Best Seasons Of Ink Master (2024 Updated)

Let me be specific about the stained glass paint- I used these inks to color Plaid Gallery Glass Window Color Crystal Clear and they do mix in and color the clear while maintaining transparency without issues (that is, using the ink colors that are transparent already).

I don’t know if these would work for the same purpose in a different clear medium however. It took about 11 drops of the ink to color 1 oz of clear with adequate color depth so a little really will go a long way.

My only complaint- and it’s not much of one- is that a few of the colors I chose to buy are not as pigmented as others, the Yellow Medium Azo for instance- 16 drops of Yellow versus 2 of Phthalo Blue Green and the color is still more green than yellow.

This has been the best way to color the clear than anything else I’ve tried and I’m pretty happy with them.

This was my first time using Acrylic Liquid Ink. There are tons of ways to use this product, but I chose to experiment with the Acrylic Liquid Ink and Alcohol Inks. WOW!! Amazing duo – extremely vibrant colors, easy to apply – the dropper is the key – a little goes a long way!! Really enjoying the fluidity of the inks and how well the color holds up after drying.

Super happy with these inks!! Thank you Blick!!.

Nice product bright color. I got this in hopes to use with my water colors. For that shining accent needed at times to bring out colors of flowers or feathers. Or just sparkly dew drop in a garden. This is great!!! Cleans well from brushes.

I do use separate water for cleaning ink from a brush than cleaning watercolors. It cleans well and doesn’t drop to bottom of the water as I thought it would. I’ve even used a pallet and mix watercolors together.

Quit interesting results.

Throughly enjoy this product!!! Love love love it with my calligraphy products. Get good nibs so that you’ll have a smooth time writing. Also, use it frequently because after about a year the ink thickens quite a bit.

I added water but after many times of that, it does get thinner. Love it otherwise!.

It’s extremely difficult to find a good quality pigment-based ink that’s non-waterproof. Most are dye-based, which can prove to be very fugitive over a surprising short span of time. But Winsor & Newton’s Indian inks are made from lamp black, one of oldest, most durable, and lightfast pigments in the history of drawing.

The Liquid Indian Ink doesn’t contain shellac so you can use it in a brush pen and rework it with water somewhat after it dries. It’s not the smoothest ink I’ve ever used, however. It feels like it wants to drag and the pigment particles somehow feel more pronounced.

Higgins Eternal ink is definitely much smoother to work with, but it’s also a combination of pigment and dye. It’s hard to get around Winsor & Newton’s use of one very trustworthy pigment if you’re looking for a stable, permanent drawing ink for fine art.

On an unscientific note, it smells very badly of what can only be described as old-lady perfume. I don’t what it is, but it hits you in the face as soon as you open the bottle and lingers on the paper long after the ink has dried.

I use this ink for mixed media projects rather than for calligraphy. It has just the right consistency to produce the perfect “splatter”. The ink is beautifully smooth, opaque, fast drying and permanent.

I love it! Make sure you shake the bottle well before using.

I bought this ink in three colors; black, white, and gold. First off, they all smell terrible, but the black is truly horrible. It smells highly toxic to me. I was impressed with its opacity and ease of use in a dip pen, but after trying to use it a few times, I decided to never use it again.

One of the times I used it, a person at another desk complained about the smell. It felt like a product I would want to use with excellent ventilation and/or an open window. The gold ink is a big disappointment.

I tried using it with various nibs and it looked like a faint gold sparkle on various papers, including black. A total waste of money. The white ink, which looks absolutely fantastic on black paper, thankfully, does not smell as bad as the others.

It’s a truly matte opaque white and I will use it. Otherwise, I can not recommend the Winsor & Newton Calligraphy inks. I don’t know if there was something wrong with the black ink that I received, and I’d thrown out the boxes asap, so I did not contact Dick Blick customer service as I figured I was just out of luck, but I hate wasting my money.

There are better inks out there that don’t smell so horribly.

Ignore what the label says about this ink being okay for fountain pen use. It really isn’t, unless you are going to use it for a very short time (think a few hours maximum) and flush your pen with copious amounts of water immediately afterward.

The fine print on the back of the bottle says “clean equipment after use. ” They are not joking. I made the mistake of putting the Sepia in my Lamy Safari pen, and it has taken me quite a while to clean my pen out.

Calligraphy ink tends to be pigment-based, and fountain pen ink tends to be dye-based, so the pigments can settle into your pen feed and clog it. I would say that if you want to use your fountain pen for calligraphy, get fountain pen ink.

I love this ink for dip pens. I own 4 bottles: Black, Blue-Black, Yellow Ochre, and Sepia. They are bright, saturated, rich colors. With a broad nib, you can get some nice shading too. The ones I have are the ones with the blue caps, so they are a bit on the thinner side.

You can dilute them, but the ink is not very thick to begin with. They are also not water-resistant or water-proof. If you are looking for a similarly-priced calligraphy ink that is water-resistant and slightly thicker, try the Calli ink line by Daler Rowney, which is acrylic based.

All in all, a good calligraphy ink, but I’m knocking off 1 star for the labeling.

The industry we are in we use a lot of ink. We do ink prints of pets for pet owners daily. This brand far exceeds any other brand I’ve tried. The ink saturates well onto the paw pad and applies wonderfully to the paper.

The ink pads last a very long time. I’ve been using the same pad for months. Highly recommend this product and I will always repurchase it.

I was disappointed with my recent purchase of Ranger Ink. The color was spot on, perfect for my project, however the ink pad was drier than normal and spotty when applied. There were ink stains inside the cover and along the outside of the pad.

This makes me think it leaked or was old. Ranger has always been a great product, however it won’t make it thru my entire project.

This ink always gives dark, solid image. Be sure to condition your stamp, if new, by rubbing with your fingers or stamping first with an embossing ink. Then your image will be sharp when stamped. Archival ink has had an excellent reputation for a very long time of producing a great image.

I’m a fountain pen newbie and liked the idea of substituting something beautiful and durable for cheap plastic throwaways, but the point is that I wanted to be able to use a fountain pen wherever I used other pens in the past (which is mostly on scraps of printer paper and backs of junk mail envelopes lying around the house).

I ordered this ink as well as a couple of fountain pens with medium nibs (because they were recommended for beginners), but later learned that if you want to write on bad paper it’s better to have a finer nib.

However, once my order arrived I tried my Pilot Metropolitan (Med) and TWSBI Eco (Med) with this ink on the special paper I ordered as well as every scrap of bad paper lying around the house that I could find.

I’m thrilled to say that I really haven’t had any issues with feathering or bleed through at all! I can happily use my fabulous fountain pens along with this ink on anything and everything that I did before with disposable pens.

Very Happy!.

I’ve used way more of this than I expected. It’s very smooth; with the Metropolitan that it’s in (I’m no longer sure which Metropolitan donated which nib and grip section among my Metropolitans of the same nib width — apparently, it matters), it writes fairly wetly, with good color saturation.

And, of course, the Metropolitan has a super-smooth nib. Right now I’m disputing whether to flush out the calligraphy-medium nib Prera that I have the Take-Sumi loaded into: I haven’t used it enough (I use the CM nib for headings, not so much for full journal entries or anything), and the Prera is beginning to write dryly.

The major issue I have with the Pilot pens (both the Metropolitan and Prera are Pilot — I’ve also had the issue with the Kakuno) is that they have a tendency to let the ink in the converter evaporate away, even when capped.

This isn’t an issue with my TWSBIs, which is one of the reasons I’ve migrated to TWSBI. One of the upshots of the Iroshizuku ink line is, however, that they feel — to me — very easy to remove from pens, even when the pens seem like they should be dried up and forever dead because of it.

Just soaking the section in pen cleaner — it’s weird, it’s like the Brownian motion of the pen cleaner molecules scrub the ink off. It’s weird. I’ve actually even gotten Iroshizuku ink on my skin and have been able to wash it all off with no stain.

but I don’t remember exactly *which* ink it was. just something blue-green.

From day one, my Lamy 2000 skipped unless I wrote slowly. I didn’t know any better. Then the ink piston stopped working so I sent it to Lamy for repairs. The tech called me back and told me a needed a new piston and major cleaning since it was all gummed up.

He asked what kind of ink I was using. I responded Noodlers. He told me Noodlers (amongst others) was good but anathema for Lamy pens. I asked him what he recommended and he gave me several names one of which was Pilot Iroshizuku.

I picked this brand because it was available in a purple that I liked. Now I can write at my natural speed with no skipping. Ink brand really does make a difference. Beautiful packaging too.

This W&N black has been at my side for three decades and is a dependable mainstay of my work. Probably, the key fact to note here is ‘Waterproof’. It is certainly a great ink for many uses that don’t require that quality but is fabulous for when you do.

There are many uses for which being waterproof is great but the two most obvious are when you want to draw in ink and then paint over in watercolour or even acrylic and the second is when you want to apply further ink, either neat or thinned with water.

The ink is rich and deep black with a very slight sheen towards blue. This is probably most noticeable if applied very thickly and pools before setting dry. You can add increasing amounts of water (W&N recommend distilled water but I use tap) to get lovely grey tones.

Be aware of course that you need to be wiping the ink off your dip pens/nibs in between re-loading with a tissue and regularly swirling in some water to ensure the ink doesn’t dry permanently on to the pen.

Also, DO NOT use in any type of fountain pen style art pen unless you’re happy to chuck it after one use. This is great ink and you can use it in pens, brushes, pads, fingers, splatters from toothbrushes, drips, pours and with stencils on all kinds of surfaces.

Give it a try.

Big generous tubes of rich, lovely metallic colors around the spectrum. Duochrome colors are wonderful for a shimmering combination hue, iridescents for a clear spectrum and Interference colors for a glorious “soap bubble” effect with flashing complementary glimmers.

I use these much more than I expected to use iridescent paints. A fine glaze over a similar color gives richness without gaudiness, a stronger concentration gives as much special effects as I want, on up to bling on Christmas cards in their splendor.

Interference colors are especially good for adding a little zing to snow scenes or sea foam, clouds, anything that in nature does get a bit of sparkle. Undersea scenes are often jazzed up by a glaze of Oceanic Duochrome over the entire scene – it vanishes, doesn’t seem to be an iridescence so much as feel of being under water.

I have a great many of these and also use the Iridescent Gold for gold details in medieval illuminations – where the pigment load and brightness exceed anything up to and including gold gouache. It’s wonderful stuff.

I had no plans to fool with “glittery” watercolor- well – I decided to try a tube of this – and also a very inexpensive Da Vinci product which also produces luminous effects. It’s all so fun to paint with – no – it’s not “classic water color” – but great for abstracts, line and wash, and if used in smaller amounts – just adds a tiny bit of glow.

I bought the gold and mixed it in with other colors and it was fantastic. Here’s the best part – this paint FEELS like heaven as you move it about the page – I can’t explain it- but try it and the Da Vinci – watching the shimmer move and flow around the page- and the feel of it against your brush – it’s heavenly.

If you are into the abstract craze, you could go nuts with this paint and have so much fun. I am not really dong abstracts too much – but if I was – I would do this. Oh – also great for a look that is sort of “children’s book” illustrator type impact.

I was painting with it and my line and washes took on a fairy tale quality – not my style -but I just painted about 5 of them just to break out of my box. Really fun.

I am new to the world of serious watercolors and am trying do unconventional things with them (my eventual goal is to do a nice watercolor on an electric guitar and when done, have it completely usable).

The range of products from Daniel Smith is a key to doing this well (their luminescent paints and ground products seem like naturals for this purpose). However many projects and experiments prior to that – and hopefully many more afterward.

Am interested in learning illuminated calligraphy and tried these in a sample letter but found that they were a little too thin. Probably need Winsor Newton Gouache for this. But I can see how these calligraphy inks would be useful in doing the preliminary outlining of letters and designs.

Brilliant inks!.

For me, this set of Iroshizuku inks is the best of the three, hands down. Take-sumi is a wonderful medium-dark black with lots of character, especially in my Hero Fude fountain pen. I can do a lot of hard and soft lines using this ink.

Kon-peki is just as amazing as Jetpens says, being bright and brilliant as an endless summer sky and with delightful shading. I’m not usually a fan of bright blue anything but I couldn’t take my eyes off of this ink in my Parker IM, medium nib.

Lastly, I didn’t think much of Tsuki-yo, and I thought I’d rather grab Shin-kai if I wanted a mature blue. Trying it out though really changed my mind. Shin-kai is a gray-blue and predictably tame (and I love anything gray and muted) but somehow Tsuki-yo has a lot more personality.

How can I describe it? It just goes to work with what SEEMS like it could be blue but then it really hits you when you least expect it with this playful yet sophisticated green undertone. Paired with the weighted Diplomat Optimist pen in medium nib, it’s the smoothest writing experience and I can’t stop.

Dislaimer: I’ve only used one of the three colors (Syo-ro, “Pine Tree Dew”) so far. I expect the other two will behave similarly. Loaded in a medium nib Lamy Safari, it writes smooth, dries quickly, and I haven’t had any demonstrations of waterfastness.

It’s closer to the turquoise end of the “gray turquoise” spectrum. The one thing I noticed is that at first, there was a little drag on writing, like the nib was moving across wet paper rather than dry; it’s less noticeable after a week (and the ink is drying just a bit darker than initially), so i may be more related to the fact it was a new pen rather than the ink.

Despite that wettish feeling, this ink stays put. Feathering and spread on the page aren’t noticeable, and it produces a consistent line on a variety of papers. Some of my favorite inks (looking at you, Noodler’s 54th Mass) leave a wide film — almost a puddle — on the flat surfaces of the nib.

None of that here, this ink stays put. Unless some hideous flaw reveals itself, I’m all but certain to but a full size bottle when the sampler is empty.

Incredibly gorgeous colors. Have fallen in love with Asa-gao, just like everyone else– it’s just the perfect cool dark blue, with enough purple to make things extra delicious. I do not recommend letting this or any other shade dry in your pen, though; I misplaced a Jinhao with Yama-budo loaded in the converter, and after several months it took a good thirty-six (36) hours of soaking and flushing to loosen/remove all the ink from the feed.

(Using distilled water only– was out of cleaner, which would have cut this time down significantly. ) The ink was wetter in my Jinhao 599 than my Kaweco Sport, but dried fairly quickly on both Muji and Leuchtturm notebook paper regardless of pen.

I’m no ink connoisseur by any stretch of the word but having only ever heard good things about Pilot products, including their inks and the already stellar reviews I figured that this would be a very solid ink purchase for every day writing.

(lots of note taking, doodling, sketching sometimes etc. ) First off the colour, it is beautiful, absolutely stunning shade of blue. If you could get a stock photo of blue writing on paper it would be using this ink.

Its super consistent and performs really quite well even on just cheap lined paper. There is very light feathering if you write slowly, but I do most of my writing on printer paper and lined paper, on thicker more “proper” paper it is even cleaner.

I’ve been using it in a TWSBI 580 ALR with a extra-fine nib but have also tried it in my Monteverde Innova with a fine and Omniflex nib, as well as a Parker pen with what I think is a medium nib and it works great in all of them.

If I had to pick one word to describe this ink it would be consistent. Which I believe might be even more important than it being super good in one area. It dries relatively fast, even gently brushing over it accidentally sometimes within 30 seconds of writing and no smears.

Blessing. Bottle design as many others have mentioned also should allow you to get the most out ink possible out. Great stuff, highly recommend it!.

This ink is so BEAUTIFUL!! It’s definitely a little more orange than I expected, but as I write with it more and more, I can see that the more ink I use on a particular word, the more I can see the deep colour you can achieve with this ink.

It definitely brings me back to my time in Japan as the persimmons ripened and were ready to eat. It flows well, though if it gathers a little too much in certain spots of my writing, it takes time to dry, but I was writing slow in those moments.

Write a bit faster and the ink will dry within moments. great on Tomoe River paper, though too many passes and it will seep through to the other side (I’m using this ink with my Hobonichi Planner A6 Eng).

It doesn’t bleed or feather as you write and of course, I must reiterate, the colour is absolutely stunning and pleasant to see on the page. If you use this ink on regular copy paper, it will definitely feather and bleed as the paper is very absorbent.

The bottle opening is wide enough that I didn’t have to worry about knocking the sides with my pen while filling (and in turn perhaps overturning the bottle, as I am occasionally clumsy and would be prone to do).

The weighted bottom and short bottle height give it the stability it needs to not feel as it will tip over on its own and the glass lets you see your pen as you fill. I used this ink in my TWSBI ECO-T with a Fine Nib, mostly on my Hobonichi planner.

Highly recommend! :).

I got my bottle of Cassis Black from elsewhere. I have tested all six colors in the Pilot Kaküno pen with a medium nib and a CON70 converter. Of the six, this one was the least satisfactory. It had flow issues in the CON70 converter.

The ink literally would not flow from the top of the converter to the bottom when the pen was positioned to write, then once the ink at the feed had been used up no more would flow until the pen was shaken down like an old fever thermometer.

The CON-40 relieved some of this due to the four mixer balls that would cause the ink to flow when they rolled from the plunger to the feed. Even with the CON-40, flow was problematic. The only thing the CON-40 did was make it easier to restart the flow.

I am using several iron gall inks at the moment both for the sake of permanence and for the sake of their other characteristics. This is the one ink that has caused any corrosion, leaving some small amount of pitting behind on one of the Kaküno nibs.

It didn’t leave huge numbers of deep pits, but they are there nonetheless. I deducted one star for the flow issue and one for the pitting.

I love this ink! It has one of the greatest color changes I’ve seen coming out bright yellow and changing into a dark bronze-yellow. There is a dark grey center that is waterproof with a halo of yellow that spreads if it is becomes wet.

It gives incredible shading and looks terrific even on cheap copy paper. The flow seems quite good for an Fe gall ink, and it well behaved. It is something completely different from the usual blues and blacks, and I smile every time I write something using this ink.

Stellar!!!!! This ink performs well. It’s iron gall – my first. I trusted Platinum enough to try it on an EF steel nib. It looks beautiful. A great organic color. Pleasing to the eye. And besides. I used it in a newly arrived pen.

That was being temperamental. This ink got a nib going -that i was fussing with, (repeated flushing with ammonia based cleaners, soap cleaning, drying, re-inking with 3 other nice inks. nothing worked- until i inked it with the Forest Black.

It was an vintage Nib NOS Sheaffer imperial that was suposed to have been never inked, i think it was perhaps dip inked maybe in the 80’s at the shop and never cleaned. ) I apologize for the long explanation- but this Ink worked a miracle.

Of all the States inks this is the best. Disclaimer I am from Louisiana. It is a good ink and the color is true to the smears. I like the variations it presents as it dries.

While the ink looked very thin and light in the bottle, it wrote very well and was not light in color on the paper. It is a pretty shade of orange 🙂

This “Silky Purple” is a strange, pinkish purple. On its own, it’s glaringly, shockingly bright. That may be your bag, but it’s not mine. Where it really shines is when it’s added to one or more of the other Platinum Mix-free Inks.

That’s it’s main purpose: to be an ingredient, not the whole meal. I absolutely love my set of mixable inks! Just not individually. I wanted to give it 4 stars because of the color, but I’m giving it 5 stars because it’s a very well-behaved ink.

It doesn’t feather much, if at all, even on copy paper. It flows just fine in my extra fine Pilot and Platinum fountain pens, and it can be used to make some really fantastic colors. I definitely recommend this line of products.

Mixing inks is now my new obsession.

I love this ink! I had platinum preppy cartridge for Violet and loved it but wanted more. This is the same ink. The ink is quite wet but the flow is very smooth. But the color — the color is what I love.

It’s a beautifully deep shade of violet, close to Noodlers Cactus Fruit and Diamine Bougainvillea. But it’s a deeper shade to my eyes, and my personal favorite purple ink.

I paint miniatures as a hobby, and generally the inks that I use are thin and largely transparent. They generally don’t mix too well with the acrylic paint that I use, but I was recommended the Daler-Rowney Black, White, and Payne’s Grey to be an alternative to my standard black, white, and grey acrylic paints.

While I can’t really say I’ve found much use for the black (standard opaque black ink, really) the Payne’s Grey has absolutely provided a reliable shading effect to whatever acryllic paint I add it to.

The white, however, is definitely the best. This is simply a superior alternative to standard white acrylic paints simply because of how smooth it is. As an ink, I was worried that it’d be too translucent, but I’d say it was about 80% opaque, which ironically is about the same as my white acrylics but with way smoother coverage.

In general, white acrylic paint has a tendency of building up, separating, drying out, while this ink seems to have no such issues. 2 layers always seems to be enough, provided you’re not putting it on anything extremely dark, in which case I’d recommend separating the two with an opaque layer of something else first.

The ink itself seems to do everything right, and until they find a way to make this magically 100% opaque, I can’t think of a single criticism I’d have with it. No separation, no build up, no chalkiness.

Just smooth solid white. If you paint a lot of fire and flame effects, this is a must buy.

Love these FW paints. Compared to other liquid acrylics, they are more liquid and thinner in texture. A little goes a long way, super easy to use, high color payoff, not streaky, mix well. I love these! My only issue is that many of the shades are near identical colors and the “shimmering green” shade is just a standard white iridescent pearl, no green shimmer at all.

Otherwise these are great! I like them better than the Golden liquid acrylics, which look thick and streaky compared to FW. #sweepstakes.

These inks are beautiful and vibrant. It was what I was looking for. However when I got these inks, 2 of the inks were clogged and both those inks looked like they somehow were dried out. I had to soke them in hot boiling water to get the gunk out of the droplet pipes.

I had gotten FW from a store before and was warned because they were on the shelf that the ink was old. I had got a discount and had seen the ink caked at the bottom. I knew what I was getting into when buying those.

But I was really disappointed when I bought new inks and had seen the same inks caked like they were old. I don’t know if this happens normally. But this is the second time but I don’t think they are supposed to be like that.

Some of the other colors looked like they might be getting old but at least the droplet pipes were functioning and free of caked pigment. At least after cleaning and mixing up the ink for a long time, seemed to make them usable.

I would still suggest these since in the end they painted well on the paper.

After years of linoleum block printing, Akua took my printing to a new level. Color saturation is a little problematic with traditional mulberry paper because it is so absorbent, but that never bothered me because traditional one color block print artists through the ages display that as simply part of the medium.

That is not true for the Japanese ukiyo-e artists, of course, but that is because they simply drew the designs that professional cutters and printers executed. Since my father was a commercial printer, I realized that the ink, itself, had much to do with the color saturation.

Regular water-based inks, such as those used in ukiyo-e, require a wet or damp medium — the paper has to be wet. However, when I tried Akua’s soy-based ink, I found that I could get the same kind of color saturation even on mulberry because the consistency of the ink was perfect.

It is less instantly absorbent than regular water-based ink, and though it takes longer to dry, I can control the effect better. It is exactly what I wanted — a little more control over the final image.

I ordered some Akua intaglio inks in July from Blick. I had ordered such inks before and had no problems with them. This time I ordered 2 ounce containers of Crimson Red, Hansa Yellow and Red Oxide. The Hansa yellow came with its top not firmly screwed on, but luckily no ink had leaked.

It was a bit clumpy, which is something that rarely happens with Akua. The Crimson red had a film on the top of the ink, something I have never seen/experienced with any Akua product. That ink was also clumpy and aggregated that required me to really beat the clumps out on my inking table.

That’s either inferior product quality or storage. The Red Oxide was fine. I am puzzled because I have ordered 2 and 8 ounce Akua intaglio inks before from Blick and they arrived in fine shape and still in perfect working condition after 3 years.

There are not any manufacture dates placed on the jars by Speedball so I dont know if the red and yellow inks are “out of date”, if that ever occurs with these inks.

I like the idea of a non toxic ink for printmaking. It worked well for printing dry point or etchings after soaking the paper. The ink dried quickly and did not rub off. However, it did not do as well on dry paper.

I made Christmas cards on the 400 series Strathmore card stock. While the print looked good, it has been weeks now and the paint is still not completely dry. Or, if it is dry, it comes off to the touch and smears.

I can’t send out the cards. I had to switch to a an oil based ink that can be cleaned up by water.

I love these things. They are great for so many art projects. I had some square ones which I liked but they are felt and leave box sharp lines. I purchased some round felt pads used for furniture and thought I’d attach them with velcroe sticky side (male side) and use them,but then I saw a sale on these and bought them also.

I needed quite a few because unless you want to wash them everytime (nightmare) and wait for them to dry, they should be dedicated to colors and products. I have pastels, watercolor crayons, wax crayons, and inks.

Mixing chalks with inks or wax total disaster, so just buy plenty. These really work well with my products, better than felt, they are a soft smooth sponge, they just make everything blend so seemlessly, no sharp lines like tthe sqares did.

Oh and the furniture felt rounds -Big Dud! They Are synthetic Felt, not real felt, so you might get better results from a plastic grocery bag and your finger. Anyway, I will probably buy a couple more packs to dedicate to colors, not beacause they wear out.

They seem very durable. Oh and they fit on the end of spools of thread if you dont have the handle tool. I needed an extra one for my grandaughters stuck the male side of the Velcro on the spool and kid size handle.

these are great for watercolor sponge painting too. You can make background circles and animals and faces. Just have FUN.

I was reluctant to buy these in the first place as they are very expensive for what they are. Tiny bits of sponge attached to Velcro should not cost nearly £8. However, I needed to purchase this pack as I had bought the blending tool earlier on and needed more than 4 sponges as after I attempted to wash the ink off so I could use a different colour it faded a little but didn’t come clean.

After using one of the sponges for the second time, the Velcro ripped off half of the sponge making it impossible to use as it flopped all over the place and could not be used specifically for where you wanted the ink to go.

That sponge has ended up in the bin and I fear many will follow as the Velcro on the tool is understandably so strong and yet the Velcro on the sponge just rips off. Would not recommend buying.

I have been using these blending foams for a couple of years now. They are great to use with the Tim Holtz oxide inks to destress the edges of pages and fussy cut decorations. The are also wonderful for blending inks and for stenciling on journal pages.

The are the perfect size to fit in the bottom of the distress ink pads so you can use the pad for a long while with your ink before it needs replaced.

Having already bought the bottle of Jacques Herbin 1670 Les Encres Essentielles Bleu Austral, it was only natural that I would also buy the cartridges for my favourite ink. The cartridges come almost 100% full, and each catridge has a sealing small ball bearing that gets pushed into the cartridge to help agitate the ink, although there is no ball bearing rattling noise made when in use.

The International Long Cartridge capacity is about the same as a Piston Filler Pen’s capacity and twice the capacity of an ink Converter. I prefer to use Long International Cartridges with Medium, and especially, Broad NIB pens, and Short International Cartridges with Extra-Fine and Fine NIB pens.

Value: money wise Cartridges cost more than bottled ink per ml, but convenience is much higher – both to transport and to clean and refill. Having to take apart a Piston Filler pen to dry the inside of the barrel after cleaning and then Silicone Grease-ing the seals (same for a Converter – Converter seals dry out, too), is inconvenient, taking more much time than using a bulb and syringe to clean a metal pen and Long International Cartridge.

Besides, I don’t have to worry about the Silicone Grease contaminating the ink and the Feed Follower Grooves, nor do I have to use a paper towel to wipe away ink from the NIB after filling from a bottle, nor do I have to worry that water vapour buildup in a Piston Filler barrel will dilute the ink.

Yes, I understand that not everyone likes using cartridges, but a Bulb and Syringe will cost about the same as ONE Converter, and most new pens come with a cartridge that can be refilled (and if it was a Short International Cartridge – it has the same capacity as a Converter.

) After having bought over five “International” Converters, at $5 apiece, (I own over a dozen Converters and I hate the idea of paying $8 to $12 for some other-than-Inernational Standard converters) I now find Cartridges to be more convenient; ymmv.

I never know how to rate “Value”: money wise, “value” would be low; convenience and time saving wise, “value” would be high. Value wise, I have not yet had a Jacques Herbin Bleu Austral ink Cartridge ink starve a NIB, due to an air bubble forming, although I have had it happen with some cartridges that do not have a ball bearing.

I consider Jacques Herbin 1670 Les Encres Essentielles Bleu Austral one of the top 10 inks in the world. So it made no sense to buy less expensive Internation Standard Long Cartridges filled with inks I would only end up draining and re-filling with Bleu Austral.

But, I also wish that the box came with 8 cartridges instead of 7.

Love this color. It makes my other blue inks look drab. Still professional looking imo but could skirt the line depending on how conservative your situation because it does get noticed on the page. Has a fairly wet flow.

I can clean my pen, pop this cartridge in, and start writing with it immediately. No waiting for it to flow through the feed, and I can write for any period of time with no hesitation in the flow. It just flows and flows.

It puts down a tall glistening line that actually dries pretty fast. Starts out dark and dries to a brighter blue. With it being on the wetter side, I do get bleeding on Moleskine and lesser quality paper.

Still surprisingly behaved though in terms of feathering. Using it in a Waterman Carène fine. Makes a slightly thicker line than my Waterman cartridges. Will smear with water but still legible.

A really lovely lush green color. My favorite green color. I have this ink in both cartridges and 50ml bottle. Decent shading. Off all the green inks I have tried, this is the one I keep coming back to due to its really deep looking green color on the page.

The packaging of this ink makes it easy to direct the ink exactly where needed. Nice, vibrant color, too!

Like this ink because it isn’t messy when you apply to the stamp pad or refill the self ink pad. Much better than the roll on type.

These are tricky to find so I was happy when I was able to get this. Nice ink for stamps.