Ink Review: Diamine Music Collection: Strauss

[Chrissy]

I have decided to review some of my favourite inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order.

This one is from the Diamine Music Gift Set:Strauss. This immediately struck me as an unusual colour that I hadn't used before. However, it was really nice to write with and the more I wrote with it the more I was attracted to it.

I have to say that the PI Fuyu-gaki looks like a lighter, brighter apricot than the scan shows, but I tried everything I could think of in Photoshop to get that swab to the correct shade and nothing worked satisfactorily. If anyone has any tips on how to make that swab the exact shade, please let me know.


It flows quite wet, and lubricates the nib quite well.
Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the Lamy nib was a 1.1 steel nib, this ink only took 10-12 secs to dry. It is currently available in the Music Gift set of 10 x 30ml glass bottles and is also now available in 30ml plastic refill bottles from Diamine. The glass bottles are lovely, but are not available separately. The plastic bottles are less stable and fewer pens fit into them for filling.
Water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink.
Diamine (http://www.diamineinks.co.uk/) sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
It's a reasonable price.

53895
17505

[Laura N]

I stink at color correction, too, so I can't help. Sometimes I just give up. For me, Fuyu-gaki is a dark, saturated reddish orange, but on my screen that swab looks like a light orange with brown tint. I'm not sure if it's my monitor, though.

However, I am sure that if Strauss is close to Fuyu-gaki, it's not a color I'd use much. So I find the review very helpful! Thank you! :)

[Chrissy]

I stink at color correction, too, so I can't help. Sometimes I just give up. For me, Fuyu-gaki is a dark, saturated reddish orange, but on my screen that swab looks like a light orange with brown tint. I'm not sure if it's my monitor, though.

However, I am sure that if Strauss is close to Fuyu-gaki, it's not a color I'd use much. So I find the review very helpful! Thank you! :)

I have to say I struggled to find inks for comparison, even in my ever growing stash! So, Strauss is much darker and less bright than PI Fuyu-gaki. It is more like DeA Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it's darker than that too. I find it difficult to describe the shade. I've now come up with dark brick.

[writingrav]

I stink at color correction, too, so I can't help. Sometimes I just give up. For me, Fuyu-gaki is a dark, saturated reddish orange, but on my screen that swab looks like a light orange with brown tint. I'm not sure if it's my monitor, though.

However, I am sure that if Strauss is close to Fuyu-gaki, it's not a color I'd use much. So I find the review very helpful! Thank you! :)

I have to say I struggled to find inks for comparison, even in my ever growing stash! So, Strauss is much darker and less bright than PI Fuyu-gaki. It is more like DeA Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it's darker than that too. I find it difficult to describe the shade. I've now come up with dark brick.
Strauss is close to unique and no swab does it justice. I keep a bottle at home and one at work and just ordered a refill bottle from Diamine (along with Schubert, Vivaldi, my favorites all)

Thanks for all these great reviews.

[Chrissy]

Strauss is close to unique and no swab does it justice. I keep a bottle at home and one at work and just ordered a refill bottle from Diamine (along with Schubert, Vivaldi, my favorites all)

Thanks for all these great reviews.
Thank you for your kind words.

I'm almost relieved that it's close to unique, as I thought maybe I had missed out on a whole shade range. Are you one of those lucky few who has the whole Music Gift Set in attractive glass bottles?

I never thought I would like the whole set, but I'm starting to get tempted.

[Laura N]

I never thought I would like the whole set, but I'm starting to get tempted.

Me, too! It's really fantastic. I have too much ink for that, of course, but if I didn't.... I wonder if Diamine would have done better to sell them individually at first, because then more people like me and you would have tried them and realized how nice they were, and been tempted to buy the whole set.

[writingrav]

Strauss is close to unique and no swab does it justice. I keep a bottle at home and one at work and just ordered a refill bottle from Diamine (along with Schubert, Vivaldi, my favorites all)

Thanks for all these great reviews.
Thank you for your kind words.

I'm almost relieved that it's close to unique, as I thought maybe I had missed out on a whole shade range. Are you one of those lucky few who has the whole Music Gift Set in attractive glass bottles?

I never thought I would like the whole set, but I'm starting to get tempted.
Yes. I have two sets. One for my office one at home to facilitate never being unable to refill a pen (unless I'm on the road[emoji1]

[rdcalhoon]

How about "weathered terracotta"

[Chrissy]

How about "weathered terracotta"

That sounds perfect.

[Chrissy]

Yes. I have two sets. One for my office one at home to facilitate never being unable to refill a pen (unless I'm on the road[emoji1]

I'm impressed and quite envious

[naimitsu]

I wonder how Toucan Sienna compares. A work friend had it in a pen and your writing sample on TR looks very similar.

[klpeabody]

Strauss is close to unique and no swab does it justice. I keep a bottle at home and one at work and just ordered a refill bottle from Diamine (along with Schubert, Vivaldi, my favorites all)

Thanks for all these great reviews.
Thank you for your kind words.

I'm almost relieved that it's close to unique, as I thought maybe I had missed out on a whole shade range. Are you one of those lucky few who has the whole Music Gift Set in attractive glass bottles?

I never thought I would like the whole set, but I'm starting to get tempted.
Yes. I have two sets. One for my office one at home to facilitate never being unable to refill a pen (unless I'm on the road[emoji1]

Having just recently purchased the set, and after my own limited experience thus far, I can completely understand why one might keep two sets!

[Chrissy]

I wonder if I should put the set on my birthday list?...:jester:

[klpeabody]

I wonder if I should put the set on my birthday list?...:jester:

YES!! :cheer2:

I waited a few years before purchasing the set, myself; and, every holiday that came by like my birthday, or Christmas, I thought about treating myself to it. That decision became harder once Diamine introduced the flowers set, and I couldn't make up my mind. But, being a lover of classical music, I finally bought the music set this past Christmas. It is worth it. I am really enjoying it, and wish I had made the decision to purchase it sooner.

I agree that "Strauss" is an unusual shade, and I have not seen anything like it, myself. The first word that came to mind in terms of describing the color was "salmon", but to me, it seems a bit darker, richer than that.

Thanks for another good review, Chrissy.