(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
It's easy to forget that gems and precious stones don't came out of the ground looking perfectly shaped and polished. While these rocks are highly desirable, they also require considerable effort to find and prepare before they're ready to be placed in a jewelry setting. Like most other things, they start deep in the earth and take on the same colors as earth: dusty, dark, dank shades with a lack of clarity and shine. There's certainly a beauty in the rawness of untouched gems.
Kala Nostalgia Gemstone Star Garnet is one in a series of inks that showcase the raw beauty of precious stones prior to discovery and shaping. Fitting with the idea of nearly indestructible materials and heavy metals, the ink is also highly water resistant. The gray undertone has subtle pops of dusty purple that provide a glimpse into the beauty that may lay beneath the ancient surface.
If you're not familiar, pigmented inks are a bit more permanent than regular water-based inks because they include microscopic particles in the ink that bond with the paper. This means that when the ink is exposed to water it mostly stays put. Water-based ink mostly wash away when exposed to water, so this can be a highly sought after quality if you need to ensure your work isn't compromised if you're caught in a rain storm or spill a drink on your paper. Prolonged submersion may be a bit too much for most inks (and papers) to handle, but reasonable real-world circumstances are mostly an acceptable challenge for pigmented inks.
Kala have several other pigmented ink options, so they're no stranger to the process. The ink goes on smooth when writing and dries fairly quickly. In my testing with a wet medium cursive italic nib, my writing was dry and smudge-proof after about 12-15 seconds — and even a few seconds faster with a fine nib.
Likewise, water drip and submersion tests were impressive. There is some noticeable blur around the edges of the ink lines, but there's no wash-out or streaking at all. The lines are easy to read and it's almost indiscernible that there was ever any water on the paper.
The coloring of this ink is mostly medium gray with a hint of dusty purple in some of the shades. It's a pleasant and neutral color that adds plenty of visual interest to your writing when compared to a standard black ink. It's certainly not going to win any awards for being bold or colorful, but it's also not boring. Pigmented inks are traditional pretty bland in the color wheel due to the type of pigments used in the ink. Bright colors are hard to achieve, so make sure your expectations are set properly.
There's not much in the way of shading, but the gray is a little darker in areas that the ink pools or takes longer to dry. Again, it's a straight-forward ink that gets the job done without any flash.
At $11.50 for a 30ml bottle, it's also on par for value with other inks.
If you're looking for a work-safe, semi-permanent ink that dries quickly and fares well in humid or wet conditions, this is a great place to start. If Star Garnet isn't your thing, there a few other colors to pick from as well.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
