This is a big week here at The Well-Appointed Desk. Pelikan released their ink color of the year: Star Ruby. While we are rolling around in inky goodness, we thought we’d share some of the color goodness with you.
Star Ruby is a deep magenta red color. You made be thinking to yourself, “Didn’t Pelikan already release a magenta color in their limited edition inks?” You would be right to think that. In 2012, Pelikan released the first “Color of the Year” which was Tourmaline. It was a slightly deeper, purply magenta.
That said, Star Ruby has clearly noticeable sheen. The color, when applied in a wider swath, has a velvety quality and a golden sheen.
Compared with other magenta pinks, there are a lot of similar colors. From top left down: Kaweco Ruby Red, J. Herbin Rouge Opera and Pelikan Edelstein Star Ruby and Lamy Vibrant Pink. From top right down: Colorverse No. 5 Lights on Ceres, Colorverse #19 Red Shift, and Pelikan Edelstein Tourmaline.
J. Herbin Rouge Opera is probably the closest in hue though Herbin inks are notoriously wet. Tourmaline is the only other one with true sheen, Vibrant Pink has sheen plus metallic gold glitter and is much lighter pink. Colorverse #19 and Ruby Red are more red and Colorverse #05 Lights on Ceres is similar to Tourmaline — more magenta but with less sheen.
If you missed out on Tourmaline, then Star Ruby is definitely worth picking up. The sheen created by Star Ruby in wider nibs is quite attractive and will be very noticeable on high sheen papers like Tomoe River. If you have several magenta or pink inks, you might not need another one. Though, if you are like me, you might not be able to resist the temptation anyway.
Tools:
- Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15)
- Swatches: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
- Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
- Ink: Pelikan Edelstein Star Ruby ($27.95/€12.40 for 50ml bottle)
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Pelikan for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
