Ink Review #40

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

Overview

The color/properties:

Queen of Hearts is a shimmering ink. There are golden particulates that contrast the deep oxblood red. I found that the shimmer was far more pronounced with the finer nibs, especially the extra fine. In contrast, shimmer didn’t come through as much with the broad and the stub. Overall, this ink isn’t all that shimmery. There’s enough of it to add some flair to your writing, but the particulates can be difficult to see in typical lighting conditions. Nevertheless, results with shimmer inks are going to vary widely, and I can’t say that every user’s experience will be the same.

Queen of Hearts also has some light shading that can range anywhere from a purple-red on the drier side, to a near black-red where the ink lays the wettest. You’ll most likely run into a soft gradient between oxblood and black.

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

Performance on paper:

Wearingeul Queen of Hearts mostly performed well. There was significant bleed-through and minor feathering on the Kokuyo paper with all the test nibs. It wasn’t terribly surprising because Queen of Hearts is a very wet and saturated ink. Despite this, I didn’t encounter any more bleed-through or feathering on the other papers. Still, I suggest erring on the side of caution in regard to wet nibs as it may become problematic.

The dry times were below average, but they mostly dried within 30 seconds, save for one instance on Tomoe River paper. The dry times were notably better on the Maruman paper, but still below average across all of the nib sizes.

The water resistance was surprisingly good. A lot of the color washed away, but there were deep, near-black shadows left behind of the writing that was crisp and legible even through the slight clouding caused by the water.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Performance in the pen:

As stated earlier, Wearingeul Queen of Hearts is a very wet ink. It’s unsurprising that I didn’t encounter any issues with hard starts or stops, and the ink felt very well-lubricated across all of the nibs. With that said, I had multiple instances where the ink began to flood the feed and seep out of the edges into the wings of the nib. The pen never threw any ink drops, and not all pens will exhibit the same issue while using this ink, but it’s a clear symptom of the ink being too wet. Shimmer distribution was mixed, and at first, I thought that I was running out of particulates, but there were plenty in the barrel. I suspect that the overly wet flow causes the ink to dry over the less concentrated particulates with larger nib sizes, dulling them out.

Despite the particulates, as well as the high saturation, Queen of Hearts was very easy to clean. It didn’t take any longer than an ink of average saturation, and far less time than a highly saturated red normally would. The shimmer washed out with ease and there were no remaining particulates after a basic flush. Bravo!

• Performance in a pen: 7/10

• Performance on paper: 7.5/10

• Color saturation: 8/10

• Sheening: 0/10

• Shading: 3.5/10

• Dry time: 6/10

• Water resistance: 8/10

• Ease of cleaning: 7.5/10

• Shimmer: Gold, High

My personal thoughts...

Despite some of the minor issues that I mentioned earlier, I want to make it clear that I don’t think this is a bad ink. Just because I had some waffly results doesn’t mean you will too. And personally, I think that once shimmer is added to the equation, any worries about the performance of the ink in any normal respect should go right out the window. Shimmering inks should be fun and Wearingeul Queen of Hearts most certainly is.

With that said, I want to talk more about the color because that’s my favorite part.

Once again, Wearingeul had a very interesting interpretation of a character in their Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland series. It’s surely a lot darker than I would have expected — dark enough that it would fit in perfectly with American Mcgee’s Alice. Much like White Rabbit though, I find it to be a creative and imaginative interpretation. The rich color adds an elegance to the theme that I don’t normally find in most representations of the Queen of Hearts character. Honestly, I think I prefer it. It’s not bad, just different, and different denotes neither bad nor good, but it certainly means ‘not the same’.

Other inks in this set:

More images/info:

Tools and materials used in the writing samples:

• A TWSBI Diamond 580 with 5 nib units including an EF, F, M, B, and 1.1mm stub, All nibs are tuned to perform at the same wetness.

• A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad

• A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook

• A Midori MD A5 Notebook

• A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

• A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

• A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook