J. Herbin 1798 Amethyste de l'Oural

It's been a busy week, and what should arrive just in time for the weekend! The new Jacques Herbin 1798 Amethyste de l'Oural - the newest ink from J. Herbin, a rich, dark purple with silver shimmer. It's similar to the 1670 inks (Emeraude de Chivor, Stormy Grey), but a new line. The US got an early sneak peek of it, and while we placed our order for this ink months ago without having seen it, it's sometimes nice to not really know when it's going to show up and then be delighted by our delivery guys. Here's a writing sample with my Franklin-Christoph Model 20 Fine nib. By now I think most people know that to get the most out of the ink, you need pretty good paper (non-absorbent paper, like Rhodia, or Japanese paper like Tomoe River or Life), as well as a wet nib. The paper is a Rhodia Heritage notebook. Remember that sometimes broad nibs or italic nibs can still be fairly dry - they just have a wider line on the page. My Franklin-Christoph is one of my wetter fine nibs, although because it's fine you do have to look closely to see the shine - I guess like a lot of things in life. Here's another writing sample with a wet broad nib. Like all inks with particles of shimmer, you should use some common sense - don't leave it in a pen for too long, extra cleaning doesn't hurt. I personally don't mind if there's still a little extra shimmer left in a pen after cleaning, mostly a bit left in the feed - over time it comes out with the next ink I put in the pen. There are a few new releases expected this fall that we're pretty excited about. As we roll into my favourite season, it's back to school and crisp air and all of the beautiful colours.

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In other news, the matches for the pen pal match up are a bit delayed. We're hoping to send them out tomorrow! Sorry about that - we've been a bit swamped around here lately, although it's mostly me who's dropped the ball on that. And also, we're hiring again! You can see more details here, but we're looking for someone available to work at least 20-28 hours a week. There's opportunity to move to full-time, especially for someone with experience or interest in working in social media, graphic design, special projects like events and website stuff.