EFNIR: MoJi 07 Lavender Blue

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: MoJi 07 Lavender Blue

This is review #377 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This ink from China was gifted to me by a generous FPNer. My apologies for not including the Chinese name of this ink-my database language doesn't support double-byte characters, nor do I know how to write them properly. Please see my inks spreadsheet which now has a tab with both the Chinese and English ink names. This is a chroma-shading ink. Since this attribute can be less stable over time, I'm reviewing all of them out of sequence.

This is basically a pastel royal blue. I'm not seeing any chromashading, not even on the mini CRENA swatch card. The color in the video is a little too blue.

Cleaning was ridiculously easy.

NOTE: This is the first review on a new Rhodia #16 dot pad (but it was purchased together with the previous, and the next 3, so I don't expect significant variation).

Zoomed in photo (Fairly close.)

Screenshot (Might be a smidge too dark and even a smidge too saturated, but it's actually pretty close.)

Scan of Completed Review (Seems close. Maybe a smidge over-saturated.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Colors are fairly close.)

Line width (Roughly 273µm. The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. With 377 inks measured, the average line width is 299µm.) (Really narrow line. Other parts of the line were even narrower than the one I measured.)

Swatch card comparison (Colors are close, but the darker areas seem a little over-saturated.)

Microscope image (400x. Lots of things at the edges of the ink similar to previous inks. The reddish bit in this image was hot pink to my eye. Otherwise, the color is pretty close to what I see.)

Alternate Papers (Fairly close, but maybe not quite enough lavender and too saturated in the darker spots (maybe the contrast is too high).)

Previous Review: Jin Chen Lamp Night.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here. Or read Part 8: The Ice Fields Adventure.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Oh my! FlowerCloud Butterfly micro!  🌸 ☁️  🦋 

 

This is a very pretty color, reminding me of spring (much anticipared now) and pansies.   My ancient eyes can barely read the yext (got new prescription, waiting for new glasses).

 

 I dislike low lubrication, etc, but have the first two comparison inks, so will have to be content.

 

Hooray for gutsy Quin!  👏🏻

 

@LizEF…You make Tuesdays magical and fun... I always look forward to the review and story.   Many thanks!

[inkstainedruth]

@LizEF -- OOOOH!  That's a pretty color.  A little on the pale side but clearly still legible....

Thanks for the review (my wallet of course says otherwise, especially when I have a bunch of inks I've never even tried... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[LizEF]

30 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Oh my! FlowerCloud Butterfly micro!  🌸 ☁️  🦋 

 Yeah, this one was worth a pic.

 

31 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

This is a very pretty color, reminding me of spring (much anticipared now) and pansies.  

Very springy, flowery color - and one I really dislike.  I might dislike it even more than royal blue and black.   Don't know why, but blurple just doesn't do it for me (from inks, anyway - in flowers, I'm all for it).

 

32 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

My ancient eyes can barely read the yext (got new prescription, waiting for new glasses).

Sorry about that - these pale inks can present a challenge.  Is even the screenshot too pale?  I might could make a copy of the image and darken it.

 

33 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I dislike low lubrication, etc, but have the first two comparison inks, so will have to be content.

 

33 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Hooray for gutsy Quin!  👏🏻

 

34 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF…You make Tuesdays magical and fun... I always look forward to the review and story.   Many thanks!

Thanks!  And you're most welcome!

[LizEF]

9 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

@LizEF -- OOOOH!  That's a pretty color.  A little on the pale side but clearly still legible....

 Clearly I'm a weirdo.  Legible to me, but the aging of eyes is real!

 

9 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Thanks for the review (my wallet of course says otherwise, especially when I have a bunch of inks I've never even tried... ).

You're most welcome!  (Your wallet says, "I ain't goin' all the way to China just for this ink. You just get to using that backlog!" )

[inkstainedruth]

Yup!  Sounds JUST like something my wallet would actually say!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

51 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Yup!  Sounds JUST like something my wallet would actually say!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[yazeh]

Another great review @LizEF  

I'm guessing I would love this ink for ink washes, but hate it for writing. The price seems ridiculously expensive for such a "meh" ink.  

The story line was quite dramatic. It reminded me of the "precioussssss" dialogues of the Gollum.  Glad Quin didn't compromise. 

 

I would say the highlight of this ink was the microscopic images. 

 

Thanks for bringing a whisper of spring, so close, yet so far away. 🙏🙏🙏

[LizEF]

52 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Another great review @LizEF  

Thanks!

 

52 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I'm guessing I would love this ink for ink washes, but hate it for writing. The price seems ridiculously expensive for such a "meh" ink.  

This is one of the joys of not having any clue what the ink might cost.   But then, I wouldn't want this one even if it were free (other than to review it).

 

53 minutes ago, yazeh said:

The story line was quite dramatic. It reminded me of the "precioussssss" dialogues of the Gollum.  Glad Quin didn't compromise.

 Thanks!  I made no conscious connection with Gollum, but the ice does want its sacrifice. 🤔

 

54 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I would say the highlight of this ink was the microscopic images. 

 Yes, that was a neat find. I suppose that a low dye concentration doesn't leave much chance for exciting smears, but this one provided.

 

55 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing a whisper of spring, so close, yet so far away. 🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome! 

[knarflj]

Well, the ink does not inspire, except for the butterflies, which are lovely.  And way to go, Quin!  Thanks for the review and the story!

[LizEF]

42 minutes ago, knarflj said:

Well, the ink does not inspire, except for the butterflies, which are lovely.

Hooray!  I don't feel like an outcast anymore.

 

42 minutes ago, knarflj said:

And way to go, Quin!

 

 

43 minutes ago, knarflj said:

Thanks for the review and the story!

You're most welcome!

[lamarax]

You're very lucky to have access to all these exotic brands... (yes, I know Aliexpress is a thing in this case).

 

However brands like Birmingham or Papier Plume, which look amazing to me, are simply unobtainable in Europe and other parts of the world outside the US. Just saying  

[LizEF]

56 minutes ago, lamarax said:

You're very lucky to have access to all these exotic brands... (yes, I know Aliexpress is a thing in this case).

Very fortunate indeed - my access came via a certain Aussie ink benefactor.  

 

57 minutes ago, lamarax said:

However brands like Birmingham or Papier Plume, which look amazing to me, are simply unobtainable in Europe and other parts of the world outside the US. Just saying

I haven't looked into these brands and their shipping policies - obviously, being in the US, shipping out of the US isn't something I typically look at. I will say that even sending postal mail packages from the US to anywhere else in the world is pretty expensive, and gets more expensive every year.  That and various customs regulations probably make it very hard for smaller makers to ship overseas.   So if a major retailer doesn't carry the brand (and ship overseas), yeah, you're kinda out of luck unless you have a well-off friend willing to send you a gift.  

[A Smug Dill]

This ink is less spectacular and more subtle than many of the other chromatographic shading inks (which was one reason why I included it in the set of ink samples), but also very difficult to capture.

 

First, let's look at the official marketing images:

 

 

 

N.B. “九号机试色” declares that the paper used was Tomoe River 52g/m² paper produced on Tomoegawa's machine №9 (not the stalwart machine №7).

 

So, “at best” the shading isn't as distinctive or eye-catching as say green to pink, or when three colours are involved.

 

Now, using what I have here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I marked up the page with filled downward-pointing triangles where I've dipped the nib past the round ‘breather hole’, such that there was ink trapped inside it (except for the Kaweco pen, because the feed then sucked that ink up by capillary action into its ink channel), and hollow downward-pointing triangles where I only dipped halfway up the length of the tines.

The ink just won't stay on the Pilot Plumix M nib, absent a feed to support it and trap some of the ink which is then only released slowly, so I gave up doing more testing with that.

 

My phone's camera just wouldn't pick up the full extent of the pink/violet shading, as before, so all I can do is augment it with words in annotations on the images, to convey what I saw with my eyes.

[LizEF]

Thanks, @A Smug Dill!   Your extra images and comments add greatly to the review!

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, LizEF said:

Your extra images and comments add greatly to the review!

 

Thank you for producing the review in the first place! 🫡

[Baggins]

7 hours ago, LizEF said:

Thanks, @A Smug Dill!   Your extra images and comments add greatly to the review!

 

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Thank you for producing the review in the first place! 🫡

Fantastic review. These ink reviews, for me at least, are very informative. This is knowledge you are sharing. I thank you 🙏. We might even not like the color but the existence of it is registered and tastes change😊. 

[yazeh]

@A Smug Dill thanks for taking the time the time and enriching the review with your observation. I can indeed some subtle shading. This brand is very expensive compared to the others. I wonder if you can share a photo of the bottle, as there are non on AliExpress, etc?

 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

I wonder if you can share a photo of the bottle, as there are non on AliExpress, etc?

 

 

 

That level of profiteering goes way beyond covering the seller's shipping costs and making a decent margin for his/her troubles.

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Thank you for producing the review in the first place! 🫡

Gladly!