J Herbin do a collection of inks with gold dust in them (see their webpage here). There are occasionally new additions to the range and at the moment, there are four shades available: Stormy Grey, Ocean Blue, Emerald de Chivor and Rouge hematite. I'm not a huge lover of red ink, even if it does have gold in it, but I do have the other three. They are really difficult to photograph! All of the samples shown are written on Tomoe River white (really ivory) paper and photographed in the sunshine. Click on any picture to enlarge (and sorry they do not show the inks to their best!).
1. Stormy Grey
In some ways this is my least favourite of the three, though when I first tried it, I loved it. I do love the fact that it dries to a dark charcoal grey. What I don't like quite so much is the yellow overtones without the sparkle. It's lovely if it catches the sunlight and the gold glints, but otherwise the gold puts a yellow cast over the ink. When wet, the ink is even more jaundiced-looking, but as it dries, it darkens.
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| Taken in sunshine with the camera directly above |
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| Taken in sunshine with the camera at an angle to get the sparkles |
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| Again, taken at an angle, in sunshine |
2. Ocean Blue
This is a really lovely colour - a solid, dark blue and the gold highlights are superb. I adore it!
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| Taken in sunshine with the camera directly overhead |
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| Taken in the sunshine with the camera at an angle to show the sparkles |
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| Again, taken in sunshine with the camera at an angle to show the sparkles |
3. Emerald de Chivor
This is the one that people have been going nuts over, possibly because it is the newest addition to the collection. It is indeed a fabulous colour - dark green with a hint of blue and some really beautiful shading that I haven't seen quite so much on the other inks. I absolutely adore this ink!
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| Taken in sunshine with the camera directly above |
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| Taken with the camera at an angle to try and show the sparkle |
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| Again, taken at an angle to show the sparkle |
One thing that I have noticed is that I get huge amounts of the ink on my hands when filling up pens with any of these three inks! I thought it was just me, but I sent samples to a good friend and he said he was covered in ink when he filled his pens with them too. Anyone else finding that? Is it a particularly 'climbing' ink? i.e. does it have more capillary action than other inks and so climb the sides of things (bottles, pens etc.) more than others? I'd be interested to know if others are finding the same thing!
As well as J Herbin producing sparkly inks, Diamine is about to produce some too. They will be in a variety of colours and available from October. Some of the colours have silver in them and some gold. Goulet Pens blogged about it and have a great picture of the inks on this post. I've got my eye on Night Sky, Blue Lightning and Blue Pearl already! I'm hoping that the Night Sky version, with silver rather than gold, will be less jaundiced-looking.
Who else is a sparkly ink fan?
Update:
Bureau Direct are running a competition to win a set of the Diamine sparkly inks. Click here to enter.
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