namrehsnoom Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Inti 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 Inti, one of several ochre-coloured inks in the Callifolio series. Inti is named after an ancient Incan sun god, often represented as a golden disk with rays and a human face. An interesting name for a fountain pen ink – let’s see whether the ink is as cool as its name suggests. I’ve used the ink for more than a week in my daily journal (Paperblanks), with a TWSBI VAC Mini with an M-nib, which is a fairly wet writer. I immediately took a liking to the ink – the colour is superb, and fixes the main problem I had with Heure Dorée. That ink was just too light and too low-contrast for writing. Inti solves that : the ink is a more orangy ochre, with much better contrast on the paper. Definitely a splendid ink for journaling. And my personal impression is that Inti is rather well lubricated for a Callifolio ink, which is also a plus. Inti exhibits some very pleasant shading, especially in the broader nibs. I like that the shading is subdued, with not too much contrast between the lighter and darker parts. As with all Callifolio inks, Inti is a great choice for drawing, with a colour palette that ranges from light orange ochre to a much darker red-orange hue. On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – Inti behaved perfectly. There is hardly any smudging visible. Water resistance shows some curious behaviour. With the droplet test, where I leave water droplets on the ink for 15 minutes, the ink remained firmly attached to the paper. Running water however is not Inti’s friend – the colour washed away very quickly, leaving only faint light-brown traces of my writing. 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 many different paper types. On every small band of paper I show you:An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturationAn ink scribble made with an M-nib fountain penThe name of the paper used, written with a B-nibA small text sample, written with an M-nibDrying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib)Inti behaved perfectly on all the paper types, with no apparent feathering even on the lower quality papers in my test set. Drying times are mostly around the 5 to 10 second mark. I love the way the ink looks on Paperblanks paper. The ink also works surprisingly well with low-quality paper like Moleskine and generic notepad paper. I also show the back-side of the different paper types, in the same order. With the low-end Moleskine there is a certain amount of show-through and bleed-through. The Graf von Faber-Castell paper also exhibits visible showthrough (this paper is a real Jekyll & Hyde – with some inks it behaves perfectly, with other inks it shows&bleeds like hell, and that for a 100 gsm paper – really strange). With the other papers, Inti behaved just fine. The ink copes really well with a wide variety of paper types. Conclusion Inti is a very pleasant orange-ochre ink with a fantastic colour. The ink is great for drawing, and works really well for personal writing. I enjoyed it a lot ! The ink is on the light side, but retains sufficient contrast with the paper. L’Artisan Pastellier produced a very fine ink with this one. An ink I will definitely include in my ink rotation. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib -- inkxplorations.wordpress.com Link to post Share on other sites
lapis Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Excellent review. Nice ink. Sort of reminds me of an "amber". Maybe not all that easy to read, but that doesn't always matter IYAM. Thanks! Mike Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe) Link to post Share on other sites
Grzgrz Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 namrehsnoom, thank you for your extensive review. Seeking ink similar to MB Claudio Collodi, and it seems to me that Inti is very close, only a faded like the pictures. Is it really? Link to post Share on other sites
sunlance Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 namrehsnoom, thank you for your extensive review. Seeking ink similar to MB Claudio Collodi, and it seems to me that Inti is very close, only a faded like the pictures. Is it really?Not OP, but I do have a bottle of the Collodi ink, and to me it looks different - this is much more yellow, Collodi is more orange. Link to post Share on other sites
Grzgrz Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Too bad, I was hoping that Inti MB replace Claudio Collodi. More like the color of the moment I have not found. Link to post Share on other sites
visvamitra Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 It used to be my favorite ink. I still like it a lot. Excellent review as always https://wondernaut.wordpress.com/ Link to post Share on other sites
Tas Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 So thorough. So not my colour . . . 😕 Link to post Share on other sites
mehandiratta Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 Awesome Awesome review...but the color is i believe too light for me... vaibhav mehandiratta architect & fountain pen connoisseur blog | instagram | twitter Link to post Share on other sites
amberleadavis Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 It used to be my favorite ink. I still like it a lot. Excellent review as always What changed? Nam, great review! Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas). Want to get a special letter / gift from me, then create a Ghostly Avatar Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 366 Inks in 2016 Check out inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY Link to post Share on other sites
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