I have a series of audio classes by my Rabbi that I have listened to over and over in my car since he passed away in 2021. In one of them, his student mentioned a book that he had read called The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse. The Rabbi said when he was in high school all his circle of friends were reading it, but he never did because he didn't have the patience for it. They discussed it a bit and then moved on to the topic in the Talmud.
Ever since then I wondered what the book was all about.
Well, the other day I was ordering a bunch of ink samples and was going through everything this one company offered in the little 2 ml bottles. And lo and behold, there was an ink called..... The Glass Bead Game! What??? Of course, I had to have it, so I added it to my cart.
I took it as a sign that it was time for me to read that book. Even though I was very intimidated by the idea of it from the description the student had given. I didn't know if I had the chops for it.
Well, the ink and the book arrived. I began reading it and found out I DO have the chops! Though it IS pretty heady and philosophical, it's also well written and interesting.
This ink is one of 22 that I ordered. I intend to do an ink sample page for each one again, but this time I am going to use up the whole bottle before I move on to the next one. I learned my lesson about how stressful it is for me to have too many inks lying around in the drawer, 2ml or not.
Anyway, here it is.... just as esoteric and mysterious as the book so far!
It's a most impractical ink, barely there! But up close, it's very pretty. I'm hoping to do a chromatography strip of each ink which you make by drawing a line on a piece of coffee filter and then dip one end into water which wicks up and separates the colors that the ink is composed of. The line you can't really see in this photo is a thin line of shimmer or very, very small glitter in the ink.
It seems an appropriate name for this ink, it IS almost as transparent as glass.
I'm only on page 135 of the book. It has almost 500 pages. I'm determined to finish it.... for the Rabbi. 💗
