Birmingham Pen Company is, hands down, my favorite brand of ink. I own over 50 bottles of their inks and counting. 😅 I appreciate your review from an artist perspective. I think, considering all the reviews I’ve seen and what I know of this company and brand, your review was really well done. As both an artist (watercolorist/pigment nerd) and a fountain pen collector/enthusiast there is one thing I would say about the pigment inks that was not mentioned. BPC inks, as you stated, are intended for fountain pens. Pigment inks will clog fountain pens so it requires a delicate balance of pigment and fluid/ink vehicle for them to work well in a fountain pen. Therefore, these inks are well designed for the purpose in which they were intended. So while it would be great for them to be more pigmented when using them in a more paint-like style, that would interfere with their usability in fountain pens. On another note, while I had never thought of adding an eye dropper cap, I personally wouldn’t need an eye dropper bottle cap because I, like many fountain pen enthusiasts, own pipettes that would serve the same purpose if that were needed. I own fountain pen inks with these types of caps and don’t like them. It’s definitely a personal preference. Additionally, when filling a fountain pen, I would have to find a place to put the eye dropper cap so that I could access the bottle because you can’t fill a pen while holding an eye dropper in one hand. You need both hands. Either way, great review. I’m glad more people beyond those of us in the fountain pen community are finding an appreciation for this product.
I always have my orders shipped within a day or two. I love bpc inks and create art with them and write with them. Not selling my art or anything. Also use acrylic inks and all bpc inks will play nice w amsterdam acrylic and fw.
Thank you for this video. I just messaged Birmingham Pen Co and asked them to send you more swag for review. I live in Canada - and they don't ship out of country - but I've found a workaround and am looking to place an order soon. I'd love to see them send you more swag. Possibly a fountain pen so you can use it to review these inks as writing inks - which is how I use my fountain pens. Thanks again for this review. This was a great video.
I love the the whole aesthetic of BPC, from the bottles to the packing materials, such a lovely unboxing experience - I would say they are pretty well known and popular in the fountain pen world, but like you say, not so much in the art world. I had a lot of fun mixing some their dye inks, I started with some not exactly CMYK colors and came up with some yummy muddy colors that I love in my fountain pens as well as for art (I am happy to scan for prints, knowing they are dyed based). I decided not to go with pigment inks as I heard similar info as to what you mentioned, about the fact that they are not highly saturated. I would love to try samples of all the colors, but unfortunately they only sell the full bottles, so I have been trying to swap sample vials with other fellow color collectors 💜Thanks for sharing your findings I enjoyed a fellow artist POV on this brand :)
thanks for this review and your other one that showed the fading of the dye based inks in 6 months. im an artist and just recently bought some of these inks to play with my watercolors. Man are they fun. But they are the dye based inks. Do you think a UV spray will help them last? Also can you recommend some type of ink that has the multicolor effects of the dyes that will hold their color? Thank you
It's possible a UV spray could help the longevity, but spraying a dye ink can cause it to bleed with the added moisture (ran into that problem with another project). While I've never seen another ink that acts quite like the BPC inks, something like a Golden High Flow interference color or a metallic acrylic ink mixed with another color would certainly be in the same category of "Shimmery" thin media
Birmingham Pen Company is, hands down, my favorite brand of ink. I own over 50 bottles of their inks and counting. 😅 I appreciate your review from an artist perspective. I think, considering all the reviews I’ve seen and what I know of this company and brand, your review was really well done.
As both an artist (watercolorist/pigment nerd) and a fountain pen collector/enthusiast there is one thing I would say about the pigment inks that was not mentioned. BPC inks, as you stated, are intended for fountain pens. Pigment inks will clog fountain pens so it requires a delicate balance of pigment and fluid/ink vehicle for them to work well in a fountain pen. Therefore, these inks are well designed for the purpose in which they were intended. So while it would be great for them to be more pigmented when using them in a more paint-like style, that would interfere with their usability in fountain pens.
On another note, while I had never thought of adding an eye dropper cap, I personally wouldn’t need an eye dropper bottle cap because I, like many fountain pen enthusiasts, own pipettes that would serve the same purpose if that were needed. I own fountain pen inks with these types of caps and don’t like them. It’s definitely a personal preference. Additionally, when filling a fountain pen, I would have to find a place to put the eye dropper cap so that I could access the bottle because you can’t fill a pen while holding an eye dropper in one hand. You need both hands.
Either way, great review. I’m glad more people beyond those of us in the fountain pen community are finding an appreciation for this product.
I always have my orders shipped within a day or two. I love bpc inks and create art with them and write with them. Not selling my art or anything. Also use acrylic inks and all bpc inks will play nice w amsterdam acrylic and fw.
Thank you for this video. I just messaged Birmingham Pen Co and asked them to send you more swag for review. I live in Canada - and they don't ship out of country - but I've found a workaround and am looking to place an order soon. I'd love to see them send you more swag. Possibly a fountain pen so you can use it to review these inks as writing inks - which is how I use my fountain pens. Thanks again for this review. This was a great video.
Wow thanks! Who knows if they'll send more over, but I appreciate the support.
I love the the whole aesthetic of BPC, from the bottles to the packing materials, such a lovely unboxing experience - I would say they are pretty well known and popular in the fountain pen world, but like you say, not so much in the art world. I had a lot of fun mixing some their dye inks, I started with some not exactly CMYK colors and came up with some yummy muddy colors that I love in my fountain pens as well as for art (I am happy to scan for prints, knowing they are dyed based). I decided not to go with pigment inks as I heard similar info as to what you mentioned, about the fact that they are not highly saturated. I would love to try samples of all the colors, but unfortunately they only sell the full bottles, so I have been trying to swap sample vials with other fellow color collectors 💜Thanks for sharing your findings I enjoyed a fellow artist POV on this brand :)
thanks for this review and your other one that showed the fading of the dye based inks in 6 months. im an artist and just recently bought some of these inks to play with my watercolors. Man are they fun. But they are the dye based inks. Do you think a UV spray will help them last? Also can you recommend some type of ink that has the multicolor effects of the dyes that will hold their color? Thank you
It's possible a UV spray could help the longevity, but spraying a dye ink can cause it to bleed with the added moisture (ran into that problem with another project). While I've never seen another ink that acts quite like the BPC inks, something like a Golden High Flow interference color or a metallic acrylic ink mixed with another color would certainly be in the same category of "Shimmery" thin media