fountain pen ink swatch #12: diamine jade green

[cimorene]

Diamine Jade Green fountain pen ink on Clairefontaine paper using Pilot Parallel Pen 6mm and Lamy Safari B (plus a brush and water).


This (along with Claret, which I opened and used first) was in the first package of fountain pen inks I ever ordered, and I was more surprised by the outcome than I’ve been since because I made the mistake of ordering on the basis of the official color swatches.

They put the ink straight onto the paper in a big wash, probably with a brush - or maybe a cotton swab, also common practice - in these color charts, and hence it can come out looking more like:


(image from US-based fountain pen shop The Goulet Pen Company) - and hence much more legible than it actually is. You can’t put a color this light into just any pen; it looks dramatically different depending on just how fast the ink flows. A thin nib that only puts a small amount of ink on the paper will fall at the very light end of its spectrum; only a juicy pen will produce the vivid leafy letters you see in the caption up there. (To get a real idea of what an ink will look like, it’s vital to look at writing samples, not just color washes. Plug the brand and color into a search engine and look at two or three of the image results, at minimum.)

The Lamy Safari’s B nib isn’t as free-flowing as whatever pen was used to make the above swatch; while it is legible at the size in my writing sample, it shows a clear color differential between the tops of the letters and the bottoms, where the ink has pooled. Of course, the drawings and the broad nib bring the difference out even more.

Anyway, this ink is gorgeous for calligraphy, like other light-bright and pastel shades, but doesn’t really work for ordinary writing, even if you find a pen that will make it legible. It works okay as an accent-color and is appropriately attention-grabbing, but it’s really better saved for the decorative arts.

Here’s a sample on Rhodia dotpad, the first one I’ve drawn at double normal handwriting size because it just isn’t pleasant to read at the normal one:


(I wrote this text sample before I did the drawing, and I’ll have to amend it that the dragon does indeed evoke jade now that it’s been gone over with a wet brush, although it didn’t when it was just lineart.)