Papier Plume Calle Real

[visvamitra]

Papier Plume is s stationery shop situated in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The company began its business in 2001 however the shop was opened in 2007. From what I see on google maps the shop looks quite nice.

source

 

Some time ago the company started to offer fountain pen inks. They're supposed to be hand poured and bottled right in the shop. The inks are water based and described as french inks (imported? anyone knows french private label maker?). At the moment the inks are available in 15 colors and are sold in three bottles: small (15 ml), medium (30 ml), big (50 ml):

 

source

 

Calle Real is a plesant blue ink that's easy to the eyes. It's not really interesting in terms of hue, but it behaves nicely and isn't crazily expensive. The sample was sent to me by namrehsnoom - thanks!

 

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

 

Color range

Field Notes, Kaweco Classic Sport, B

 

Copy paper, Hero 5028, stub 1.9

Water resistance

[Carrau]

Thanks for the review, Vis. It reminds me of a less saturated Diamine Florida Blue.

[inkstainedruth]

Hmmm. The written examples show it being a LOT lighter in color than the splotches did. Phooey. I LIKED the splotch color. Even though I already have a lot of similar blue inks (it reminded me of Birmingham Truss Blue...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lapis]

Thanks for this posting. I love this ink and use it all the time. Definitely a nice, bright blue (no, not a light blue) but not too dazzling like BSB and also not as watered down as Florida or Éclat.

[TravelCommons]

I visited the shop about 12 days ago -- a nice place on Royal St with very helpful staff -- and bought a bottle of Calle Real and Red Beans & Rice from their New Orleans collection. They were $8 each for a 1 oz bottle with a wax sealed top. They told me that Calle Real is modeled after the blue in the Spanish tiles you'll see in the French Quarter. It also reminds me of the blues I've seen in tiles in Lisbon.

 

I inked up my Pilot Custom 823 Medium once I got home. The blue looks a bit deeper in my Rhodia notebook than on the scans above, not dissimilar to blue cartridge that came with my Pilot Vanishing Point. As Lapis said, it's a nice bright blue. I like it very much.

 

I am kicking myself, though, for not buying a bottle of Bayou Nightfall. I really liked that ink when I was browsing their swatch book, but limited myself to two bottle (didn't want to push the TSA carry-on liquid limits too far). But they said they'd be at the Chicago Pen Show this spring, so it's probably a fixable error.

[namrehsnoom]

That looks promising ... a very nice & bright blue. I’ve adjusted my bottle more to the front of the line of inks to try (and that line is growing longer and longer :-)

[senzen]

Great review, I really like this one!