Color Traveler - Mihara Daruma Red

Color Traveler Mihara Daruma Red - Ink Drop

This is Mihara Daruma Red from Color Traveler. Mihara, located in Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture, is known for making Daruma dolls, and for the Mihara Daruma Festival held each February. The ink is the rich, bold red traditionally associated with the dolls. Based on the Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, they are symbols of tenacity, and overcoming challenges. To achieve your goals, you must bounce back when knocked down, just like the round dolls.

Light to dark crimson reds!

People often ask for red ink recommendations. Well, this is about as pure a cardinal red, as I have seen! The strong, bold color is really the star of the show. There’s some shading, and a touch of sheen, and halo on some papers, but it always comes back to the purity of this red.

Mihara Daruma Red’s beautiful contrast!

Color Traveler makes nice writing inks, and Mihara is no exception. On all six test papers, strokes were clean and razor-sharp. There was moderate shading on all premiums. Coated premiums offered a mild halo, while uncoated premiums showed a subtle sheen edge. Drying is my only complaint (the splatter image was taken after 24 hours and was still wet). Written strokes dried on coated premiums in 20-25 seconds, on uncoated premiums in 15-20 seconds, but on office copy it was a quick 5 seconds.

Color Traveler Kotohira Happy Yellow swatch card

This is a gorgeous red, just slightly darker than mid-red. It’s exactly what I want in a true red. I love Color Traveler’s packaging, too! The ink comes with a nice eye dropper, and a second travel vial that’s convenient to take on the road! You’ll enjoy this good luck red.

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