Terry Finney
This is the fourth in this batch of ink reviews, for Diamine 150th Anniversary Carnival ink.
A Google search for “Carnival Red” yields results which a similar to this ink colour – slightly on the pink side of red, slightly darker than a poppy red.
The ink cost £7.75 (including VAT), for a 40ml bottle, from a UK supplier, which along with the other inks in this series I would class as moderately priced.
I gave descriptions of the box and bottle of the 150th Anniversary series in my review of Diamine Anniversary 1864 Blue Black Ink, so I won’t repeat them here. The only difference is that the backgrounds of the box and bottle labels are a close approximation of the Carnival ink colour.
The test pen in this case was the Pilot MR White Tiger with a medium nib (a nice contrast).
This ink showed no water resistance and water drops obliterated text easily. Cleaning the test pen was easy. Drying time was relatively quick at around 15 seconds.
Rhodia Dot Pad No 16
This is a bold, deep saturated red ink, leaning slightly towards pink, which performs well on this paper. Unfortunately it’s another one in this series that smudges slightly.
Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm
Good performance but again some smudging.
Yellow Post-It
A good contrast and smudging is minimal here.
Field Notes – Pitch Black
Tolerable results on this challenging paper and it appears that the greater absorbance prevents smudging.
Mnemosyne Word Card
This makes the ink look less vibrant than on Rhodia paper, but shows more shading.
Conclusion
This is a really attractive ink which is already high on my list of favourite reds. The only real drawback is the smudging, which still persists nearly a month after the writing samples were done. This suggests the ink is less suitable for general note taking and better suited to markup on more absorbent papers.
