Ferris Wheel Press – SusieG Studio

My Two Black Fountain Pen Inky Colors

I found this blog post in my drafts folder from late last year and I forgot to share it. I thought I would go ahead and publish it for those of you who were curious about these limited edition ink colors.

There were two inks I received back in June of last year. I wrote a blog post for each ink color and forgot to show writing samples and swatches together.

I currently have two pens (GO with Medium nib) inked with each color. I’ve been writing with these pens for a few days and wanted to share some of the writing and sketching experiences while using these two black ink colors.

At first, one would think a black ink is basically a black ink color. True. For me, it’s much more than the basic black color. These two inks have their own unique personalities and I like each of them for what they show on paper.

SHOGUN

Let’s start with my first black ink called Shogun. The base color of this ink is a true neutral black ink color. When I say neutral, it does no possess any other underlying color(s) other than black or dark gray.

When I applied water to this ink, the underlying color I saw is a neutral gray color. I really enjoyed this neutral ink’s personality/characteristic. It’s a lovely and subtle black ink color.

Sheen: There is a slight dark sheen in this ink. It’s not noticeable in regular writing, but I can see it in my swatch.

Shading: There’s not much shading that I can see in this ink and from my writing samples.

Shimmers: The shimmers at first appear to be pink. When I look at the shimmers in the bottle it appears to be more rose gold or coppery-like. It’s a gorgeous shimmery color.

PATINA ROARING BLACK

This beautiful ink appeared on my radar because of the swatches I saw on social media. Since I was in a black inky mood, I thought I would give this ink a try. If some of you have been following me for a few years, you know that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with some of the earlier FWP inky colors that were too light in color to write with and also too dry to sketch with.

This particular inky color changed my mind about FWP. My swatch showed quite a bit of personality for a black ink. It showed a lovely blue underlying color along with golden shimmers. My swatch also showed a lovely robust red sheen. Oh and who could not resist the cute perfume-looking bottle?

Sheen: A bright and lovely red sheen can be seen on my swatch.

Shading: There’s not much shading that I can see in this ink and from my writing samples.

Shimmers: This ink has golden shimmers.

If I looked straight on at the writing sample I did with both inks, they looked very similar in color. The only way I could tell them apart was when I used my water brush and painted over the lines. Shogun has a neutral gray underlying color while Patina Roaring Black has a lovely blue color.

Shogun (top) and Roaring Patina Black (bottom)

I just realized that FWP Patina Roaring Black has been sold out. That makes sense since that was a limited edition ink. A very nice and very similar inky replacement would be Diamine Tempest which comes in a 50ml bottle. Tempest is actually a dark blue ink with golden shimmers with a slight and subtle pinkish sheen. It’s not an exact match, but fairly close.

Inks: Jacques Herbin Shogun. Ferris Wheel Press Patina Roaring Black. Diamine Tempest (Red Inkvent Calendar)

Pens: TWSBI GOs with Medium nibs. Lamy Al-Star Marron with Fine nib.

Journal: GLP Creations The Author Tomoe River Paper 68gsm

Day 18: My Olive Green Swatches

Today’s Diamine Inkvent color is Olive Swirl. This is another chameleon ink with some green-gold-pink shimmers. From the online swatch samples there appears to be a dark brown sheen as well.

The bottom of T’s bottle shows off the shimmering colors of green, gold, and pink. Absolutely gorgeous!

Olive green is one of my favorite ink colors to use for journal writing and for my sketches. Naturally, I have too many swatches to show in a single picture. It would have been overwhelming to show the different variations of this earthy color.

I ended up selecting a few that represents a good range of personalities. Tea Time and Saguaro Green are very close colors, but slightly different from this angled view.

Brane and Prairie Green are shimmering inks.

It’s interesting to see how different and unique an olive green ink color can be.

Brane and Prairie Green are my favorite green shimmering ink colors. Brane has green and blue metallic shimmers. Prairie Green has gold and copper-like shimmers.

I would definitely add Olive Swirl with all it’s shimmering trio of colors to the top of my wish list.

Ink swatches: Colorverse Brane (shimmer). KWZ Ink/Galen Leather Prairie Green (shimmer). Ferris Wheel Press Peter Moss. Vista Inks Leyte. Robert Oster Tea Time and Saguaro Green.

Pausing for Station Identification: Most of My Swatch Cards

Today is day 3 of the Diamine inky calendar. I’m pausing my blog as I need to spend some time tackling today’s unique chameleon inky color and find some decent matches from my collection.

Speaking of my swatch collection, I wanted to share with my readers what I look at when I typically see a color I’m interested in. Do I have this particular color in my collection? For example, for the first few weeks of December what swatches come close to the daily colors I see. What is the base color? What are the underlying colors? Is there any sheen and how much? If it’s a shimmering, what color(s) do I see?

I process a lot of color information in my head and as a watercolor artist who enjoys mixing paint colors, I tend to see a range of colors that an average person may not see or recognize at first. Okay, let’s get back to my blog post on swatch cards.

I create and keep swatches of the many bottles of inks I have in my collection. The pictures in this blog post does not include the sample ink vials I also have. Awhile back, I’ve stopped swatching the many vials of ink as they were a waste of time for me and resources. If the color did not appeal to me, why create a swatch card?

Let me introduce to you to my largest swatch collection on a rather large binder ring. Here is my Robert Oster Signature swatch ring.

Yes, I am a big fan of Robert Oster inky colors. I’ve lost count on the number of bottles I have. I’ve probably used half of his colors in one of my many pen & ink wash sketches. My RO shimmering colors are at the front of my ring (upper right) and stop at the white Col-o-ring card. This rather large collection is organized by colors. I enjoy using these inks for writing in my journals and for my pen & ink washes on a variety of art paper.

My next largest binder ring is a collection that contains several of my favorite inky manufacturers. This ring is organized by ink manufacturers and colors. This ring includes Birmingham, Colorverse, Diamine, Jacques Herbin, Platinum, Private Reserve, Rohrer & Klingner, Sailor, Taccia, Van Dieman’s Ink, and Vinta Inks. These are the inks I would use for both writing and sketching in my journals and art papers.

My next largest ring contains a smattering of bottles of inks I have, but may not use the ink on a regular basis. Many bottles/colors end up on this ring which I would use for writing in my journals and not necessary use in my inky sketches. This ring is organized by ink manufacturer and color.

Here’s is my swatch family together.

I do have smaller rings of swatch cards. For example I keep all my Red Inkvent swatch cards on a smaller 1″ binder ring. I keep a small ring for my shimmering inks organized by color. That ring includes shimmering inks from various ink manufacturers. My Anderillium test swatches are still in its own ring.

When I have a few minutes later today I’ll try to remember to capture pictures of the other smaller rings I have and update this blog post.

In the meantime, I need to pull out my swatch cards for today’s chameleon inky color.

Workshop Prompt – Shapes

In my workshops we created basic shapes for our warm up exercises. To activate our muscle memory. Our shapes will look flat which is okay for our warm up exercises.

Remember: no “death grips” and try to move your arm while sketching instead of just using your hand. I mentioned in my handout that if you just use your hand, you will start to feel some tightness in your grip and you may feel a cramp starting to develop in your hand. Remember to relax while you sketch.

Many of you wanted to see more of my sketches, my layouts, and my writing. Here is the most recent sketch I created while I was sitting at my studio desk. I had gathered round objects to create my two page spread.

Notice the cast shadows and the colors I used under my objects

Here are a few of my objects that I used in my sketches. This view is looking top down and off to the side.

Here I have my objects lined up on my desk with a side view of my inky bottles. Sorry my lovely miniature vase was too round to sit sideways.

My challenge is for you to look through your inky bottle collection. Pick out three (3) bottles of your favorite ink brands and try sketching them from the top down view and then from the side view (if possible).

Use your pencil to create the outline first and then sketch what details you like. Do not erase until you have all the lines created (good & bad). Take your permanent pen and redraw the lines you want to keep. Go back and erase the bad lines.

Use your fountain pens and inks to create your washes. Remember to keep the white of your paper to represent the highlights on your objects. If you need to make certain areas of your object darker, make sure your first layer is dry before adding more color to your object.

Most important thing to remember is have fun!

If you have any questions, you know where to find me. 😊

Follow the Butterfly

Here’s a sketch I’m working on today. This is a work in progress. I have to remind myself not to get caught up in the details and sketch loosely.

Pens: TWSBI GO with Stub 1.1 nib. TWSBI Swipe with Stub 1.1 nib. Lamy Vista Black SE with Cursive nib. Lamy Al Star Ballpoint pen.

Inks: Robert Oster Heart of Gold. Colorverse Brane. Jacques Herbin Shogun. Ferris Wheel Press Roaring Patina Black. Diamine Frosted Orchid, Pink Ice, and Starlit Sea.

Journal: Stillman & Birn Alpha Softbound A5

FWP Roaring Patina Black

For the last three years, I’ve been collecting fountain pen inks in every imaginable color except for black. Let me clarify and say except for the Platinum Carbon ink which is a permanent ink color. I’m talking about dye based inks.

I saw a few swatches and writing samples on my social media feed and fell for this black shimmering ink color from Ferris Wheel Press. I saw lots of golden shimmers and a bright red sheen. In the back of my mind, there was something familiar about this ink color that I could not put my finger on.

My inky swatch completely dry. Lots of sheen and shimmer!

I was patiently waiting two weeks for my Ferris Wheel Press ink to arrive. It was in stock and I was hoping to get it within 2-3 days after placing my order. Well, my online retailer had other plans and decided to hold my order until a few items I needed came back in stock. Seven days later, my package shipped. It made it’s way up the west coast and spent a lovely day in Anchorage, Alaska. Thank goodness someone saw it was going in the wrong direction and redirected my package. It took a few days to arrive at my local distribution area.

Once this nicely packaged bottle of ink arrived in my studio, I quickly created a swatch. While the ink was drying on my card, I could see swirls of gold sparkles. The red sheen appeared after my swatch started to dry. Oh my, this was so familiar. Then it hit me! I quickly flipped through my shimmering ink swatches and found another swatch sample that matched this Patina Roaring Black ink color. Personally, I think Diamine Tempest is closer to a blue black ink color.

If you remember from previous posts, I enjoyed Diamine Tempest so much that I placed it high on my wishlist to get a larger bottle. I can honestly say the two colors, Patina Roaring Black and Tempest, look exactly alike. It has the same golden shimmering particles. They both have a red sheen. This red sheen can be a bit deceiving as I can also see a lovely pink sheen at most angles. That includes both swatches. It could be the result of combining a red sheen and gold shimmer in the same ink.

I decided to add another swatch, Shogun, to the mix.

I’m happy I trusted my gut instinct and purchased my Shogun before Roaring Patina Black. Shogun is a beautiful black shimmering ink color and it’s been a joy to write and sketch with.

I need to fill one of my pens with Roaring Patina Black and spend a few days writing and sketching with this lovely ink color. I will post any new updates and findings on this blog post.

Inks: Ferris Wheel Press Roaring Patina Black. Diamine Tempest (Red Inkvent). Jacques Herbin Shogun.

More Ink Swatches – Ferris Wheel Press

I first came across Ferris Wheel Press (FWP) when I was looking at their beautifully designed round bottles with a brass lug nut cap. A small number of their inks were available at a few online shops and selling fast. I managed to get a bottle of their stunning teal ink called Bluegrass Velvet.

Impressive packaging for a bottle of ink

Their round bottles of ink and packaging are quite unusual. A lot of thought went into their design including their FWP fonts and logos. Branding is important to them. It brings to my mind quality, upscale, uniqueness, durability, and desire. That is desire to have a bottle on my desk.

The caps on their bottles are made of brass. I actually enjoy opening a bottle of their ink. Even with my joint issues, it’s easy to wrap my fingers around the lug nut shape and twist.

Sometime last year, I came across the Ferris Wheel Press kickstarter campaign #2. It was my first time involved with a kickstarter and FWP provided wonderful information about their process, what products would be available, how to order, and a brief timeline on when their products would be shipping. They included in their kickstarter smaller bottles of ink and a new set of colors.

Three months past their target ship date, my order finally arrived in late Fall.

My inks arrived in a large shipping box with very little cushion

The smaller bottles are beautiful, but I was a bit underwhelmed with half of the colors I chose. I suppose it did not help that I received my new inks in the late Fall season while I was into the darker ink colors as well as shimmering inks.

The FWP bottle designs are beautiful and look gorgeous sitting on my desk

Now that we are into the Spring season, I decided to revisit the ink colors by swatching them in my ink journal.

I had a fear to knocking the flat round ink jars over on my desk while swatching. I found an extra glass jar that I used to clean my fountain pens. The FWP bottle fits nice and snug into the paper towels bunched up in the my jar.

A silicone disc keeps the ink in the bottle and the cap clean. Clever!

The flat round bottles have a label on one side with the name of the ink color

As I was swatching my ink colors, I started to change my mind about the FWP ink colors I had selected. The colors I thought were underwhelming, started to grow on me. That was a good sign!

I’m still on the fence with two colors: Definitely Peachy and Lady Rose. I should use them in my pen and ink sketches and see if I change my mind.

Bluegrass Velvet is still my favorite within the FWP ink colors and followed closely with Double Raspberry, Pink Eraser, Jelly Bean Blue, Mirror Mirror of Moraine, and Three Steamboats.

Some sheen appears in the two ink colors

Looks like it will be a great time to pull out my empty TWSBI GOs and fill them with my FWP inks. So far from my swatching, they look like they would do well as ink washes.

As part of the kickstarter campaign, they offered a special edition shimmering ink.

Timeless Blue is a deep dark blue ink color. It’s darker than Jelly Bean Blue.

During the open weeks of their kickstarter campaign, I changed my ink color selections. I trusted my gut instinct and decided against a few colors that appeared unsaturated and extremely light ink colors. I’m happy that I selected a good range of colors. Even the two I’m still on the fence with.

Unfortunately, I have no plans on taking part of future kickstarters with FWP. There were a few issues and decisions they made along the way after the campaign ended and while I was waiting for my inks. For me, the way they handled it gave me some bad vibes.

I would definitely purchase another FWP bottle of ink as long as the color was vibrant and saturated. If their “charger set” is available, I would recommend starting out with their glass vials of inks to see if the colors or ink appeals to you.

Pen: Glass dipped pen and automatic pen

Inks: Ferris Wheel Press

Journal: Stalogy 365