Jim P.

Father, geek, serial hobbyist.

Here’s a fun multi-shader: Ink Institute Meander Electric Blue Spider Lily. Wonderful chromashading colors, but difficult to work with.

It’s a bit light on the page for small nibs but looks good with the stub dip pen. You can really see the multi-shading between blue and pink in some of the letters that had more ink after dipping the pen.

Scans

The scans are a bit darker than it appears to the eye. As I’ve mentioned on other posts, it may be the scanner software compensating for the ink being so pale.

Scan of an ink swatch card made from Col-o-ring paper Scan of an ink swatch card made from Iroful paper Scan of an ink swatch card made from MD paper
Swatch Card Scans. Click to enlarge.

Photos

The photos are a bit more true to color, and as you can see, it can be quite pale, especially on Iroful.

Photo of a col-o-ring swatch card. The ink on the card is an ink that appears both light blue and pink in different places. On the right is a large ink blob that is light blue in places with less ink, and in places with more ink it's pink with dark blue edges. On the left is text reading "Ink Institute Meander Electric Blue Spider Lily" with an X and a curlicue underneath. The text is light, but legible. Some letters are darker and in those letters the edges are darker blue and the center is pink. Photo of an Iroful swatch card with a line drawing of a paint palette. The ink on the card is an ink that appears both light blue and pink in different places. On the left, inside the line drawing is a blob of ink which is light blue in places with less ink, and in places with more ink it's pink with dark blue edges. On the right is text reading "Ink Institute Meander Electric Blue Spider Lily" with an X and a curlicue underneath. The text is light, but legible. Some letters are darker and in those letters the edges are darker blue and the center is pink. Photo of an ink swatch on Midori MD paper. The ink is a chromashader and changes from blue to purple to pink in various areas of the swatch. The text is also chromashading but is a bit light. It reads "Ink Institute Meander / Electric Blue Spider Lily" followed by XX and curlicues in stub and EF nib writing.
Swatch Card Photos. Click to enlarge.

Usually Iroful looks the best, but in this case, MD came out the most legible and with the nicest separation of colors.

Microscope

The microscope photos really show off the different combinations of colors that show up on each type of paper.

Ink under Magnification. Click to enlarge.

Chromatography

Photo of a chromatography strip. On the right is a vertical line which appears to be pink. On the left is more blue with a slightly darker light blue edge toward the far left.
Chromatography Strip

It separates out into magenta and cyan, pretty much as expected.

Photo of chromatography paper under UV light.
Chromatography strip photo under UV light

Nothing too noteworthy under UV light, but there is a slight blue halo past the leading edge.

Verdict

I only have a 5ml sample and it is almost gone and I have never, not once, got it to work acceptably in any pen with any nib size. Only dip pens.

I tried it in an EF Kakuno and the results were not good. I tried it in an FPR Jaipur v2 but it would not flow at all. Other attempts were equally fruitless.

Photo of a clear Pilot Kakuno fountain pen above a writing sample on a piece of lined paper. The writing sample is in very faint light blue ink with extremely thin line width reading "Pilot Kakuno EF - Ink Institute Meander / Electric Blue Spider Lily" followed by "XX ++" and a few curlicues.
Results with an EF Nib … not good!

It worked OK with dip pens, but it is a bit watery, so it doesn’t stick too well to the pen. If you have a Sailor Hocoro dip pen with a reservoir that worked the best.

As an alternative, consider Van Dieman’s Natura Dualis Nightfall. I haven’t done a full swatch of it yet, but it’s close and writes decently. I prefer the tints in Electric Blue Spider Lily, but I can live with Nightfall and being able to actually use the ink reliably in pens.

Based on a Mastodon Post

Updated:

Questions or comments? Contact me on Mastodon

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