Fancy Pen: Ellington Pens Midnight Rose
Disclosure: I received this pen from Ellington Pens in exchange for an honest review.
I’ll admit that when Ellington Pens reached out to me to ask if I would review one of their pens, I’d never heard of them. However, I figured it was worth a shot.
Opening the pen feels like opening a present. There is an outer box with the name of the brand and inside is a black pen box very reminiscent of a jewelry box. Upon opening the box, I got my first look at the pen and I was impressed. I was sent their Midnight Rose pen in F. This pen has a black body with rose gold accents, including the nib. The pen comes with a converter or a pack of three cartridges (two black and one blue) so it’s very easy to get it going. The pen is weighty and the cap comes off with a pull. For me, I found it most comfortable to write with the cap off, but it is possible to post it. The pen body is prone to fingerprints, that doesn’t bother me at all, but I know it can be a problem for others.
Something to note, the converter and cartridge do not appear to be standard international. Top is an empty Kaweco standard international short, bottom is the black Ellington Pens cartridge. Not a huge deal because the pen also comes with a converter, but something to keep in mind if someone wants to primarily use cartridges.
The nib proved to be smooth right out of the box. I chose to ink it with Diamine Candlelight because a.) I wanted a yellow to write with. and b.) I’ve used this ink a lot so I will have a better idea if anything weird is the nib or ink. The ink flowed smoothly, and despite the thinness of the nib it is wet enough to allow this ink to shade.
My overall impression of the pen is that it invokes a feeling of elegance and old-school status. It reminds me a lot of a fancy ballpoint that one of my advisors got me when I finished my Master’s thesis. It has “fancy pen” energy and looks like it will hold up. I threw it in a pen bag where it bounced around for about two weeks and handed it around at a fountain pen workshop I was hosting (ie. I let total newbies play with it and nothing went wrong). I wrote the converter dry. Never had any trouble with it and it was pleasant to write with on a variety of papers.
Quick size comparison with other pens I had on my desk L to R: Esterbrook JR, Ellington Pens, Kaweco Sport, Ferris Wheel Press Bijou, Ferris Wheel Press Carousel.
I think this would be a great gift pen for someone who wants to get into “fancy pens”, but may get turned off by more modern looking ones. This pen is simple enough for a beginner, and has a lot more gravitas than something like a TWSBI Eco (standard $29 or $55 for alternate finishes), Lamy Safari ($37), or Lamy AL Star ($47). It’s pretty close to price with those as well, this particular model is currently listed at $49.95. Another plus for me is that it’s ready to go as a gift. Put a bow on it or some wrapping paper and it is ready for “pen-abling” unsuspecting friends and family. There is even a QR code on the box that takes you to an instruction page with video tutorials. This would have gotten me very interested in the hobby when I was starting out.
Ellington Pens is offering 15% off with my code DIME15OFF. Thanks to Ellington Pens for sending me their pen to try out!
Currently Inked
Heavy on the FWP inks this week.
Ferris Wheel Press Astral Blue Odyssey - Kaweco liliput copper B ‘imperial’ - I had a Ferris Wheel Press coupon so I decided to grab a few more of their new releases (plus Grape Ice Pop which was on clearance). This ink is bright blue with some pink sheen and rose gold shimmer. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but how deep the blue is was not it. Not to say that it isn’t pretty. It’s actually flows really well for a FWP shimmer (I often have to add a little ink additive to the standard lineup) and I have a feeling it will grow on me. I may give it a go in a different nib to see if that changes it up.
Ferris Wheel Press x Lord of the Rings Dawning Silver - Kaweco liliput fireblue M - I knew I was going to end up with the whole LOTR set. When I was a teen I was a HUGE LOTR nerd. I’d read the books leading up to the Newline Cinema movies coming out and went to midnight showings. My high school best friend and I developed our own Elvish adjacent code that we wrote notes to each other in. I hemmed and hawed about whether I should just go for the big bottles or get the smaller ones and I decided to go with the 10 mL “ink pot” versions for this one and Verdant Voyage. And I may still get the big ones… these inks are great and the packaging is nerd shelf display worthy. Dawning Silver is the “Gandalf” ink and it is a cool tone gray with silver shimmer. Very fun.
Ferris Wheel Press Skies of Uproar - FWP Bijou Captain Earl Greyson M - Still working through this one. This blue is really growing on me. I want to try it out in a BB at some point since I think that will show it off even better.
Ferris Wheel Press x Lord of the Rings Verdant Voyage - FWP Carousel Beanstalk M - I almost didn’t get this one and that would have been a mistake. FWP did it again with this green (a color that I used to not like). This one is inspired by the Shire with a rich yellow-green as the base color with gold shimmer (for the One Ring of course). It’s really stunning, especially when light catches the gold. Loving it.
Colorverse Sky-tinted Waters - Esterbrook JR Paradise Purple B - Still working through this one too from inking it up to let some of my workshop attendees try it. Still love the shading in this guy.
Ferris Wheel Press Starlit Stories - FWP Carousel Granite Guardians M - This was another ink that I put in a pen for my workshop attendees to play with. I also wanted to compare it to the new FWP Embers of Time ink (they look nothing alike, don’t know why I thought they were similar - Embers is gray and red shimmer, while this is dark blue and purple shimmer). This combo is really interesting and I’m still not quite sure its working for me as a color scheme. Ink works great though, flowing well even after a few days of not messing around with it.