Picked up a lovely new ink today - Muzha Tieguanyin (Mucha Iron Goddess of Mercy oolong tea) from Lennon Tool Bar's "Taiwan Tea Colours" series! This hits so many of my interests at once š„ŗ
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#ink #FountainPenInk #tea #drawings #doodles #sketchbook #LennonToolBar #ArtSupplies #Taiwan
[images: Two photos. The first is an overhead shot showing a hand holding a bottle of fountain pen ink with a tea-green swatch on the label next to a neatly laid out arrangement of the ink bottle's paper box packaging, several small informational inserts in Chinese and Japanese, two paper swatches with writing samples of the ink, and an aqua tinged glass dip pen. Second photo shows an overhead shot of an open sketchbook with writing and drawing samples of the ink. The text reads "Mucha Iron Goddess - Muzha TieGuanyin - Tieguanyin [in Chinese characters] - fountain pen ink by Lennon Tool Bar" next to a rough ink drawing depicting the Buddhist bodhisattva Guanyin gazing at a plant shoot being held in one hand. A glass dip pen and uncapped waterbrush rest near the drawing.]A while back I discovered that the Taiwanese ink brand Lennon Tool Bar had released a series of fountain pen inks based on different teas and I got super excited. (You can see my post about that here.) Today I finally had the chance to pop by Paper Plus Cloth and to pick up a bottle! I did hem and haw a bit as to which one to get, but in the end it wasn't much of a decision. I mean, I love the colour green, I love oolong, and this very well-known oolong tea also happens to be named after a Buddhist figure. So. It was decided. In any case by the time I got to the store there were only two inks from the line left, haha.I was telling the friendly staff at the counter how I had picked up my first bottle of Lennon Tool Bar ink during one of my trips to Taiwan years ago, and then one day back home in Canada I dropped it and cracked the bottle. We were all like ahhh, heartbreaking! Then after I got home today I put the bag with the ink on a bookshelf and it immediately tipped and fell onto the floor. Internal screaming. It was a very "oh nooooo!!!" moment. I inspected it carefully and it seems okay... I hope...! At least the bottle is much thicker than the ink I got years ago.Maybe it's the name association influencing me, but I feel the colour has a very nuanced, calm and gentle feeling. In any case, Tieguanyin (the tea) isn't really this colour, though I guess the rolled tea leaves are closer? And as a tea it's closer to green tea than most oolongs. Also I like green, so I'm happy!The paper in my current sketchbook doesn't work too smoothly with water applications, but it does allow me to see some of the difference in tone from dark blotches to light washes.
Iām just a ken
maiji
Cheryl Lindo Jones