jackokun
May 11th, 2016, 03:46 PM
Last week I was fortunate enough to be down in New Orleans or a conference, during the times that we were not in the conference we wondered around the city and I decided to look for any local stationery stores - Of course , what else would you do on your free time ;) - I stumbled upon Papier Plume.
I have read about the store before, mostly on having a great selection on Rebecca moss pens , but as many things, it got stored in the back of my mind , way back. So by the time I got to the store, I had no expectations. As always when I go to a store, i like to buy something to remember the trip by, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had their own make of inks. Frankly by the time I got to the store it was almost closing time and I wanted to get some of their inks and I feel I as rushing it. So I decided to wait until the next day (and also bring some cash with me ) and I left not without looking at some incredible Wahl- Eversharp.... :focus: that night some serious web search went on inks reviews - found some , not many, but found some - and made my list
Next day, with enough time and cash in my hands, I went back to the store, I had met the owner the day before, Patrick, who recognized me when I came back and helped me getting a good selection of their inks based on my list. The surprise came towards the end when he offered me to try one of the 4 new inks that they will be bringing up - Street Car Green. So of course I jumped to the opportunity. I also had the pleasure to meet Renso too, who takes care of all the online activities, both great people.
Overall I had an incredible experience and I highly recommend if you are down in NOLA to visit the store or try out some of their inks, the owners and everyone of their staff is welcoming and very knowledgeable of the products they offer in the store. I'm very happy to have some of their inks in my collection.
So, here is a humble review, I wanted to do one for a while and I thought this would be the perfect one to start with.
Street Car Green (or as I call it SCG) - is a green/black that goes on the lighter side , I would even say a green/grey. It goes down light on paper and darkens a little when it dries. It also provides a great amount of shading. When talking about the ink with Patrick and Renso, the idea behind the new ink names and colors derives from the actual city of New Orleans. The colors are meant to represent unique parts of city, in the hopes that the color helps you take home a memory from New Orleans with you. Great Idea!
One thing I didn't had, from my dozens of random pictures from the trip, was a picture of a Street Car... I had one but, it was a red car. After a quick search, this is what a GREEN street car looks like.
24641
The ink comes in three presentations .5, 1, 2 Oz. Each will come on its own bottle and the bottles are different depending on the capacity. I have the 1 Oz and it looks like this:
24646
A swab of the ink would look like this on the nemosyne cards:
24645
Here is the overview on SCG:
24644
Flow: Flow is really good, feels like you are using water, which is something to say since the ink has some waterproof properties.
Dry Times: In terms of dry times 15-20 seconds on clairefountaine and even faster on tomoe river.
Ink-comparison: Inks that I found to be in the similar hue were Franklin Christoph - Loden and Noodlers Zhivago, Zhivago being the darkest and SCG the lighter one.
Saturation: Saturation I found it to be on the medium side, and that is reflected on how he shading shows. On a wet nib it shows really well, but if you have a EF eastern type nib or a dry nib, you might find the ink to be on the lighter side.
Sheen; Not on this one, even when using a full drop of ink on paper.
Feathering: None that I saw
Bleed-through: None seen
Show-through: There is some slight, very slight show through,you could probably say there is none, unless you are really really looking for it.
Pooling: This is not the shading but more on the pooling on the edges of the letters, I enjoy when the inks provide this, but this one doesn't have that.
Here is a quick sketch of a Street car using the SCG ink
24647
Here is some cursive and block writing - work in progress - Scans are also a work in progress ha!
2465324654
Opinion: SCG is unique on its own accord, while it is not as dark as Zhivago or even Loden (didn't had Diamine salamander to compare), it provides a fair amount of shading with good dry times and no smearing including some waterproof properties. It is a muted green that can be used at the workplace and it is pleasant to read. I currently have it on a wet medium nib and I intend using it as part of my rotation.
And Finally Patrick and Renso, Patrick is the one the left.
24643
You can see what other goodies they have at
http://www.papierplume.com
I look forward to see what other inks they come up with, from my conversation they have the red and blue covered, so that leaves one TBD, maybe a yellow? Orange? who knows!
And in case anyone is wondering, I also got Caramel, Oyster Grey, Midnight Blue, Moss Green and Peacock Blue :D
I have read about the store before, mostly on having a great selection on Rebecca moss pens , but as many things, it got stored in the back of my mind , way back. So by the time I got to the store, I had no expectations. As always when I go to a store, i like to buy something to remember the trip by, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had their own make of inks. Frankly by the time I got to the store it was almost closing time and I wanted to get some of their inks and I feel I as rushing it. So I decided to wait until the next day (and also bring some cash with me ) and I left not without looking at some incredible Wahl- Eversharp.... :focus: that night some serious web search went on inks reviews - found some , not many, but found some - and made my list
Next day, with enough time and cash in my hands, I went back to the store, I had met the owner the day before, Patrick, who recognized me when I came back and helped me getting a good selection of their inks based on my list. The surprise came towards the end when he offered me to try one of the 4 new inks that they will be bringing up - Street Car Green. So of course I jumped to the opportunity. I also had the pleasure to meet Renso too, who takes care of all the online activities, both great people.
Overall I had an incredible experience and I highly recommend if you are down in NOLA to visit the store or try out some of their inks, the owners and everyone of their staff is welcoming and very knowledgeable of the products they offer in the store. I'm very happy to have some of their inks in my collection.
So, here is a humble review, I wanted to do one for a while and I thought this would be the perfect one to start with.
Street Car Green (or as I call it SCG) - is a green/black that goes on the lighter side , I would even say a green/grey. It goes down light on paper and darkens a little when it dries. It also provides a great amount of shading. When talking about the ink with Patrick and Renso, the idea behind the new ink names and colors derives from the actual city of New Orleans. The colors are meant to represent unique parts of city, in the hopes that the color helps you take home a memory from New Orleans with you. Great Idea!
One thing I didn't had, from my dozens of random pictures from the trip, was a picture of a Street Car... I had one but, it was a red car. After a quick search, this is what a GREEN street car looks like.
24641
The ink comes in three presentations .5, 1, 2 Oz. Each will come on its own bottle and the bottles are different depending on the capacity. I have the 1 Oz and it looks like this:
24646
A swab of the ink would look like this on the nemosyne cards:
24645
Here is the overview on SCG:
24644
Flow: Flow is really good, feels like you are using water, which is something to say since the ink has some waterproof properties.
Dry Times: In terms of dry times 15-20 seconds on clairefountaine and even faster on tomoe river.
Ink-comparison: Inks that I found to be in the similar hue were Franklin Christoph - Loden and Noodlers Zhivago, Zhivago being the darkest and SCG the lighter one.
Saturation: Saturation I found it to be on the medium side, and that is reflected on how he shading shows. On a wet nib it shows really well, but if you have a EF eastern type nib or a dry nib, you might find the ink to be on the lighter side.
Sheen; Not on this one, even when using a full drop of ink on paper.
Feathering: None that I saw
Bleed-through: None seen
Show-through: There is some slight, very slight show through,you could probably say there is none, unless you are really really looking for it.
Pooling: This is not the shading but more on the pooling on the edges of the letters, I enjoy when the inks provide this, but this one doesn't have that.
Here is a quick sketch of a Street car using the SCG ink
24647
Here is some cursive and block writing - work in progress - Scans are also a work in progress ha!
2465324654
Opinion: SCG is unique on its own accord, while it is not as dark as Zhivago or even Loden (didn't had Diamine salamander to compare), it provides a fair amount of shading with good dry times and no smearing including some waterproof properties. It is a muted green that can be used at the workplace and it is pleasant to read. I currently have it on a wet medium nib and I intend using it as part of my rotation.
And Finally Patrick and Renso, Patrick is the one the left.
24643
You can see what other goodies they have at
http://www.papierplume.com
I look forward to see what other inks they come up with, from my conversation they have the red and blue covered, so that leaves one TBD, maybe a yellow? Orange? who knows!
And in case anyone is wondering, I also got Caramel, Oyster Grey, Midnight Blue, Moss Green and Peacock Blue :D