Skip to main content

Syrah, by Diamine


After yesterday's review of Merlot, Diamine's Syrah had to be next. As the Merlot grape, Syrah/Shiraz based wine will come in a huge variation of colors, but I think the ink still gives a good impression of the wines. A fun ink. 

It's quite red and far less subtle than the Merlot. That makes is harder to use in an office environment for note taking. For cards and letters to your red wine loving friends it's an excellent color. Merlot for the Merlot lovers, Syrah for the fans of Syrah. I often pick ink colors for the day based on mood and weather, now you can pick your color based on the meat too. 

The ink feels a bit dryer and is a little less lubricated than what I'm used to from Diamine inks, but other than that the ink behaves really well. No feathering, nice shading, and hardly any show-through. Drying times little around 25 seconds which is pretty good. Water or fluids will immediately ruin your writings. With the poster nib, some green sheen can be seen.


Compared to the Diamine Merlot the Syrah is more red and saturated. A true red, Rouge Grenat (Herbin), is a lot lighter and brighter red. To my surprise, the Syrah is an even darker red than the Crimson red. 

All in all, Diamine Syrah is a nice fun color to have to the side. Logical next step would be the shimmering Wine Divine....



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kikyou, Sailor Manyo

A few months ago this new ink series by Sailor was announced. Based on flowers, in a stylish 50ml bottle. What I see is not a flower, but an ink that is stormy blue with a hint of green. Teal? Maybe, but in my opinion it's darker than that, scans and monitors can be slightly deceiving. This ink can be a work horse. Very suitable for note taking, definitely works in the office, but also for personal notes and correspondence. The ink writes like a dream. It's not very wet, but smooth and extremely well-behaved in any pen. Just the combination crown mill vellum paper and a poster nib (as you can see), leads to some feathering of the ink. Drying times are simply fast, with just 12 seconds on this paper! Shading is low. Water resistance is low. Even after days it smears easily with just a tiny drop of water. I called this ink a work horse. It is, and an expensive one. Even though it's wonderful ink, it's simply not special enough to justify the price. Yonaga (Sailor)
Post a Comment
Read more

Ultra violet shimmer ink, Manuscript

A new caligraphy ink by Manuscript with extreme shimmer. Definitely not something to use in the office but it looked interesting to write some cards with in the upcoming holiday season. This ink is clearly not meant for long notes or letters. A very dark violet or purple with heavy gold shimmer. I find it a hard to use ink. OK to use in a fountain pen like the TWSBI ECO with a stub nib, but a dip pen made the ink feather and spread, even on Clairefontaine or Crown Mill Vellum paper. On Lalo Vergé it was much better. The ink is very wet, causing considerable show-through and even some bleed-through. The drying time wasn't too bad though with 35 seconds. The shimmer smears easily for a bit longer. As can be seen even on this scan, shimmer is gold and very high. A bit of water will keep the ink readable, enough to rewrite. The violet or purple is comparable to Herbin's Améthyste de l'Oural . Diamine's Imperial Purple (no shimmer) is brighter and lighter. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Green Gold #2, KWZ

Searching for a gold colored ink I came across this ink. It’s far more green than gold, but the color is definitely intriguing. Can it be used in the office? I don’t know, maybe in Spring. For now I will stick to personal notes and correspondence with this ink. KWZ produces well-behaving inks and this color is no exception to that. The ink shows no feathering, a beautiful shading, no show-through, good lubrication, and moderate wetness with below-average drying times. I don't have any color that comes close. Herbin's Vert empire or Lierre Sauvage, as well as Grab von Faber Castell's Moss Green are true greens and don't come close. All in all this is a very nice ink and a unique color. A great addition to the collection! N.B. Written on Crown Mill Vellum (off-white)
Post a Comment
Read more