Van Dieman's Hastings Caves is a shimmer-rich amber-brown ink inspired by Tasmania's golden cave formations, shading from pale yellow through rich amber to deep golden brown with distinctive greenish and silver sheens. The ink contains approximately one part shimmer to two parts base ink, making it particularly heavy with special effects and best suited for wider nibs, dip pens, or completely cleanable fountain pens due to the shimmer particles. This specialty ink prioritizes visual drama and artistic expression over everyday practical writing.
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Ink Review #1454: Van Dieman's Hastings Caves
This review details Van Dieman's Hastings Caves shimmer ink from the Wilderness series, noting its darker appearance with shimmer on Tomoe River paper, dry time of 40 seconds, medium water resistance, and comparison to Robert Oster Aussie Liquid Gold. It performs well on fountain pen papers with slight dry flow in a Lamy Safari.
Ink Line Review: Van Dieman's Wilderness Series
The review covers the Van Dieman's Wilderness series, highlighting Hastings Caves as a shimmer ink with heavy shimmer (1 part shimmer to 2 parts ink) that appears amazing on paper. It recommends using it in pens that can be fully cleaned, with wider nibs or dip pens due to the shimmer content.
Van Dieman's Ink Sample Review, Part 3 - The Pen Addict
This ink review notes that Van Dieman's Hastings Caves behaved very well with a longer dry time, minimal shading, and slight water resistance. It is part of a multi-part sample review series.
Some Van Dieman's inks - Inky Thoughts - The Fountain Pen Network
Forum discussion includes a review of Hastings Caves as a yellow ink with silver shimmer, noting it feels familiar and somewhat regrettable due to similarity to other inks. Features user-posted images of the ink.
Ink details on this page were generated with the assistance of AI and may not be fully accurate.