A bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki ink arrived for me today, and I had a friend buy me a bottle of Yama-budo from Japan, which I’ll get soon.
Pilot Iroshizuku inks sell at $35 for a 50mL bottle. The inks come in unique colors and “behave reliably” on many different papers. The bottle itself is intricately designed, with a “well” on the bottom that would fit a fountain pen, allowing the user to refill a pen from even the last drops of ink.
Though I didn’t pay retail price, the fact that I’m moving into this “luxury” category is nonetheless noteworthy. Just a few years ago, when I received a fountain pen as a high school graduation present, I shook my head at ink selections over $10. Back then, even seven dollars for a bottle of Parker Quink Black, the cheapest fountain pen ink I could find, felt like too much to pay for stationary, and now I’m willing to pay multiple times as much.
Perhaps this is indicative of something, and I really need to find something less expensive to like…