Calligraphy

3 posts with the tag “Calligraphy”

[MCV] Taccia Hokusai Sabimidori (Rusty Turquoise) Ink

Jun 30, 2025 - 4 min read - 500 words

Inori

Learn About Sheen

I came across the word “sheen” in the world of fountain pen ink when I browsed r/Calligraphy on Reddit. At the subreddit, I regularly saw someone’s posts using this kind of ink with great, beautiful sheen. (And his great masterpieces absolutely.) This guy I called him Lambroghini because of his reddit account, but maybe it’s proper to call him Leonardo, as indicated in his Instagram profile.

I got impressed by a ink he used in his post, which is Tesla Coil made by Birmingham Pen Company in US.

The color and sheen shown below: (official image)

tesla coil ink official image

Bump Into Sabimidori

Recently I went to a local fountain pen shop, I asked the stuff if they sell the Tesla Coil ink. They said they don’t sell any Birmingham inks. I also took a look on local shopping sites, amazons (US & Japan), nothing found. And sadly, Birmingham’s official website does not support international shipment. Oh, NO!

Then I asked the stuff to recommend similar inks with sheen. (But not limited to similar color) He recommend two inks, both of them are the Ukiyo-e ink series made by Taccia:

Hiroshige Ruri (広重(ひろしげ)瑠璃(るり))
Hokusai Sabimidori (北斎(ほくさい)錆緑(さびみどり))

PS. For more detailed and professional review about these inks, I recommend reading posts from Mountain of Ink. (Ink Review #1348: Taccia Hokusai-sabimidori — Mountain of Ink and Taccia Hiroshige Inks — Mountain of Ink)

And I love the color of Hokusai Sabimidori at the first sight, almost decided to buy it immediately. 😆

Unboxing

Here we started from the box! The design of box is inspired by Ukiyoe from Japan.

Let’s open it!

A bottle of ink and a pamphlet. Here’s all we have.

Inside the pamphlet is a brief introduction about Ukiyo-e series.

Actually there are already 16 inks in the series at the time writing. (Jun/2025)

About The Naming

I just want to discuss a little bit about the name: Hokusai Sabimidori.

For Hokusai (北斎(ほくさい)), as wiki suggests, is a Japanese ukiyo-e artist.

As Sabimidori (錆緑(さびみどり)), it can be divide into two characters. Sabi (錆(さび)) means rust in Japanese, while midori (緑(みどり)) means green.

So sabimidori means rust green, or rusty green.

Trying the Ink

It’s time to try the ink! I tried it on two paper: Midori MD and Tomoe River.

The rusty sheen is soooo beautiful!

Dry And Wet

I realize the ink will change the color when drying:

As you can see, when the ink is wet (lower stroke), it looks like Prussian blue. Then after it drys, it becomes green, which is between turquoise and emerald , but more close to turquoise. And of course with rust at ink pond!

Here’s final shot!

DEFINITELY LOVE IT!

Thanks for reading. Happy writing!

[MCV] Intro to My Calligraphy Voyage

Jun 10, 2025 - 1 min read - 100 words

Inori

This series are talking about my experiences, notes, thoughts when learning calligraphy.

As an lefty, faced many difficulties and might have different learning paths from right-handed people.

So I decided to write down something to share with people interested in calligraphy, especially lefty fellows. 😆

The series should have a name to make it easy to memorize, I call it “My Calligraphy Voyage”, abbreviated with “MCV”.

Last words to say:

Keep smudging, keep your hands dirty and enjoying calligraphy. 😎

Happy writing!

[MCV] My Equipment for Calligraphy

Jun 10, 2025 - 3 min read - 500 words

Inori

Here I just want to share what I used to practice calligraphy.

The list might be changed in the future, I will go back and update it if I remembered.

my equipment

Pen

I started learning calligraphy by buying my first Pilot Parallel pen (3.8mm). I have also tried dip pen, and sold it after giving it a try, only found that not suitable for myself as a lefty. Until now, my main pen are all Pilot Parallel pens. Other pens are not mainly used for calligraphy, they are used as auxiliary purpose.

Here’s my pen list:

Pilot Parallel pen 3.8mm: mainly used
Pilot Parallel pen 3.8mm: mainly used
Pilot Parallel pen 5.0mm
Pilot Parallel pen 1.2mm
Pilot Shaker Mechanical pencil 0.5mm: for drawing guidelines
Pilot Super Knock 0.7mm (BPK-P-WFBA): for drawing guidelines
Pilot Super Grip G 1.6mm (BPS-GG): for drawing guidelines

“Why all pens are Pilot?”, you might ask. I realized it when I made the list, it was just coincident. 🤣 I just bought pens that suitable for my writing habits. By the way, if you really want to know, my favorite brand of pen is Zebra when I was a student. But that was for hand writing, not calligraphy.

Ink

For ink now, I don’t have too much right now.

Pelikan 4001 (blue black)
Parker Quink (black)

Blue inks are suitable for practicing and learning in my opinion.

I am not a ink collectors like many people do on Reddit r/calligraphy. But willing to join them if necessary. 😆 Only when I get huge improvement of my calligraphy skill and would like to write some cards to friends, it’s better to expand the color options to make more fun. The inks Pilot Iroshizuku (色彩雫) series from Japan have many choices and they looks beautiful. (from color and naming aspect) Inks with great sheen like Diamine from UK looks beautiful, too. I really want to give them a try in the future.

Paper

Paper is another important equipment for calligraphy.

MIDORI Paperpad A5 size: MIDORI is a famous brand from Japan in stationary fiel, no need to explain more here.
Xiangqiu (象球牌) paper for fountain pen: It’s the paper produced by a brand in Taiwan. It seems pretty famous at local writing community for great writing experience with fountain pen. Further more, the price is very cheap, suitable for daily practice.

Other

Some tools worth to mention:

LED light table: china brand, with color temperature control, brightness control, magnetic pin supported
COX plastic ruler 40cm
Writing pads: brand from Tylee Pen Shop (famous stationary shop, mainly focus on fountain pens & inks)
Pen tray: preventing pens from rolling around at desk
Ink injector (refiller)

That’s all! Thanks for reading!

Happy writing! ✍️