February Ink Palette + Pens + Stickers

This is crossposted from Curiousity.ca, my personal maker blog. If you want to link to this post, please use the original link since the formatting there is usually better.

People actually responded to my January ink palette so I’m encouraged enough to post one for February! I’m starting with just 4 inks this month. My current plan is to also rotate in some of the other pens I have inked if I want a few more colours (I have a few on my desk for todo lists/work notes plus a few more in my backpack for when I’m out and about).

(Image description is below with better formatting)

February Inks

• Diamine Cranberry (from Inkvent 2024)





• Diamine Noble Fir (from Inkvent 2024)





• KWZ All that glitters – Stardust Blue





• Pilot Iroshizuku – Momiji

KWZ All that glitters is meant to have a special formula that helps keep the shimmer in solution longer and I’m hoping to compare it with how the shimmer works in Noble Fir, so they’re both in the two TWSBI demonstrator pens.

February Pens

• Hongdian N8 Maple (long blade nib)





• Pilot Elite E95S (medium)





• TWSBI Eco-T Clear (stub)





• TWSBI Eco Glow Green (medium)

The Pilot Elite was my birthday gift and I love it so much. It’s a weird shaped pen with that long long cap but it works really well in my hand. The Hongdian N8 is new because I had a gift cert from work and I wanted to try the long blade nib, which I gather has line variation similar to a stub but the direction in which it’s thick vs thin is reversed. I only just inked it up so I can’t say much more yet!

February Stickers

• frogs and food (stickii advent 2024, Sinnin Studios)





• something valentines-y (stickii advent 2024, Neko Mori Arts)





• dogs with sweaters (stickii, didn’t have an artist name on the sheet, at photo in bottom of post)





• February calendar cat (By Mossy Pine, in photo at bottom of post)





• polar bears (The Latest Kate, not pictured)

This is *probably* more stickers than I’ll actually use but I’ve had some problems with the iroful journal paper having fingerprint-like sections that don’t really retain ink very well, so I’m keeping extra stickers on hand so I can cover those up and not be irritated by them as I find them. I’m guessing that they are actual fingerprints of the folk handling the paper during coating since the marks have ridges and whorls if I inspect them closely, but I don’t really know.

A side note: the iroful paper has been a fun experience for showcasing sheening inks, but it’s just irritating enough as a journal that I probably won’t buy another one: there’s the fingerprints where ink won’t take, the fact that the signatures are glued together so periodically it won’t lay perfectly flat, the thinner cover so I have to have a separate rigid writing board in when I’m writing, and the slower dry times for the coated paper which isn’t so bad for most of my journal use but is obnoxious when I’m adding art or flipping back and forth to todo lists and book review sections. I might swap to a new journal after February and save the remaining pages for ink testing depending on how many pages I use in February and how grumpy I am about the paper by then. I’m currently about halfway through the journal after 1.5 months.

Washi tape

• purple with gold hearts 3mm





• fuschia 1mm

I originally bought the teensy shiny tapes for nail art, but since I haven’t been doing that lately they’ve become great as a replacement for drawing lines.

February Ink palette + stickers
Inks:
Diamine Cranberry (from Inkvent 2024)
Diamine Noble Fir (from Inkvent 2024)
KWZ All that glitters – Stardust Blue
Pilot Iroshizuku – Momiji

Stickers:
– dogs with sweaters (stickii)
– Calendar cats (By Mossy Pine)

February has historically been my least favourite month because it’s when the darkness is starting to get to me and the weather is all over the map, and living in the US right now isn’t the greatest, but I’m trying to focus on things that bring me joy so I’ve got the energy to quietly (and non-publicly) deal with the stuff that doesn’t. I’ve been making some inroads into improving some stuff that wasn’t working for me at my day job, and I’m slowly recovering from the flu (or maybe it’s covid again) that my husband brought back from a work trip. Glad to spend some time appreciating inks and stickers and doggies in sweaters.