There are two fountain pen ink makers in Australia: Robert Oster in South Australia, and Blackstone Ink in Queensland. Both are inks made by men and both inks are, in my opinion, a little heavy-handed – they tend to be overly generous (saturated) in the dye department. I decided that I wanted to make ink myself but take a more muted approach to the colours on offer. Of course, I don’t know the first thing about making ink, so I did what I know best, and made the packaging, instead.