Callifolio - Heure Doree

Callifolio - Heure Doree - ink drop

This is Heure Doree (Golden Hour) from L’Artisan Pastellier’s Callifolio line of inks. Based in Albi, France, L’Artisan Pastellier make a wide variety of art, calligraphic, and writing inks. Heure Doree is named for the period just after sunrise, and again just before sunset. Photographers call this the golden hour or magical hour, when the sun is low in the sky and fills the light with soft, warm, golden hues.

Like the skies at golden hour, Heure Doree is filled with varying golden hues. The base is a warm, buttery yellow. It’s a strong shading ink. Light areas almost sparkle as they emphasize the yellows, while darks bring out a rich earthiness approaching the color of dark honey. The splatter shows a deep edge sheen, and this carries over in writing to an edge halo on premium papers.

Callifolio - Heure Doree - ink swatch card

As a writing ink, Heure Doree performed quite well on all six papers tested, but was best on premiums. Stroke profiles were sharp and clean, shading was strong, and there was a nice dark edge on all premiums. On office copy, strokes were also crisp, but there was less shading, and no darkened, defining edge.This ink is a bit dry at times, but overall performance was quite nice. Drying times were between 10-15 seconds on all papers tested.

Yellows are difficult, but with its warmth, strong shading, and defining edge, Heure Doree is quite effective, particularly on bright white premiums (it gets lost on creams and yellows). Callifolio inks are mixable, affordable, and get less attention than they deserve outside Europe. I enjoyed Heure Doree, and think you will, too!