Every holiday has its own color scheme - Easter with purple, white and gold, Halloween with black, white and orange, and of course Christmas with white, green and red. It seems like Ferris Wheel Press is giving me an early stocking stuffers with their latest releases - a green from Brilliant Beanstalk ink and fountain pen, plus a rich burgundy from Carbernet on the Lake.

Brilliant Beanstalk

Just from the name alone we can figure out which children’s fairy tales this one took inspiration from - The story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean, first appeared in 1734. The story goes as Jack was getting desperate to escape poverty, he trades his cow for magical beans. Overnight, a gigantic beanstalk sprouts, reaching the sky. Curiosity drives Jack to climb, discovering a mystical land above the clouds. There he encounters a fearsome giant who guards a vast treasure. With cunning and bravery, Jack outwits the giant, retrieving the riches. However, as he descends the beanstalk, he chops it down, forever banishing the giant. Jack's triumph brings wealth and happiness to his family, a testament to the power of courage and resourcefulness.

Story time’s over, but the inspiration of the story still remains in the ink as well as the box design. You have the bean stems, vines, the small bird cage to remind you of how the story goes, and also an easter egg FWP ink bottle hidden in the corner. As for the fountain pen, the box comes with a more velvety feeling to it as oppose to the glossy shine of the ink’s box, but both are pretty as expected from FWP. The fountain pen box has a more vertical design with similar beanstalk and animal motifs laying along the sides. I do find that the later iterations of the Carousel fountain pens come with prettier and prettier boxes as they go.

As for their performance, ink is an olive green with no sheening but quite a bit of depth in thicker pools, the shade is quite lovely in broader nibs. I do like that with a wet pen such as the Homo Sapiens Dark Age, it writes juicy with lots of characters, and of course the champagne shimmer is a nice touch, even though I’m still not a fan of shimmer writing.

The fountain pen does what it is designed for, laying down a good amount of ink with the provided converter. As an everyday pen I still wish that they include a clip of some kind to make it portable, oh well, you cannot get everything in life.

Overall the pair makes a really good starting set for anyone who’s looking into “fountain-pen-d'om”, and for around $50 I’d say they are among the solid choices for any new fountain pen users.

Carbernet on the lake

Carbernet Sauvignon, or carbernet for short, is the name of a full bodied red wine, and the typical images of the dark red color in a wine glass is usually taken with this type of wine. The shade of red is not as vibrant and light as your pinot noir or merlot, but it is rich and deep, with lots of layers and in some areas almost a rose petal kind of red. I like this one a lot, but of course I would have liked it a lot more without the shimmers mixed in between. Overall this one is a solid everyday red, not too bright and in-your-face, but a well defined and inoffensive tone that is easy to pair with a lot of pens.

Both of their new releases are quite solid and would add an additional shade of green and red into your collection. I can see myself attempting to draw something with these as well, but mostly they would still remain as occasional writing inks, but I would like to know your thoughts as well. What do you guys think about these Christmasy colors? Would you get them for your own collection?

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