So, You Want Shading, Do You?

[Masque]

I seem to have here some Black Swan in... uhhh... Icelandic... ummm... something blue. Minty bathwater?

 

Dry time is good, waterproof beyond reasonability for the color, and oh, at least on Rhodia and Clairefontaine, that shading...

 

Still working on this one, but it's coming along nicely enough that I'd share it as a preview. Shown here on Rhodia.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Masque

[Llewro]

Wow. That's awfully pretty, Masque. Let us know how it turns out! When you wash the nib, is there any residue left on the metal?

[saskia_madding]

WOW! Please let me know what that mix is. I'd love to give it a try!

[cybaea]

Yeah, I can see a teeny bit of shading going on there... Looking forward to the recipe.

[Masque]

I want to make sure it's stable, and that the shading doesn't vanish as the ink gets to know itself; I'm going to cook up another batch tonight and let it sit for a couple of weeks.

 

I could probably send out a sample or two, in the meantime.

[whichwatch]

That looks great! Certainly a recipe I'd love to try!

[opticalserenity]

Looking forward to trying this blend out. Looks great.

[auto winder]

That's really beautiful shading!

[renderboy]

Super nice!

[lahlahlaw]

Looks like a turquoise-black rather than blue-black

[Newjelan]

Beautiful! I love it.

[calhoun tubbs]

That looks amazing. So, is the mix still under wraps?

[Jadie]

Oh! Lovely enough to take my breath away. Reminds me a bit of Pharmacist's Turkish Night, only...hmm..."riper".

 

Looking forward to reading more about your findings!

[amberleadavis]

Well.... what is it, besides really pretty!

[Masque]

Batch two was inexplicably darker, and I gave it away. Batch three goes into testing this weekend...

[Marie89]

Would you pretty please share the recipe? Or at least another hint? The suspense is killing me...

[Arcanius]

That looks great! I'm curious to hear what the recipe is! I'll surely be trying this one out myself...

[RichA]

It's been almost 3 months since the last post, and I'm hoping the tests were a success. Has anyone heard what the outcome was? Or what the recipe might be?

[Masque]

Gosh. Has it been that long? I need to get back to this. Will try to do so shortly. Batch 5 seemed pretty much spot-on.

[Masque]

Okay. Here's today's run. I think I've (finally) gotten back to the original, after ... not ... quite getting back to the original for the next few batches.

 

Click either image to load the (ridiculous) original size image. These were done on HP 32lb paper, because... that's what I grabbed. I wrote a bit on Office Depot sugarcane legal (letter) pad paper as well, and it looks essentially identical. This is, to me, the most interesting property of this ink, as that paper is quite absorbent, whereas the HP is quite not, and yet they shade similarly. Hm.

 

Quick not-really-a-review-but-needed-to-write-with-it image, which makes it look a bit darker than it perhaps really is:

 

http://calmstorm.net/i/fpn/ink/batch_6_small.jpg

 

Close-up:

 

http://calmstorm.net/i/fpn/ink/batch_6_closeup_small.jpg

 

I might reach out to a couple of you - I'd be interested in a second opinion / review before I send it off for genuine consideration by the masses. (Personally I don't much like it when I mix something I love, only later to find out that it has some major flaw I've overlooked, such as insane feathering on common paper, or the tendency to catch fire when exposed to free writing, or sudden tentacles appearing at night and feeding on prior pages...)

 

Thanks all,

M.