Time for another review! Today we’ll be going through the results of our Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) ink review.
Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) ink is a very unique color of red-orange with a hint of pink that goes down in a medium to high saturation. The ink shows up dark on paper and has consistent color flow.
***Wondering where to find the giveaway for the inks in our weekly ink reviews? We used to run a weekly giveaway featuring each week’s ink, but now we have a monthly giveaway day that includes the inks featured in past reviews! ALL of the inks featured in our weekly ink reviews are listed as giveaway prizes during 15 on the 15th: GIVEAWAY DAY with Pen Chalet.
All About the Ink Maker: Taccia
Taccia is a well known ink maker – and the popular Ukiyo-e ink series and Ukiyo-e ink series Volume 2 aren’t their only ink collections. Taccia offers inks in four different collections:- Basic Inks (13 primary colors – Taccia’s 1st release in 2018)
- Ukiyo-e Ink Series (8 ink colors with 4 in each of two sub-series: Hokusai (Japanese landscape) and Syaraku (Facial/Character))
- Ukiyo-e Ink Series, Volume 2 (recently released in 2021, the 2nd volume also included two sub-series: Horoshige and Usuzumi)
- Jeans Collection (7 ink colors representing fashioinable jean or denim colors)
All About This Week’s Ink Series: Ukiyo-e Series 2 Inks
Benizakura ink is one of the inks included in the 2nd version of Ukiyo-e inks from Taccia. The original Taccia Ukiyo-e inks (which are still available) included 2 subset series each with 4 ink colors: Hokusai Series (Japanese Landscape) and Syaraku Series (Facial-Character Series). The Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 inks also includes 2 subset series with 4 inks in each: Hiroshige Series (artist known for showing nature, birds, flowers, vegetation, etc. and incorporating indigo blue in his art), and the Utamaro Series (artist known for beautiful depictions of women). This week’s featured ink is one of the Utamaro Series inks within Taccia’s Ukiyo-e Series 2:- Utamaro Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom)
- Utamaro Aomurasaki (Blue Purple)
- Utamaro Usuzumi (Light Black)
- Utamaro Ume Murasaki (Plum Purple)
All About This Week’s Chosen Ink: Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) Ink
This week’s ink, Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura comes in a 40ml glass ink bottle.
It’s Time: Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) Ink Review
For this Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) ink review, we put this unique red-orange ink through our standard ink review tests. The ink review results should give you a better idea of just what you could expect if you need this ink in your collection.
Read the Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura ink review results.
Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):
As usual, we used a french-made J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen (with a tip comparable to a medium-fine fountain pen nib) on Rhodia dot pad paper. If you use a different size nib or different paper or simply have a significantly different style of writing, you could see different results. But here’s how it went down for us during this week’s review.What Sort of Ink Bottle Does Taccia Use for its Ukiyo-e Inks?
Benizakura Crimson Cherry Blossom ink comes in beautiful packaging – which is fitting since these inks are inspired by works of great artists and examples of their work adorn the ink’s exterior packaging. The ink’s bottle is a 40ml square, heavy-weighted display quality glass ink bottle. The packaging of the Taccia Ukiyo-e ink series is very professional. In addition to the fantastic outer packaging, you’ll also find internal protection built into the outer box. As mentioned previously, the boxes display the artwork of their namesake, and each ink comes with an internal placard also showing the artwork inspiring the 8 bottles in both Series 2 sub-series.How Much Do Inks in Taccia’s Ukiyo-e Series 2 Ink Collection Cost?
Taccia Ukiyo-e inks are a mid-range priced ink. Look for the current sale price at PenChalet.com.How Did This Week’s Ink Fair in the Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) Ink Review 1-Dip Test?
We use the 1-dip test to see how far one dip can write on paper (dipping the pen into the ink only once). Taccia Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) ink easily wrote across the paper on all three writing samples with lots of ink to spare. (Using only one dip per writing sample “S” “X” and scribble lines, see the image above).How Fast Does Taccia Benizakura Ink Dry?
During our ink review, Taccia Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) fountain pen ink showed a dry time of approximately 8-10 seconds with medium to high saturation. We’d recommend it as an everyday ink or for use with special projects, letters, notes, etc.Does This Week’s Fountain Pen Ink Bleed Through?
We saw no bleeding during normal use and some very slight bleeding during the heavy saturated cotton swab test (but only at the wettest points).Was There Any Feathering During the Taccia Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) Ink Review?
We saw no feathering during normal use, and only some slight noticeable feathering during the water test (and during the heaviest saturation with the cotton swab test).How Does the Ink Stand Up to Water?
Taccia Ukiyo-e Series 2 Benizakura (Crimson Cherry Blossom) ink is not meant to be waterproof, but we like to be thorough, so we test inks even when they’re obviously not waterproof. During the water test we lay down some ink – then let it dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample to observe the effect. Here are the results we saw during today’s review:- pinkish color smearing
- lines very legible
- almost no distortion at all
- almost zero additional feathering
- held up very well to the water test (other than the dark pink color smearing)
