Van Dieman’s - Deciduous Beech

Van Dieman’s - Deciduous Beech - Ink drop

Deciduous Beech from Van Dieman’s season 5, Tassie Seasons. The series is broken into four-ink seasons, and ppropriately, this is one of the Autumn inks. The beech tree is Australia’s only deciduous (leaf-shedding) tree, and is found only in Tasmania. Every year in April and May (autumn in the Southern Hemisphere), deciduous beech leaves of red, yellow, and orange carpet forest floors.

Van Dieman’s - Deciduous Beech - Contrasting Shades

Visually, this is a delicious, almost creamy orange that can be both bright and pale depending on the paper. The color is fresh and clean, yet slightly faded on uncoated papers. It’s richer, with more depth and definition on coated papers. This is a moderate, but consistent shading ink. The shading is gentle, with smooth transitions from light to dark areas. The splatter shows dramatic edge darkening in various shades of reddish-orange, and I expected more halo in writing than I observed. Kokuyo coated paper was the real standout for shading, and it showed the only pronounced halo in writing. Overall, this is quite an appealing orange.

Van Dieman’s - Deciduous Beech - Ink Swatch Card

As a writing ink, it performed well on all six test papers, but there were differences. Strokes were clean on all, but sharpness and shading improved on coated papers. Drying was slightly faster on uncoated premiums at 10-15 seconds. Coated papers dried in 15-20 seconds, and office copy was 5 seconds. Both in performance and aesthetics, I prefer this ink on coated papers.

Van Dieman’s inks are consistent pleasers. Their shimmers are truly stunning, but Van Dieman’s Deciduous Beech is another example of how nice their non-shimmers are, as well.