Organics Studio Foggy Bottom Yellow Sepia

[ToasterPastry]

Organics Studio Foggy Bottom Yellow Sepia

Another ink review

 

I’m a fan of heirloom inks, or craft inks, or whatever you want to call it. Certainly I’ve given it a thought to create a series of my own inks. What would I call them?

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Organics_studio_sepia_ink_4.jpg

 

There is a certain charm to the craft ink industry. I appreciate a bottle of Noodler’s Dark Matter, not because it’s black, but what its creator was trying to do; that is, replicate an old bottle of ink. Does it exhibit the exact behavior and look of, say, a bottle of Parker Quink Black from 1945? No, but it’s very, very close. That is not to say that I like all Noodler’s inks, as there is a certain hit or miss aspect depending upon which bottle you buy.

 

Similarly there have been a crop of recent ink manufacturers, like Organics Studio, that have been making the rounds at the shows. I’m a sucker for new inks, especially when they include cute cartoon characters and label the bottle with ‘special edition.’

 

Organics Studio is a small start up company based in Maryland created by Tyler Thompson, a biochemistry major at the University of Maryland. After his initial Elements Edition, he has created a line of inks for Pendleton Brown, a Writers’ Series, and a couple of recent sepia inks, the most recent one, the green sepia was introduced this year.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Organics_studio_ink_2.jpg

 

This yellow sepia, or as would call it, sepia, was first introduced at the Washington DC Pen Show last year. The first 100 bottles of this ink were labeled as a limited edition 1 through 100, and probably came in glass bottles. The recent bottle I purchased was a plastic 55 ml bottle (1.8 ounces) with an ink-jet printed label. I purchased this ink through Anderson Pens, whom I must say, provided very expedient surface. The price was $14, which appears to be the going rate for this bottle.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/OrganicsStudio_Sepia_1.jpg

 

 

What I love about this ink.

 

I really loved the performance and behavior of this ink. I loaded it in an old Parker 45, and it worked very well with just about any paper that I encountered. It does not bleed or feather terribly. It’s dry-time is reasonable. I should note that it’s not waterproof. Some people are obsessed with this trait, but I’m pretty ambivalent. Most of my documents are eventually scanned anyway.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Organics_Studio_sepia_3.jpg

The waterproof test. The ink that I used to label these lines was Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black.

 

What I hate about this ink.

 

I just paid $14, not including shipping, for a tiny plastic bottle of ink (less than 2 ounces). The label is very much homemade, on an ink-jet printer no less. For a few bucks more I can get a gorgeous glass bottle that I can put on the shelf and show-off, even if I don’t like the ink. For less money, I can get more ink, still in a basic glass bottle. You think this doesn’t matter, but it does. Let’s talk about the color. Brown is brown. There is light brown and dark brown and really dark brown, but it’s still brown. You can call it sepia or sienna or caramel or whatever, but it’s still brown. Some shades look great for inks, some shades work well for walls. Organics Studio makes a Boron Brown which is darker brown, and probably better for writing. In terms of color, I prefer this sepia over the Diamine Sepia, which I have since used for mixing. Organics Studio Foggy Bottom Yellow Sepia is essentially a light brown that shades yellow. On chromatography I see a hint of blue, mostly yellow with some red. It works for pens that pour out a lot of ink: it clearly looks brown, not black. But in the fine-point Parker 45, even one with generous flow, it wrote too lightly for my tastes, some papers were worse than others.

 

Conclusion.

 

A very well-behaved fountain pen ink that is a bit light in color for professional use. Unless you’re using a broad-tipped nib that pours out a lot of ink, you’ll have trouble appreciating the shading and vibrancy of the ink. The price-point was the biggest disappointment for me. For less money, and more ink (in a glass bottle), I’d probably stick with a basic brown ink.

 

 

[requiescat]

Nice review, thanks! I wonder how this is to sketch with--I'd find it a bit pale for writing, as you point out.

[ToasterPastry]

Here is the chromatography picture. I see blue, a couple of reds and a yellow dye.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Organics_studio_sepia_ink_5.jpg

[amberleadavis]

Wow. Very nice. Thank you.

[visvamitra]

I like the color but this ink has awful properties - it caused nib creep in all the pens that I had filled with it. Quite good pens. I would say it's worst OS ink I've tried when it comes to its behaviour and lack of good manners