Fountain Pen Ink Review: Pelikan Edelstein Olivine

As a regular fountain pen user and collector, I join hundreds of enthusiasts from around the world in our watch not only for new pens but also for new fountain pen ink colors. I eagerly wait for announcements of special edition pens, limited edition inks, new notebooks, and their ETAs to the far east where I live.

This year, Pelikan of Germany has added a new color to their Edelstein ink series. Edelstein Olivine is Pelikan's Ink of the Year for 2018, the seventh ink to be named such. Ink of Year colors includes Turmaline, Amber, Garnet, Amethyst, Aquamarine, and Smoky Quartz. The Edelstein ink collection also includes eight more colors: Onyx, Tanzanite, Sapphire, Topaz, Jade, Aventurine, Mandarin, and Ruby. Olivine, as well as the other Edelstein Ink of the Year colors, are limited and available for the current year only, and I'm so happy that Scribe.ph has kindly sent a bottle for this review.

Pelikan has a wide collection of fountain inks from its three series: 4001 inks, Fount India, and Edelstein. Edelstein is the German and Norwegian word for "gemstones". These higher-end inks from Pelikan correspond to the beautiful colors of gemstones and contain a special ingredient to ensure extra smooth writing.

Edelstein inks are presented in a unique 50 ml high-value glass flacon. The Edelstein flacon is an elegant rectangular glass bottle with a thick base and wide opening for easier ink filling. An eye candy, the flacon's design is one of a kind, and one of the most elegant ink bottles available in the market today.

Edelstein inks are presented in an elegant 50 ml glass flacon.

The Edelstein flacon has an equally elegant cap with the Pelikan logo embossed in silver. 

The flacon's wide opening makes ink filling easier, and it can accommodate bigger pens.

Olivine is a deep, dark green ink that looks more like a forest green color than olive. This color confusion bothered me for a while. Don't be surprised about the color, though. According to The Pelikan's Perch, this ink actually got its name from a gemstone with a typical olive-green color derived from traces of nickel. The mineral also takes on a reddish color, thought to be a result of iron oxidation. There it is. Edelstein Olivine got its name from a gemstone, not from olives.

A single pass/swab of Olivine. This ink is truly versatile. It can be deep and dark, but it can also be light and dramatic.

Double passes/swabs of Olivine shows a dark green ink, but also reveals a faint reddish sheen where the ink pooled before it dried.

I do not have many greens in my ink collection to compare Olivine with, but here is a side-by-side comparison with Diamine POGI, an Olive Green ink specially mixed for the Philippine market.

Pelikan Edelstein ink writing sample from a Pelikan M400 with a broad nib. It took a while to dry at 23 seconds, but ink drying times vary depending on nib wetness, paper quality, and the writer's hand stroke. Olivine could dry faster if written using a fine or medium nib.

Here is Olivine from a Bexley Intrepid with an extremely wet stub nib. It looks like a very dark green-black ink with no shading at all.

Shading is seen in most Edelstein inks but this -- like its drying time -- depends on a combination of factors: nib wetness, paper quality, and the writer's hand stroke. I tested Olivine in pens with wet broad and stub nibs. The writing samples from these nibs looked almost green-black after the ink dried. These are seen in the two photos above. However, when I tried Olivine in a wide 1.5 italic Lamy nib, shading was more obvious, and the ink color became more dramatic and meaningful.

Edelstein Olivine from a 1.5 Lamy nib on Pukka notebook paper. 

Lastly, let me add that Pelikan's packaging for their Eldestein inks is truly impressive, and possibly one of the best. The flacon has inner and outer boxes to ensure that the glass has full protection whether it's in transit or in storage. The flacon and its box both bear the ink's color, making it easy to find an ink you are looking for.

It is helpful that Pelikan includes the ink's name not only on the flacon (see images above) but also on their specific boxes. Locating inks is faster and easier with box labels.

The Edelstein flacon is first encased in an inner box, while the outer box provides additional protection.

Thick pads are added around the cap for reinforced protection. As I said, this packaging is impressive.

Olivine came out of Pelikan's 2016 social media contest which allowed fans to choose the 2018 Edelstein Ink of the Year. An entry for a dark green ink eventually won over 1,200 suggestions sent to Pelikan, which fans all over the world now enjoy. "Created and voted by Pelikan-fans for Pelikan-fans," Edelstein Olivine is a must-have ink color for anyone who loves to write with a fountain pen. This ink has a beautiful dark green color, produces excellent shading, and comes in an impressive and elegant packaging. If I were you, I'd get a bottle of Olivine now, because when it's gone, it's gone!

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I received the ink in this review at no cost from Scribe.ph, Pelikan's authorized and exclusive distributor in the Philippines. Pelikan products including Edelstein inks are exclusively available at Scribe.ph, a specialty store in the Philippines selling fountain pens, inks, paper products, and calligraphy supplies. Scribe.ph has stores in Eastwood Mall, Shangrila Plaza Mall, Glorietta 4, SM Aura Premiere, SM Megamall, SM Cebu, and Ayala Mall Cebu. For their complete location/address, contact numbers, and store hours, click here.

Where I Went

A number of people who read this blog have been asking me where I've gone. I can't blame them. I've been absent from this blog for more than a year, after all. Though I have the usual futile excuses, I believe my absence is still beyond excuse. 

In my absence, I found Instagram, a simple social medium which allowed me to post my photos and thoughts. I like Instagram because it allows me to create a social post very fast. I can also edit photos, or apply filters before posting them. Sharing IG posts across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr is also very easy. Instagram is like Twitter with followers, or Facebook status updates with photos. My Instagram affair began in June, after I finished a week of hosting Pelikan's #beingPelikan project. Now that I am going back to blogging, I feel it's only fitting that I share with you all some of the well-received photos in my Instagram account.

June 30, 2014. Lamy Al Star Ocean Blue and J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean.
This was my first attempt at italic calligraphy in a looooong time. But my followers liked it! 90 likes.

July 2, 2014. Lamy Al Star Silver Green and Rohrer and Klingner Alt Goldgrun.
I've always been a Neruda fan, and I so love his Sonnet XVII. Who doesn't? 69 likes.

July 7, 2014. Lamy Al Star Silver Green and Rohrer and Klingner Alt Goldgrun.
I received a lot of positive comments from my previous posts, and around this date, friends were looking forward to my 'doodle' posts. I tried uncial calligraphy and broke away from the usual italic. This is from a book given to me by my boss a few Christmases ago. 66 likes.

July 8, 2014. Lamy Safari Blue (Diamine Turquoise), Lamy Safari Green (Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown), and Lamy Al Star Ruby Red (J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune). A mix of Gabriel Garcia Marquez quotations, and a mix of different ink colors. Lovely turquoise ink! But the quote in Poussiere de Lune is even lovelier. Deliberately used Instagram's Valencia filter on this one. 105 likes.  

July 10, 2014. Lamy Safari Creme Orange and Diamine Orange.
'Araw Gabi' (Day and Night) is a Filipino love song by Nonoy Zuniga. I heard this song over the radio and it stayed with me for a while so I doodled a part of it. What's surprising is that a lot of my non-Filipino IG followers liked this one! 76 likes. 

July 13, 2014. I used two Lamy Safari pens in this mix, but forgot the other one.
Inks are Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown and Diamine Crimson. I did a Marquez mix, why not a Haruki Murakami mix, right? Quotes from two of my favorite Murakami books. 78 likes. 

July 15, 2014. Lamy Safari and Diamine Orange, Sheaffer No Nonsense and Diamine Meadow.
This is the 'Glenda' doodle. On the night Glenda (Rammasun) was building up in Laguna, I was working on this doodle. We lost electricity later that night, and my calligraphy doodles came to a halt for 18 days as we languished in darkness. 88 likes.

July 30, 2014. Lamy Safari and Diamine Orange.
A friend called me 'emo' (emotional) after seeing this on Facebook. On July 30, we still didn't have power at home, which also meant no internet, no cable TV, no air conditioning, no refrigerator, no cold drinks, no lights at night!!! Who wouldn't be emotional with that?!? 101 likes. 

August 1, 2014. Pelikan M205 Duo and Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-gao.
Because the nights were quiter and darker, the sky became a discotheque of blinking lights. I remembered this Calvin and Hobbes quote, shared by a friend a few years back. Very, very apt. 80 likes.  

August 4, 2014. Pelikan M400 Grun and Noodler's Blue.
It was Monday and electricity was restored only a day ago. It felt like Christmas morning! Then I got introduced to the music by Brandi Carlile. Got this song on repeat for like, the whole week? 79 likes.

August 23, 2014. Platinum 3776 and J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir.
I was shooting some photos for this pen's review, and came across this wise reminder from the wise man himself. He's right, right? 88 likes.  

September 5, 2014. Pelikan M200 Cognac and Pelikan Edelstein Amber. I got a new Pelikan fountain pen and I can't get enough of it! Been using it a lot, even to wish everyone a Happy Weekend. 96 likes. 

September 9, 2014. Fountain pen inks mixed: J. Herbin Gris Nuage, Diamine Midnight, Diamine Majestic Blue, J. Herbin Bleu Ocean. I call this one my 'life event' piece. It was my first time to mix colors, and I received some excellent comments. It also became my application/screening piece for an art event in November. Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a favorite Russian author, and I will not forget this one from Crime and Punishment. 98 likes.

September 14, 2014. 'Green pens on a cloudy, gloomy, rainy, sick Sunday morning.'
Another thing I love about Instagram is it allows you to write about a topic and use a photo about an entirely different subject. Works all the time. 107 likes.

July 25, 2014. 'Updated Lamy box-fie, July 2014.'
My Lamy fountain pen collection. Two pens were added to the box and I had to do a box-fie. Thank God for 3G, this photo was uploaded to IG. Bestseller at 123 likes.

September 12, 2014. It was a Friday, and I just received some exciting news the night before.
Bliss was an understatement for all the happiness, excitement, and giddiness I felt that morning, but it seemed like the perfect word to sum it all.

So there. I went away for a while, and now I'm back. Watch this blog for new reviews and more products soon! And if you want to see my Instagram posts that did not reach this page, you can check my account at: http://instagram.com/clemdionglay. 

Notebook Review: TWSBI

When I shifted to full fountain pen use in 2008, I didn't realize that the major challenge I would have to face was to find suitable paper types for my pens and their inks. My lack of knowledge then about the proper pen, ink, and paper combinations brought home stacks of useless pads and notebooks. Since then, I have found notebooks that are friendlier to my fountain pens, but when Taiwan-based company TWSBI announced that they are coming up with a line of notebooks tailored for fountain use, I was curious. When Scribe Writing Essentials, the local distributor of TWSBI products in the Philippines, sent me a medium lined TWSBI notebook to review, I was thrilled.

TWSBI promotes their notebooks as "universal to all types of writing/drawing instruments, however, specially tailored for fountain pens." Their notebooks have soft and textured but shiny covers made of  fine polyurethane (PU). TWSBI made sure their notebooks are easily identified in the crowd, with the company's logo heat-pressed neatly onto the PU in the front cover.

The logo is again heat-pressed on the bottom of the back cover, but includes their acronym, TWSBI.

TWSBI offers their notebooks in three sizes: small (3.75 × 5.5 in), medium (5.25 × 8.25 in), and large (7.5 × 9.8 in). Each size is available in lined, grid, or blank pages. All notebook sizes have 120 sheets of paper, or 250 pages, but the small notebook has perforated sheets.

A black elastic strap holds the cover and notebook pages together, but it's a bit loose. I wish TWSBI used a stronger and wider strap for their medium and large notebooks.

In the photo below, the TWSBI notebook (on top) has the thinnest elastic strap although it's the thickest. The notebooks below the TWSBI are: Quo Vadis Habana, Moleskine, and Rhodia Webbie.

Despite the thin elastic strap, the red page ribbon marker adds vibrance to this black notebook. It's also a nice, thoughtful touch of TWSBI to have the end of the ribbon glued to prevent fraying. Most new notebooks come with loose ribbon ends and I usually just tie them into small knots to avoid early fraying.

The makers of these notebooks paid a lot of attention to detail: the notebooks have round page corners! I've always preferred round corners in my notebooks. I don't like pointed corners because they are sharp and dig into my palms when I write, and they also fray easily.

The pages of the TWSBI notebooks are sewn, to ensure more page security and flexibility. Sewn binding is so much better than most punch and bind methods because the pages are more secure and they also look tidier.

The paper used in these notebooks is not cream color, but it's not pearly white, either. It is off-white, soft, and smooth. TWSBI did not indicate the weight nor the type of paper used on these notebooks, but I'll guess it to be around 80gsm. Another plus for these cool notebooks: the binding allows them to open completely flat. The pages are not glued to the spine to give it full flexiblity.

The soft PU cover is flexible and the spine easily folds when the notebook is open.

See? No bulges, no bumps, no big creases to get in the way of the inside pages while the notebook is open.

Again, I am not sure about the paper type used in TWSBI's notebooks, but they are certainly excellent for fountain pen use. It's a brilliant move of TWSBI to use a faint gray ruling in the notebooks' pages, instead of black, or blue.

And unlike most notebooks with continuous line ruling, TWSBI used faint dotted lines, which is just fine. The faint gray lines are perfect for writing, but they do not get in the way of it at all.

I was really excited to try this notebook's paper and filled a page with different pen and ink combinations. I also included in the test page some of my remaining gel pens and rollerball pens. True enough to their claim, TWSBI's notebooks are perfectly suited to fountain pen use. Most of my pens have stub, medium, broad, and italic nibs that bleed ink on most paper types. But the paper in this notebook behaved so much better than I expected, and I was so amazed to see clean lines — no excessive feathering, and not a trace of bleeding. There is some see-through though, but again, that's fine because writing on both sides of the page is still possible.

The back side of my pen and ink test page did not show any bleeding at all.

I was not able to do a test for different ink's dry times, but I did not have any problems with drying ink when I did the pen and ink tests. Below are samples of the inks I used and there is no significant feathering and no bleeding at all. From top: Diamine Royal Blue (TWSBI 540 medium nib), Pelikan Edelstein Jade (Pelikan M205 medium nib), Diamine Red Dragon (Pelikan M400 medium nib), and Noodler's Air Corp Blue Black (Lamy Safari 1.1 italic nib).

Overall, TWSBI's notebooks are excellent to use with fountain pens. They are simple, yet very attractive and have the "classic black notebook" elegant look. They have soft flexible covers, an elastic strap to keep the pages together, the pages have round corners, and the paper is excellent for any pen type. Each of TWSBI's notebooks has that happy vibrant red ribbon page marker and back pockets with red accents. These notebooks are perfect for note taking and journaling, and they do not cost a fortune. I really, really like my medium TWSBI notebook, and again, it is super friendly to my fountain pens!

To get these notebooks from TWSBI, visit: http://www.twsbi.com/category.php?id_category=9.

In the Philippines, these wonderful notebooks are available at Scribe Writing Essentials together with TWSBI fountain pens and ink bottles, with the following prices:

• Small: PhP 495
• Medium: PhP 675
• Large: PhP 845