Ink Review: Lamy Crystal Amazonite

Last week, I reviewed my first Lamy Crystal ink color: Rhodonite. While Rhodonite filled a much hoped-for gap in the Lamy ink line-up, it was not exactly breaking new ground, colorwise. Amazonite, is thankfully, a new color altogether from anything I’ve seen previously from Lamy.

Lamy Crystal Amazonite comes in the same glass bottle with outer box that Rhodonite did. It’s a 30ml bottle so its a healthy quantity of ink.

Amazonite, as you can see from the bottom of the bottle, does not contain any gold or metallic flecks like Rhodonite. It’s a traditional deep teal ink.

In the swatch, it shows shading and a hint of sheen where ink coverage is heaviest though I doubt it will be evident in most writing. Possibly on Tomoe River, the sheen will be apparent with wider nibbed pens, around the edges of the letterforms, but that’s probably about it. Overall, I was just happy to see an appealing shade of teal.

Since the color was dark enough I was able to test it in my finest Japanese nib– a vintage Platinum pen. I was able to get a lot of shading in the writing and consistent writing performance.

My first thought when I saw this color was that it was very similar to Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine but on closer inspection, the Pelikan ink is a bit darker and a little more green. Lamy Amazonite is very similar in color to Diamine Marine. To be honest, I probably have a dozen inks that are similar in color to Amazonite. Clearly, this is a color I can’t resist.

Tools:

Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
Pens: Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15), Vintage Platinum Fountain Pen (NA)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
Ink: Lamy Crystal Amazonite (€9.50 for 30ml bottle)