When I think of sepia ink, I think of a deep, rich walnut tone. Visions of antique documents and intricate scrimshaw come to mind. Diamine Sepia is different. It isn’t the color of centuries-old writing, but more the color of the parchment it’s written on. It is a gorgous, warm butterscotch shade. In fact, if it were my ink, I would have named it just that. Butterscotch. I can’t look at this ink without craving a butterscotch ice cream sundae, complete with crushed peanuts, fresh whipped cream and a cherry on top!
Now that I’m hungry, I’ll simply post my review and let you be the judge. Either way, it’s beautiful! A full bottle of this is definitely in my near future!
Diamine Sepia
Written with: Noodler’s Konrad Flex Pen & Kuretake brush pen w/water
Written on: Ivory Clairefontaine (Quo Vadis journal) & 32# HP inkjet paper, bright white
In Short: smooth flow, average dry time, mostly not waterproof, good shading with some haloing. I also noticed that it darkened up slightly as it dried overnight. Interesting!
Let me know what you think!
This is Suzy 
Gorgeous! I’m considering getting the Noodler’s Konrad Flex Pen both for drawing and writing. How do you rate it?
Five stars! 🙂 I very much love the Konrad flex pens…though I do get more use out of my Ahabs. They have the same nib and feed, which is great for both writing and drawing. I just prefer the look and feel of the Ahab. Both pens lay down a nice, wet line. They are also easy to adjust and maintain. If you like the Konrad, at $20 for a flex pen, you can’t go wrong!
Thanks for your quick reply! Next pay day, the Konrad is mine 🙂
I have been longing for the perfect sepia for some time. I wanted ink that would capture the look of a faded old document. I bought some Private Reserve Copper Burst, but it was not quite right. Then I stumbled on your ink review. Eureka! I have found it! Thank you for sharing this wonderful example of what Diamine Sepia can do.
I’m so glad my review helped you! I hope you love this ink, it’s one of my favorites. 🙂
Loved the review, i bought the ink just because i saw your review.
I plan to use it on a beautiful leather journal i bought, the pages are beige and i really want it to look like an old vintage journal. I would love to decorate the first two pages the way you did here.
If you don’t mind, could you please do a quick tutorial on how you created the stain effect around the pages?
Thanks again, i will be checking for a response
Hi Lynnie! Thanks for your comment! So glad you found my review inspiring. Your journal sounds lovely and I wish you many happy days filling it with your heart’s desire. 🙂 I’m not sure I’ll have the time to do a tutorial on ANYTHING anytime soon, but the ink wash I did is really simple. First, grab yourself a water brush pen. Any one will do. The ones I most often use are here: http://www.jetpens.com/Kuretake-Waterbrush-Pen-Medium/pd/2677 and http://www.jetpens.com/Holbein-Water-Brush-Pen-Round-Medium/pd/11105
Of course you don’t have to buy them from JetPens, they are easily available online and in lots of craft stores, but I like JetPens so that’s where I buy mine. Put a little ink into a small dish or paint palette. Fill up the water brush, (tap water is just fine) dip into the ink and spread across the paper. At first it will be dark on the paper, but because the water brush allows a constant water flow, it gets lighter as you brush. If you want it darker you can let it dry a bit and do another layer. That’s really all I do for the faded background. If you want texture, you can experiment with doing this technique and then pressing tissue, different fabrics, etc. onto the wet ink. Depending on the ink and absorbency of your paper, the effect can be really intense and graphic or very subtle. The most important thing is to just experiment. You never know what awesome new thing you’ll come up with! 🙂