L'artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Bourgogne

[namrehsnoom]

L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Bourgogne

 

L’Artisan Pastellier is a small company in southern France that specialises in natural pigments, and offers customers authentic and reliable products in beautiful colours based on mineral or vegetable pigments. In a collaboration with Loic Rainouard from Styloplume.net, the chemist Didier Boinnard from L’Artisan Pastellier created the line of Callifolio fountain pen inks. These pastel-colored inks are traditionally crafted, and can be freely mixed and matched. Overall these inks are only moderately saturated, and have low water-resistance. The inks were specifically designed to work well with all types of paper, and all types of fountain pens.

 

Being pastel-tinted, these inks have a watercolor-like appearance, and are not only fine inks for journaling, but are also really excellent inks for doodling & drawing. I only recently discovered them, and they are already the inks I gravitate towards for personal journaling.

 

 

In this review I take a closer look at Bourgogne – one of the purples of the ink collection. Bourgogne is presumably named after its namesake French wine – reflecting the colour of this delicious produce of red grapes. Capturing the wine’s colour really well, Bourgogne is a dark dusty purple, with a classic vintage feel. There is some subtle shading present. Due to the darker colour of this ink, the shading is more subdued, less obviously present, but nevertheless it’s there and it enhances the character of the ink.

 

This is a moderately saturated ink, with good flow, and one that works well even in the finer nibs. With the broader nibs the ink shows more of its character. With fine nibs the ink’s appearance is ok, but it doesn’t have enough breathing room to show its potential. A good wine deserves a large wine glass where the liquid can breath – this ink deserves a broader nib to make it shine: use an M-nib or broader to enjoy it.

 

 

Bourgogne is relatively smudge-resistant – the colour spreads, but the words remain legible. The ink is only minimally water-resistant, as is apparent from the chromatography – only a greyish-purple residue remains. With the 15 minute droplet test, what remains on the paper are illegible smudges. Don’t count on being able to reconstruct your writing. With shorter exposures - as illustrated with the 10 to 30 second exposures to running tap water - the ink is more forgiving. A greyish-purple outline of the text remains, which is still readable with some effort. On the other hand – the low water-resistance is a big plus when doodling & drawing. With a water-brush you can easily spread out the ink, and obtain some nice shading effects.

 

 

I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. For the Callifolio reviews, I’m using a new format to show you the ink’s appearance and behaviour on the different paper types. On every small band of paper I show you:

• An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip
• 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation
• An ink scribble made with an M-nib fountain pen
• The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib
• A small text sample, written with an M-nib
• Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib)

Bourgogne behaved perfectly on all the paper types, with no apparent feathering even on the lower quality papers in my test set. Drying times are in the 10 second range, so this is a fast-drying ink. On the Original Crown Mill cotton paper, there was noticeable feedback while writing –the ink is drawn straight down into the paper, the effect of which translates into a reduction of nib size. The text that I’ve written with an M-nib looks as though its written with an F-nib. The ink contrasts very nicely with white and off-white paper. In my opinion this purple ink is no good match for more yellowish paper – like Noble Note.

 

I also show the back-side of the different paper types, in the same order. With the low-end Moleskine paper, there is significant show-through and bleed-through. With the other papers, Bourgogne’s behaviour is impeccable. This ink copes really well with all paper types !

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

Callifolio Bourgogne is a very well-behaving ink on all types of paper, but one with only minimal water resistance. I really love the dusty vintage look of this purple ink, and the subdued shading it exhibits. In my opinion though, you need broader nibs to make this ink look at its best. With fine nibs the ink remains fully functional but looses some of its beauty. Overall I find Bourgogne to be a beautiful-looking purple that I enjoy using. If you’re looking for a purple ink, this is definitely one to consider.

 

 

Technical test results on Rhodia N°16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib

 

 

 

 

[visvamitra]

Another stunning review. I enjoy Bourgogne a lot. It's not joyful ink but it seems I have a soft spot for murky purples. Thanks for another informative review. If you accept wishes I would really, really enjoy to see your reviews of Cannelle, Heure Doree and Bonne Esperance

[vojtahlad]

Thanks for the review. The color seems to be close to Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa.

[amberleadavis]

Another great review. Thank you.