Van Dieman’s - Morning Frost

Van Dieman’s - Morning Frost - Ink drop

Today’s ink, Morning Frost, is from Van Dieman’s 5th series, Tassie (Tasmanian) Seasons. Each season has four colors, and Morning Frost is a winter ink. In the winter, “much of Tasmania wakes each morning to a thick blanket of crisp, crunchy ice on every blade of grass, fallen leaf, and car windscreen. This ink resembles the dewy sheen on blades of grass in early winter mornings” (from Van Dieman’s website).

Van Dieman’s - Morning Frost - Color Range

Visually, this ink really delivers! It’s quite stunning, and a very effective color-shimmer combination. The ink goes on a blue/grey-black and slowly dries to a deep tarnished silver. There is a quiet hint of lavender in the blue, that aids the metallic illusion. The dark foundation combines with the soft, silver shimmer cover and creates a very realistic, frost-like metallic appearance. I love it!

Van Dieman's - Morning Frost - Ink Swatch Card

As a writing ink, I’m a little surprised by how versatile and flexible this smooth-flowing ink proved to be. On all four premium papers, writing performance was great. Stroke profiles were razor-sharp with no feather or bleed. Drying times were a bit long (from 20-30 seconds on Mnemosyne and 35-45 seconds on Rhodia, with the other two in-between.) It was good on office copy paper, too. Strokes were not quite as sharp, but they presented well overall. Drying time was 5 seconds. There was little to no shading or halo on any of the papers, but they weren’t missed. In my limited testing (36 hours), I had no problems with clogging or cleaning. However, good pen hygiene is advised with shimmer inks.

I’m quickly coming to love Van Dieman’s Inks! Morning Frost is quite beautiful, and it performs very well. There aren’t a lot of silver inks for fountain pens, and this is a very convincing tarnished sterling. It’s more graceful than many alternatives. I highly recommend this ink to anyone who likes a little shimmer!