Xuan, black with a bit of red

December 29, 2009

This is an ink I like to call Xuan (玄, pinyin: xuán). The character 玄 (xuán) means "black with a bit of red" (source).

To make this,

1. Concentrate Diamine Vermillion to a ratio 2:1. I recommend doing this by putting it in a container with a constant cross section area, and leaving it open to air until the volume is half of what it was at first. You can put something over it so that dust doesn't get in. Don't microwave it unless you want a mess. You can try boiling it (with a Bunsen burner, not your stove), but I haven't tried it so I can't tell you if you'll succeed without making a chemical change. Diamine Vermillion flows very well and even feathers after concentration. This is essential.

2. Mix the concentrated Diamine Vermillion with Sailor Extreme Black (極黑, Hepburn: kiwaguro) in a ratio of 1:1.

What happens is that the Diamine Vermillion (a dye-based ink) tends to feather with wet writers and/or feathery paper, while the Sailor Extreme Black (a suspension) doesn't move. The result is a black "core" with a vermilion border. It looks like this:

http://i44.tinypic.com/2w7rgnp.png

You can use more Vermillion and/or less Extreme Black to make it more red. I'd estimate this to be 1:7 Extreme Black to Diamine Vermillion:

http://i50.tinypic.com/v6ue01.jpg

(written with a quite wet fine-tipped Pelikan M600 on an Apica notebook)