Terracotta is a nicely saturated, rich orange-brown, between Kobe #8 Arima Amber and #39 Renga, redder than the former, more orange than the latter. It is also more orange than Diamine Ochre, 150th Anniversary Golden Honey and P.W. Akkerman SBRE Brown. It’s not as saturated as Diamine Ancient Copper. I do find these inks to be all in the same colour family. I bought a sample of Golden Honey and Ochre at the same time as Terracotta, and I like them all for different reasons: I like Golden Honey’s yellowness, Ochre’s orangeness and Terracotta’s redness.
Drying times are average, but longer on coated paper. I’ve observed no sheen and no dark outline where the ink pools in heavily saturated areas; there is some shading with the right pen and paper combo, going from slight to moderate to high. The flow is average, and the ink felt a bit thin under the H-M nib of my Sailor, which is a dry writer. On white paper, the ink is redder, on ivory, more orange. There is little ghosting on thinner papers; no feathering, no bleethrough, no nib creep. In my driest pen, I’ve experienced some hard starts and some skipping, but none in my Sailor H-MF or H-B nibs.
The ink dries to a nice finish—not dull, chalky or watery. I enjoyed writing with Terracotta very much, but since it’s so close to Ancient Copper, which has more going for it in terms of saturation, shading, sheen, and a dark outline, I’ll stick with the latter purely for subjective reasons.
