Fire and Ice by Robert Oster

The above photo was taken in direct sunlight. Ink is swatched on Clairefontaine 90gsm paper, using a glass dip pen.

Specs

Name: Fire and Ice

Maker: Robert Oster

Color Family: Blue

Properties: Sheening, Shimmering, Shading (low)

Purchased at: Goulet Pens

What’s in a name?

I couldn’t find anything definitive, but I assume the name came from the contrast between the red/pink sheen in this ink and it’s base blue (with slight green undertone) hue.

Swatches

A large swatch of ink showcases the darkest this ink gets, as well as the maximum properties it has (when held at the right angle to show any shimmer or sheen). But what about when you’re writing a letter or notes with it?

The above was written on Clairefontaine 90gsm paper, using a Fountain Pen Revolution Himalaya V2 fountain pen with an Ultraflex nib.

Of course, for maximum effect you want to see it in light and in motion. The following video shows the ink swatched on Skylab Letterpress 160gsm cards. 

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A post shared by Beth Wade (@goddessbeth)

Thoughts

This is such a lovely ink, but darker than I was expecting. The fire part of it (red sheen) is definitely visible on the outer edges of each penstroke. It’s a wetter ink than I was expecting, and I held my breath while I was writing the above King of Cups page, thinking it was going to gush out because of that. You can see a few itty bitty areas where the ink shaded to a light blue, but those were mostly flukes- even with the lightest pressure imaginable on the pen, the ink flowed out wetly, thick and dark.

I love how this one surprised me. After the swatch revealed no sheening whatsoever, I was expecting disappointment. But it turned out I just needed a larger nib (in this case, an Ultraflex so those downstrokes could be thick). I really like this one and can’t wait to use it in a Stub nib next!

*All pics and vid were taken using a Google Pixel 4a and color-adjusted to best reflect the hue of that ink.