Penemuel talks about pens, and sometimes writing. But mostly pens.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Organics Studio - Edgar Allan Poe Raven Ink

I really want to love this ink. It's perfect for writing fic for the show I'm writing fic for right now. It's a lovely red colour. It has everything going for it, except I think I must have a bad batch.

When I fill a fresh pen with it, it works wonderfully. It writes smoothly, it has a rich colour, it has shading... But if I let that pen sit for a day - sometimes even if I let it sit for an hour or so, it seems to start drying up in the nib. After that I might be able to get it to write again, but it's scratchy and dry and the colour is just not the same, and I end up having to clean the whole pen and refill to get it to behave again.

And the pen (a Lamy Vista) I left at home while we were away on vacation ended up with the ink semi-congealed in the converter...

I haven't noted any SITB (stuff/slime/sh*t in the bottle), but there must be pigment settling, or something. Others who have used the same ink seem to have no trouble with it, so I do suspect it's just a bad batch, but it's very disappointing because I wanted to love this ink so much.


This was what it looked like trying to restart after the pen sat for a few days.



This is the Lamy Vista mentioned above... (Regarding the first picture, it stayed like that no matter how long I held it upright. It did wash out easily, though, so it wasn't solid.)

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Organics Studio's Edgar Allan Poe ink

Okay, we're just going to ignore the RIDICULOUSLY long time that I neglected this blog and move on...

I'm a fan of the FOX TV show The Following, which is about the FBI trying to track down a serial killer who has built a cult of followers and based his 'religion' on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. So when I stumbled across a review of Organics Studio Edgar Allan Poe "Raven Red" ink on another pen blog, I had to get it.

First, it's an ink made in Maryland, named after Poe. Second, it's a darker red, closer to a blood red shade. Perfect for using to write fanfic about The Following.

I bought the ink from isellpens.com and it arrived safe & sound (and quickly) yesterday. I haven't had a chance to really use the ink yet, but tested it with a glass pen (not the best for checking certain properties such as shading, drying time, etc. because it doesn't really give you a consistent ink flow) for colour.

I like it. A lot. I can't wait to empty out a cartridge for my Kaweco Sport Ice (my most often used writing pen because it's easy to carry in a pocket with a notebook) so I can ink it up with Raven Red and give it a try!

The photos below are not the best, since I took them with my iPhone in the kitchen. I've tried to correct them some in Photoshop, but this is a terrible monitor. Accuracy is iffy at best...

The bottle is a rather plain plastic bottle with a small (and somewhat blurry) label, not the fancy one shown on isellpens.com:




I am not affiliated with the creator of the ink or the store I purchased it from. This was not sent to me to review, I bought it myself.