(I C U) Ink Review - Susemai - Black Balled

[napalm]

Colors looks perfect for spiders and bats, Tas can you do us a Halloween card

[Tas]

You guys . . .

[amberleadavis]

Oh no, that wasn't a happy blush. That was the sad blush .

[Tas]

I mean this

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_aww_shucks.jpg

I've played around with Blue Cashmere so much now that I'm late making dinner.

[Cyber6]

I mean this

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_aww_shucks.jpg

I've played around with Blue Cashmere so much now that I'm late making dinner.

 

 

WHA!!!! You also make dinner !!!!!!!!!!! Please tell me you are single ...

[dcwaites]

Hmm... I should think about some powdered iron gall ink in old style

 

I'm sorry, I didn't notice this entry till now. Diamine, when they were called Webster, produced an ink called Webster Diamine Blue Black, which was a powdered Iron Gall ink.

 

 

You may wish to contact them to see if they have any canisters left in a cupboard somewhere..

[Cyber6]

[napalm]

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Wow, I didn't know the color shifted so much with dilution. Thank you.

[Cyber6]

Wow, I didn't know the color shifted so much with dilution. Thank you.

 

 

You don't need to dilute to see the color shift. Look at my picture (click to magnify)... the shading is actually "grey".

 

It is a very interesting ink. Tas also mentions that the wash is bluish, but the ink swabs have reddish tones..

 

 

C.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Cyber6

[amberleadavis]

It is really cool.

[napalm]

My guess is that the ink is a mix of red and blue/gray dyes. And the calcium carbonate (or some other substance) in the paper has the capacity to "bleach" a certain amount of red dye. With concentrated ink, this amount is negligible and the red/gray ratio is not changed significantly. At higher dilutions (or when the ink is laid down in a very thin layer - like in Cyber6 case), the amount of bleached red dye becomes a significant proportion of the mix and the ink looks more bluish/gray.

[amberleadavis]

Wow that's very informative.

[mhguda]

My envelope with Black Balled and Blue Cashmere took a while to reach me, and I was in fact sent a replacement - of which one pipette, the blue, shattered en route, covering the labels so I really did not know what I got! I sort of salvaged the blue from the inside of the baggy, using lots of water; it is sitting in a little bottle evaporating, in hopes of becoming ink (actually I think this is working). The black seemed intact. I thought this was Black Amber, and so my first write-up calls it that, since the Black Amber never reached me either.

As you can see, I liked this one very much.

Then a new envelope reached me, this one containing two intact pipettes, labeled Black balled and Blue cashmere, with the same green heavy paper sheet folded around them, and with two sheets from Amber's workshop. It became clear to me that this was the original letter and the one with the shattered pipette was the replacement! So now I had the same samples everyone had received, and I proceeded to ink some pens with them.

First off, they were difficult to get out of the pipettes, and I ended up diluting them in order to get the ink out. I'm not sure how much further they were diluted, but am guessing: the black ink between 10 and 12%, the blue probably 8%.

I then did my sheets for each of them.

I was mostly disappointed - the ink was misbehaving, blurping out of the pen so I diluted it further. See above for results. I am mostly disappointed by the lack of blackness. I did a further sheet with a combined fill, somewhat less diluted than the first; better, but still not what the first one gave me. I am guessing that 16% is probably too saturated; and that the first sample that reached me was probably less saturated; it behaved much better.

I also did a comparison with some other inks; see below.

The Blue amber plus mentioned in this comparison is the last dregs of my blue amber sample, with two drops of Waterman Intense black added; I think this is a very wonderful mix, with the blue amber drying a tad darker than the pure thing; just right, to my eyes, and I will be sorry to see the last of it.

A short note on the paper I used: paper from two notebooks, both made in India. This is inexpensive paper - the notebooks are for school use - but very fountain pen friendly.

Also, please excuse the bad pictures - I guess I still have to figure out how to work the cellphone camera, but I do find the color representation is better than from the scanner.

 

I will post my writeup on Blue cashmere in the appropriate thread. Thanks for allowing me to play, Amber & Co. I'm enjoying every minute of it!

[amberleadavis]

I"m glad you enjoyed.

[SkylarKnight]

AAAH! I wanna join so bad! this sounds so awesomely awesome!

Amber, this is super cool!

Sadly, I couldn't read the rules, I have a hard time reading cursive Also, it seems all spots are filled..

[amberleadavis]

Contact Sinistral1 for getting on the list for the other inks.

[Sinistral1]

SkylarKnight: There's still room to sign up to be one of the Susemai ink testers, but we are getting near the 50 person limit! Let me know with a PM if you are still interested, and I will let you know what you need to do next.

[Sinistral1]

Comparison with other black inks:

 

[amberleadavis]

Did you like it?