Van Dieman’s - Huon Midwinter Festival

Van Dieman’s - Huon Midwinter Festival - Ink drop

Today’s ink, Huon Midwinter Festival, is from Van Dieman’s Series 5 - Tassie Seasons. This is one of four winter inks. The name refers to the Huon Valley Midwinter Festival, a celebration of food, wine, and entertainment from Tasmania’s Huon Valley. According to Van DIeman’s website, the color is inspired by the feeling of youth at the festival, the warming taste of hot chocolate, and the shimmering colors of tealights and the glow of bonfires.

Van Dieman’s - Huon Midwinter Festival - Range of Shades

Visually, this is a warm, inviting ink. The base color is a soft, creamy bronze brown that brings hot chocolate to mind. In writing, it’s more of a rich chocolate brown. Atop this is a bold, golden shimmer that at times, covers strokes completely. When the balance is right, it’s a beautiful combination. This is a wonderful autumn or winter ink.

Van Dieman's - Huon Midwinter Festival - Ink Swatch Card

As a writing ink, Huon is influenced by the paper you choose, but was usable on all five test papers. Strokes were fairly crisp on all five, but Mnemosyne and Apica were the best overall, with slightly sharper and darker stroke profiles than the others. On office copy, there was slight feathering, but strokes still looked good. Shimmer was evenly distributed and showed nicely on all five. Halo and sheen were absent or covered in sheen. Drying times showed the greatest variability, and at times were longer than I like. On the premium papers, Rhodia was fastest at 15-20 seconds, with the others between 20-45 seconds. Office copy was 5 seconds.

Dieman’s shimmer inks are quite nice. Huon Midwinter Festival is a gorgeous, soft brown that feels comfortable and comforting to the eye, but it can be a bit overpowering on some papers. It’s also a very nice writing ink, but nicer on some than others. I’m surprised that I don’t have anything really similar. It’s a lovely combination!