(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
Krishna Ink is made in Palakkad, Kerala, India, and is the brainchild of a doctor and pen enthusiast named Sreekumar. He researched ink-making because he wanted to produce high quality fountain pen ink in India. You can read about his process here. Krishna inks are made to be safe (neutral) for all fountain pens and are water soluble (except for the Kot-massi series which are iron gall inks). Krishna inks are available to people outside of India through retailers like Vanness Pens.
Krishna inks come packaged in a plain cardboard box. The bottles hold 20ml of ink and are made of glass.
I saw photos of Krishna Jungle Volcano on Instagram and knew I had to get a bottle. I am thrilled with this ink. It’s a georgous orange ink that I find hard to categorize. Is it a terra cotta or a peach or a sunset? I don’t know because it looks different depending on the paper. Jungle Volcano also has a crazy lime green sheen—it’s unlike any orange ink I’ve tried.
I used a Maruman Septcouleur notebook for my initial ink testing because it contains smooth, pure white paper that shows off the ink’s true color(s). Jungle Volcano is a saturated orange with a definite pink tint on this paper.
I did not observe much shading with my Franklin-Christoph medium italic nib, but the ink flowed well and was not too wet, drying completely after 30 seconds. The ink is definitely not waterproof, and it’s not meant to be. You can see the pink tint clearly in the water test.
Although the green sheen did not show up much on the Maruman paper, it absolutely exploded on my MD Cotton Paper. Just look at those colors! Now you know why this ink is called Jungle Volcano.
You can really see the green sheen on the Col-o-dex card (review coming soon), both in the swirls and the splats.
The chromatography test I did demonstrates the complex colors in Jungle Volcano ink. The base color is a neon pink, with orange and green components.
I am crazy about Krishna Jungle Volcano ink. I love how it’s a gorgeous, deep orange when you use a fine nib. But when you use a wide nib it erupts with green sheen. This stuff is amazing! It reminds me of Hawaii! It makes me want to eat bananas and sing Jungle Book songs! Seriously, though, I’ve had so much fun playing with this ink.
You can purchase a 20 ml bottle of Krishna Jungle Volcano from Vanness Pens for $8.00. Be forewarned, the bottle is tiny, so you won’t be able to fill pens with super large nibs from it. You’ll need to use a syringe or, if you’re using a converter, just fill the converter itself rather than filling through the nib.
(This ink was purchased from Vanness Pens using a reviewer’s discount.)
