Ferris Wheel Press - Bluegrass Velvet

[coriander]

Longtime lurker, first time reviewer. I don't currently have a scanner but I was able to take this photo in indirect natural light and to my eye it's a quite close match to what I see on the paper in the same lighting. In artificial lighting I find it skews a little greener, but not noticeably so.

 

transcription of the writing in the image:

 

"Ferris Wheel Press Bluegrass Velvet

Lamy Safari F nib, Rhodia DotPad purchased sometime in the mid-2010s (I'm not sure if there's any difference from the current (2024) version, but just in case )

 

Smear test yielded a dry time of sometime between 10 and 15 seconds.

 

I'm not sure I have quite enough experience with the broad range of inks to REALLY say if it's particularly wet or dry? It's got a tiny bit more feedback in this pen than Waterman Tender Purple does, but that ink with this particular pen is VERY wet.

 

No feathering or bleedthrough, though there is a little bit of ghosting on the reverse (which is honestly negligible unless you're really looking for it). 

 

Shading!!! I always get excited when ink shades in an F nib or smaller--I'm an F/EF person and don't have anything broader handy but this is fair shading for an F nib if you ask me

 

I bought this in a 38ml bottle on impulse in a DeSerres--I'm a big fan of this colour already but I am NOT a fan of the bottle. It's quite rectangular (wide one direction, narrow the other) with a narrow opening. It really didn't feel stable when I was filling this pen. I might find an empty bottle to transfer the ink into.

 

Price was a little steep in my opinion--on sale for $25 Canadian dollars for 38ml, however it's made in Canada and I'm personally willing to pay a little bit more for that. Cheers!"

 

Waterproofness test revealed that this isn't waterproof in the slightest--I put the water droplets on the paper the following day, and after the 5 minutes I let the droplets sit for the lines underneath were all but non-existent. The barest hint of the lines remains but I find you have to intentionally look for them.

 

Overall, I really enjoy the colour of this ink and the writing-feel! I had no trouble with leaving the pen uncapped for short periods (maybe 5 or so minutes? I wasn't paying too too much attention to the time, oops) or using it again after a few days. I have a soft spot for darker tealy colours so I can see this being an ink in frequent rotation for me, if I can get over my dislike of the bottle.

[LizEF]

Great review, @coriander!  Thanks for being brave.   This is one of those colors I always think I'll like, but then get bored with quickly.  Can't explain it.  Hope to see more reviews from you!

[InesF]

Thank you @coriander for reviewing one of my favourite inks (of almost all times)! 👍  

I'm fully with you about the price and about the bottle design. Lamy Crystal Amazonite is surprisingly close to this in colour and in using a quite unpractical bottle, but for a fraction of the cost.  

[yazeh]

Thank you for taking the plunge in the wonderful world of ink reviewing.  

Great job and more often than  not a photograph is amply enough. 

Looking forward to more reviews of your favourite (or not so) inks

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Well done!  This is the sort of color I go for, too.  Thanks.

[A Smug Dill]

@coriander Thank you very much for producing and sharing your ink review! It looks good, and I'm loving the coverage of different aspects and your level of detail. Furthermore, it brings back fond memories for me, as FWP Bluegrass Velvet is our “wedding present ink” that my wife adores (but we'll probably never buy another bottle of it, nevertheless). We have the 85ml bottle, which is perhaps ever-so-slightly less likely to just topple over on being bumped, save by the heft of the glass base but not helped by its Christmas bauble shape.

 

On 4/30/2024 at 11:37 AM, coriander said:

Rhodia DotPad purchased sometime in the mid-2010s (I'm not sure if there's any difference from the current (2024) version, but just in case

 

Well-noted! You're definitely not new to the pitfalls of ink reviewing and on-the-page performance evaluation. From what I've seen, the paper in the staple-bound A5 dotPads have definitely changed around 2020 — and, as far as I'm aware, stayed that way since, including when I tested one in-store at the opening of the new Milligram Sydney store late last year — and is less heavily sized, more absorbent, and more toothy (all just slightly so). Interestingly, though, the spiral-bound A5 dotPads sold and shipped by Amazon Germany to me in the past six months have paper that are closer to the staple-bound dotPads pre-2020.

 

On 4/30/2024 at 11:37 AM, coriander said:

I'm an F/EF person and don't have anything broader handy but this is fair shading for an F nib if you ask me

 

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