How to organize fountain pen ink sample swatches

[@BigGsTintenkiste]

I absolutly love these col-o-ring ink testing books :-) The inks are showing beautiful and they are very good for comparing the colors.

[@gloriavillanueva2913]

Nice to see Kansas City represented! Love my city. I really need to get some Col-O-Rings ordered!

[@plannersetc2463]

I mainly use journals with Tomoe River paper, as I love the writing experience and I think it catches the shading and sheening best, not to forget the shimmer. That’s why I now use a Tomoe River notebook for my ink swatches. With Platinum Carbon Black ink to draw the shape of the bottle and then I colour it in... And then I write down with glass pen, medium and fine fountain pens.. So much fun and this way I know what it will look like in my journals. I would love to add something like coloring as that would help me reorganise and compare similar shades more easily 😃

[@GoldspotPens]

Neat process! Thank you for sharing!

[@hivona]

I’ve thought of this because I think I bought one to many Hobonichi weeks. However, I’m not sure how I could keep it organized. If I swatch as I purchase the ink it will be out of order and I’m not sure I’d want to page through pages of unorganized swatches. Do you have a system of organizing the inks in your notebook?

[@davecharvella4854]

I use the Col-O-Ring, too. I'm not a fan of the ring itself, however. Instead, I use "trading card" sheets and store my swatch cards in the individual slots. The sheets (by color family) then go into a three ring binder with a zippered enclosure, so no exposure to light, dust, etc. No more "ring" coming apart and my cards going everywhere!

[@The7threst]

Me: "Damn, I have to slow down on the ink collection I have, I've over 40 bottles of fountain pen ink now" Tom: "Hold my pen"

[@ruthfeiertag]

I just started swatching my inks. I’m doing one Col-o-ring by colour, one by brand.

[@kerih35]

I love to write the date I swatch the ink, from where and when I got it, do chromatography at the top of the card, write the name with a pen and nib, and paint the bottom. I also pencil in the ink journal number and page number so I can find it in my ink journals. I organize them by color family.

[@fiddletwist]

I was putting off ordering a second one so I started swatching on the back sides of some of the cards, which hinders my desire to organize! But I just ordered a second one from InkJournal so I will start to do better. I use the cards horizontally with a cotton-swab swatch on the left and the ink name on the right using a Moonman glass dip pen.

[@SouthShorePaper]

I swatch on 3 different papers, Rhodia, Tomoe and Paperblanks to note the subtle differences. I use a small paintbrush , I feel like a cotton swab drinks up too much of my ink especially when it's only a sample vial I am trying .

[@GoldspotPens]

I'm not a big fan of cotton swabs either for the same reason. I'll only use them if my brush isn't around.

[@aislingcarey84]

@SouthShorePaper what do you think of Paperblank paper for your swatches? Does it perform as well as Tamoe River and Rhodia?

[@puppetaccess]

I'm not fan of the col-o-ring paper as it doesn't tend to reproduce some ink effects as well as TR and the like. If they were to either change their paper, or *even* *better* - provide multiple paper options then it would be the ONLY way I documented my inks.

[@ichirofakename]

I've never understood why people document inks with tools (brush, q-tip, dropper, etc) which they don't actually use for writing (or drawing). The color is completely different. Granted, it makes a pretty display, but it does not represent what the ink will look like coming out of your pen. If you are going to paint with the ink, sure, swatch it with a brush. But if you are going to write with the ink, use a pen.

[@kerih35]

We do it because we love the ink, in all its presentations. I use different nibs, different papers, water chromatography, paintbrushes, etc. Because it's beautiful. But I agree that I've often felt it would be more useful if I could somehow ink up all my different pens and nibs for each color, since they each present the ink differently. However, that would be impractical

[@AngelGabrielish]

It has always puzzled me too. Every time I ink a pen with an ink, I write it on the swatch. When I look at a swatch I can see what it looks like in a fine nib, a cursive italic etcetera. The only time I ever get a blob of ink even one tenth the size of large splatches is when an eyedroppered pen is misbehaving :)