cimorene

Diamine China Blue fountain pen ink in a Platinum Preppy 05 M and Speedball B-3 dip pen nib, plus brush and water.

This was the first blue I bought, and in hindsight I appreciate that it’s a touch unusual for a fountain pen ink. Having spent many hours studying the blue painted designs on actual china bowls and cups in my life, however, this ink, which is a near-perfect facsimile of it and behaves like it as well, seemed perfectly natural to me at first.

I do like the color, which is cheerful and provides a lot of shading for interest, but not enough, unfortunately, to make up for the text it produces looking, essentially, the same color as a disposable Bic ballpoint's, the most expected and boring color for handwriting - it’s the context that works against it, not the color itself. In comparison to other blue inks I’ve tried, China Blue is on the light side, and the appearance is a little waterier too - which I’m sure is by design, as it’s a good part of what makes it so evocative of painted china. The shading is unusually dramatic, as you can see in the title words above. The formulation is nothing extraordinary either way, functional, not irritating, not sublime.

Since I purchased this ink so early, I was also able to make pen-flushing mistakes several times with it, in different pens, and discover that it produces a very nice effect when slightly mixed with black or red ink and is fun to play with.

Sample on Rhodia dotpad: