Better Ink Swatches: Rhodia and Tomoe River DIY Col-O-Ring Swab Binders

For more details, see my website write-up: www.thewetpen....
After I started making extra pages for my Col-O-Ring notebook, I began to question the wisdom of swabbing on 100lb art paper, and decided that it would make more sense to use types of paper that I commonly write on. This led me to make several of my own DIY Col-O-Ring binders, using Rhodia (plain and dot-grid) paper, Clairefontaine, Tomoe River, and a few others. That's all this video is about.
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[@justmej9364]

The idea with the coins is pure genius!! Can’t believe I haven’t come up with this in almost 10 years of using these paper trimmers 😂

[@constantinosglam]

If your paper-cutter surface is metal, you can use magnets too so you can change position without tape :)

[@theda1786]

OMG. I can't believe Col-o-ring is just that stock standard Canson paper lol. I've been trying to source a Col-o-ring for ages, but it's def DIY time!

[@nancymcnee2707]

As I am new to fountain pens and inks and getting Col-o-ring hs not been possible in my hood this project is right up my alley! Thanks for such a sensible tutorial.

[@thewetpen]

Hi Nancy, Glad you found it useful! I have found that these are wonderfully useful when I'm comparing how different inks behave on different papers... it's remarkable how often an ink will look like a nice warm green (for example) on a Western paper, and then quite cool on a Japanese one.

[@perfumesylapiceras]

This is awesome. I just found my next project :D and the excuse to go buy MORE paper and play with my inks.

[@Zmiana_Pogody]

Great idea! The inks really look different on different kinds of paper! Ps. I hate when online shops have only one swatch of ink (if they have it at all!). Even truly cool inks companies might have truly bad examples of their own coolest inks XD and the shop may add some more swatches, right? :)

[@thewetpen]

Thanks! I agree that shops should have multiple swabs and they should label what they're swabbing on. Bad swabs at shops can be a serious problem with places that don't offer samples for sale, too... in fact, I have an upcoming video about that.

[@kat3times]

Hello, began watching your videos for this year's inkvent calendar. Then I found this video and got inspired. I used ~80lb Claire Fontaine copy paper and the little papers curled. How do you keep your paper from curling? I hope you are able to see this x) merry Christmas

[@thewetpen]

Mine also curl :-) Actually, Tomoe River crinkles, Cosmo arches, Rhodia warps. It's hard to tell from the overhead angle.

[@kat3times]

@@thewetpen oh thats really good to know! Thank you for telling me. I've been obsessing all day.

[@danielscheerer3032]

PS - glad I found your channel. Excellent!

[@beautybug1831]

Matthew, you've done such an amazing job, I was totally sure it's a store-bought testing pad... 🤓 Well done! I have to try and make some lil pads myself. Thanks for the idea (I thought of the Canson watercolor paper, but as you said, it isn't relevant as Tomoe River paper or other WRITING PAPER brands that we use... 😀 Duh...!)

[@SYnthFeel]

you saved my life 😅

[@lizpilgrim1]

Great idea!

[@thewetpen]

Thanks 🙂

[@Antisympathy]

I want mine in gold‼️🫠 Ima try this 👍🏾

[@lizbethdavern53]

Brilliant!

[@bethautrey9634]

Yes it was mildly amusing, and I love your ideas! Oh the rabbit holes we'll go! Thanks so much for this. I'm just getting back into my pens and inks. It is such fun, & you completely understand the nerd factor of which I belong to! Have a great day...Really enjoyed this and have subscribed!

[@thewetpen]

Hey Beth, glad you appreciated the video :-) I just made a new one of these using Sakae Iroful paper, but I'm probably not going to go back and swatch all of my old inks on it... it will probably just get new inks... I have to make some limits somewhere.

[@lifeinspiresdesign]

Great execution! I would love to do this for my inks!

[@thewetpen]

Thanks Kristen :-) After I made all of them, I thought that it might get to be a lot of work to do all of the different swatch booklets, but in fact, once you're dipping something into your ink, it's hardly any extra work to swab it across a few more open booklets, too... and I love seeing how the results differ.

[@thomasvn]

Nice idea of doing this for several paper types. I was thinking about gluing TR on stiffer cards, since it is so flimsy.

[@thewetpen]

I actually tried gluing some Tomoe River onto some thicker card stock just for the "cover" of one of these little DIY books, but the glue made the paper wrinkle before I could even glue it down. Maybe if I used some sort of spray adhesive...

[@thomasvn]

@@thewetpen Or maybe a glue stick?

[@thewetpen]

@@thomasvn Yes! And of course, there's the obvious step of applying the glue to the cardstock instead of the paper. I don't think I did that the first time. Although, I think that I have some spray... I'd have to buy a glue stick :-)

[@tswan62]

@Thomas - seriously. I find TR so annoying to use

[@anitasamuel-george5788]

So I had the same problem with the glue showing and crinkling. So I am thinking to either put pieces in baseball collector sleeves OR if the rings are better than I am thinking to attach the TR paper to a piece of cardstock strip where the hole will go to make it more sturdy and not rip. A bit more work. I make my own swatch books too using my own paper.

[@rosalindbennett5246]

Dude-the coins! Brilliant.

[@thewetpen]

Thanks! It was one of those "What do I have handy?" sort of solutions at the time, but it works really nicely for me even still 🙂

[@Deedster56]

First video and immediate subscription! I SO look forward to the adventure. Cheers 🤗❤️🇨🇦💫

[@thewetpen]

Thanks Didi! Hope you like the rest of my videos, too 🙂

[@llchapman1234]

I saw someone put their swatches on a roladex, which I also liked as you can take them out, add new ones and organize.

[@thewetpen]

I've seen that too, and it's a good idea. Of course, since these are split rings, they can also be opened and reorganized pretty easily... but if I had known that I'd end up with this many ink swatches, I might have come up with a system that was easier to scale 🙂

[@danielscheerer3032]

You make me nervous! I’ve only just started on my pen and ink journey - am I going to end up with hundreds of pens and inks of which I can’t possibly make constructive use?!😬😄 Forget the swatches - what about all the the inks - how do you manage THOSE?! 😉😄

[@thewetpen]

Well, yes.... there is that. 🙂 I built some ink shelves that hold the bulk of my collection... they hang on the wall like a big spice rack, but hold hundreds of bottles of ink instead. Actually, I built a small one with 5 shelves, then built a larger one with 11 shelves, then added 6 little shelves to the side of my IKEA book shelves that are next to my desk... I need more space.

[@danielscheerer3032]

@@thewetpen Addictions are hard to manage! 😄👍

[@danielscheerer3032]

Haha! There are worse things! And btw, I have bee using your Deception Pass ink in two separate pens and it is truly, hands down my favorite for hue, shading and wetness. I hope you continue with new ones - cheers!

[@danielscheerer3032]

Oh, and wonderful on Cosmo paper (Note) particularly!

[@elliescorner2019]

I love this idea! I came across your video after searching for the Col-o-ring, but it makes much more sense for me to make my own from the paper I prefer to use. How do you find the Tomoe River Paper holds up in this format? I have a pack of 52gsm and I’m worried about the thinness.

[@thewetpen]

Hey Ellie, The Tomoe River paper behaves as expected: there's rarely any bleed through and the paper does an amazing job of showing the ink's special characteristics, but at the same time, it does tend to ripple a little bit. I don't find it to be a problem, and of course, pressing it between some books on a shelf while you're storing it now and then helps flatten it out a bit. But as you can probably see from the shot at 4:15 in this video that there's a really obvious difference in how the ink looks on a standard Col-o-ring vs Tomoe River, and that difference is enough to make this project worth it to me :-)

[@elliescorner2019]

@@thewetpen Perfect, thank you so much!

[@dilipsamarasinghe778]

Great idea.

[@thewetpen]

Thanks :-)

[@robinmosenfelder6226]

I am just starting on the col-o-rings. Searched for clairefontaine cardstock but didn't find it. Now I am here, I started out noticing that the col-o-ring paper have two sides, one being rough the other smooth. Did you use both sides? The col-o-rings are thicker than rhodia and other usual FP paper. Have you found the FP paper sturdy enough for organizing and using over time? I have many questions you did not answer.

[@thewetpen]

Hi Robin! The papers that I use in my swatch books are all just the same weight as I'd use for writing, since I think that that gives me the best idea of how the paper will behave when I use it with a fountain pen, but yes... that does mean that the paper in these booklets tends to wrinkle and warp. It's not a problem for me, and it can be mitigated by storing the swatch books pressed between books or notebooks on a bookshelf while not in use. Otherwise, I haven't had any problems with my FP paper booklets, and I love seeing the difference between the inks of the different papers... sometimes it's pretty dramatic. The heavy paper that I use in my Col O Ring and the original Col O Ring paper does seem to have a little difference between the two sides, I agree, and I usually use the slightly rougher side, though occasionally I accidentally use the smoother side. Not a huge difference in performance, luckily.

[@James-en1ob]

Eeeyy he's back

[@fullermoments]

Great ideas for sure! Im new to your page. Can't wait to bindge watch and get inspired!

[@thewetpen]

Hi Karen :-) Glad you found it useful. My channel is a bit of a hodge podge, so I hope you find that some of the other videos are also of interest 🙂

[@strshooter7399]

Great idea! I had never "swatched" my ink till a couple weeks ago. I had a new pen, and was trying figure out what color/ink I wanted to use. I only have Rhodia 90 gm notepad available (besides printer paper), so I pulled 2 sheets out and swatched bout 10 small spots on those 2 sheets. It worked, but its not a good method. Yours is way better. Thanks

[@lovbrekke92]

this was nice ✉️🖋📃

[@willyfs]

Easy and fun to make👍

[@thewetpen]

My thoughts exactly :-)

[@dr.jyotirmaydubey9400]

Crazy idea! ;) I too need to go for it.

[@thewetpen]

If you've seen my other videos, you'll know that I use them all the time :-) Very useful, these things!

[@annienigro4624]

I made my own like you did-with the binder ring, etc-out of 140 lb cold pressed watercolour paper. But I had the same thoughts as you did! I don’t write on watercolour paper ! I’ve already swatches every ink I own which is a lot when you count the sample vials from my co dependant fountain pen enabling aunt! Ugh. Perhaps I’ll do any new ones on rhodia 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ but then they won’t be in order by colour. My OCD doesn’t like that one bit 😂😂😂

[@thewetpen]

I did new ones by color on a variety of different papers, and it takes some time to re-arrange them all, but it's very satisfying in the end :-)

[@annienigro4624]

@@thewetpen I know. I watched them all! 🤓 I especially enjoyed your inkvent series. Your production of those videos is outstanding. Beautiful attention to the presentation. I’m new (sort of) to the fountain pen rabbit hole so I am looking forward to the DIAMINE inkvent calendar. LOL. It’s the middle of summer in southern Ontario and I’m looking forward to Christmas. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤓🤦🏻‍♀️

[@thewetpen]

@@annienigro4624 Well, as you undoubtedly understand, these inkvent videos take a lot of time and work... and I'm not 100% certain that I'm going to do it again this year :-) Maybe I'll have to watch YOUR inkvent videos!

[@wolf_ceit_witch]

Awesome idea.

[@thewetpen]

Thanks 😊

[@KimLechelle]

Love the idea!!! You did a great job!

[@thewetpen]

Thanks Kim :-) I just subscribed to your channel... I loved your Tono and Lims vids :-)

[@KimLechelle]

@@thewetpen WoW Thank you! I enjoy your videos…go much good information. I am very new to inks. I tried to resist them, but I found glass dip pens and I cannot stop with the ink.

[@donnad5986]

Genius idea.!! Thank you.!

[@yokobery2828]

I love your videos 😍 and this is a very good idea.

[@carolanne3017]

Music is so calming and captures the way I feel when I do swatching. Where did you get the paper punch? Also I had trouble with a corner rounder. What brand did you use?

[@thewetpen]

I'm pretty happy with the hole punch that I use... it came from Amazon: amzn.to/39HgOK0 The corner rounder that I use is fine, but not great. I really wish that I had one with higher capacity, but I didn't think it would be worth the money for the amount of use that it will get. I use this one: amzn.to/3bjXrr4

[@PensandPaint]

Clever and good idea! Especially Tome River, Rhodia, & Clairfontaine papers

[@thewetpen]

Thanks! I've continued to branch out. Now I also have made some with Cosmo Air Light.

[@h3o296]

Brilliant!

[@TheDormousesDesk]

I love it! Brilliant.

[@chrissyhayes8762]

Great video, first time watching.

[@thewetpen]

Thanks Chrissy, glad you liked it :-)

[@coziii.1829]

Just make a book by brand names then inside mark pages by color.

[@llchapman1234]

That works until you start acquiring more ink. Then it gets disorganized very quickly, especially if you (like myself) prefer to color wheel your inks.

[@coziii.1829]

Why even cut them out just make a book

[@thewetpen]

If a book works for you, great! That will save you some time. For me, it's important to be able to be able to remove the pages so that I can compare different colors side by side (and photograph them), and as I mentioned in the video... I like to arrange the pages by color. As I said in the video, I'm not recommending that anyone does this... just showing what I do.

[@anitasamuel-george5788]

Thank you for this video! I had a hard time finding the Col-o-ring cards where I live so resorted to making my own using Exacompta index cards and cutting them down. It's Claire Fontaine paper. Now I want to do something with TR paper! You gave me lots of ideas!

[@thewetpen]

I made the mistake of doing mine with 52gsm Tomoe River paper, and I think that the 68 would be a lot less wrinkly. Or maybe the wrinkles would just be harder to flatten :-) Anyway, I do enjoy seeing how the inks behave on all of the different papers, so it's totally worth it.

[@theresedignard4267]

These are awesome. Great idea too. I tend to do test strips every time I start a project. This will save tons of time. OMG thanks for sharing this idea.

[@thewetpen]

Glad you liked it :-) Now I swatch all of my new inks on 6 of these things, and it's really interesting to see how frequently the color is significantly different on different papers!