![]() Last month they hosted the author of The Social Life of Ink, Ted Bishop, who spoke about and demonstrated making gall-nut ink, also known as iron gall ink. Recently I have been enjoying attending talks at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta. Written with a dip pen in my Rhodia memo book I was hoping for something more dramatic from this ink because whenever I wash out my pen, the ink water becomes such a lovely, glowing purple. I got a similar result with my sample of Monteverde Charoite. I can see some faint yellow in it but it didn’t separate out a lot. Herbin Lierre Sauvage ink was unusual in that it left behind a long grey strip with most of the green colour going to the top. The chromography of this ink had many colours including shades of blue, pink and orange. If I had had more finesse, perhaps I would have ended up with a lovely sepia tone like Higgins Sepia calligraphy ink. ![]() When I was a child and just learning about colour mixing I thought if I put all the colours together I would end up with something magical but instead got a muddy brown. Grey, blue, violet, turquoise – they’re all there. The range of colours really came out when I tried a spot on a paper towel and then added drops of water. ![]() I suspected it would show some nice range as anytime I wash it out of my pen, I get a much stronger blue colour than I can see when I’m writing. My first attempt was with Noodler’s blue-black ink. Design from The Postman’s Knock using Schmincke Indian Ink with a Tachikawa G nib on Sheaffer practice paper Private Reserve Midnight Blue (Fast Dry) Ink Although they think of themselves as being natural, their shiny black hair is never ruffled in the breeze. If Schmincke Indian Ink were a person, they would be German but have a very international perspective. I bought the smaller 28ml glass pipette bottle. They sell two sizes of bottles of the Indian Ink. They manufacture all their products at their facility in Germany and seem to take a lot of pride in what they make. Schmincke is a small (80 employees) German art supply company that goes back to 1881. Other things that shellac has been used for include making gramophone records, the adhesive in ballet pointe shoes, and combined with beeswax to give Jelly Belly jelly beans a shine (yum!). It makes the ink waterproof after drying and gives it a nice glossy sheen. Shellac is a secreted by the female lac bug on trees in India and Thailand. This type of shellac ink was in the Schmincke product line-up back in 1912 and at that time was called Nanking Tusche (translates to Nanjing Ink). Indian or India ink should probably be called Chinese ink as the Chinese have been making it for thousands of years but the English were introduced to it through their trade with India. Today’s ink, Schmincke Indian Ink, is not for fountain pens, but is a very deep black ink used for drawing, painting, and writing with a dip pen or brush. The term “ink” covers a very broad range of coloured liquids, gels, and even pastes like the ink used in printing. It seems appropriate to have another ink post as it is Inktober.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |