Ink of the Week: Wearingeul The Raven

The winter sunlight was providing the right ambiance today and really brought out the shimmer.

As soon as Wearingeul announced that they were doing an ink inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven, I knew it was going to be mine. I’ve always loved this poem and have a few drafts of an adaptation drawing on the elements of the poem floating around somewhere. I was also cast as the raven in class when we read this in English. I was very shy as a kid, but at least my mind was easy - “Nevermore.”

When I first saw the swatches I was concerned that it was going to be super close to Wearingeul x Endless Pens The Black Cat, but I wanted it regardless. Over the past few years I have gathered a few different Wearingeul inks. They have really creative color combinations and the literature theming is on point even if it takes a moment to see it in some cases.

I chose The Raven to be my January header ink and I’ve been really enjoying it. The ink is a purple-black and purple/blue shimmer. Wearingeul describes the color like this:

The raven sits before the poet who cries for his lost love. Amid the echo of the repeated “Nevermore,” sorrow that cannot fade spreads in deep violet, while blue and violet glitters shimmer softly like the memories that will never disappear.

It’s listed as a “glistening” and “shading” ink, which is accurate to how it behaves in the italic nib that I’ve been using it in. It’s a little less notable in the writing sample, but I was doing that with a dip nib which is a lot wetter than the average fountain pen nib of the same size.

I was surprised by the lenticular label that shows the raven against a night sky when the bottle is tilted. I’ve seen these labels on some other Wearingeul inks, but I didn’t own any until now. It makes for a good display bottle on a shelf or even just sitting on my desk while I have it inked up (I like having the bottles I’m using on my desk in case I need to do a refill of the converter).

A fun mistake solving method is to cover it up - my initial spread didn’t go well on the left so I pulled out some fun Halloween PET tape from CoraCreaCrafts (this will be available in my Duluth shop when it opens) and a Life Bank Paper writing pad. Swatches are done on Tomoe River paper in an A6 Sterling Ink notebook.

I pulled out a few inks that were also in the purple-black/dark purple range. Diamine Deck the Halls is much more purple with copper shimmer. Wearingeul Hades is more black with blue shimmer (I have a sample of this one and now I really want to put it in a pen). Colorverse Chi-town is pretty close in the base color, but it has silver shimmer and a more pronounced golden sheen.

To my big question though, is it close to Wearingeul x Endless Pens The Black Cat?

The base color is very close, The Raven is more black than The Black Cat, but they are both very dark purples. If they weren’t right next to each other it would be hard to tell which is which without the shimmer. It’s the shimmer where they really stand apart, The Black Cat has a red/copper shimmer as opposed to the blue/violet of The Raven. I like them both, but if I didn’t already have The Black Cat, I would have felt compelled to get it after I got The Raven.

Right when I was getting to the end of making my swatches and taking pics the sun decided to become less cooperative. However, it did really bring out the bright shimmers in the three Wearingeul inks.

I do appreciate the small Edgar Allen Poe series of inks that Wearingeul has gotten going. They also have Annabel Lee, The Black Cat, and now The Raven. I would love to see their inky take on The Telltale Heart and/or The Fall of the House of Usher.

You can find this ink at most major ink retailers.