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Buffy from Kuretake recently sent me one of the ZIG Cocoiro Lettering Pens from their Japanese Stationery range to try out – so it is review time!

So the first thing to notice about the ZIG Cocoiro Lettering Pen is that you can choose the colour of the body and the colour of the ink. You can even choose the type of tip for the black ink. 

It is kind of like a mix ‘n’ match selection for your pens. Currently you can choose from ten colours of the Cocoiro pen bodies and six ink colours for the Extra Fine Refill and a black Refill Ball Tip as well at the Kuretake Shop.

I had the Sky Blue body with the Dark Green (colour not currently available from the Kuretake online shop) Extra Fine Refill to try out, each arrived in their own little plastic sleeve. Once unwrapped you can remove the temporary cap from the refill, save it for later as it will be useful if you have lots of refills to swap around with, remove the cap from the body and slip the refill in. The refill screws into the body to keep it in place, then you can replace the lid that came with the body.

The end of the refill pokes out of the end of the pen so that you can see what ink you have in the body and the whole pen is extremely light to carry. It is very quick and simple to put together and you can easily swap in a different refill in no time at all. But to be honest I would probably have a couple of different coloured bodies too ‘coz I like the colours and I am a bit of a pen fiend!

The Extra Fine Refill tip is a stiff brush and you can get a variety of ultra thin and wider marks so when you use it for writing you get a flow of thick and thin lines. Same with drawing too, the flow of the tip across the page means that the line thickness will change as you move the pen. It takes a little getting used to but with some practice you can use this to your advantage, say for making the trail of the mark thin out at the end for example.

There is a little dryness to the ink flow that I’m not used to with Kuretake products so that also took a little getting used to. But I found that if I used the pen more slowly and made the marks with more purpose (i.e. didn’t scribble at high speed) then it wasn’t a problem. The ink is not waterproof so don’t use it on your unfinished art journal pages or anywhere that might come in contact with liquid.

This is a great pen for doodling and writing in your notebooks or Smash books. The ‘interactiveness’ of changing the refills really appeals to me as it means I can change the ink colour to match my mood – and yes I do frequently change pen colours to match my mood! No really – I do! 

If I was doing some full on drawing I might grab one of my other Kuretake ZIG pens first but I would quite happily sit there doodling into my notebooks with a ZIG Cocoiro pen – just stay away from me if you spot me using black or red LOL!

Enjoy perusing the yummy colours!

Kim

(Disclaimer time- you guys know I’m on the Kuretake Design Team, I don’t get paid for my reviews or opinions but I do get product. I still try to give you my honest, unbiased opinions to the products I test whether I’m on the design team or not.)