(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
It's another week, and I've got yet another Birds of a Feather ink from Van Dieman's. This time around, it's Laughing Kookaburra Wing, which is a lovely cerulean blue with loads of shading.
If you're new to Birds of a Feather, it's a series of inks from Van Dieman's (though they're not the only ones that have a series like this) that showcases the beautiful colors that can be found on the plumage of local avian species in and around Australia. At this point, this collection of inks is nearing 20 in total, and I would be lying if I said I didn't want all of them.
Laughing Kookaburra Wing is both fun to say and fun to spell, and it's fitting that the ink is also an incredibly fun color. The medium cerulean blue is gorgeous. It's so light and bright, but just dark enough to make it easy to read on the page. If it were any lighter, though, it might need to be classified as a highlighter ink.
Many of my favorite ink colors are in this same range. (Iroshizuku kon-peki or ama-iro, anyone?) But, Laughing Kookaburra Wing is lighter than anything else I currently have in my collection, so that makes it a valuable addition for me. I've never met a turquoise-ish ink I didn't like, and this one is no different.
Like every other Van Dieman's ink I've tried, this one performs flawlessly in whatever pen I use. For the review photos, I went with a wide 1.1mm stub nib from TWSBI because it really shows off this ink's best quality: shading.
The shading that this ink produces is effortless and pronounced. It reminds me of idyllic beaches with light, crisp shallow water that seems inviting even to someone like me who dislikes being in the ocean. The transitions between light, sky blue and medium cerulean and several shades in between are such a joy to see on the page as you write.
This ink flows well and has no problems with starting or skipping. It's not a super "wet" ink, but it's not dry either — it's right in the middle. Since the color is so light, it also doesn't show through on the back of the page for most types of paper. I haven't seen any feathering or bleeding either.
The ink can take between 30-40 seconds to dry to a point where smudging isn't an issue, so it's definitely not a quick drying ink. That said, I've noticed that this ink doesn't smudge a lot when using a normal-sized nib. It does a good job of resisting light pressure smudges just after 10 seconds or so. Still, not a great option for lefties or anyone who needs a fast-drying ink.
One of my favorite things about the Birds of a Feather series is that I inevitably learn about a new type of bird that I've never seen in person. I'd wager the Kookaburra is fairly well-known, but I still learned plenty of new facts when I looked it up to compare the ink color to the bird's namesake wing.
This is a fun ink that performs well! At $17 for a 30ml bottle, it's also a good value. Of course, if you don't want to commit to the full bottle, you can always go with a small sample vial too.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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