Every year, Papier Plume releases one or two special edition inks for the Chicago Pen Show. Building on last year’s Bootlegger’s Sacrament (a wine red) and “Da Blue,” (a Chicago Bears-inspired blue-black) this year’s inks include “Lake Michigan Winter,” (a turquoise/teal) and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” (you guessed it).
For those of you attending the Chicago Pen Show from May 2-May 5, you’ll be able to purchase these inks at Papier Plume’s table, and from their website after the show. Most of the Chicago Pen Show inks have always sold out quickly, however, and Papier Plume typically only makes a single batch, so if you want to get your hands on either of these you’ll need to find someone attending the show to hook you up or quickly place an order afterwards.
Generally speaking, Papier Plume inks are unsaturated, so they play nice in most pens and offer good ink flow and shading. I’d compare them to Callifolio, Waterman, or standard (non-shimmer) Herbin, though the colors tend to have more pop than the Herbin inks. Papier Plume inks also offer good value, with the larger 30ml bottles costing $8 for the standard lineup of colors and $10 for special editions. You can also purchase smaller 15ml bottles of the standard colors for $5. Count me a fan!
Papier Plume also specializes in wax seals, an example of which you will find on the caps of their special edition inks.
Disclaimer: Papier Plume provided me with these two bottles of ink at no charge for review purposes. Many thanks!