How Do I Find The Meanings Behind Noodler Ink Names/labels?

[teeniebeenie6]

This evening I came across some of Nathan Tardif's Youtube videos and was amazed and inspired by how much depth he put in his ink names and labels. He is an interesting guy, he could write a booK!

 

I found some threads on here that explained some of his ink names, which are downright fascinating and not at all what I expected them to mean! Does anyone know where I can find the meanings of these inks:

 

Heart of Darkness

Dark Matter

Spirit of Bamboo

Hellbender

Devil Red

 

Do these have political or religious connotation? I wish he had videos of all his ink names, but I am sure that would take too much time.

 

Thanks in advance.

[SJH]

Greetings,

I'm also interested in the naming procedure.

If I find any I'll reply to this thread again.

Could you please post links to the ones you have found so far?

 

Many thanks,

Steve.

[ocularhp]

This evening I came across some of Nathan Tardif's Youtube videos and was amazed and inspired by how much depth he put in his ink names and labels. He is an interesting guy, he could write a booK!

 

I found some threads on here that explained some of his ink names, which are downright fascinating and not at all what I expected them to mean! Does anyone know where I can find the meanings of these inks:

 

Heart of Darkness

Dark Matter

Spirit of Bamboo

Hellbender

Devil Red

 

Do these have political or religious connotation? I wish he had videos of all his ink names, but I am sure that would take too much time.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dark Matter is on the Noodler's site if you go through some entries, it's based off of a vintage ink from the Manhattan Project.

[JLT]

You can go here, Dark Matter Story, and find the story behind Dark Matter, and other Noodler's inks for that matter. This particular ink has the most interesting back story IMO.

[Silent Speaker]

In the box with the Dark Matter bottle there's a leaflet with an explanation. I wonder which other inks come with such supplementary material?

 

Heart of Darkness is easy enough to guess.

 

Spirit of Bamboo and the other two you listed are all retailer exclusives (I think so...). So how much input The Noodler's Man himself had in the naming of them, I don't know - you might want to contact the retailers themselves for some definite answer if you can be bothered.

 

I would hazard a guess that not every single ink name has an interesting story: Noodler's Blue/Brown/Red/Purple/Yellow etc., don't profess any interesting back story I would imagine

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The most interesting name, in my opinion, is Black Swan in English Roses, because it's entirely erroneous - amongst other things, black swans are native to Australia and not England! But when you watch the the vid where it's introduced you find out that BSER's was not it's real name, but putting a poppy on the label was just something that the creator was not prepared to do, for reasons one can glean from watching the vid. (and in fact the "roses" had to be superimposed on the original label's image).

[teeniebeenie6]

Greetings,

I'm also interested in the naming procedure.

If I find any I'll reply to this thread again.

Could you please post links to the ones you have found so far?

 

Many thanks,

Steve.

This thread has a lot of information on the labels, I found it absolutely fascinating! https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/142774-noodlers-ink-labels/page__st__50__p__1419811__hl__%22nathan+tardif%22__fromsearch__1#entry1419811

 

This one discusses some of his inks based on historic inks and more. He could write a collectors info book on his inks! https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/192863-noodlers-historicalvintage-replica-inks/page__p__1950224__hl__%22nathan+tardif%22__fromsearch__1#entry1950224

 

Nathan's youtube videos are really, really interesting. Three are specifically about different inks, he goes into great detail. I was amazed how much thought went into each name and label he discussed. http://www.youtube.com/user/InkNeedLastForever

 

Heart of Darkness is easy enough to guess.

I'm not so sure this is so cut and dry to guess. I find it interesting that the label depicts the thick foliage of a jungle. I'd love his thought behind it.

Edited September 28, 2011 by teeniebeenie6

[padams2359]

I don't know about the names, but the labels all look like they were designed by Ed Hardy. I am not saying that is a bad thing.

Edited September 28, 2011 by padams2359

[Silent Speaker]

Heart of Darkness is easy enough to guess.

I'm not so sure this is so cut and dry to guess. I find it interesting that the label depicts the thick foliage of a jungle. I'd love his thought behind it.

 

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness? - I don't think there 's any other allusion, at least, not one apparent on the labeling that's as obvious as this one.

 

If you haven't read it (it's quite short), it's about a man telling a story about another man traveling deep into the Belgian Congo on a steamboat to reach an ivory trader who's been in there so long he's gone... a bit nuts.

(Hence the 'darkness' is both literal - Belgian Congo/"Heart of Darkness", being the centre of the what was then referred to as the "Dark Continent" - and the figurative 'darkness' associated with colonialism in Africa and the 'darkness' as opposed to the 'light' of civilisation etc., etc., blah blah blah English Lit class stuff ) EDIT:

Have you seen a film called Apocalypse Now? - Yup, kinda a 'modern day' adaptation of the story, with changes of course.

 

I think with that ink it's just a matter of him wanting to create the darkest ink possible, so unless there's any other allusion I think Conrad is his inspiration - though one may note that the daemonic catfish on the label is the same one (but palette swapped) as the one from 'Djinn of the Eternal Flame' (or whatever it's called) - except that one looks like it's frowning more (I would too if I were on fire!).

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I saw your earlier thread from last night where you mentioned your uncertainty regarding using Noodler's due to some of the names used, which name(s) originally made you unsure? (I'm going to guess that those were the one's that sparked off this enquiry)

 

EDIT:

I just looked up 'Ed Hardy' - I suppose it's not such a stretch of the imagination if one were to see something like this on a label:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/silentspeaker/edhardy.jpg

 

Maybe for a Valentine's Day special or something, lol

Edited September 28, 2011 by Silent Speaker

[Postscript]

In college I thought Philosophy was where one would search for meaning. It never occurred to me that I would now be reading about searching for meaning in ink names. But here I am. Great question.

 

And Apocalypse Now/uncut Director's version is one of my favorite films. But then I re-read Conrad's story every year. Go figure!

 

Post Script

[Silas]

Good synopsis and analysis, Silent Speaker!!

 

Having taught Heart of Darkness several years in AP English class, I can see that you were indeed, listening well, "Weed Hopper!"

 

Good Show!

 

Mitch

Edited October 8, 2011 by Silas

[asdf]

The hellbender is a type of giant salamander.

[kitsunec4]

In the box with the Dark Matter bottle there's a leaflet with an explanation. I wonder which other inks come with such supplementary material?

 

Kung Te-Cheng is another ink that comes with supplementary material in the box. ^_^

[dgturner]

Heart of Darkness is easy enough to guess.

I'm not so sure this is so cut and dry to guess. I find it interesting that the label depicts the thick foliage of a jungle. I'd love his thought behind it.

 

Heart Of Darkness refers to the novel by Joseph Conrad which is set in Africa, hence "the thick foliage of a jungle" on the label.

[Brian C]

Isn't a Black Rose scientific terminalogy for an unexpected result that is positive or some such thing? I always pictured Nathan playing with his inks and stumbling on to Black Swan. I could be wrong, I didn't look any of this up.

[framebaer]

The Art on most of the Noodlers labels is done by a local Boston area Artist/Calligrapher of some renown.