Van Dieman's Underwater Collection Part 1

Van Dieman’s recently released a new Underwater Collection. After looking at some of their promo photos on Instagram I really wanted to give them a try. I purchased my samples from Vanness Pens. Let’s take a look at the first 4 inks from the collection!

Swabs:

Left to right: Abyss, Fire Coral, Moon Jellyfish, and Sea Shell.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry Time: 40-60 seconds

Water Resistance: Low-Medium

Feathering: Low

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: Medium (Fire Coral & Moon Jellyfish)

Other properties: medium shading (Fire Coral & Moon Jellyfish), low shading (Sea Shell),no sheen and silver shimmer (Moon Jellyfish & Sea Shell).

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was lots of feathering in every nib size as well as some bleeding.

Comparison Swabs:

Abyss is similar to Sailor Black.

Fire Coral is close to Diplomat Burgundy.

Moon Jellyfish is closest to De Atramentis Pink Rose Gold.

Sea Shell is much lighter than any of these other orange shimmer inks.

Longer Writing:

I used a Taroko Odyssey notebook. Abyss and Fire Coral have wet flows, Moon Jellyfish has an average flow and Sea Shell has a dry flow.

Overall, out of the four inks Fire Coral is my favorite based on the color. I don’t love any of these, there is a lot of feathering and bleeding, and they have long dry times. They are okay but not must-haves.

Disclaimer: I purchased these inks myself and all photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and this post is not sponsored.