Ink Flight #98 Reveal, March 2025

A tradition passed from father to son, Leonardo Officina Italiana builds on over 50 years of experience in Italian penmaking, providing world-class writing instruments (and ink!) for the modern creative soul. Fluid and gentle for all your steel and gold nibs, Leonardo's ink is full-bodied yet rich in nuance. 

Leonardo Officina Italiana Ink Swatches and Writing Test

March 2025 Ink Flight Box #98 Color Selection

Leonardo Smeraldo Stone
This brilliant greenish-blue has a vibrant, gemstone-like hue. Brilliant shading that has a hint of sheen at the edges.

Leonardo Purple Unique
Lay down a luxurious line with this deep purple ink. Go broad and wet so you can see a bit of some golden sheen.

Leonardo Noce Moscata Brown
This luscious, burnt reddish-brown ink has a spice of shading. Earthy and smoky.

Leonardo Hawaii Turchese
Ride the waves of clear turquoise with this stunning bright blue ink. Bright with dramatic shading.

Leonardo Verde Foresta
Get lost in thought under the lovely shading of this forest-green ink.

Leonardo Taurasi Red Wine
Taste the robust, deep wine red of this smooth-flowing ink. Has a complex mix of purple, brown, and burgundy undertones.

Leonardo Arancio Tarocco
Brighten your day with this bold, refreshing orange ink. The brightest hue of this Flight.

Tasting Notes:
Owning a few Leonardo pens over the years, I've become a fan of their pens and had some experience with the inks since a couple of the pens I purchased also included a 40ml bottle of ink. So, I already have Leonardo Blue and Turquoise, which I love using - my bottle of Turchese Hawaii is about half-finished. Knowing how good those inks are, I wasn't surprised when the other colors turned out to be molto belle.

The colors I appreciated the most are Taurasi Red Wine, Noce Moscato, and Smeraldo Stone. All three have a rich hue, depth, and shade well. I can also appreciate the boldness of both the Deep Purple Unique and Arancio Tarocco, which is my pick-me-up ink color of the month. Overall, I'm really glad we reached out to Leonardo to acquire these inks from Italy.  We were a little nervous about them arriving on time, but we got them done and shipped around our usual monthly date - by the 8th.

All the contents of Ink Flight Box 98 - Onilne Calligraphy Pen Set, Thousand Skies postcard and stickers

Box Extras: Online Air Calligraphy Fountain Pen and Nib Set

For beginners and seasoned pen enthusiasts alike, the versatile Online Air Calligraphy fountain pen adds a distinguished accent to your handwriting. The set includes one full fountain pen with a tapered, triangular-shaped body and soft grip section. Select from steel nibs in three line widths - 0.8mm, 1.4mm, and 1.8mm.

The style of these Calligraphy Sets are more elegant than your usual, starter calligraphy pen. The particular examples I'm thinking of are the Sheaffer we included in an Ink Flight a few months ago, and the Pilot Parallel. The Online set has an elegant, tapered barrel with a wide, metal clip. Depending on which style you received, you might have a rose gold clip, which looks very fancy. 

Plug and play with the included Online blue ink cartridge or fill the Online "Konverter" with the bottled ink color of your choice - any of the Leonardo inks will do nicely!

Jot a quick note to your pen pal using the "Day in a Stationery Store" postcard by Thousand Skies. This 4" x 6" card has a matte finish with adorable illustrations on the front and back.

Thousand Skies also designed this month's sticker. The "Kitten's Journal" vinyl sticker has a transparent background and can be attached cleanly to your journal cover, tumbler, mug, or laptop. It's waterproof, dishwasher safe, and has an anti-UV coating to prevent the bold colors from fading.

I first met Thousand Skies at the NY Now show about a year ago. Their booth was filled with all the cute, whimsical designs seen in their artwork. It was cuteness overload! I was immediately drawn to their cats, fountain pens, shibas and corgis!

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If you're interested in joining our next Ink Flight box, go here to see if we have available spots open for next month's shipment. If we don't, please email us so we can add you to our wait list.

Also, it might be possible we have previous Ink Flight boxes available to purchase without committing to a subscription. 

If you'd like to check out the contents of previous Ink Flight boxes, check out the archive here.