Benefits of a Col'O'Ring, and How To Use One
The detachable ring on the Col-O-Ring Mini Ink Testing Book makes it exceptionally easy to add new colours or change the order of old swabs.
Are you an ink collector? Collecting and trying inks in countless colours is one of the greatest joys for a fountain pen lover, and you’ll undoubtedly want a place to see all of your colours at once.
Of course, you could always do your swabs in a notebook or pocketbook, but the problem comes up when you’re adding new inks. No matter how you organize, it can be hard to know how much space to skip for future swabs. If you’ve ever seen our ink swab book in the store, you know that we’ve run into this problem several times with all the Diamine colours we carry!
No matter how you organize, it’s easier to do if you can rearrange pages, and that’s exactly what the Col-O-Ring allows! The product is designed to keep swatches of all of your fountain pen inks in one place, and it is the latest product line to be added to our lineup at Phidon. We’re already finding it incredibly helpful!
The Col-O-Ring products are designed by The Well-Appointed Desk, a stationery and lifestyle blog that aims to make everyone’s desk a space that inspires them. The Col-O-Ring is printed and manufactured in the USA with acid free paper.
We carry them in two varieties, and both are blank so you can completely customize them to your unique tastes. The first style of the Col-O-Ring is the Mini Ink Testing book. It is the classic style with 100 sheets of white, 160gsm paper. There is a single hole on the left edge of each sheet and a detachable ring that holds the sheets together (hence the “Col-O-Ring” name), as well as two cardboard covers for protection. It’s super easy to open and reorganize whenever you want, and it’s 2” by 4”, making it incredibly easy to take on the go. That’s perfect if you want to bring it with you when you go ink shopping to make sure you don’t get duplicates of colours you already have!
Flipping through your beautiful ink colours is easy! Featured here are the Col-O-Ring Mini Ink Testing Book, Diamine 150th Anniversary 1864 Blue Black, J. Herbin Bleu Azur, Lamy Mango, and Lamy Black.
The second style we carry is the Col-O-Dex, which is designed to fit on a standard size Rolodex and sit on your desk. Though less portable, the sheets are significantly larger, leaving lots of room for even more experimentation and samples. It has the same 160gsm white paper, and each pack also includes 100 sheets. We also sell organizational divider tabs so you can keep the sections of your swabs separate, making it even easier to organize your inks.
Like all of the swabs we do in store, we did our swabs in the Col-O-Ring using a J. Herbin smooth handle glass dip pen. We use the blunt end for the swabs themselves and the writing end for the words. Other popular ways to swab inks include using a watercolour paintbrush or a Q-Tip. You can also dip your fountain pen into the ink to write with it, but be ready for a lot of cleaning! You could always just swab your inks and write the name with a different colour along the edge, on the back, or overtop!
Remember, the Col-O-Ring is supposed to make your life easier, not harder. Don’t stress about making it perfect like the examples you see online because it will cause more stress than fun. Whether you do your swabs in a square, heart, or in writing, we hope you enjoy the experience of seeing all of your beautiful colours all in one place.
How would you use your Col-O-Ring? Let us know in the comments!