EFNIR: Kitty Inkpot Kumquat on the Other Shore

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Kitty Inkpot Kumquat on the Other Shore

This is review #388 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 ink is a lot like writing with lime sherbet. The right color is in there somewhere, but each image is off a smidge. The fading from top (where the feed was saturated) to bottom of the page shows just how dry this ink is.

I decided to add subtitles, since a lot of folks have trouble reading these pale inks in the video.

Cleaning was ridiculously easy with plain water.

Errata: A "p" should be a "P" and an "e" is missing! An "o" is also missing.

Zoomed in photo (Shading is a little too pronounced. Color is fairly close.)

Photo (formerly screenshot) (Color is a little undersaturated.)

Scan of Completed Review (Color is a little off, but I can't figure out how to describe the offness...)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Color is a little off on both, but not very much, and I can't improve it.)

Line width (Roughly 292µm. The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. With 388 inks measured, the average line width is 299µm.)

Swatch card comparison (Colors are quite close to reality.)

Microscope image (400x. Background should be a little more solid, pastel green, but otherwise, not too far off - sort of like entering a swamp...)

Alternate Papers (Colors are fairly close.)

Previous Review: De Atramentis Alexander Hamilton.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Due to an overabundance of inks, the poll is discontinued for now. I will prioritize older inks before they can go bad. I will continue to do 2 chromashading, then one older ink, until all the chromashading are done. Then I will alternate 1 older and 1 non-US ink for however long each "stash" lasts. Please don't send me more inks until 2030.

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!

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting color, but a bit too pale to be legible (although it seemed to be a bit better on the Clairefontaine).

But thanks as usual for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[yazeh]

Great review @LizEF.

I can't understand the logic behind the naming of this ink, unless the Kumquat is the vague hint of orange in the background. I wish they had focused more on the ink than the marketing /naming. Well at least you got some lime sherbet and that's a win. 🍧

 

Poor Essri going home and facing SssssssssMa, a name he could never pronounce.

 

ink bar, clever. 👏

Love the comparisons on different papers and fantastic microscopic image.

 

Thanks for bringing the promise of the summer to the first day of warmth in quite a while. 🙏🙏🙏

[LizEF]

35 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Interesting color, but a bit too pale to be legible (although it seemed to be a bit better on the Clairefontaine).

It is a strange one - it seems both bright and muted at the same time.  Can't explain it.  It definitely needs a wet pen / feed.  Once a flooded feed starts running "normal", the ink is indeed very pale.

 

36 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

But thanks as usual for the review.

You're very welcome!

[Baggins]

Thank you so much for your continued reviews.

I end up watching them more on YT than actually coming here 🥺

I love greens, but not this one. I also don’t “love”, dry inks.

🙏☮️

P.S: KEEP EM COMING!!!😃

[LizEF]

36 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Great review @LizEF.

Thanks!

 

36 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I can't understand the logic behind the naming of this ink, unless the Kumquat is the vague hint of orange in the background. I wish they had focused more on the ink than the marketing /naming.

And why is the kumquat on the other shore?  Why not this shore?  Either way, apparently it's not ripe yet...   There's probably some story from Chinese history about a kumquat some poor maiden couldn't reach - you know, because it was on the other shore (not her shore)....  

 

38 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Well at least you got some lime sherbet and that's a win. 🍧

 

 

39 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Poor Essri going home and facing SssssssssMa, a name he could never pronounce.

 

 

40 minutes ago, yazeh said:

ink bar, clever. 👏

Oh, the town name?  Well, blame Inkebara (the Czech FP ink maker).  (For those not up to date, Inkabar is home to the University where Dr. Heilari and Professor Eenness work.)

 

44 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Love the comparisons on different papers and fantastic microscopic image.

 Yeah, this one at least was interesting under the 'scope.

 

44 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing the promise of the summer to the first day of warmth in quite a while. 🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome!

 

May all your kumquats be on this shore - not the other one.  

[LizEF]

2 minutes ago, Baggins said:

Thank you so much for your continued reviews.

 You're very welcome!

 

3 minutes ago, Baggins said:

I end up watching them more on YT than actually coming here 🥺

 That's OK.

 

3 minutes ago, Baggins said:

I love greens, but not this one. I also don’t “love”, dry inks.

 Yeah, this one is too blue, too strange, and not exactly EF-friendly.  But it will inspire you to go get some lime sherbet, so there's that.

 

4 minutes ago, Baggins said:

P.S: KEEP EM COMING!!!😃

 Will do - at least until 06 August 2030...  (Unless the world ends, or I go broke, or die, or something.  )

[Sailor Kenshin]

🥺  I was really sad but due to eye probs, I could not read the stills at all.   (Tippity tappin' groans for that.)

 

And I want the story!  So I am really happy you put up subtitles.  Though I like green ink, this one may be a great color for a jacket but not for writing.

 

The micro makes me think our heroes are still icebound, but with confetti sprinkles.  Hope they taste good.

 

Since I am crawling on hands and knees toward the finish of my latest ebook, I wanted to ask if you plan stories ahead at all.  Or did I already ask? 
 

 @LizEF, please keep making Tuesdays magical. I always look forward to your output.  💝

[yazeh]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

Oh, the town name? 

Yep. Writing responses on a phone it's not ideal. Sometimes, I have to hope/pray/cuss that Otto, doesn't korrect everything willy-nilly.  

[LizEF]

11 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

🥺  I was really sad but due to eye probs, I could not read the stills at all.   (Tippity tappin' groans for that.)

:( Sorry to hear it.  Hope your eye(s) heal quick!

 

12 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

And I want the story!  So I am really happy you put up subtitles.

  Don't forget, there's a link to the website, where you can enlarge the text.  And I'd be happy to copy and paste it here, if you ever need.

 

12 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Though I like green ink, this one may be a great color for a jacket but not for writing.

  Yeah, it's not my shade of green, but it might be good for a windbreaker - or a "don't run me over" style vest.

 

13 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

The micro makes me think our heroes are still icebound, but with confetti sprinkles.  Hope they taste good.

 

13 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Since I am crawling on hands and knees toward the finish of my latest ebook, I wanted to ask if you plan stories ahead at all.  Or did I already ask? 

Best wishes for the exciting conclusion! I don't remember if you asked - @yazeh has.  I write the scenes before I record the reviews.  Sometimes I write the scenes long in advance, other times, the day before I record.  Once in a blue moon I'll change something "on the fly", but I usually stick with what I already wrote.  The Ice Fields and the Greyspot adventures will wrap up together, and then I assume we'll go to Essri's village - no idea what that will be like.  After that, I don't really know what we'll be doing.  Suggestions welcome.   (Otherwise, I may resort to ChatGPT, which was actually helpful in getting my mind rolling for the Ice Fields - it may be useless for some things, but it's good at brainstorming.)

 

18 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, please keep making Tuesdays magical. I always look forward to your output.  💝

 Will do!  Thank you!

[LizEF]

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

Writing responses on a phone it's not ideal.

Amen, brother!

 

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

Sometimes, I have to hope/pray/cuss that Otto, doesn't korrect everything willy-nilly.  

[yazeh]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

nd why is the kumquat on the other shore?  Why not this shore?  Either way, apparently it's not ripe yet...   There's probably some story from Chinese history about a kumquat some poor maiden couldn't reach - you know, because it was on the other shore (not her shore)....  

Here is from our friend ChatGPT: The Chinese name 彼岸柑橘, bǐ’àn gānjú, means “citrus of the other shore.” 彼岸 is a Buddhist term for the far shore beyond ordinary suffering, while 柑橘 simply means citrus. The official English name, “Kumquat on the Other Shore,” is therefore more poetic than literal, narrowing a broad citrus image into one particular fruit.

 

 

I'll wait until @A Smug Dill posts the appropriate links.  

 

[LizEF]

2 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Here is from our friend ChatGPT: The Chinese name 彼岸柑橘, bǐ’àn gānjú, means “citrus of the other shore.” 彼岸 is a Buddhist term for the far shore beyond ordinary suffering, while 柑橘 simply means citrus. The official English name, “Kumquat on the Other Shore,” is therefore more poetic than literal, narrowing a broad citrus image into one particular fruit.

 

 

Here is the cover, a citrus tree:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009570628649.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.4e33UXxKUXxKc6&algo_pvid=47eb98d6-3479-4efa-8d76-c362ba247b6d&algo_exp_id=47eb98d6-3479-4efa-8d76-c362ba247b6d-0&pdp_ext_f={"order"%3A"470"%2C"eval"%3A"1"%2C"fromPage"%3A"search"}&pdp_npi=6%40dis!CAD!31.38!31.38!!!153.90!153.90!%402101ef5e17780042477965185e40cc!12000049492660327!sea!CA!1930984331!X!1!0!n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3A183b2319%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=NXHB233J1t3d&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A|x_object_id%3A1005009570628649|_p_origin_prod%3A

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

36 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Yep. Writing responses on a phone it's not ideal. Sometimes, I have to hope/pray/cuss that Otto, doesn't korrect everything willy-nilly.  

 

🤣

[A Smug Dill]

Thanks for another ink review!

 

Official marketing images:

 

(纸: 九号机巴川 means “Tomoe River paper (made with) machine №9”; and “星火纸” is Spark Paper.)

 

6 hours ago, yazeh said:

The Chinese name 彼岸柑橘, bǐ’àn gānjú, means “citrus of the other shore.” 彼岸 is a Buddhist term for the far shore beyond ordinary suffering, while 柑橘 simply means citrus. The official English name, “Kumquat on the Other Shore,” is therefore more poetic than literal, narrowing a broad citrus image into one particular fruit.

 

It has more to do with an easy mistake to make — one that I admit I didn't pick up myself.

 

Kumquat, in Chinese, is 金橘, which (at least in the Cantonese dialect) is a homophone of 柑橘, and is indeed one species of fruit in the 柑橘 (Citrus) genus. However, if you bring up the respective Chinese Wikipedia pages for 柑, 橘, and 柑橘, and then tell Wikipedia to switch from the page to English, you end up with the pages for tangerine, mandarin orange, and orange (fruit) — none of which refer to fruits that are lime green when ripe, I might add. It's quite confusing, especially when in Cantonese, 柑橘 is a term rarely used outside of poetic or literary contexts, so when I see 柑橘 in writing, I ‘hear’ (the identical sounds of) 金橘 in my head, and immediately think kumquat. Thus is never occurred to me to question whether Soe & Soe's translation of the name of this ink is correct, absent an official English name published or offered by KittyInkpot itself.

[yazeh]

I love these linguistic discussions. 

So this is partly “lost in translation” between Mandarin and Cantonese? A bit like when I ordered “frites” in Spain and got deep-fried seafood instead of French fries?

 

Actually the name is the same is on the AliExpress page: 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

10 minutes ago, yazeh said:

So this is partly “lost in translation” between Mandarin and Cantonese?

 

I seriously doubt that a Mandarin speaker would see the written word 柑橘 and immediately think, “That's genius genus, not a particular species! It refers to all citrus!” Given when you switch the language setting when you're on the Chinese Wikipedia page for 柑橘 to English, the server brings up the English page for orange (fruit), it's a definite possibility that a Mandarin speaker would think orange instead of kumquat, and you end up with Orange on the Other Shore.

 

14 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Actually the name is the same is on the AliExpress page: 

 

Unless it's printed on KittyInkpot's bottle label or box, or otherwise in ASCII text or embedded annotations in marketing images that are not solicited writing samples from social media influencers the ink manufacturer seems apt to engage, I wouldn't take someone else's translation of a Chinese ink name into English as official.

 

The solicited writing samples, produced by different users according the ‘signatures’ on the images, for the 水獭与沼泽起源 ink in KittyInkpot Season VII refer to it as “The origins of marshes and otters” and “Otter Swamp” respectively, and apparently independently of each other. It seems obvious to me that KittyInkpot didn't provide them with an official English name to use for the ink, most likely because there simply isn't one the manufacturer has decided upon.

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Thanks for another ink review!

 You're most welcome!

 

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Official marketing images:

Whoa!  Quite different from my neonish-yet-somehow-muted lime sherbet color.  

 

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Kumquat, in Chinese, is 金橘, which (at least in the Cantonese dialect) is a homophone of 柑橘, and is indeed one species of fruit in the 柑橘 (Citrus) genus. However, if you bring up the respective Chinese Wikipedia pages for 柑, 橘, and 柑橘, and then tell Wikipedia to switch from the page to English, you end up with the pages for tangerine, mandarin orange, and orange (fruit) — none of which refer to fruits that are lime green when ripe, I might add. It's quite confusing, especially when in Cantonese, 柑橘 is a term rarely used outside of poetic or literary contexts, so when I see 柑橘 in writing, I ‘hear’ (the identical sounds of) 金橘 in my head, and immediately think kumquat. Thus is never occurred to me to question whether Soe & Soe's translation of the name of this ink is correct, absent an official English name published or offered by KittyInkpot itself.

Adventures in language!   Thanks for the explanation.

 

Meanwhile, I rather like "Odyssey on Unknown Island" and I'm thinking Quin & Company may need to have an adventure there sometime between now and August 2030!  

[LizEF]

9 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

The solicited writing samples, produced by different users according the ‘signatures’ on the images, for the 水獭与沼泽起源 ink in KittyInkpot Season VII refer to it as “The origins of marshes and otters” and “Otter Swamp” respectively, and apparently independently of each other.

And now, "Unknown Island" needs a swamp (or maybe a marsh - is there a difference?). With otters.  Magical otters, of course.  Who can tell the origin story of all marshes/swamps...

 

Google's AI:

Quote

Marshes are wetlands dominated by herbaceous plants like grasses and reeds, typically found at the edge of lakes or rivers. Swamps are forested wetlands dominated by trees and woody plants, often with deeper standing water. Marshes are generally nutrient-rich, while swamps are often associated with large rivers.

 

Apparently otters might appear in either, so we can take our pick.

[A Smug Dill]

4 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Apparently otters might appear in either, so we can take our pick.

 

Ice pick, or rock pick? 🤣