Ink Flight #17 Reveal + Giveaway
Buon Giorno, Ink Travelers!
This month's flight brings back fond memories of my trip to Italy after graduating high school. It was my first time in Europe, to the land of my ancestry. We took a bus with failing air conditioning all around the country in the middle of July. We saw Venice, Florence, Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Pisa, and more. It was an amazing trip. With any luck (and a coin toss into the Trevi fountain), I'll be back again someday.
For now, let's enjoy a taste of Italy with the June Ink Flight, our 17th running, and the first to include two brands in one sampling. Aurora (located in Torino) may only make 3 colors of fountain pen ink, but they are some of the most reliable and authentic fountain pen inks to use, even with sensitive vintage pens. In 2017, the luxury brand Montegrappa (located near Bassano del Grappa), revamped their entire line of fountain pen inks with a selection of 8 colors.
Have an aperitif, take a seat, relax, and enjoy the flight!
Here's a rundown of all the ink colors featured in June 2018's Ink Flight.
Aurora Blue
A soft, yet rich blue with purple undertones, Aurora Blue is a go-to for a workplace ink that doesn't require water-resistance. Safe to use with vintage pens.
Aurora Blue-Black
This dark blue-black flows beautifully and exhibits purplish sheen even with finer nib sizes. Aurora introduced this color in 2017 to bring their total catalog of inks up to a whopping three! Well done!
Montegrappa Turquoise
This classy, aqua blue ink has great shading with a calming hue, like the clear waters of the Meditteranean.
Montegrappa Violet
Vibrant like a Venetian Carnivale costume, this violet ink has a wet flow and intense color. Causes bleed-through and show-through on certain papers.
Montegrappa Fuchsia
Those who are passionate about bold color will enjoy the rich, saturated tone of Fuchsia. May feather on cheaper, more absorbent papers.
Montegrappa Coffee
Savor this ink like a freshly made latte. The medium roast Coffee Brown has a touch of shading, but no caffeine.
Montegrappa Green
Like the unspoiled green hills of the Italian countryside, Montegrappa's Green has a lush, lively tone.
Captain's Notes:
It's not often that I get the green light to let my vintage pens sample some of the ink that we explore. With Aurora, I feel comfortable with trusting their blue & blue-black in the more sensitive, bladder-filling or vacumatic pens that could potentially be harmed by more caustic inks that we sometimes come across on our adventures.
Some members of our flight crew have mentioned turbulence with the Montegrappa Violet bleeding through tomoe river paper (which is a tough task). My own experience was in using Rhodia paper, but I did note a small degree of bleed-through and a higher degree of show-through than all the other inks in this flight.
Box Extras: Brause Calligraphy Notebook, Inktopus Magnet
This month, we aim to level up your handwriting with a Brause Calligraphy Practice workbook. This A5 size calligraphy practice book has 40 pages of guides to show you the proper letterforms for Copperplate and Italic lettering. Follow stroke-by-stroke instructions and repeat to practice your developing lettering skills. The book also has a set of peel-off decals you can write on to label your journals, books, sandwiches, bins of ink samples, and so on.
Realizing that some of us may need a little more encouragement, motivation, and hands-on instruction to work through the book and practice, we started sharing live calligraphy demonstrations on the InkJournal YouTube channel. These "workshops" take you through each page of the Brause notebook. We record each one and make it available for replay in case you missed the live broadcast.
Subscribe to our channel here to catch all the workshop live-streams -> youtube.com/c/InkJournal
Enjoy the die-cut inky octopus magnet on your refrigerator, dishwasher, automobile or anywhere else you can safely attach a magnet. The quality of the printing is tough as nails, so feel free to put your Inktopus anywhere you please, even outdoors (like on a Mini Cooper).
GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY (USA shipping addresses only)
Leave a comment below to let us know what you think about June 2018's Ink Flight, Aurora/Montegrappa inks or the box extras. We will pick one random commenter to win an upcoming July 2018's Flight Box on Tuesday, June 26th at 8:00 pm. My sincere apologies to our international friends, we will only ship this giveaway to USA addresses.
======
Previous Ink Flights (Ink Flight #1 - Noodler's, Ink Flight #2 - Robert Oster Signature, Ink Flight #3 - KWZ, Ink Flight #4 - J. Herbin, Ink Flight #5 - P.W. Akkerman, Ink Flight #6 - Papier Plume, Ink Flight #7 - Platinum Mix-Free, Ink Flight #8 - Franklin-Christoph, Ink Flight #9 - Organics Studio, Ink Flight #10 - Monteverde, Ink Flight #11 - Krishna, Ink Flight #12 - Caran d'Ache, Ink Flight #13 - Rohrer & Klingner, Ink Flight #14 - Blackstone, Ink Flight #15 - Colorverse, Ink Flight #16 - De Atramentis)