Goulet Pens April 2011 Ink Drop - Finale

The five ink samples in Goulet Pens April Ink Drop were labeled only with a number. The idea was that members would guess what ink each sample was for a chance to win free bottles of ink. This was a very fun idea and reason enough for me to break out some additional pens to test all of the inks. All of my guesses where wrong, wrong, WRONG. Oh well. It was fun.

So the Easter Eggs were:

Easter Egg #1 was J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir

Easter Egg #2 was Diamine Marine

Easter Egg #3 was Diamine Majestic Purple

Easter Egg #4 was Noodler's Navajo Turquoise

Easter Egg #5 was Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses

My favorites for the month are Diamine Majestic Purple and Diamine Marine. I'll probably only get the Marine though. The Navajo Turquoise is too close to Lake Placid Blue which I already have and I found it to be a bit messy since it took quite a while to dry. The Black Swan in English Roses didn't really turn me on either. It is designed to be used in a broad nib or flex tip pen so that its shading can be shown off.

My last test maze is a blank decision maze. Think up your own question and write in likely answers in the provided blank circles. Then solve away! The Black Swan in English Roses (the brown ink) was a little messy. It seemed to take a long time to fully dry. I used it in a Noodler's Fountain pen and it wrote smooth. Not like a Ducati or a Pilot, but acceptable. The Navajo Turquoise in the Pilot Vanishing Point was very smooth on the Clairefontaine paper. It smeared because of the aforementioned dry time.

During the drawing of this decision maze I put the Noodler's pen containing the Black Swan in English Roses aside for over a week before finishing the maze up. You can see the distinct difference in the color of brown caused by the delay in finishing. Perhaps this color change was caused by some settling out of the ink inside the pen. I don't know, but the effect is a real one.

Here is the scanned and edited version.

Here is the maze in real life. You can see all of the smudging and such. Beside the maze is the Noodler's fountain pen that I used and a page of my fifth maze on which I used the Navajo Turquoise.

The Ink Drop club is a wonderful way to get a chance to try out many different inks. The inks may be ones that you would not think to try if you had to buy an entire bottle of ink. The various themes which Brian and Rachel Goulet put together are fun and bring a great selection of colors. If one of the inks excites you there is a member discount for that ink. I've said before, and I'll say it again here, that the Ink Drop samples provide me with all the ink that I've used since I joined in October of last year. The only problem is the guilt I feel to not be using the inks I have already bought. I wonder what the May inks will be.

Until next time!

Jonathan