No plans, just fun for the holidays

School’s out, plans out. Am I right?

With holiday break beginning, I settled for a larger collection of eight inked pens. The solitary grey is a carryover TWSBI from last week. It’s a personal challenge to see this combo run empty. And with all the task management I anticipate, emptying the TWSBI mid-week a real possibility.

I added three blues and a purple/pink to the mix. I anticipate thank you cards, journaling, and drafting will take up most of my writing bandwidth this week. I split drafting between apps like Bear and analog handwriting. Fun blues may lead me to favor handwriting. Joy is important.

Also new: a holiday week without travel. And a holiday week without specific uses planned for each pen/ink combo. We’re going to see where the week takes me. Adventure time, ahoy.

Grey / black

TWSBI 580-ALR Prussian Blue (EF/M Hybrid Predator, by Nibgrinder). Monteverde Coal Noir. Bacas’ predator grind is perfect for managing tasks. The EF keeps my small writing clear and legible. The M reverse makes for quickly-added headings and cross-outs without getting too broad or wet. Coal Noir is dark, well-behaved, and dries quickly – even on Tomoe River. No complaints to be had.

Blue / teal

Sailor Pro Gear Slate Blue (Z Architect, by Custom Nib Studio). Robert Oster Bondi Blue. Another multitasker nib. The fiery sheen that shows periodically make writing with this combo a lot of fun. My long form journal entries tend to be a little longer when I use this pen. The reverse EF screams for marking drafts.

Franklin-Christoph 31 (M SIG). Thornton’s Turquoise. I am pleasantly surprised by the new-to-me Thornton’s ink. The packaging says their inks are made in Slovenia. Turquoise is similar to Monteverde’s Caribbean Blue, with mellower shading and sheen. Writes wet enough to stay smooth, even with such a sharp ground nib.

Pelikan m805 Stresemann Anthracite (F Cursive Italic, by Custom Nib Studio). Monteverde Caribbean Blue. This pen put down a wider, darker line than the similarly-inked F-C 31’s M SIG nib. On excellent coated paper, the combination writes smoothly and with fun sheening effects. On copy paper, this combo is a bleeder. The result is a bougie pairing, best reserved for the fanciest of papers.

Earth tones

Nakaya Neostandard Heki-tamenuri (B). J. Herbin Vert Empire. I’ve had this combination inked for over two weeks. I wasn’t able to use it seriously until last week, since I was working from home. I’m looking forward to journaling and possibly drafting with this duo. It’s a fun, shading-heavy pairing.

Wild cards [well, purples]

TWSBI Vac700R Iris (F CSI, by Pen Realm). Papier Plume Bootlegger’s Scarlet Letter. Finding a color that effectively balances being fun with feeling professional is an ongoing project. Scarlet Letter comes close in this wet feed. But this week is a holiday, so the pressure is off. This pen feels substantial. When I’m not carrying the Delike around, this pen is in my pocket.

Franklin-Christoph 45 Philly ’20 Special (B SIG). Robert Oster Barossa Gilt. Then there is this combination. The shading encouraged by this B SIG shows as a thin black halo around the outside edges of letters. I’m loving it, even if the gold shimmer sits outside of my comfort zone. I can see this ink working well for marking, in addition to letters and journaling.

Delike New Moon 2 Green (EF). Pilot Iroshizuku Yama Budo. I can’t offer enough compliments on my New Moon. It writes smoothly, with a F line — even though it’s nib claims the EF mantle. I’m turning to this combo for my pocket carry more and more often. Yama Budo is excellent for marking and annotating in a commonplace notebook.

All in the family

This week’s currently inked spread.