Deatramentis Pearlescent Inks - India Blue

[DrDebG]

Dr. J. has developed a new line of pearlescent inks. I received samples of India Blue* with each of the four "sparkly-effects": bronze, copper, gold and silver.

 

DeAtramentis India Blue, dip pen, Clairfontaine

photos taken with iPhone, no color correction

For this "mini-review" of these 4 samples, I have used a dip pen and a Conklin Duragraph fountain pen with 1.1 stub nib. The papers I used included Clairfontaine, Tomoe River and Cambridge spiral bound notebook paper.

This ink is a wonderfully saturated royal blue. Overall, the flow was wonderful - nicely lubricated with great flow. In addition to the sparkles, the color had some shading. The ink did need to be agitated frequently to see the full effect of the sparkles. Of the four "sparkly-effects", the most pronounced effect came from the bronze and copper samples, although the gold and, particularly the silver, were beautiful. I particularly favored (for the moment) the effect of the copper sparkles and have chosen that for the rest of my review.

DeAtramentis India Blue Copper, Conklin Duragraph 1.1. stub pen, Tomoe River cream paper

DeAtramentis India Blue Copper, Conklin Duragraph 1.1. stub pen, Tomoe River cream paper

I left the ink, undisturbed, in the pen for a couple of days, then began to write. The Conklin Duragraph pen is a very easy pen and seems to like most inks. But the pen glided across the page with this ink. There was also no sign of clogging or "nib crud". The ink does require agitation to re-suspend the sparkly particles, however. Surprisingly, with such a saturated ink, there were no feathering, bleedthrough and even minimal showthrough on any of the papers that I used.

DeAtramentis India Blue Copper, Conklin Duragraph 1.1. stub pen, Tomoe River cream paper

I was surprised at how much I love the color of the ink with the copper sparkles, but all of the sparkles compliment the ink very nicely. And as a wonderful bonus, cleaning the sparkly ink from my pen was fairly easy - as easy as any highly saturated ink.

I am excited to present these "mini-reviews" on the new DeAtramentis Pearlescent inks. This ink is worthy of the illustrious DeAtramentis name.

* The name of the ink is DeAtramentis Indian Blue, not India Blue. My samples were labelled India Blue.

Edited October 29, 2016 by DrPenfection

[alc3261]

I loved this one. I agree with your findings - the particles do settle but are no trouble to clean out.

[amberleadavis]

Great review. I haven't tried this one yet. I think it is prettier than the original India blue.

[WirsPlm]

Dang, for a second I thought someone had cracked the mother of pearl effect that gel pens have and was super excited (I've been trying off and on for a while) but it looks like this is just another ink with particles in it? It's a very nice version but I can already make this type at home so I'm holding off on buying a commercial version.