Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Paper – Tea Time

A good swatch card does one job well: let the ink speak for itself, without the paper getting in the way. These cards come from a mill that’s been perfecting exactly that for more than a century — Takasago Paper Mill, founded in 1910, long before anyone was swatching inks for Instagram.

Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Paper — Tea Time is a set of 120 fountain pen ink swatch cards, made in Paju, South Korea, printed with three rotating teacup illustrations across the pack — 40 cards each — and housed in a decorative flip-top cardboard box with a wax-seal teapot design.

Available at Shosai (shosai.ca) in Gatineau / Ottawa — with in-store pickup (J9J 0K6) and Canada-wide shipping.

The Paper

Each card measures 50 x 90mm and is cut from Takasago paper at 87.9 gsm — notably thin and silky to the touch, yet built to handle ink without the usual compromises thin paper tends to make. Independent testing found minimal ghosting and zero bleed-through even with a range of wet, saturated inks, putting it on par with paper weight #5 from the Yamamoto Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection. Ink genuinely behaves here — shading, sheen, and shimmer all show through cleanly, without drama or surprises.

The Design

Each card carries a teacup-and-saucer illustration in fine line art, framed by space to record the brand, ink name, and pen used, plus a 0–100 opacity gradient bar for tracking how an ink performs at different dilutions or layers. Three teacup designs rotate through the set, so no two consecutive cards look identical — a small, considered detail for anyone building out a long-term ink log.

How to Use It

Fill in the swatch area with a cotton swab, a paintbrush, or Dominant Industry’s own ink muddler tool, then record the ink and pen details in the labelled fields alongside it. The flip-top box keeps the full set of 120 cards organized and protected, making it easy to pull one out, swatch, and file it away without the cards getting lost in a drawer.

Recommended Uses

• Ink archiving and cataloguing — a clean, consistent way to document a growing ink collection
• Comparing inks side by side — uniform cards make it easy to line up swatches and compare shading, sheen, and colour across bottles
• Gifting alongside a new ink — a thoughtful pairing for anyone just starting to build out their collection

About Dominant Industry

Dominant Industry is a South Korean stationery and ink studio based in Paju, founded in 2019 and known for small-batch fountain pen inks shaped by colour and storytelling. Beyond ink, the brand extends its considered approach to paper goods and accessories — like this swatch paper — that treat the ritual of writing as something worth doing properly, one card at a time.

Product Specifications

Available at Shosai — Ottawa–Gatineau

Shosai (shosai.ca) is a fine stationery boutique serving the Ottawa–Gatineau National Capital Region. We carry a curated selection of premium fountain pens, inks, papers, and writing accessories from the world’s most respected stationery brands.

• 📍 In-store pickup: Gatineau, QC — J9J 0K6
• 🛵 Local delivery: Available in the Ottawa–Gatineau area
• 🚚 Canada-wide shipping
• 🇨🇦 Bilingual service — English and French

Whether you are new to fountain pens or a seasoned collector, Shosai is your local destination for pens, inks, and accessories that go beyond the ordinary.