This week’s Monday Matchup featured De Atramentis Jasmine, a bright orange ink that is lightly scented. Since I was the artist, I got to spend a lot of enjoyable time working with this gorgeous ink. I love the color, the scent, and the flow of this ink!
Supplies Used:
- Lamy Al-Star with medium steel nib (also EF and B nib)
- Rhodia No. 16 dotpad, 80g white paper
- TomoƩ River white paper
- Moleskine notebook
Smear Test (Dry Time):
- Slow– It takes 30+ seconds on Rhodia paper for this ink to dry. This is definitely one you’ll want to put to the side to dry.
- This is a decidedly wet writing ink. You’ll want to use fountain pen friendly paper to avoid feathering and bleed through. If that isn’t an option, go for an Extra-Fine or Fine nib.
Drip Test (Water Resistance):
- Low– You can still see the color, but the lines basically disappear when it’s wet. When using it in an ink wash it looks great!
Saturation:
- High– This is a highly pigmented ink!
Ease of Cleaning:
- Easy– This ink will wash away without a lot of trouble.
Shading:
- Medium– You can see some variation in the color, but not the intense color variation seen in some other orange inks.
Flow:
- Medium– This is a wet wet ink! You can see on the Moleskine paper just how much feathering happens with this one. I personally love a wet ink, so it worked well for me.
Unique Characteristics
- Scent– This ink has a light floral scent. I loved it- not overpowering and virtually disappears after it’s dry. I could smell it while writing, however, which was a pleasant experience.
Packaging and Aesthetics:
- 35ml bottle with Jasmine flowers on the label.
- Utilitarian. It is a stand alone bottle with no box.
- Wide necked bottle making it really easy to refill your pen.
Inks similar in color:
Summary
I’m a huge fan of this ink. Orange is one of my favorite colors and the fact that this ink flows wet and has a lovely scent as well just added to the appeal. If you are using this for writing, not drawing, I’d say stick with a smaller nib on good paper and allow for a good amount of dry time. If you’ve ever been interested in trying a scented ink, I think this would be a great one to start with! Its lovely scent is calming and not at all overpowering.
You can find a 35ml bottle of De Atramentis Jasmine for $11 (currently on sale!) or a 2ml sample for $1.25 at Gouletpens.com. Have you used De Atramentis Jasmine? What do you think of scented inks?
Write on,
Madigan