Herbin Violette Pensee

[Ann Finley]

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/9425/violettepenseereview8dn.jpg

[Ole]

Great review , makes me want to give the colour a try (I'm usually not that into this kind of colour).

 

Ole

[Garufa]

Nice Review. I have Violette Pensee as well and will try among various pens. I think you are on to something about different nibs having different color effects. I've experienced the same with Noodler's Ottoman Azure, shows as dark greenish-blue OR semi-translucent faded blue among different pens.

[Roger]

Lovely, Ann. Thanks for the look at a color that I might not choose for myself, but I can sure see how many would love it.

 

Garufa: Absolutely! Many inks show the properties that Ann illustrates, above. Between Ann's example and several that you will find from Wim in this board, it soon impresses on the reader that a color isn't a color! All depends on the instrument and person doing the writing. Accomplished writers like Ann and Wim (not excluding many others), can coax a multitude of hues from a single ink color.

 

Magical!

[Maja]

Magical, indeed! Makes me think I don't need so many different shades of a colour if I can get different shading with different pens... :blink:

 

What lovely writing to go with a lovely ink colour that has a lovely name, too....

Thanks, Ann!

[southpaw]

Ann,

 

Thanks for another look at your amazing handwriting. Simply beautiful.

 

I really like the color of this ink, or should I say "colors." You mentioned that it dries quickly. Comparable to WM Blue-Black or Florida Blue? Is this typical of Herbin inks?

 

Thanks for the review - very well done!

[Ann Finley]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.

 

Southpaw, Herbin inks probably dry even faster than Waterman inks--or at least as fast, for sure. (Waterman Florida Blue & Waterman Red are the only two I have.)

 

I had trouble with Herbin cartridges, but it may have been that they were old when I bought them, but I've nothing but praise for the bottled inks. It's a good ink for lefties, and they have a fairly large range of colors. Wish it was a bit less expensive though--but since it isn't the only brand I use, it's not too bad. I pour mine into a different bottle, as the bottles are shallow.

 

HTH

Ann

[Slush99]

Nice review! purple is my fav color of ink!

[Viseguy]

Pretty color, Ann -- and what beautiful script! Thanks for sharing.

 

Slush: Lemme take a wild guess. 99?

[grasshopper]

Yup, as a few of us here have discovered, one bottle of ink = as many colours as the number of pens/nibs you have!

 

Great review, Ann! Don't think the colour is for me though, but the handwriting... now that's something to aspire to!!

 

 

G.

[Yuri]

Ann,

 

thank you for the fabulous review. Greatly done. I like your writing, especially the portion, which looks as everyday writing, which is very readable, beautiful and classical. Exactly like writing I was taught in school.

 

The ink. Usually violet does not get my attention a lot, but that J.Herbin is great. In real life this ink looks more vivid than shown on the scan. And that ink is pretty transparent (translucent), together with it's vividness makes very lovely look.

 

Interestly to mention. In my experiance, using a good, bright paper like rhodia and clairefontaine makes ink to shine, but Violette Pensee looks even better on something like newspaper!

[southpaw]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.

 

Southpaw, Herbin inks probably dry even faster than Waterman inks--or at least as fast, for sure. (Waterman Florida Blue & Waterman Red are the only two I have.)

 

I had trouble with Herbin cartridges, but it may have been that they were old when I bought them, but I've nothing but praise for the bottled inks. It's a good ink for lefties, and they have a fairly large range of colors. Wish it was a bit less expensive though--but since it isn't the only brand I use, it's not too bad. I pour mine into a different bottle, as the bottles are shallow.

 

HTH

Ann

Ann, thanks for the info.

 

Where can one find accurate representations of the color of these inks? The places I've seen it, Herbin always looked washed out and weak with regards to the color - not at all like your review. TIA, southpaw

[KCat]

wonderful review, Ann.

 

I too like this color. In my flexy Estie 9128, it shows the variation of shades very well. it is *very* close to Sheaffer Lavender (which is discontinued of course) so when I run out of my Lavender I will go to Pensee for that pen.

[Ann Finley]

Southpaw,

 

There are 2 places that show a somewhat better representation of Herbin colors.

If you look at the bottom of the Pentrace Homepage under On The Ink Spot, there is a link for Michael Richter's Herbin Ink Color Charts. Also, Pendemonium has 2 color charts--after you've clicked the fountain pen ink link, the chart on the right will have the Herbin colors (the one on the left is all Noodler's.)

 

Unfortunately, even in these two places some colors aren't shown well, and Michael Richter's is older and missing several colors--but the color samples are a lot bigger.

 

If you use a wet pen, some of the colors that look washed out online will look brighter/deeper coming from your pen.

 

Best, Ann

[Inkanthropist]

Southpaw

 

You might also try The Writing Desk (http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk). Their Herbin ink samples are pretty accurate on my monitor, and they also have a very neat little ink comparison function (http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/ink_cat/inkchooser.html)

 

Neil

[emrecan]

Hi Ann,

 

Its great review and very very nice handwriting and its very good color.

 

Thanks

 

Emrecan

[wimg]

Hi Ann,

 

Thank you for a great review and another sample of your magnificent handwriting. I can only stare at in in total admiration. Wow!

 

I think this is the ink that relly shows of the difference in wetness/flow in pens. The Rotring 1.9 clearly is the driest writer. I just wonder now how it compares to an equivalent Lamy Joy . Hmmmm.... should I maybe get myself another calligraphy pen?

 

Warm regards, Wim

[Guest Denis Richard]

Thanks for this beautiful review Ann. As we know, many inks do offer variation depending on the wetness and width of the nib, but Herbin is the only company I know of that embraces that fact : here is their ink list, with colour gradients.

[garythepenman]

Anne, many thanks for this review.

I've firstly been deciding what ink to christen my pending Danitrio-Takumi (it's on its way)and then of course where to get it and finally what to write on, paper that is.

I googled for Crane paper and lo and behold they have a dealer in Auckland, NZ so off I go and call them. They have ecru 32lb which is what I want then the nice lady says "what about ink ?", my ears (soapy mouth) up now as ink supply in NZ is pretty limited. "We stock J.Herbin" Yehaaa.

So now I've ordered Violet Pensee to christen my pending Danitrio and I'll have nice 100% cotton paper to write on.

All I have to do now is practice my handwriting, well at least I can read it and it is slightly better than a doctors prescription note.

[Ann Finley]

Gary, enjoy the Danitrio, Violette Pensee & Cranes! (Some of my pens do better than others on the Cranes's 100% cotton.)

 

Yuri, I'll have to try Violette Pensee on newspaper!

 

Thanks, everyone for all of the comments.

 

Best, Ann