59 - Ohh yes that Leonardo Nuvola is my buddy. I have one and don't you love the way it looks like you are seeing clouds when you turn it? 9:37 - Ohh yeah that Visconti in Aphrodite looks so good I am sorry that it didn't write as expected. That is a bummer. You know I love Pilot pens but I really do not understand the Pilot numbers like the 823 so I have never gone for one. But I hear they are wonder writers. Thanks for the vid. 💜

Todd can fix your Magna Carta nib. I’m sorry to hear this happened. I thought the imagery of blue clouds and red clay from Georgia soil was a very nice regard to the pairing. I want to try the Taccia ink.

Lovely pairings! I'm curious about the OB nib on the 823. Is that a custom grind?

I am so sad about your Magna Carta! Hope it can get fixed. And thank you for always sharing your thoughts. Your excitement as well as your thorough explanations are so helpful!

love the Benu pink pen for sure and also the 823

Enjoy hearing your thoughts on your pens! With you on wet saturated in my my Sailors!

Rule #1 when handing someone a very flexible nib ... "ask them if they are a calligrapher ? then if they say yes ask them if they could give you a demonstration with thier pens see how they use their pen and if you can tell that they know how to glide their nib around the page without putting any pressure you might e able to trust them with your pen. I am a calligrapher and I tell people " its very soft be careful .. its VERY SOFT be careful ITS VERY SOFT BE CAREFUL !!!! " before I will even hand any of my gold nibs to people because of this exact reason I'm afraid they will crank down on it and break the tines I had one nice gold nib and it go sprung so I fixed it myself with a little heat and some gentle bending back into place and then I put it in my victorian dip nib holder and it lives here on my desk never being used ;(

I have never heard about a TWSBI drying out. Shocked 😮. Must be the ink. The nib on my 580 has a truly unique feedback. The nib practically sings. But I find it very pleasurable. I have used it with standard inks, plus loads of shimmer and it was amazing. The 580 nib is a tad drier than the Eco. I agree with you about lighter drier inks. Not my favourite. Really sorry about that Magna Carta. That’s a bummer, especially when it didn’t happen with you.

These videos have convinced me I need to pay attention to my pen and ink pairings a little more. I had some blah months this year.

Love hearing the joy and excitement in your voice when you love a pen , ink or their pairing ❤

I never gravitate to green pens and yet I find your Urushi studios India so captivating. I love the idea of Hanging Rice in the Arlecchino, I put Pelikan brilliant brown in a pen I own with similar material and never considered a green.

Hi I'm so glad that I found your channel. Your collection is gorgeous. I also have the Scribo on that you have, I got mine with a fine 14k with a cursive grind which is fun and inspired by vintage nibs. I'm wondering which if you have had any issues with pen storage staining any of your pens? I have been worried about what to use since some of my lighter coloured fountain pens got stained from a pen storage case.

Your excitement about this pen is infectious! For the record, Diamine Pink is a great match, and I have some you could have a sample of. :)

You definitely have a type with FC and they all look fantastic. I'm so glad you got the P20 in a resin that vibes with you.

Wow this pen is stunning! This is seriously going on my wishlist because I think I’d be just as excited to open this up 😂 I love your F-C collection! Perfectly curated

I’m so disappointed that you weren’t clear on how you felt about the grey paper…just kidding. Need. Also now I want to play with Sailor South Carolina.

I share your enthusiasm for Franklin Christoph pens and am building my collection, too. Since this is a pocket pen, did you ink it by filling a spent cartridge? I love pocket pens, but the downside for me is that bottled ink isn't as easy to use in them.

What's up Kristen! 0:56 - I love Franklin Christoph. I have my eye on a pen right now. But this over the top "OH MY GOSH" stuff is gonna make me buy one. Pretty please, no penabling til 2025. 😜Franklin C nibs always work right out the box don't they? 💜

Yay! I’ve been eyeing this pen for ages too. Have a feeling I’ll keep gradually adding FCs to the collection until I have one of each nib 🙃

Yep they are lovely!

Omg this is the CUTEST collection! I love your enthusiasm! The p20 in Salmon Glow was my first FC, it now has an EF SIG nib on it and is one of my favourite writer. I had two other FCs but I moved them out of my collection and then bought...another Salmon Glow! This time the model 55 with a #5 Fine SIG nib, lovely and bouncy! I have Montblanc's Pop Pink in my p20 :)

The last pen on my list is a FC Model 02. Just waiting for a new color to grab me.

Your happiness and joy is making me smile this morning. Thanks for sharing this!

Yay pen triplets with Shauna! I love mine so much!

You need at least one more of those pens. In orange, so you have the rainbow (counting salmon glow as the red).

Yay! Pen twins! I just inked mine up with Octopus Fluids Fairy. I usually do Kosumosu. I bought the big bottle just for that pen!

What a beautiful pen and it's 'cousins'! I wanted you to know I got my Iroful paper in the mail the other day and I love it! Thank you for reviewing it. I think I will use it for letter writing, which I intend to start doing much more often. 💗

I recently got the FC Model 19 in Sweet Maroon - it's a big pen and I love love it

I love this color. I have a F-C model 45 in this color. And I have a different F-C with a Nagahara Medium C I. Love them both. The Nagahara Stub grinds are also great.