halfcactus

Many of the stationery people that I follow on social media rave about these pens and ink from Ferris Wheel Press. I decided to get two fountain pens and a couple of bottles of ink in August.

I have some thoughts.

First of all - no complaints about the inks - they are amazing, gorgeous!


The first one is called Copper Carnival. A lovely brown with hints of glitter. Perfect for autumn journaling!


Next is Frozen Fortress. This was part of a line released under license from Warner Brothers when the last Superman movie came out. A gorgeous teal that looks amazing on my bullet journal paper.


I don't have as much positive to say about the two pens that I got.

The first is called Book of Botany in their Carousal pen line, for $90. It is very pretty, although it's a lighter green than showing here:

The barrel is aluminum and I got the fine nib. It writes very well, and feels great in my hand. My issue with this one is the converter. All of their pens come with a universal converter. However, the converter absolutely will not stay put on this pen. Every few days it works itself off the connector and I have to take the whole thing apart to push it back in place, getting ink all over my fingers in the process. I have it loaded with the Frozen Fortress above. Overall, the aggravation is manageable and I enjoy using this pen.

The second one is unusable. I suppose that's what I get for buying a $22 fountain pen (although my $25 Pilot Metropolitan has lasted for years and writes beautifully). This one is Lost in the Leaves, also in the Carousel line.

The barrel is plastic, and it comes with the same converter as the other pen. It also has a fine nib. I absolutely cannot get it to write. My original idea was to load it up with the Copper Carnival ink above. That has glitter, and I know that can sometimes clog pens. When it wouldn't write with that ink, I emptied it, soaked it in rubbing alcohol, cleaned it out, and tried another ink. This time was Windsor & Newton Calligraphy ink in sepia. Same result. Finally I loaded it up with Noodler's Ink in Feather, which I know damn well works because I have it in some of my other pens. No matter how much I tried, this was what I got with this pen:


There you have it - I highly recommend their inks. As for their pens, they have some for $180, maybe those would perform better. But I cannot recommend the Carousel line for the problems that both pens have. I will say that the packing is gorgeous and I couldn't bear to throw it away.