Soramame Ink review
Soramame inks surprisingly hold a lot of ink in spite of their small size. For those looking for an affordable ink set with a wide range of colors, I would recommend is Soramame inks. This is a special line of inks produced by Tsukineko for Eraser stamp artist Tomoko Tsukui.
Pros
- Compact for storing
- Wide color range
Cons
- Similar to VersaCraft in pigmentation, may occasionally go runny depending on how you store them.
- No dedicated re-inker
- Less coverage for big stamps
I’ve grown to love Soramame ink pads especially when I need to use different colors for layered stamps. These are small ink pads that are fitted onto fingertip-sized holders so that you can ink your stamps as if you’re dabbing ink with your fingertips.
I’ve been using Soramame inks since 2017 and bought an entire set in 2018 which I use up to this day. It’s one of the best investments I made in terms of stamp supplies. Most of them still ink well save for some colors that are starting to fade due to usage.
Each set comes with four ink colors in each set, all of which take after traditional Japanese hues. That being said you can’t buy just one color that you need unless you can buy them directly from Tokyu Hands that occasionally sell them individually. Chances are they have single colors of the old version on sale, those have a colored handle (they’re not transparent like the ones in my photo.)
Storing these inks is quite interesting. They come with their own curved acrylic trays that are made just for these inks. On the note of storage, I make sure to add a pack of silica gel where I store the inks to prevent it from going runny which is the tendency for most pigment inks in a humid climate.
There are 9 sets as of today. Here’s what they look like when stamped as well as their English / romanized names.
Soramame Swatches
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post Soramame inks are more or less the same as VersaCraft ink pads (if not a little more affordable.) From my experience of using pigment inks in our tropical hot and humid weather, some inks (not all) tend to occasionally go runny or splotchy on stamp surfaces (see swatch image.) If this is a deal-breaker for you, you might as well stick to Versacraft which is easier to find in a local art supply store.
If you own or use a Hobonichi, you may refer to this to see how the ink fairs on the Hobonichi paper.
Soramame Sample Prints
Here are some of my works inked with Soramame inks
Soramame Ink availability Philippines
I bought my first set of inks from Tokyu Hands Japan and the rest from Sekaido. If you’re excited to start stamping with Soramame inks. You can get yours from the Marz Today Shop.
