Tono & Lims Kaleidoscope Pure AWA — 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample
Tono & Lims Kaleidoscope Pure AWA — 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample
Details
Hue: A muted sea-green. In writing it lays down as a soft, slightly greyed sage-green; where the ink pools it deepens considerably to a dark pine-teal with cool blue-green edges. Retailer copy for the Pure line describes Awa as a deep green with bright green undertones, and Japanese listings for the original Kaleidoscope version call it a light green. My swatches sit between the two — the written line is lighter and greyer than "deep green" suggests, while the swabs go darker and more teal than "light green" implies. It is a quiet, dusky green rather than a bright mint.
Shading: Strong. The swab bar and drops show clear light-to-dark range, and the heavier pools break into distinct darker bands with pronounced edge halo and visible chromatic separation.
Sheen: None.
Shimmer: None. The Pure series is the shimmer-free version of the Kaleidoscope inks — this bottle contains no glitter particles.
Flow: Medium.
The interesting bit: "Awa" (あわ) means foam or bubbles — fitting for a soft sea-green. The Kaleidoscope series began as event-exclusive releases sold at Japanese pen shows, made with shimmer; Kaleidoscope Pure was created afterwards as a shimmer-free version of those same colours so collectors who couldn't attend the events could still get the shades. Tono & Lims is the project of Takashi Ono, working with Lim's Lab, an ink producer in South Korea, and the Kaleidoscope colours are all named after poetic Japanese words. The maker also describes this series as fluorescent under UV light — I haven't tested Awa under a UV lamp, so I can't confirm how strongly it reacts.
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.
Postage
Royal Mail or Evri, your choice at checkout, from £1.90. Free over £20. Dispatched within 2 working days. UK only for now.
Returns
Change your mind within 14 days and I'll refund you, including standard outbound postage. Return postage is yours unless something's wrong. Opened vials can only be refunded in part. Full details in my refund policy.
What you're getting
A 4ml vial, hand-decanted by me from my own bottle. Swatch photos are mine, on Tomoe River paper. Colours vary with paper, nib and screen, so treat them as a good guide rather than an exact match.