Birmingham – Gene Kelly Raspberry Rain

[crahptacular]

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors when I bought the sample pack, but I think they’re at 40+ and counting) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

Raspberry Rain is a dark, dusky purple with a substantial amount of red/burgundy in its hue. It is noticeably more saturated than the average Birmingham ink (which tends to be relatively muted).It immediately reminded me of J Herbin’s Poussiere de Lune, which is an ink I quite like. Putting them side-by-side, the two are very, very similar, with Raspberry Rain being a tiny bit redder. The two inks are a near enough match that I’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart if someone were to test me. The ink hasn’t displayed any misbehavior, and lays down a nice, consistent line without much shading. In writing, the color is quite dark and easily legible, but not so dark as to appear black. The ink seems to have two distinct components; when water is applied, the red washes off and a blueish grey remains, giving a moderate level of water resistance, albeit with a completely different hue. Overall, I like this color and I’m satisfied with the ink’s performance. However, I’ve already got a bottle of Poussiere de Lune, and the two are so nearly identical that I see no reason to own both.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Quite Low

Sheen: None

Water Resistance: Moderate-low; color washes off, but a light, legible line remains

 

 

The following sample was done with a FC 27 (Needlepoint) and a FC 31 (1.9 mm music) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Kuretake Menso brush (Small). Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: The scan has slightly too much red in the lighter parts of the doodle, making it appear pinker than it should, but in the middle/dark tones the scan is pretty accurate. Surprisingly, most of the comparisons are serviceable; only Bilberry is substantially off. Also, for some reason the color of the paper in the FC writing sample came out strangely red, but the color of the writing itself is still okay.

 

Scan:

 

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Sailor Oku Yama, Franklin Christoph Tenebris Purpuratum, J Herbin Poussiere de Lune, L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Violet, Diamine Bilberry

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Mari Strachan’s The Earth Hums in B Flat

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Midori MD:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[Tas]

I never tire of these . . .

[lapis]

I never tire of these . . .

. . . reviews. The colour of the ink itself isn't bad.

[Tas]

. . . the reviews

[visvamitra]

An ok ink. Stunning representation.

[namrehsnoom]

Fabulous picture ! The ink itself also looks quite good ... like you say: very similar to Poussière de Lune (which I like a lot).

[inkstainedruth]

Not really a color for me (although a broader nib definitely improved it).

As always though, thanks for the review, and the amazing artwork.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Gloucesterman]

Kind of like it and would require a broader nib, imho! Thank you.