Opalescent Fountain Pen Ink?

[inkstainedruth]

That's why I want to try the gouache. It's a water based artist's pigment that comes in gold, silver, bronze, etc. If I can dilute it enough to flow through the pen AND still shine, mixed with FP ink for color and adhesion, it might work.

Hmmm. If you dilute gouache enough, it works like regular watercolor paint (in fact, when I took a watercolor class in college we used Winsor-Newton gouache). That sort of precludes the shine, IMO.

Not sure how it will work in FPs; I did do a calligraphy job years ago for a former co-worker, addressing wedding invitations with a gouache mixed to match the color of the invitations (the envelopes were dark navy blue), but that was with a standard Speedball pen and nib.

I recent got a Pelikan 100 on Ebay with an italic nib. When I inspected the nib there was this stuff on it that looked a lot like dried paint, which reminded me a lot of that old calligraphy job, since it was a similar color, and when I flushed the pen out with ammonia solution what came out was bright orange (flushing with just water netted something that looked like a dark purple-blue in, so the bright orange was something of a shock). I'm wondering now if the former owner did do something like what you're suggesting. The pen appears to write okay (I have Quink Black in it at the moment), so you *may* be safe using regular gouache. Not sure about metallics though. And even then, I would only try it in something you don't mind ruining for the sake of "science", like a Platinum Preppy or a refilled Pilot Varsity turned into an eyedropper pen. Especially the latter, because they're designed to be disposable in the first place.

Okay, now you've actually got me interested. I have a couple of empty Varsities, and I may try playing around with stuff like shell gold and gouache paint in a few weeks (too much on the plate already until after DCSS). If it fails, well, they were dead anyway (and can tell the hubby that I have started paring down the pen stash... ). Not sure I'll get an opalescent or pearlescent effect, though. In the meantime I will try to talk to people I know that do calligraphy and illumination, especially some people who teach various sorts of classes in traditional techniques such as tempera painting. But again, that won't be immediate.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Edited July 6, 2014 by inkstainedruth

[Algester]

someone go to Sailor's ink making sessions and perhaps one can get something from it...

[disillusion]

My plan is to try some experimenting with my FP inks and gold gouache mixed together. Gouache is water based, and when you use it for calligraphy, you have to add gum arabic to make the ink bond to the paper. If I dilute the gouache enough, don't add any gum arabic, and mix it with the FP ink, it just might work. Will it be a Frankenink? Time will tell!

I bought some Pentel Gold Poster Color and tried something similar to what you described. The mix is about an adzuki-bean-sized amount of poster color, 5-7 drops of water from a glass eyedropper (the kind you use for aroma oils etc), and somewhere between 0.01 to 0.2ml of Hero 233 blue ink. I tested some of it with a dip pen, and I will let the rest sit covered for maybe 2-3 days and see what happens to it. I don't know whether I would be brave enough to put it in a fountain pen, but I have a very cheap and easy to clean eyedropper pen that could possibly survive such a test. The mix is quite liquid and the gold settles to the bottom rather quickly.

 

Writing sample starts at the word "well" and you can see what the gold poster color looks like too. Please ignore the black stuff and the uneven script - it was all written in a hurry on my lap. The colour changes quite dramatically with the viewing angle - something I can't quite capture as I have zero photo skills. A tiny amount of gold rubbed off when I slid my finger across the dried ink - but it was only noticeable on the finger not on the page. The colour is very pretty - I can see why you have been looking for a fountain-pen-friendly metallic ink for so long!

[Sinistral1]

Looks like the gold bits floated to the top after they separated. I am working on my experiment and will post the result shortly...

 

Edited to add: It worked, and in a sheeny ink it's a nice effect. Sparkly bits mixed with sheen and the ink color base. But, I can't capture the effect with my iPhone. Dang!

Edited July 8, 2014 by Sinistral1

[Muncle]

Disillusion, that is absolutely beautiful!

[sotto2]

Here's a couple more writing samples using one of Amberlea's opalescent/pearlescent envelopes. The top "Test" is the previous example with Private Reserve Avocado ink (Pelikan 215 with a B nib), then the second is with Aurora Black (Pelikan M205 BB nib), and the third sample with Edelstein Turmalin ink (Kaweco Sport Demo M). You can see a bit of feathering with the Aurora Black and the Edelstein Turmalin. The Pelikan M205 BB is a very wet pen. It appears the pearlescent quality of the paper is transferred a bit through to the ink, even with the Aurora Black, and seems more obvious the broader and wetter the line.

 

http://i57.tinypic.com/2rzexj8.jpg

Edited July 8, 2014 by sotto2

[disillusion]

Looks like the gold bits floated to the top after they separated. I am working on my experiment and will post the result shortly...

 

Edited to add: It worked, and in a sheeny ink it's a nice effect. Sparkly bits mixed with sheen and the ink color base. But, I can't capture the effect with my iPhone. Dang!

Yes, the paper is fairly absorbent compared to Rhodia/Clairefontaine. The ink is absorbed to the paper but the colour shows through at some angles. Actually it might be a good thing the gold is floating on top, I can probably use less of it and still get the sparkly effect. I am going to mix a batch with much less gold and test it in my eyedropper pen when I have the time.

Would love to see your ink sample! I had to use a desk lamp over the paper and took the shot with my iPhone at a low lateral angle, very close to the paper (focal distance was 3cm or so) to capture the effect. I don't know if you have tried that?

 

Disillusion, that is absolutely beautiful!

Thank you. It is a very nice colour, if I say so myself . I showed it to someone who has never been interested in my pen/calligraphy stuff, and she asked for something to be written in this ink for her!

 

Here's a couple more writing samples using one of Amberlea's opalescent/pearlescent envelopes. The top "Test" is the previous example with Private Reserve Avocado ink (Pelikan 215 with a B nib), then the second is with Aurora Black (Pelikan M205 BB nib), and the third sample with Edelstein Turmalin ink (Kaweco Sport Demo M). You can see a bit of feathering with the Aurora Black and the Edelstein Turmalin. The Pelikan M205 BB is a very wet pen. It appears the pearlescent quality of the paper is transferred a bit through to the ink, even with the Aurora Black, and seems more obvious the broader and wetter the line.

 

That looks very nice. I saw pearlescent paper in several colours for sale at the local stationery/bookshop, maybe I will pick up some.

[Sinistral1]

I didn't have to mix or fuss to get this:

Ishida (Sailor) Hakodate Gagome (Brown Algae) on light green vellum.

[sotto2]

That's an interesting effect, and that ink looks almost creamy.

[Sinistral1]

Well, the little card that came with the ink says that there is actual brown algae in it. Maybe that's what makes this happen. It is a nice brown ink with a green tone.

[sotto2]

The color reminds me a little bit of Noodler's Army Green:

 

http://i61.tinypic.com/2h2nsq8.jpg

[PersianPenName]

I'm raising this thread from the dead, because I only just found it, and had some thoughts... about actual opalescence in ink!

 

So, I've played around some making nail polishes, and for that reason, I have some duochrome powders - essentially, sparkles that change color depending on the angle of the light, and are made to work in a colored medium. Their particle size is very low, 10-60 microns, do you think they'd work in ink?

[amberleadavis]

We'd love to see it. Only try it in an EASY to clean pen.

[bardiir]

FYI: J. Herbin has a few pigmented inks:

 

Gold

Copper

Silver

Rust

White

 

Gold and Copper will separate out very fast, nothing to get there with a fountain pen. But the silver actually works quite well - even better when mixed with an ink, creating a very shiny silvery ink effect. The silver is leafing type so it will start to float on the ink if the pen is wet enough basically resulting in sort of flecks of silver on your base color instead of an even distribution inside the ink, like random shading.

 

There are downsides:

 

1.) The Silver will separate from the ink within around 3-4 hours, if your pen hasn't got an agitator in the tank/converter it's not going to work. A ball bearing works like a charm.

2.) IT STAINS! Everything this comes in touch with will have a grey/silvery touch afterwards that is very hard to get off. You need to scrub it physically to remove it, flushing does NOT work, the pigments adhere to everything. So don't use this in any pen you're uncomfortable cleaning very throughoughly or that you can not disassemble.

3.) If the ink evaporates on the nib it will crust up with pigment over time. This is very serious clogging danger right on the slit. Depends on the amount of silver in the ink however. A lamy safari nib is clogged down after around 15minutes without writing with open cap (pure silver ink). Flossing the nib removes the skin that forms and thus gets the pen going again. Haven't had a clogging issue with a thinned down silver yet.

Edited November 10, 2014 by bardiir

[PersianPenName]

Oh man! So, I tried out a few of my nail polish pigments, and I found a winner! It looks like TKB Trading's interference pigments are small enough to mix well with the ink, not change it's color, but deliver one hell of an opalescent punch!

 

This is Noodler's Black and TKB Travel to Jupiter. I tried a few different amounts (the first time I used wayyyyy too much pigment), and I'm really happy with the results.

 

http://i.imgur.com/yQiDUmz.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/xUilxxR.jpg

[amberleadavis]

WOW, that is a great find! Let's see more of this stuff.

[Newjelan]

Oh, I want some of that PersianPenName, it looks stunning! How does it clean up?

[vossad01]

This thread on adding Luster Dust to inks documents a similar line of experiments and may be of interest to readers here.