They are currently being processed. There are 5 blues, and 8 purple/plum/magenta A sampler is being made by Elaine (swab, medium nib, 2mm italic, and flex of each color) prior to distributing the rest to the other admins. Elaine will try her best to scan/photograph the sampler so that it is as true to color as possible.

Thank you, Admin Team!!! We appreciate your hard work.

Lisa

i like the third from the left and the far right.

Nice bottle collection, Elaine.

Scanning the purples will be a tough task.

Will the bottles come with that cool handwritten taped on label?

No, but they can be had that way as limited edition labels. I'll prepare one for you. The cost will only be $10 more. Where else can you get a limited edition for only $10 more than the rest?


Hmm, seriously though (sort of), we could auction off the original sample bottles. Empty of course.

Elaine,

You've probably thought of this, but if not, I'll throw it out there. If possible, could you use some well-known blue/purple inks on the sample sheet for comparison? That'd be a handy way to see how the samples match up with what we may already have.

Thanks for doing all of this!

Brian

Excellent suggestion!

GREAT IDEA... ESPECIALLY PR MOJO, SHEAFFER, WATERMAN AND PELIKAN...

Purples do not scan well, DAMHIK.... I would suggest shooting them at high resolution with a good digital camera in natural light....
Well as close as natural light as you can get in the NY/NJ area...

Okey Dokey, let's see how fast ink will travel from NJ to MD. Not fast I suspect

Mama Duck, first just let me say, thank you for your efforts in this project, second Woooo Hooooo they are in! I look forward to seeing your scans/photos, is today too soon? Just kidding.

When are we going to see these?? I keep looking and wondering if I have missed something...

Soon? I've been swept up with a bunch of unexpected things coming at me. I hope to get the samples to the other admins to the post office tomorrow. I'll try to get photos done of my samplers and post them. I'd kind of like to wait until the other admins have their samples, so we could view multiple samplers of the same inks. Otherwise we're limited to just my technical skill at reproduction.

Okey dokey. I've got all the samples ready to be flung across the globe (Malaysia, Netherlands, Canada, UK, Louisiana USA, Ireland).

Whomever said that reproducing the purple/plums/magentas was going to be next to impossible was soo right. I'll keep working on it. Hopefully if I can't get it right, one of the other admins can so we can present the samples on the board.

This is what each admin is getting:

Elaine, since you are sending off to the UK any way, just drop a batch to Ipswich also !

Hey, send me the samples...I have a 15 year old who can get the colors right....

Do you see how much is in each tube?! Seriously, I wish I could send a sample to anyone who asks.




Thanks for the offer. I just found out that one of the admins can get it right with a calibrated monitor and all sorts of stuff that's over my head.

Elaine do we have a time scale or estimated date for the scans to be posted? Just curious, not trying to rush, okay maybe just a bit as I am wanting to see what they look like!

Thanks again for doing this FPN Admins!

Yes, and no

I'll answer this later today.

Thanks in advance for all your efforts, A-Team!

I don't know if this has been suggested before as I'm relatively new here, so if it has I apologize in advance.

Has anyone considered putting a small Gretag MacBeth color chart in the same photo as the ink samples? The color chart provides some calibrated colors that can be used to correct any color casts that would be due to scanning or digital camera settings or idiosyncrasies.

Bruce

I haven't seen any more information on the new ink samples. Does anyone have an update? Thanks.

Heath

Ok, here's the deal. Making a short story long:

The original plan was for me to receive the samples, divide them up into vials and send them out to the other admins. That way there would be other people who could attempt to provide good scans. I have had no luck in coming close.

There are 8 purple/plum/magenta samples and 5 blues.

I made a sampler of the purple/plum/magentas. (Here's the coming clean part). None of them are what I've been looking for (think PR plum). However There are two that when mixed together make a wonderful color. Nathan told me to get him the proportions and he'll work on it. I finally had time to do that today and will call him this afternoon with the results. Does this mean I've chosen the color for FPN? No, but I'm calling in my "payment" for all the work I put into the site and making sure the color I want is in the parade. If it isn't chosen, I will probably market it myself.

As for the blues, Nathan has recently acquired material that makes some interesting possibilities. One mixture he described sounds very interesting, but it would have a long dry time. He's going to send me a sample of that with the new Plum.

Since it is very costly to send packages to the other admins I don't want to have to do it twice, so I'm going to wait for the new samples. (A week or two?) Things should move quickly after that. In additon, I'll be sending just the sampler with the old and the new colors to one of the admins who has the technical ability to get the colors right. A letter will reach him much faster than the package of ink vials.

Meanwhile, since I'm not able to get a good copy on the web of my samples, here are some descriptions (I'm not an artist and my ability to describe may be a bit lacking, sorry):

Blue 1 - Clear deep cobalt. No shading, but it works very nicely with flex

Blue 2 - Similar to Blue 1, but with some shading. Barely noticeable feathering with flex. Very nice shading with a 2mm italic dip nib.

Blue 3 - Also on the cobalt side

Blue 4 - Leaning towards navy, very nice shading even with a medium nib, but more so with an italic nib. With a dip flex nib on FPN note pad there is some feathering. Nathan tells me that this kind of ink may do better with cheaper paper. I haven't tried.

Blue 5 - Blue black. Some shading

Purple/Plum/Magenta (PPM) 1 - Of all the PPMs, this one is the most plum

PPM 2 - Leaning to the red side

PPM 3 - Nice deep wine with red undertones with some shading.

PPM 4 - moving towards a rusty brick

PPM 5 - Similar to #4 with a hint more red and nice shading. No so much purple/plum

PPM 6 - More of a red, with hints of orange

PPM 7 - A purer purple. It hints at shading.

PPM 8 - This is the black tulip that people asked for

My mixture is 1 & 7 mixed together.

Elaine, quick question, if a colour is not chosen by the Admins, but it is a colour we like, what would be the possiblity to get a couple bottles made? I am most curious to see the Plum #8.

Cheers.

I now have high hopes for blues 1 and 2!

Define few? The minimum first order is 144 bottles of the stuff, after which it can be a smaller set, but then, preferably not. Some of these colours are very, very hard to make in smaller volumes, due to the extremely small quantities of dyes that go in just to give it that extra little punch in the mix of dyes and additives wwhich constitute the main ingredients. Plus, it is very difficult to get very small quantities of dyes.

HTH, warm regards, Wim

I admit I've been apprehensive about the whole semi-democratic process of determining the color of the next FPN inks, especially when someone claims "payment" for honorable work that they do. But to be honest, I'd much rather have the admins rigorously test out all these samples and report their opinions and scans (the way it's going) than to just post a few scans and vote on them based on how it looks on the screen. The comments Elaine has given already -- about their properties in different pens -- is so much more valuable. I really think we're likely to pick the most enjoyable ink that way, with good old fieldwork. (Just think, the more people that notice that the FPN ink is one of the best colors out there, the more people will pay attention to our lovely community here, not to mention FP-proselytizing in general!)

And thus, I applaud you Elaine for your efforts, and recommend everyone remain patient. (Anyone live near her to bake her cookies?!!) A slow and careful and thorough and informative effort will lead us to the best ink of the bunch!!

Elaine, could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

Elaine,

I too wanted to add that I appriciate everything that you and the other admins have done/are doing/will do. I also want to say that I like your experimenting and trying new ink combinations as this all goes towards the final selection.

Here's to waiting for the new inks.

Andrew Wannemacher

Hi Elaine,

Any chance we will get to see the colors at NJ pen show???

fingers crossed

I'll bring the samplers I've made - but you'll have to find me Or you can come to the gathering at my house on Friday evening to see them. Perhaps the new plum and an interesting blue for us to consider (rich blue, great shading but very long dry time) will have arrived by then and I'll be able to show those as well.

I can't wait to see the final samples. I can feel the bottles waiting to be filled and shipped already. Elaine, do you think that hoping for the inks to be ready in about a month is realistic at all or are we looking at a longer time period for everything to be finalized and ready?

Stylo,

We still need a label design competition, just like last time. I really loved the outcome and design of that one, and even Nathan is rumoured to have admitted that this was the best label design on a bottle of Noodler's ink, ever... .

I am sure we can do another one, just as good, with all the talent in our little nuthouse on the digital prairie here, but I do think with all that still needs to be done, it is probably a little over a month before shipping can start...

Warm regards, Wim

I know this is a hobby for everyone, but just checking since nothing has been posted in a couple of weeks. Any progress on the ink or label front?

Heath

Wow.... This is very interesting.

Sorry I didn't answer this sooner. I missed it somehow. I want this color and think there's a market for it. I may consider becoming a Noodler's Inc. distributor for this one ink if Noodler's to creates it.