(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
The Taccia Ukiyo-e Hokusai collection is a series of inks based on the colors found in the works of Japanese artist Hokusai, in particular Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. You can see Sabimidori in the painting below called Sundai, Edo:
Sundai Edo, By Katsushika Hokusai. This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0.
Sabimidori means "rusty green," and that's the perfect name for this ink which turns into a dusty green when dry and exhibits rust-colored sheen. When the ink is wet, however, it is a beautiful deep teal blue.
The 40ml bottle of ink comes well-packaged in a Hokusai inspired box.
On my Col-o-dex card, the ink swab looks dusty teal green. You can see the rusty sheen in the swirls and splats.
I've never tried Taccia ink before, but I'll say right off that I am impressed. In my testing on Rhodia paper, the ink flowed beautifully in my Sailor MF nib. It dries in about thirty seconds and is a well-lubricated ink. On white paper, the ink looks like a deep teal green, but you can see the blue component in the water test.
Chromatography reveals the secret of why this ink looks blue when wet and green when dry: it is primarily composed of blue with a touch of green. I really love these colors.
The sheen is most evident in my testing with a ruling pen. You can see glorious shading as well as that rusty sheen.
In my MD Notebook Journal, the ink looks more green than blue (probably due to the cream color of the paper). Again, the ink is wet and easy-flowing. It's a perfect match for my Bungubox Sailor Sanctuary Blue pen (review on that pen coming soon).
I created this doodle in my Galen Leather Tomoe River Paper journal (reviewed here). On Tomoe paper, the blue tones come through more than the green.
I'm in love with this Taccia ink, and now I want to try all the inks in the series. You can purchase a 40ml bottle from JetPens for $23.00 (at this writing JetPens is out of stock, but they plan to restock the ink).
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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