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Birmingham – David O Selznick Lilac Wind


crahptacular

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Birmingham – David O Selznick Lilac Wind

 

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors at the time of writing) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

Lilac Wind is a dusty dark purple with some similarity to Waterfront Dusk, also from Birmingham. Lilac Wind’s hue is a little bit on the red side of purple rather than the blue, and has a healthy amount of grey in it to give it the muted tone that seems to be Birmingham’s particular specialty. I initially thought it had some similarities with J Herbin’s Poussiere de Lune—but Poussiere de Lune is not only slightly more red, but substantially more saturated. I always considered PdL to be a somewhat somber purple, but it’s got some vivacity next to Lilac Wind, and the two aren’t very close once you see them side by side. The ink appears to have two main components—a pinkish purple and a blue—but they do not easily separate when washed. You can see in some of the paler sections of the doodle that the blue travels to the edges to form a faint outline, but there is no dramatic division of dyes. In writing, the color was substantially greyish, especially with the finer nib. Although the ink gets quite dark with enough of it on the page, the fine nib’s writing came out surprisingly pale and subtle. The broad nib showed some attractive shading as well. One thing to note from my personal writing experience is that although the flow was average, the ink did not feel very lubricated—watery, like a drier Callifolio ink. Overall, I enjoyed this color, but wasn’t too impressed by how it felt while writing. Personally, I’d go for Waterfront Dusk instead—its color and wetness were both more to my taste.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Average flow, low lubrication

Shading: Moderate

Sheen: None

Water Resistance: Hardly any

 

 

The following sample was done with a PenBBS 308 (Fine) and a Nemosine Singularity (Broad) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Kuretake Menso brush (Small). Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: This one was a nightmare to color balance. In the end, I decided to balance the review scan so that the top half (doodle + written blurb) looked accurate, and then I cut out the comparisons and re-balanced it separately. In the end, the scan is decent—it lacks a little bit of red, but it’s close to what I see.

 

The comparisons, even done separately, were not great, so I’ll describe them in a bit more detail: The big smear (Lilac Wind) is too blue; in reality, it should have more red and grey. Tenebris Purpuratum (1) is too red and washed out; it should be a relatively medium purple. Poussiere de Lune (2) is way too black; it should be more red. Soft Snow of Ohara (3) should be more blue. Waterfront Dusk (4) should also be more blue. Shigure (5) should be more blue and more saturated.

 

Scan:

fpn_1515912027__birmingham_david_o_selzn

 

Photo: No photo this time. My phone isn’t cooperating with my computer and I’m having trouble transferring files.

 

Comparison closeup:

fpn_1515912118__lilac_wind_comparisons.j

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Franklin Christoph Tenebris Purpuratum, J Herbin Poussiere de Lune, Kyo-Iro Soft Snow of Ohara, Birmingham Waterfront Dusk, Sailor Shigure

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

fpn_1515912141__lilac_wind_mnemosyne.jpg

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

fpn_1515912159__lilac_wind_tsubame.jpg

 

Franklin-Christoph:

fpn_1515912181__lilac_wind_fc.jpg

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Another enchanting review. Thanks for all the work you put into creating different representations of the ink, and what sound like heroic efforts at color balancing.

 

Have you used Allegheny River Twilight yet? What I see on my screen in this review is similar to what I see on the page with River Twilight.

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I've not yet inked Allegheny River Twilight into a pen, but according to the swatches, it ought to look extremely similar to Lilac Wind--Twilight is just a smidgen redder and lighter.

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On my screen this looks a bit like R&K Scabiosa, but I suspect it's a lot wetter an ink. I had bypassed this ink in favor of some other ones, the last time I was in their B&M store (here's hoping that they find a new location SOON!) but am now wondering if that was a mistake on my part.

Thanks, as always, for the review. And, well, not.... :wallbash:

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."

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Thank you for your beautiful review. I'm really glad I went with Waterfront Dusk over this one (I had almost selected Lilac Wind instead).

“I admit it, I'm surprised that fountain pens are a hobby. ... it's a bit like stumbling into a fork convention - when you've used a fork all your life.” 

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An interesting...purple black grey ink. Never been much for the purples but I think this is a game changer for me. Thanks for the review !

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Excellent review! Thank you!

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

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Lately I have been using this ink with a relatively dry stub nib, and it reminds me a lot of Robert Oster Purple Rock, but somewhat purpler and wetter. Also, while Purple Rock tends to turn green on some papers, Lilac Wind has not exhibited that tendency.

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Great review. I like violets a touch brighter, but this one I see shades beautifully.

 

If you like brighter shades, take a look at Birmingham Andy Warhol Pop Art Purple.

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  • 3 months later...

Your excellent reviews (and, I'll admit, the prices) really gave me the confidence to wade into the Birmingham Ink range. For my initial samples I selected something approximating to three blues, three greens, three greys and three purple/violets. Of the three purple/violets I was surprised how nonplussed I was by Allegheny Twilight & Waterfront Dusk (which I thought I would love) and how blown away to the extent that I need to order 30ml NOW! I was with this Lilac Wind.

I should probably confess here that Rohrer & Klingner's Scabiosa was a breakthrough ink for me (i.e. break away from "normal" blue ink), and one that I have had in use permanently since I first discovered it. Alongside that I have Sailor Jentle Chu Shu, a grey violet that I adore (I had toyed with Robert Oster Purple Rock & KWZ Grey Plum before selecting this). I have Tyrian Purple, which fills my red-violet niche and which overshadows my 10ml of Poussiere Du Lune, which I have only ever used with a dip pen.

The Lilac Wind seems closest to Chu Shu, (I would say either/or rather than both) albeit less solemn and even approaching pretty in the wash. I haven't given it a thorough workout yet but in both dip-pen and Standard-Flex I have been pleased and surprised by how dark it appears with just the merest hint of color in the upstrokes. I would definitely place it on the blue side of violet, but dark enough to keep its color secret!
Very pleased you persuaded me to give this a whirl!

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Glad you found the review helpful! Haven't given Allegheny River Twilight a spin yet, but I did like both Lilac Wind and Waterfront Dusk. I had more fun with Waterfront Dusk (because of the way it performed with water, not particularly because of how it wrote), but I like the vibe of Birmingham's dusty purples in general. And I agree, it definitely helps that the inks are well-priced, and the proprietor is very nice and provides great customer service in my experience.

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Yes, I like to have some tone, but keep it muted, so this is a great range for me, and Nick is super helpful! I have even got 'round to trying some blues for the first time (since I started taking this hobby seriously - blues are what people write with by default, not by choice, saith the ink snob!). So far I am most enamored with Fern Moss and Silent Spring (did you try that yet?), but also how well they all work in concert.

I tried a lot of violet samples before I decided for Chu Shu (Diamine's Damson was another I had high hopes for), so the fact that this beats inks from Robert Oster, Diamine and KWZ (for my needs) is pretty impressive for an $8 ink!

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Fern Moss is definitely a good choice for a muted color! I don't have Silent Spring (I bought the ink sampler back when Birmingham only had 30 ink colors, and Silent Spring is one of the later releases), but the swatch on their website looks similar to Boiler Steam BB, which I did like. At my pace of reviewing, by the time I finish trying the first 30 colors, he'll have released 30 more, and it'll never end...

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I looked at the Boiler Plate Blue Black - nice train but I'm not really in blue-black (or even teal-black?) territory at the moment. Silent Spring is more Teal-Grey, which is really quite unusual. Closest thing I can find online is the Faber-Castell Deep Sea Green (which I should be getting some cartridges of today - a good method for testing their otherwise expensive inks?!).

 

Back on topic, I yesterday switched Lilac Wind from a Standard Flex, where it appeared almost black and seductively subtle, to a Metropolitan with a BB stub nib (from a 78g - really fun nibs!) and suddenly the purple is no longer a mystery, ulp! Still very formal and smart but not sure I could use it for extended passages? Will report back!

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