Welcome to another Diamine Reddit collaboration. Previous projects have seen the Reddit Fountainpen community create what have turned out to be three international best sellers – Earl Grey, Aurora Borealis and Writer’s Blood. So, Phil Davies (Diamine) and Yun Xu (Reddit) have asked me to swatch test fifteen new ink samples so that ink geeks can check them out and cast their votes.
This year, the names have already been chosen. Names you say? Why yes, because there are two inks this year.
First up is Sailors Warning – a shimmer ink based around vivid coral / dark peach hues with a purple blue shimmer and close to Pantone 2035U.
There are seven ink samples for Sailors Warning and I will point out that they are all very close in both hue and tone. The shimmer is also very subtle when used for writing and in a couple of the writing samples they just don’t show at all. And I had to keep the bottles agitated all the time just get what I did. Just saying.
Next up is Celadon Cat – a green / blue / grey shading ink of which there are eight samples and a good range to choose from.
The papers I have used are Bockingford Rough watercolour paper for the swatch tests, Bockingford HP for the abstract alphabets and Rhodia dot matrix for the writing samples. These hopefully will give the viewer a better insight as to how these look particularly the ink samples that ordinarily would be hard to tell apart.
I have done my best to capture the essence of the ink samples and have photographed the swatches under studio lighting conditions. The reference numbers correspond to the last 2 digits of their Diamine refs.
So there we have it. Fifteen exclusive Diamine Reddit colours to choose from and an opportunity for you to help choose two more international best sellers! To vote for your favourites please click the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/zr1oi1/diamine_reddit_ink_2022_vote_for_your_favourite/
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
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 or, even better, sign up for a workshop?
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 