Which J Herbin Inks Should I Choose....

[ellenspn]

Okay Massdrop has the J Herbin inks in the small bottles for sale for 5 for $41.99

 

1) Should I partake?

2)Which inks of the selection available. No Violette Pensee is not one of them.

[ink-syringe]

eclat de saphir

 

lie de the

 

perle noire is a good black if you need a black

[stevesurf]

Awww you really should try Violette Pensée I have fond memories of it being my first Herbin ink - it's what they were selling at the Louvre.

 

But if you must use other colors

 

Lierre Sauvage

Rouge Opéra

Café des Îles

Vert Olive

Bleu Pervenche

Edited October 29, 2014 by stevesurf

[lgsoltek]

I would suggest Lie de thé and Lierre sauvage. I have Orange indien and Ambre de Birmanie too, but I don't like the orange. It's so lowly saturated as if it had been watered down. It has a pinky tint which I personally hate. There are way better oranges out there. I haven't used the amber one yet but probably I won't like it. I prefer saturated inks, so most of JH's inks are not saturated enough for my liking. But these are personal taste, of course.

[elderberry]

+1 for Lie de Thé and Vert Olive, these are great colors. I also like Bleu Myosotis, a blue-lilac color. And Bouquet d'Antan, which is a bit light but looks great in a wet pen on cream paper.

[Algester]

I would say get rouge hematite and gris orage special inks these 2 1670 ink line

As for the standard line terre de feu, liere suvage and vert olive

[Rocket1]

Bleu myosotis

Rose cyclamen

Lierre sauvage

[Chrissy]

Pousierre de lune

[Mikeambergris]

Lie de Thé, wonderfully well behaved and beautiful on off-white-cream paper. I have Ambre de Birmanie too but I cannot make my mind up about it. It is an 'almost but not quite'. I think it just misses my preference for saturated inks.

[pmhudepo]

Lie de Thé is a great ink; definitely consider getting that one. Vert Olive looks like a very nice companion, but I have no experience with that ink.

[arcadeflow]

I got Cacao du Brèsil and Terre de Feu, I liked Cacao a lot. It is hard to enjoy a pure gray ink, but the bit of brown it has makes it interesting enough. Terre de Feu is interesting, but I guess it needs a wet pen to look great, otherwise it is like a rusty reddish violet/pink, it has some "wine" pigments as if it is Diamine Merlot with more red. Herbin inks are very different from anything I've seen, they have pastel tones in person, so I wish I could see them in person before picking a color. I liked them though, I am still interested in Bleu Nuit, Lie de Thé and Poussière de Lune. I like some other colors but they are too light. These inks are specialty inks, they are made with natural pigments, so they feel different from modern inks, they are not as saturated and the different pigments make them different on paper.

[Ursus]

I have used many Herbin inks, and I love all those colours - but when I am actually going to read what I write, I have found that many of the colours are simply too colourful, light or vivid to me. The Vert Empire is therefore my personal favourite and I simply can't get enough of it. You can even use it in formal correspondance (as least as long as you are not writing letters of condolances).

 

If you are into the historical colours (you mentioned violette pensee) you could also try the forget-me-not blue (Bleu Myosotis) which is also an ancient school ink colour in France (it used to be sold under another name than myosotis, though).

 

I can recommend reading the small texts that Herbin have composed about the different colours. Vert Empire, for example, was made in honour of Napoleon - but in my opinion it is also very suitable for Autum, Christmas and Winter and makes one thinks of the laurels of poets, and of pines et cetera.

[penswordnoassemblyrequired]

I love Rouge Opera and am quite fond of Bleu Myosotis.

[inkstainedruth]

Vert Empire if they have it. Éclat de Saphir. I liked the color of Cafe des Iles better than Lie de Thé, but it got sort of grainy in the sample vial.

And on the *really* off chance they have 1670 Rouge Hematite or Stormy Grey, absolutely go for those....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ellenspn]

Wow! Thanks for the suggestions everyone. None of the limited editions are available I'm sad to say. I would really like to try Stormy Grey.

[inkspot]

Vert Olive and Bleu Myosotis have already been mentioned, I see, but I don't recall seeing Larmes de Cassis suggested - it's one of my favourite purples. Rouge Bourgogne is another favourite of mine - a lovely raspberry colour that reminds me of Caran d'Ache Sunset.

[Lovely_Pen]

I absolutely love Roule d'ancre and Vert Olive.

[GatzBcn]

Lie de thé and Pousierre de lune.

[Abner C. Kemp]

Lie de The is one of the most interesting brown inks out there and probably my favorite J Herbin ink in the standard collection. Bleu Pervenche is a very nice turquoise with some shading and good smooth flow. Eclair de Saphir is a fairly saturated and vibrant blue which is nice for everyday writing.

[Davis19942003]

Definitely Bleu Pervenche. The colour is just makes me think of beach and the sea. But personally my Pervenche doesn't look good on copier paper and when it's filled in a flex pen, the ink gets too saturated that look ugly...........