Jump to content

L'artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Violet


namrehsnoom

Recommended Posts

L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Violet

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-coloured 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 watercolour-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_1495828486__callifolio_-_violet_-_ti

In this review, Callifolio Violet takes center stage: a springtime light-purple ink obviously named after the violet flower (aka viola of the Violaceae family of flowering plants). You can also think of the colour of lavender if you prefer. Violet is a fresh, lively and primarily beautiful looking ink. The ink gives me a playful feeling - perfectly suited for this late spring / early summer season. It is not too intrusive though, and in my opinion not only suited for personal journaling but also well adapted for notetaking at work.

Be aware that this is a reformulated version of the older Callifolio Violet, and a totally different ink than the one previously reviewed by visvamitra (no golden glitter in this incarnation of the ink!). As far as I'm concerned, this ink doesn't need a golden shimmer to shine. It's a beauty in its own right. The ink works well in all nib sizes but is a bit undersaturated in drier fine nibs. It shows some really nice shading in the broader nibs, from light to dark violet. I'm not a fan of too bold a shading (with a large difference between light and dark) - here the contrast between the light & dark portions of the text is obviously present, but remains subdued with an aesthetically pleasing look. I really like it !

fpn_1495828502__callifolio_-_violet_-_de

This flowery ink really blossoms in wetter nibs where it leaves a much more saturated and darker-looking line, which looks amazing. Be sure to find a wet pen to use with this ink - you'll be well rewarded with the eye-pleasing result. Below you'll find a writing sample with my drier Safari M and B nib, compared to the wet golden M-nib of my Lamy Dialog 3. The difference is obvious

fpn_1495828518__callifolio_-_violet_-_wr

On the smudge test - rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab - Violet behaved perfectly with almost no smearing. Water resistance is remarkably good ! This is the first Callifolio ink I've used that is nearly water-proof. A 15-minute soak in still water posed no problem at all. Running tap water caused some purplish smudging, but the text remained perfectly readable. This water resistance makes Callifolio Violet all the more suited for the workplace, earning an extra plus from me. The ink's water resistance is demonstrated clearly in the chromatography, which shows that most of the ink remains in place when coming into contact with water. It also clearly shows that this is a one-pigment ink.

fpn_1495828538__callifolio_-_violet_-_ch

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)

Callifolio Violet behaved perfectly on all the paper types I used, without any feathering even on the lower quality papers in my test set. Drying times are fairly short in the 5-10 second range on most papers. In my opinion, the ink looks best on true white paper, and is a bit less eye-pleasing on more yellow paper. I find it great-looking on the readily available Rhodia paper.

At the end of the review, I also show the back-side of the different paper types, in the same order. The ink behaved superbly on all paper types. Only with Moleskine there was a tiny bit of bleed-through - given that Moleskine is a notoriously bad paper for fountain pens, this was really surprising (in a good way). Violet is a really well-behaving ink.

fpn_1495828560__callifolio_-_violet_-_sa
fpn_1495828576__callifolio_-_violet_-_sa

Conclusion

Callifolio Violet from L'Artisan Pastellier is a wonderful ink, perfectly suited for late spring / early summer. I am really impressed by the ink's performance on different paper types, as well as its near-perfect water resistance. But primarily I am totally charmed by the ink's colour, which looks fresh & beautiful, but is still not too out-of-bounds for an office setting. A great-looking ink for any occasion ! You should really try it out for yourself !

fpn_1495828600__callifolio_-_violet_-_sc

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

fpn_1495828617__callifolio_-_violet_-_te

fpn_1495828635__callifolio_-_violet_-_wa

Backside of writing samples on different paper types

fpn_1495828656__callifolio_-_violet_-_sa
fpn_1495828681__callifolio_-_violet_-_sa

Edited by namrehsnoom
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 12
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • namrehsnoom

    2

  • migo984

    1

  • white_lotus

    1

  • LizEF

    1

Thanks so much for your thorough ink review. I always appreciate these reviews that examine performance on different papers and nibs. It's quite an effort and you are to be applauded. This ink seems to have a very pleasant appearance across a wide range of papers. There are many who will find this ink appealing. It's not always about massive sheen or saturation, delicacy can also be appreciated. Keep up the great work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for a very informative review of a very pretty ink. I like this ink a lot. It reminds me of one of my favourites - Graf von Faber Castell Violet Blue.

Verba volant, scripta manent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How did I miss this when shopping for ink samples last? :headsmack: Alas, probably because I was afraid it was going to be too light to be legible. Clearly I was wrong....

Thanks for the review. And not.... Yinz are all such a bad influence on me.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Outstanding review! This is my "go to" medium purple ink. It performs so well in all my pens, but is gorgeous with a wet stub nib on Tomoe River paper. I love the way it shades. The ink that I have I purchased about a year ago. It does have a slight golden sheen - not glittery - just a light sheen. It really is nice 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

?... There are many who will find this ink appealing. It's not always about massive sheen or saturation, delicacy can also be appreciated. Keep up the great work.

"delicate" is a great word to describe this ink ! And thanks for your encouragement.

 

Thank you for a very informative review of a very pretty ink. I like this ink a lot. It reminds me of one of my favourites - Graf von Faber Castell Violet Blue.

Just looked at a review of Violet Blue- definitely the same family, but a bit lighter. I haven't used GFC inks yet, but that might change.

 

How did I miss this when shopping for ink samples last?

I completely agree... this is a hidden gem in the Callifolio ink line. For me it was also a pleasant surprise, I hadn't expected this "delicate" beauty :-) Edited by namrehsnoom
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like blue and purple inks, but L'artisan doing this so good, baikal was one of my favourite, and now I see this...

It's all Greek to me...

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...