mixing inks

While we continue to wait with Bill’s medical issues (meeting with the heart surgeon later today), I distracted myself yesterday with a bit of ink play. My most used inks are De Atramentis Document Black and Brown, and Noodler’s Lexington Gray. But I also wanted a water-resistant “burnt sienna” ink so, following color charts on Jane Blundell’s blog, I mixed one by adding a bit of black to Document Red.

A few months back, I bought a sample of Document Violet to use in my dark lilac Lamy Safari fountain pen, but it was just a bit to red for what I was after. So I added a smidgen of Dark Blue, making it a rich purple. I wasn’t using the blue ink anyway so this is a good purpose for it. The lines remind me of when I used to sketch with a deep purplish colored pencil under watercolor washes.

Before writing text on my journal pages, I normally draw faint pencil lines — yes, I’m a wee bit fussy about writing in straight lines. At least most of the time.

Anyway, these lines are later erased and I’ve been playing with ideas to eliminate the erasing step. The text on the above page was drawn in with a Derwent Blue Grey watercolor pencil but it would need sharpening too often. I read somewhere that Liz Steel was trying out a turquoise ink fit her text lines but it was water-soluble; I get messy with unwanted splashes and smears at times.

So I remembered having a sample bottle of Document Turquoise/Cyan ink and, again following Jane’s charts, added just a bit of Brown to it for a rich turquoise ink. LOVE this color!

After playing with my new colors a bit, I think the turquoise, though beautiful, is not quite light enough for text lines. So I’ve ordered a bottle of De Atramentis Dilution solution to “thin” the color a bit. I decided that the “burnt sienna” was still a bit red so I tweaked it with a few drops of Yellow, which I also had a sample vial of.

Then to finish out the page, I used purple ink to draw the linked chain Bill’s Grandpa Williamson carved as a gift for his grandma when they were courting. The two links are carved from a single piece of walnut. Grandma’s maiden name was Stanley; mine was the same name, though as far as we know there is no relation. So she gave the chain to us — uniting another Stanley and Williamson.