Zig - Wink of Stella Brush Tip Glitter Marker

Today I wanted to share a new type of marker with you... 

Zig - Kuretake Wink of Stella Brush Tip Glitter Marker.

 

This is a fairly new product on the market that offers up glitter in a new way.  Now you know how much I love glitter so I figured this would be a perfect product to put to the shimmery test ;)

 

The "official" talk about the pen is.... the Wink of Stella Brush is perfect for writing and adding controlled glitter to your projects.  The soft nylon 0.8mm brush tip lays down thick and thin lines of shimmery color that are perfect for decorative lettering, drawing, and adding highlights to stamp art. Unlike some methods of adding glitter, this pen lets you add sparkle in a clean and controlled manner, without glue residue. The water-based pigment ink is of archival quality, photo safe, acid free, lightfast, odorless and Xylene free and is filled with beautiful specks of fine glitter.

Edited to add they come in 16 different colors. 
The one I'm sharing today is Glitter Green.
If you click on the link above it will take you to the color chart on Zig's web-site.

 

As you can see from the photo above, these brushes come with a black ring in the center.  I thought this was a decorative element but duh for me... the ring holds the brush tip away from the ink barrel during shipping...  Since mine was a sample from Altered Pages I didn't have any package or information about first use.  Let me tell you it took me about 5 minutes to figure out that you had to remove the ring to get the pen to work!

 

So, once you screw the pen brush into the ink barrel you give the barrel a gentle squeeze until you see the inks just reach the brush tip.  This is what I did and I never had any troubles with excess ink. 

 

I have read several negative reviews from folks who obviously squeezed the barrel way too hard as they had ink oozing out the tip of the brush. It's no different than the concept of a water brush...if you squeeze it really hard you're going to get lots of water squirting out. It only makes sense that if you squeeze this barrel too hard you're going to get LOTS of ink squirting out. 

 

I am also storing my pen tip up so that the ink doesn't settle in the brush tip just in case... 

Not that it would seep out but I figured better safe than sorry.

 



 

As I mentioned the brush tip on this marker actually looks like a water brush and works in much the same manner.  I actually never squeezed my ink barrel after the initial inking.  It seemed to work great without having to be constantly messed with.

 

You can make very fine, thin to thick lines leaving behind color and shimmer....

I wrote with it, scribbled, drew thick and thin lines and more...

 

I am very pleased with the results. 

It's hard to get a good photo of the shimmer but you can see a glint of the  glitter here....

It's a constant, even coating of glitter and the ink dries almost instantly.  I rubbed several of the lines I made and neither the ink or glitter smeared or came off.

 

Just to see how it would hold up I went back over the ink with a Waterbrush and tried to smear it.

The ink never smeared or smudged but I was able to move a bit of the glitter around the paper. 

Beyond that the inks remained just as they were.

 

I was really impressed with how fine of lines it would make....you can see how tiny those little bitty marks are...all of which had that beautiful shimmer of glitter.

I used it on plain cardstock, pattern paper, stamped images and it all looked great.

I have read you can't use it on non-porous surfaces because it will wipe off because it can't soak in.

I decided to give it a shot and I found that if you dry it with a heat tool the inks stick to the surface pretty well.  I had to actually use my nail to scrap the ink off a piece of acetate to make it come off. Normal rubbing would not remove it from the plastic.

 

So far I haven't found a thing about this pen I don't like.

 

Oddly enough this pen can be found in a very wide price range ~ anywhere from 3.00 to 10.00+ a pen! Why the huge difference I have no idea but if you do a bit of searching you can find them pretty cheap (amazon sets of 3-10.00; Paper & Ink Arts - 4.99).

 

Hopefully, Altered Pages will start carrying them as well since they are such a fun product.