Bring on the Sheen
When Colorverse began to tease their Season 8 inks back in late January, I knew at least one was going to make it into my collection. Bow Shock and Intense Magnetic Field were a set that needed to be mine. I’m also intrigued by a few of the others, but I’m more interested in getting samples to try first. Bow Shock, though, insta-buy as soon as it was available at Atlas Stationers.
Despite how excited I was for it, I did try to talk myself out of it. After my ink buying party of last year I am trying to be very conscientious about what is coming into the collection. After all, Coloverse Season 8 release doesn’t meet my guideline of limited edition or special release. Yet, I’d been good so far this year and revisited quite a few of my old inks, so I decided to splurge and support one of my favorite ink companies. And while anxiously awaiting its arrival, I visited with some of my other favorite sheening blues.
I can’t remember where I heard it originally, but I’ve heard the sentiment of “seen one blue sheener and you’ve seen them all” float around every now and again in the stationery hobby space. My first experience with a sheening ink was the famous/infamous Organic Studios Nitrogen which quickly gained a reputation for being a mess. I know with my bottle it was a process of making sure it was perfectly over the sink when I unscrewed the cap, otherwise blue ink flakes would appear in strange places. I don’t have it in my collection anymore, but it was a lovely bright blue with monster pink sheen. I feel like that ink ushered in a world of sheening inks (it wasn’t the first, but there was a lot of hype around it) and I’m very fond of them.
Bow Shock on top and SM1 below.
Sheening inks do take a little bit more experience than a standard ink. Paper matters to get the effect and its often useful to have some blotter paper around if writing quickly. If you let the nib get too dry you can get crusty particles that will revive as soon as they touch anything remotely damp leading to inky fingers when it is least expected. However, for me, none of those are reason enough to steer clear of an ink category that I love seeing on the page.
When comparing ink swatches, I used Colorverse swatch cards (seemed appropriate since I was showing off my favorite Colorverse blues) which are available from many different retailers such as Vanness Pens and Goulet Pens. These cards have a white embossed pattern that is revealed when the ink is applied.
Top: Colorverse Stars and Stripes, Middle (L to R): Extreme Deep Field, Bow Shock, Supernova, Bottom (L to R): SM1, Quasar
As of this time, I have six Colorverse blue sheening inks, including Bow Shock. Here are a few of my observations:
On first impression, Bow Shock landed in between Supernova and Stars and Stripes for the blue tone. Supernova is lighter and Stars and Stripes has more of a purple undertone. All three share the pink sheen, and Bow Shock has the most.
Extreme Deep Field Field has a deep black-teal undertone with a dark red sheen. SM1 is almost a denim blue underneath its red sheen. They are both brooding colors and so much fun to use.
Quasar is much more blurple than any of the others and has a more golden sheen, than pink. It still feels like a very unique color in my collection. I don’t think I have any all that close.
Looking at them side by side, I am very happy that I have each of these and Bow Shock was a great addition. They are all a little bit different. Blue inks are such a fun color category in my opinion because there are so many different kinds of blue.
For fun, I wanted to compare Bow Shock to a few other sheening blue inks in my collection. I do have others, but these were the first five that I grabbed.
Top: Diamine Polar Glow, Midnight Hour, Jack Frost, Arctic Blast. Middle: Colorverse Bow Shock. Bottom: Wearingeul Wicked Witch
Wearingeul Wicked Witch is much darker, although it definitely has almost as much sheen. It’s sheen is a very dark red which looks black under certain lights.
Diamine Polar Glow is very similar to Colorverse Supernova.
Diamine Midnight Hour is one of my favorite blue-black inks in my collection, it has a dark red sheen and it just pops on so many different types of colors.
Diamine Jack Frost and Diamine Arctic Blast both include shimmer with their sheen. Jack Frost is close to Polar Glow and Supernova, and Arctic Blast is close to Bow Shock which makes me happy because I was looking for an ink that was the blue undertone of Arctic Blast but no shimmer for those times I don’t want to deal with the fuss that shimmer can be.
I would highly recommend Diamine sheening inks as a place to start exploring. They have a ton of different options.
Overall, I am excited to see ink companies to continue experimenting with sheen and other properties. Beyond blue sheens I love seeing sheening properties on black, brown, and purple inks.
Currently Inked
Colorverse Bow Shock - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M ‘journaler’ - Refilled this ink right before working on this post. Very enjoyable ink. Can be a little bit of a slow dryer on some papers, but a piece of blotting paper when I’m writing quick comes in handy. The sheen shows up on most papers.
Colorverse Intense Magnetic Field - Kaweco liliput copper 14K M ‘selvedge’ - This is the partner ink in the pack with Bow Shock. A lovely deep red with a little bit of black sheen of its own. I’ve been using Bow Shock for everything this past week, so this one hasn’t gotten much play yet. It’s showing up more burgundy in the photo, but it leans more dark red to my eye in person.
Ferris Wheel Press The Sad Charade - Kaweco Art Sport Terrazzo M stub - I’m going to call this ink a shading teal. On some papers it looks more blue and on others more green. Very pretty and belongs to the same set of inks as Harlequin Dream and The Sherry Sonata. A great set.
Ferris Wheel Press Madam Mulberry - Kaweco Sport Dark Olive BB - I was being ambitious with this ink at the end of last week by putting it in my Kaweco “inkball” rollerball. They did not get along in the slightest so into one of my beloved BB nibs it went. More purple on some papers and more gray on others. An elegant and soft option.
Kiwi Inks Jasmine - Kaweco Sport Deep Red BB - I moved this ink out of my copper liliput when my new inks came in. It looks pretty good in this wide and wet nib.