Jump to content

L'artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Bleu Atlantique


namrehsnoom

Recommended Posts

L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Bleu Atlantique

 

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.

 

fpn_1483023986__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

In this review the spotlight is on Bleu Atlantique, one of the many blue inks of the series. The blue Callifolio inks are named after rivers, lakes and oceans – this cerulean-type blue gets its name from the Atlantic Ocean (not the wild northern atlantic which in my imagination is more of a blue-grey, but the tropical one near Haiti – think of a mid-summer day on a lagoon beach). This is a really nice true sky-blue ink, without green undertones. I’m a big fan of such blues and colour-wise, Bleu Atlantique did not disappoint. I like it very much.

 

There is of course no way to avoid a comparison with the two other well-loved cerulean-type blues – iroshizuku kon-peki and Pelikan Edelstein Topaz. Below is a small swab and writing comparison on Fantasticpaper. Bleu Atlantique leans more towards Topaz, but is a less saturated ink with a more watercolour-like appearance. Myself – I still think Topaz is the absolute king. But if you collect sky-blue inks, Callifolio Bleu Atlantique is definitely one you should get.

 

fpn_1483024008__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

Technically, the ink behaved very well. It’s rather dry in an EF-nib, but starting from F it wrote very smoothly. For a Callifolio ink, I also found it to be well-lubricated. The ink shows some really classy shading in the broader nibs, without too much contrast between the lighter and darker parts. Aesthetically very pleasing, and it definitely gives some extra character to your writing.

 

fpn_1483024020__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – Bleu Atlantique behaved acceptably. There is some smearing, but the text remains very legible. Water resistance however is almost non-existent. The droplet test leaves only unrcognisable blue smudges. The test with running tap water washes away almost all the colour – only faint traces remain that are barely legible. If you need some measure of water resistance in your ink, look elsewhere. When using a water-brush with doodling & drawing, you get a nice light-blue shading effect. Like all Callifolio inks, Bleu Atlantique is a very fine choice for inky drawings.

 

fpn_1483024029__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

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)

Bleu Atlantique 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 10 second mark, with a low of 5 seconds on the more absorbent paper. The ink really shines on white paper where it looks lively and vibrant. In my opinion, it’s not a good ink for yellowish paper, where it looks sickly and underwhelming. My advice – stick to white paper with this colour.

 

I also show the back-side of the different paper types, in the same order. With the low-end Moleskine there is prominent show-through and a little bleed-through. With the other papers, Bleu Atlantique’s behaviour is impeccable. The ink copes really well with a wide variety of paper types.

 

fpn_1483024046__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

fpn_1483024063__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

fpn_1483024081__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

fpn_1483024097__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

Conclusion

 

Bleu Atlantique is a lovely sky-blue ink which looks best on pure white paper. The ink works well with all nib sizes, and shows some very nice and aesthetically pleasing shading in the broader nibs. Like all Callifolio inks, water resistance is low. If you love cerulean-type inks, you should definitely get this one. If you only need one ink of this colour-type – my personal advice is to go for Pelikan Edelstein Topaz. Nevertheless, this Callifolio ink is a great choice, and I enjoyed using it.

 

fpn_1483024109__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

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

 

fpn_1483024120__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

 

fpn_1483024137__callifolio_-_bleu_atlant

Edited by namrehsnoom
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 9
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • lapis

    2

  • namrehsnoom

    2

  • visvamitra

    1

  • fugel

    1

Really an excellent review, in general. The colour itself isn't my cup of tea either but for doodlers and painters it's probably very enticing and should lead them (and others) to the whole palette of these inks. Thanks for all of the illuminating work you have put into this!

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really an excellent review, in general. The colour itself isn't my cup of tea either but for doodlers and painters it's probably very enticing and should lead them (and others) to the whole palette of these inks. Thanks for all of the illuminating work you have put into this!

 

 

Thanks for your kind words, Mike. To show my appreciation, I'll do some reviews of greyish inks next - I'm sure these are more your cup of tea :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yes, they sure are. I'm getting into a sum of 'em which will then allow me to wallow in 'em... But please pick a few exotic ones which are yet strange to me....

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Outstanding review! I love this ink!

"Today will be gone in less than 24 hours. When it is gone, it is gone. Be wise, but enjoy! - anonymous today

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent review as usually. As for the color - it can has some appeal to people. I'm not crazy about it though :)

 

Totally ditto.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see 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 comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I can only add that Bleu Atlantique behaves nicely on papers of lesser quality while using wet writing pens. I think I'm in love

Edited by birchtine
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow! Thank you for this extensive and intensive ink review! I love L'Artisan Pastellier inks, although I have to admit that Bleu Atlantique is not my favourite, but the way how you speak about this colour nearly convinces me to try it out! The L'Artisan Pastellier inks are very fine, I especially love the Callifolio series and highly appreciate Itzamna and Olivastre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...