Ink & Colour
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

 Ink at the Heart of a Fountain Pen 

Picture
Picture
Picture

Diamine Shimmertastic - Dragon's Blood

15/10/2020

0 Comments

 
​I’m nearly at the end of trying all of my mad purchase of shimmer inks from Diamine.  Todays is dragons blood which reminds me of cocoa shimmer in that’s its quite soft / muted for a shimmer ink and therefore quite useable.
I thought the names dragons blood was more romantic than real however, dragon’s blood is real.  Not the blood of the mythical beast but a bright resin obtained from species of the plant genera Croton, Dracaena, Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus.  The resin has had numerous uses through the ages the most obvious is as a dye but it is also found in medicines, incense and varnish. Daemonorops is the most widely sold nowadays but Dracaena is the true ‘dragons blood’.
Picture
Old Dragon's Blood tree, Tenerife
Picture
Powdered Dragon's blood resin

From the picture of the powdered resin you would expect this to be a bright red ink  – it isn’t, I would call it brick red. You can see it is dark in the bottle and in the cap when the bottle is opened.
Picture
Picture

Chromatography was not particularly revealing, I have found that with all the shimmer inks the base tends to be very monochromatic and not much of a blend.  Here brown, browny-red and gold shimmer
Picture

Col-o-ring and Tomoe were similar.  This is not a particularly bright ink and as with most of these inks you sometimes need to move the paper a round or get the light just right to appreciate it is a shimmer ink.
Picture
Col-o-ring
Picture
Tomoe
Picture
Picture

For the wrting I used a TWSBI go with a stub nib and copy, Midori and Tomoe river paper.  
Starting with copy paper I would call this ink brown, I still think the base is brick red or red-brown but the shimmer makes it look just brown.  There is nothing really special about it, it is quick drying and there was no feathering or show through.  I take all my photos using natural light and you can see from the photo how the shimmer can show up depending on how the light falls on the page.
Picture
Picture

On Midori the red is more obvious but the shimmer is lacking.  Again no feathering or show through.
Picture
Picture

The colour on Tomoe river paper is similar to Midori, the red is more obvious but still not that bright and as expected dry time was slower.
Picture

I know I said I like this ink and I do but as a shimmer ink it is a bit meh.  The base shade is a variation on brown and the shimmer isn’t too ‘in your face’ so it is quite useable as an everyday ink.  If you don't like shimmer inks Diamines ancient copper is a very good alternative, or Sailors Kobe brick.
I have previously said I have bought these inks directly from Diamine – postage was reasonable a flat 5pounds to New Zealand for 5 inks.
 
In summary -
Saturation – high
Shading – no
Sheen – no
Shimmer – yes, gold
Flow –good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – Excellent 
Feathering – none, not even on cheap paper
Drying – very reasonable even on Tomoe
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – all the shimmer goes, and though there is some run off quite a lot remains.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Ink Brands

    All
    3 Oysters
    Birmingham Pen Co.
    Blackstone
    Bungbox
    Diamine
    Fountain Pens
    Hypercolors
    J Herbin
    Krishna
    Lamy
    Louis Vuitton
    Mont Blanc
    Monteverde
    Nemosine
    Noodlers
    Online
    PenBBS
    Pilot Iroshizuku
    Private Reserve
    Robert Oster
    Sailor - Ink Studio
    Sailor - Jentle
    Sailor - Kingdom Note
    Sailor - Kobe Story
    Shosaikan
    Taccia
    TAG Stationery
    TWSBI
    Vinta Inks
    Wancher
    Waterman

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact