We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. We love Van Dieman’s inks. This week we’re reviewing another ink from the Van Dieman’s Wilderness ink series – back by popular demand! Have you tried them? If you have, you’ll have to tell us which are your favorites. If not, you’ll have to read this week’s review of Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid ink and think about giving this Aussie ink company a try. Read the full ink review below!

All About the Ink Maker: Van Dieman’s

Van Dieman’s is a new brand Pen Chalet introduced in 2020. The Australian ink company produces a wide array of fountain pen inks in a few different ink series. Pen Chalet currently carries four different Van Dieman’s ink series:

• Van Dieman’s Original Fourteen Colours of Tasmania
• Van Dieman’s Tassie Seasons Series
• Van Dieman’s Midnight Series
• Van Dieman’s Wilderness Series

With Van Dieman’s inks, you don’t need to look to an exclusive shimmering ink series to get these popular specialty inks. Shimmering inks sprinkled into each of the company’s ink series. Pen Chalet currently has over 48 ink colors available, and with our recent shipment, we’re recently restocked. This week’s featured ink, Black Tongue Spider Orchid fountain pen ink, is from the Van Dieman’s Wilderness Series.

All About The Ink Series: Van Dieman’s Wilderness Ink Series

This week’s ink review features an ink from Van Dieman’s Wilderness ink series. The wild, Tasmanian region inspires each color in the Wilderness Series. If you’re interested in the Wilderness Series, but you’d like to try a shimmering ink or two, look for Azure Kingfisher or Hastings Cave shimmering inks.

Pen Chalet is excited to offer a wide selection of Van Dieman’s inks. Check out the current inventory of Van Dieman’s fountain pen ink at PenChalet.com.

Featured Ink: Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink

Van Dieman’s Wilderness ink series Black Tongue Spider Orchid ink is light purple, an ink color inspired by the Caladenia Caudata or Black-tongue Spider Orchid of Tasmania, Australia. We’ve never seen a Tasmania Black-Tongue Spider Orchid before, but we did look it up. And the description of this threatened native Tasmanian Orchid seems to be accurately reflected in this popular Van Dieman’s fountain pen ink. (Also, just because we can’t help but share…the long, spindly “legs” or tongue on the flower actually looks like a spider from a distance). If you haven’t already looked it up, take a break from this week’s ink review to Google it. We’ll allow it.

Black Tongue Spider Orchid ink is a nice, soft, light purple-pink ink color that still manages to show up well on paper due to the slight black infused color within.

*** Now, it’s time to dive into the details we discovered about Van Dieman’s Wilderness Series Black Tongue Spider Orchid ink during this week’s review. We suggest you read the full review to get the entire story, but you can skip to the bottom to enter to win if you’re just not up for it today. But if you do, we hope you come back and read the full review when you have more time (or more patience).

Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink

It’s Time: Van Dieman’s Wilderness Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink Review

This week we put Van Dieman’s’ Black Tongue Spider Orchid fountain pen ink through our standard ink review tests. Here’s what we discovered!

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

This week we used a French-made J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen (with a tip comparable to a medium fountain pen nib) on Rhodia dot pad paper. As always, we want to remind you that different papers or different nib sizes may produce different results!

What Ink Bottle Does Van Dieman’s Use?

Black Tongue Spider Orchid ink series comes in the new standard Van Dieman’s 30 ml. ink glass bottle. The ink bottle is medicine style with a large, wide lid and opening. The packaging is simple, but nice with the ink color clearly indicated on the packaging both in color and in print. The artwork printed on the packaging is in the color of the ink inside the box.

How Much Do Van Dieman’s Wilderness Series Fountain Pen Inks Cost?

The Van Dieman’s Wilderness Series fountain pen inks are reasonably priced, especially for ink directly imported from Australia. Check for the latest discounted price at PenChalet.com.

How Did This Week’s Ink Fair in the 1-Dip Test?

We use the 1-dip test to see how far the ink can write on paper with “1 dip.” We conducted the 1-dip test using a J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen, Rhodia dot pad paper, and this week’s featured ink, Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid. We dipped the pen in ink once for each writing sample shown above (“S,” “X,” and scribble lines), and you can see it wrote across the page on all three writing samples with the color remaining strong until the end.

How Fast Does the Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink Dry?

Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid fountain pen ink had a dry time of about 6-7 seconds with medium saturation, which is quick enough to be used as an everyday ink color.

Does This Week’s Fountain Pen Ink Bleed Through?

We saw very slight bleeding during normal use of this week’s ink and we saw additional bleeding during the heavily saturated cotton swab test.

Was There Any Feathering While Using Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink?

We saw no feathering during normal use on Rhodia paper, and almost no additional feathering during the water test.

How Does the Ink Stand Up to Water?

For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample. This week’s ink isn’t waterproof, and when we ran the test, we saw light color smearing, due to the lighter color. The lines were very legible with almost imperceptible feathering, and we saw some slight line fading after the water test.

Does Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink Have Good Shading Traits?

This week’s ink had some shading possibilities depending on the writer’s penmanship, the nib used, and the overall style of writing; from a deep, dark dusty purple with slight black infused color to a light, dusty purple-pink ink color.

Final Conclusion on Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink:

This week’s ink has a nice price point – very reasonably priced. We really enjoyed the color – there’s something about a purple/pink combo that is dark enough to see clearly on paper that draws you in. And this ink shows up well on paper even though we would describe it as a lighter color. Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid ink also had a good (and by that we mean quick) dry time.

We’re still very much enjoying the recent addition of this prolific ink company’s inks from Down Under, and we really appreciate their refreshing look, and smaller 30 ml bottle. Happy writing from Australia!

Enter to Win Van Dieman’s Black Tongue Spider Orchid Ink:

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