Ziller Ink Review Acrylic Waterproof Ink for Calligraphy and Drawing. Lightfast Test RESULTS FUGITIVE.

Ziller Ink is a small company based in Florida USA who sells Acrylic based waterproof ink in glass bottles. They market these as lightfast and ideal for calligraphy and drawing with a dip pen. They are available to buy at Blick art supply store here. Black, White and Gold ink is lightfast, but I would assume all other colors will fade.

This company broadly claims that their inks are lightfast, without providing any details about pigment ingredients or color specific lightfast ratings. The buyer is left to assume that even "Flamingo Pink" (a neon/fluorescent/opera color) would be as lightfast as the black ink. While some artists know better, this lazy marketing is sure to set up some to fail. Especially those with good intentions who checked that something said "lightfast" before making art to sell, or even sending out calligraphy invitations in the mail where they may sit outside in direct sun for a time (yes, even days can put a dent in these colors).

Even colors that an experienced artist might assume would be lightfast, like the Aqua Blue Green below, was made up of fugitive dyes or pigments. It started to fade within months and by 1 year in a window it was completely gone. Compared to LFI rated watercolors that remain unchanged in direct light for several years or more, this is drastic. I am very sad that this company spreads such misinformation, especially because I like shopping with Blick and they have to pass along a blurb on behalf of the company (which just looks bad on Blick too).

To make things worse these inks separate in the jar, causing a lot of need for repeat shaking. Some of the colors, particularly white and gold are slightly too thick to do their job as a smooth flowing calligraphy ink. I overall enjoyed both Calli from Daler Rowney and Aero Color from Schmincke more.

You can find these inks on Ziller's website, John Neal Books and other paper crafting and calligraphy websites. I got mine from Blick USA below.

 

 

 

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