Ferris Wheel Press 28ml Calligraphy Ink, Black Masquerade

Ferris Wheel Press’s calligraphy inks (which are used for dip pen and not to be confused with their enormous line of fountain pen inks) have such a desirable consistency. In general, they’re thick, creamy, smooth, matte, water-resistant, and very opaque. I purchased my first calligraphy ink from them years ago, and have since purchased nearly every color they have available (which isn’t as many color options as I’d like just yet, but seems to be growing steadily through the years). Their shimmer calligraphy inks are a bit of a different beast than their non-shimmer calligraphy inks, however. They’ve got less opacity to them and their shimmer comes from individual pieces of glitter that reside in the ink. This means that these shimmer inks won’t always 100% conceal pencil lines underneath them and they will require constant stirring to be shimmery. The ink’s thick enough that the glitter pieces do not sink to the bottom of the jar super quickly, but it does get annoying feeling like I have to clean, cap, and reshake every few dips and also contributes to this sense of urgency when I write (so as to try and get another dip out of the bottle before it all stinks to the bottom and I need to reshake). The glitter pieces are also bigger than I prefer—which causes the overall shimmer to appear spotty (and conversely noticeably bland if enough of them aren’t incorporated). I much prefer shimmer inks like Dr. Ph Martin’s, as the shimmer is so fine that the entire ink shines—not individual pieces that can be seen. My overall impression of Ferris Wheel Press’s calligraphy shimmer inks is that it literally does look like someone threw a bunch of craft glitter into colored matte ink, but some of the ink/shimmer combos are really beautiful. And—as I said—the texture and consistency of these is really great to work with (love that they’re waterproof!), so I do still recommend them. As far as feedback pertaining to this specific color of ink goes: this is one of the more disappointing ones. I haven’t gotten a ton of usage out of it yet, but the silver shimmer is never detectable against the super opaque black base color, no matter how much I shake it. It’s a great attempt at a black shimmer, but using it always has me yearning for more than it offers. Will still continue buying any new colors they release—just wishing this one delivered a bit more in the shimmer department.