Diamine Fountain Pen Ink – Merlot
Originating in the 1800’s, Diamine Ink has a long history and has been developed into one of the finest quality fountain pen inks on the market. It’s reliability has lead it to become one of the most sought after inks by both professionals and beginners. This Diamine Merlot Ink is suitable for any brand of fountain pens, making it a convenient purchase too. It is a water-based non-toxic ink, making it a safe option for vintage pens in particular. The deep merlot colour of this ink is not overly saturated and thus has a beautiful richness to it. It is also versatile in the sense that it has the ability to be easily mixed with other colour inks and create new colours. This Diamine ink also has anti-clogging properties, ensuring even and smooth precision across paper.
Mareli Basson (verified owner) –
I was really excited for Merlot as I thought it would make a great shadow colour in my ink portraits, but it’s a bit of a bully colour (aka it pushes other colours out instead of merging with them)
Merlot dilutes to a greyish taupe colour that isn’t clearly shown in the swatch on this listing. Used on it’s own in a monotone painting it works beautifully and has lovely shading, but when layered over other colours for shading it pushes them out in favour of the taupe colour which makes shadows look too messy.
Tip: For shadows I rather use a mix of Diamine Grape and i might add drops of a complimentary colour to tone it based on the overall color composition that I’m using. For instance I’ll add a couple drops of Diamine Meadow if I want to neutralise the purple hue a bit.