Dominant Industry - Alexandrite
Dominant Industry Alexandrite - Ink drop
A couple of months ago, I bought two inks from Dominant Industry’s Alchemist series. This is Alexandrite. The Alchemist inks are specifically made as calligraphy ink. That makes them ideal for use with dip nibs, glass nibs, brushes, and other tools. It implies that they are not suited for fountain pens, but I thought I’d give them a try.
Alexandrite Ink Swatch on Cosmo Air Light
Alexandrite is a truly gorgeous aquamarine blue. It’s extremely hard to photograph, wow is it pretty! In my images, the ink color matches what I see on each of the papers, but I had a hard time trying to balance out the paper colors. My apologies. This is a shimmer ink, and the pearl is very fine. In fact, I didn’t have any problems with clogging at all. I was worried about staining, and didn’t allow it to sit in the TWSBI Eco that I used for testing for more than a few days.
Alexandrite Ink Swatch on Tomoe River
The pearl looks white in the bottle, but it has a lot more electricity and almost neon properties on the page. Really beautiful. The aqua blue is really stunning when using a glass rod for swatching. The problem is that it it’s just too light for my tastes to be practical for fountain pen writing. It can be difficult to read on many papers. I don’t blame the ink, as it specifically calls itself a calligraphy ink, and probably isn’t intended for normal writing at all. For artistic projects and brush calligraphy it is far more usable.
Alexandrite Ink Swatch on Iroful paper
As you can see, writing under the swatches looks well-defined and fairly easy to read, but larger paragraphs tend to have significant areas that are undersaturated and hard to read. In the strokes, you’ll also find hints of pink and whispers of green. On Takasago Bank paper, the greens were strongest.
Alexandrite Ink Swatch on Bank Paper
I have to say, the swatches were really mesmerizing. It’s a very unique ink. Although I don’t recommend it for standard writing, and I don’t know if it poses a danger to demonstrator pens if left in for long periods, I do think this series has promise for the creatives out there. I like that Dominant Industry has wide vision in so many ways, and that they really want to serve a diverse market. There are lots of people who will absolutely love this ink!
Alexandrite Writing Sample on Cosmo Air Snow
Alexandrite Writing Sample on Cosmo Air Snow
Dominant Industry Alexandrite - 30 ml Bottle