Many congratulations to Cult Pens on their 16th anniversary and for celebrating, in part, by releasing a beautiful 16 x 12ml bottle fountain pen gift set comprising of 13 classic Diamine colours and 3 new Diamine exclusives! And no apologising for referencing Ringo Starr’s song in the title!
Cult Pens are not only one of the UK’s largest online stationers but also great champions of fountain ink and have a very credible history with Diamine. Who can ever forget their incredible pair of super sheeners Robert and Maureen? If you don’t know what I mean then click here immediately. And not forgetting Philip and Christine – click here if you need reminding! I must also mention their set set of Deep Dark Diamines too. In actual fact this is one of my favourite go sets of inks and if you click here you’ll find out why – that tonal range is just amazing and doesn’t Della look fab in deep dark purple.
Initial explorations with bleach
So what’s so great about these inks? Well firstly, they aren’t your typical choice of bright blues, yellows and reds. Refreshingly, these are off-beat and more akin to a professional watercolour palette. Great chromo too and all react with bleach. And secondly, they come in 12ml bottles which, in my opinion is the ideal minimal amount, and the complete set is retailing at £20! You’ll pay that (and more) for 16 x 3-5ml sample vials.
The set of 16 water-based colours are, acid-free, vegan-friendly ink and each contained within a 12ml bottle. 13 of the colours – Monboddo’s Hat, Bilberry, Violet, Ancient Copper, Autumn Oak, Writer’s Blood, Soft Mint, Aqua Lagoon, Eau de Nil, Aurora Borealis, Sherwood Green, Twilight and Onyx Black – represent Cult Pens staff favourites and best-sellers, and when you take into account that there are over 100 colours of Diamine ink, this was, allegedly, not a simple task! The remaining 3 are the newest members of the gang: Michael, which is blue; Matthew, which is grey; and Louise, which is yellow. If you want to see the swatch cards of these inks please use the search function on this site and they should pop up.
I think this gift set is just brilliant and if you’re new to this wonderful world of fountain pen ink, what on earth are you waiting for? Here’s a direct link to them: https://www.cultpens.com/i/q/DM85902/diamine-ink-12ml-set-of-16
Many thanks to Christine for sending me these to test. Dream job!
AND HEY! If you’re interested to know more about how to use fountain pen inks in more creative ways – whether it’s simply to observe their chromatic behaviours, or, to recreate one of my swatch cards, or, to learn how to use them in watercolour painting, illustration and calligraphy, why not check out my online course ?
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 