Ferris Wheel Press - Pumpkin Patch

Ferris Wheel Press - Pumpkin Patch - ink drop

Pumpkin Patch, is from Canadian ink maker Ferris Wheel Press, and is part of their 2019 Summer collection. Their stated mission is “to produce extraordinary products that will be treasured for generations.” Without question, their packaging materials and design are simply works of art, and they offer some very attractive inks. They also have beautiful bottles (and stunning packaging) available in four sizes (85ml, 38ml, 20ml, and three-ink 5ml sets). The company has become very popular very quickly for good reason!

Ferris Wheel Press - Pumpkin Patch - color palette

Pumpkin Patch is a beautiful, vibrant, matte, mid-to-dark orange. It’s a very interesting shading ink. It shades light to a deep, translucent yellow, but really likes to shade dark! At its darkest, it’s a rich, tomato orange red. On the right papers, a dark edging outlines written strokes. The darkest shades blend inward within each stroke. As you can see in the splatter, a dark sheen rings areas of pooling, and it’s this color that creates stroke edge. Visually, it’s a stunning ink.

In writing, Pumpkin Patch was usable on all five test papers, but only on Rhodia did it really perform at its best. Here strokes were extremely well-defined, with dark halo edges, extreme shading, and drying times of 25-35 seconds. On Rhodia, this ink is simply gorgeous! Next best, but far less impressive was office copy paper (now that’s an unusual result), and then Kokuyo. Strokes were reasonably sharp, but there was some feathering. Shading and halo were weaker, as well, with drying times of 5 and 20 seconds. Surprisingly, on Mnemosyne and Apica, results were poor to very poor.

Ferris Wheel Press - Pumpkin Patch - ink swatch card

Ferris Wheel Press is a very exciting part of the ink world’s landscape. Although Pumpkin Patch only performed at its best on Rhodia, its best is indeed a beautiful performance! If Rhodia is your paper choice, I highly recommend Pumpkin Patch. If not, Ferris Wheel Press offers a number of other attractive colors that perform well across a range of papers.

November 2020