Birmingham – Phipps Conservatory Verbena

[crahptacular]

Birmingham – Phipps Conservatory Verbena

 

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors at the time of writing) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

Phipps Conservatory Verbena is a nice, medium-dark violet purple. It doesn’t lean particularly towards either red or blue, except when washed with water, when the dyes separate and the red becomes more prominent. It’s a well-saturated ink, leaving bold, consistent writing lines without much shading. Unlike similar purples, Verbena has no hint of sheen no matter how heavily pooled. Behavior has been good; flow and lubrication are generous enough that writing with a needlepoint is not a problem, and there is some degree of water resistance. Personally, I think this is an attractive color that compares favorably to Sailor Shigure. I occasionally find Shigure to be dark enough as to appear black; Verbena has a similar hue (it's a bit redder/less blue), but is a touch lighter, such that it’s unmistakably purple in all situations. It does, however, lack Shigure’s sheen, which many enjoy. The purple section of my own ink collection is rather crowded, so this color doesn’t especially stand out to me, but it’s definitely a nice ink.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate-High

Shading: Low

Sheen: None.

Water Resistance: Moderate (most of the color washes off, but there’s a legible blue-ish line left)

 

The following sample was done with a Franklin Christoph 27 (Needlepoint) and a Nemosine Singularity (Broad) on Tomoe River (52gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a size 3/0 mop. Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Bad Scanner Disclaimer: Photo is terrible. It has the right hue for the most part, but the highlights and shadows make a mess of everything. The scan is much better. Only the middle comparison (Gummiberry) is slightly too blue; everything else looks accurate on my monitor.

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Franklin Christoph Tenebris Purpuratum, Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki Shikibu. KWZ Gummiberry, L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Violet, Sailor Shigure

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[ENewton]

Another ink very much to my taste. Thanks, as always, for your exquisite reviews.

[Jan2016]

Nice review of a nice color!

I do not have any inks from Birmingham Pen Co, but I am afraid I have to have some...

[white_lotus]

Very nice. Thanks to your efforts crahptacular I ordered the sample set. It's almost too inexpensive to pass up. Not that I need any more ink at all, but as a friend said, "for research purposes."

[crahptacular]

I'm happy (or sorry?) to help! It really is a bargain as far as ink samples go--your reasoning is pretty much identical to what mine was when I saw the sample pack. Research, indeed

[inkstainedruth]

I passed on this one when I saw it because I already have several dark purples. But I may have to rethink that decision.... Great drawing of Phipps, by the way.

Thanks for the review. And, well, not.... (Yeah, I'm going to use white_lotus's excuse of "research...") Only, I just looked at the Birmingham website and there's ALSO Lilac Wind, and Allegheny River Twilight, and....

Is it Saturday yet? I haven't had a free Saturday for a few weeks to wander down to the store and check out what they have in stock....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[RockingLR]

wow what beautiful drawing you did! it really show cases the ink! I'm on the fence about the color but I'll have to look into that brand of inks more! It kind of reminds me of a bit more middle purple Kung te-cheng...though I'm pretty new to this soo I could be off

[chromantic]

While the brown one looks totally different, I have to say that, to my eye, this Verbena, the Fern Moss and the Railroad Steam (in the writing samples, not the drawings) look quite similar - three variations on grey, blueish grey, greenish grey and purplish grey. As someone who likes dark "wait, that's not black" inks (Kana-cho, Miruai, Dark Forest, Petrol, etc.), I can appreciate that.

[crahptacular]

@chromantic

Fern Moss is definitely very grey, and Boiler Steam relatively grey as well, but I'd say Verbena is much less so. If we're talking about a purplish grey from Birmingham, I'm expecting Lilac Wind and Allegheny River Twilight (both are not yet reviewed) to fill that spot, with Twilight being a redder version and Lilac Wind being a bluer version. According to my swatches, both should be considerably greyer than Verbena. (That's comparing within the brand, of course. Compared to other ink brands, I'd make the broad generalization that all of Birmingham's inks tend to be greyer than others, with maybe a handful of exceptions.)

[chromantic]

Looking at it again, it does look purple-er than I first thought. Looking forward to seeing more of the series. So far, I like Railroad one best.

[Pensei]

Nice drawing, fine review. As it happens, I loaded a pen with this ink yesterday, and I like it a lot. I have a lot of purples, and I find this one to be distinctive among them.

[ca49reber]

OK, I ordered it.

[Chrissy]

Thank you for this excellent review. I wish I could draw half as well.

[ENewton]

I told myself I would try all his purples and choose one to buy, but it seems he can't go wrong with purple!

[benjitzu]

Yet another stunning review, thank you!

 

On first glance, the color seems quite similar to Montblanc Lavender Purple and just a tad more red than Diamine Grape (two of my favorite dark purples). Another ink added to my 'purchase' list. You're reviews are not helping me to thin my ink collection at all hahaha!

[dkatiepowellart]

Amazing ink! Love the color, and I am not a purple gurl -- but wow!

I'd post an image but for some reason it is rejecting my small web-formatted imagesI'll try one more thing:

[inkstainedruth]

Amazing ink! Love the color, and I am not a purple gurl -- but wow!

I'd post an image but for some reason it is rejecting my small web-formatted imagesI'll try one more thing:

 

Very nice artwork!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth