Color Traveler - Oyster Silver

Color Traveler Oyster Silver - Ink Drop

Oyster Silver is another from Color Traveler. Based in Hiroshima, Japan, Color Traveler is the in-house ink brand of Tayama Bungu (Tayama Stationery), a family-owned stationery store operating for over 120 years. Hiroshima prefecture produces more oysters than anywhere else in Japan. This ink honors Hiroshima’s succulent delicacy, and the color represents the shine of the shell when opened.

Oyster Silver’s nice definition!

Visually, this is a lovely, smoky, silver-grey. Oyster shells aren’t a uniform color, and this ink shows a wide variation in shades and tones that match shell colorations quite well. The variation is a bit restrained of uncoated papers, and a powdery appearance develops that is soft and gentle. On coated papers, the shading blooms fully, with beautiful lights, mid-tones, and darks that resemble the patina on slightly tarnished silver. A strong halo makes the ink pop off the page. This is a beautiful silver-grey.

Ninoshima Baumkuchen’s swatch card

As a writing ink, Color Traveler Oyster Silver is a nice, tempered, wet ink. It flows smoothly, and loves being put to the page. On all six test papers, strokes were clean and sharp. There’s no halo on office copy, and strokes are softer, yet still remain clear. On premiums, the halo edging is strong, and both defines and adds depth to strokes. Shading was visible on all papers, but really is most dramatic on coated premiums, giving the ink a strong point of view and personality. Drying was 10-20 seconds on premiums, and under 5 seconds on office copy. This is a very nice writing ink.

This is a grey ink-lover’s grey. It’s really quite beautiful, especially on coated premium papers, where the shading and halo are most dramatic. Color Traveler makes some lovely, high-quality inks, and Oyster Silver is easy to recommend.