Lennon Tool Bar Guardian Beasts Bixi - 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: A muted slate blue-grey. Retailers describe it variously as a soft muted blue and as a cool grey that can lean green or blue depending on paper. On Tomoe River it sits between the two: the written line is a mid grey-blue, more grey than the "muted blue" description suggests, with the blue coming forward where the ink pools. No green lean visible on my swatches.

Shading: Yes. Light-to-mid shading in the dip pen bar and handwriting; stronger, cloudier variation where the ink pools in the swabs.

Sheen: None visible on my swatches, even in the heaviest pooling.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Medium.

The interesting bit: Bixi (贔屭) is one of the nine sons of the dragon in Chinese mythology. He looks like a turtle but is dragon-born, and his job is carrying heavy stone tablets on his back, which is why you'll find him at the base of memorial stelae across Taiwan and China. The label shows him doing exactly that. He was released in summer 2024 as part of Lennon Tool Bar's Guardian Beasts series, alongside Shi Shi Zi, Komainu and Feng Shi Ye. Lennon Tool Bar was founded in Tamsui, Taiwan in 2014 and started out promoting traditional indigo dyeing before moving into ink; the colours still lean towards that indigo-dye palette, and Bixi is a good example.

This is a hand-decanted 4ml sample vial from my own bottle.
Photos are my own swatches on Tomoe River Paper.
I'm a collector and I'm always happy to talk ink, so please message me if you have any questions.