Many congratulations and thanks to Diamine for producing yet another fun Inkvent Calendar (Number 3) and also for introducing us to a new concept of Chameleon inks (duo tone shimmer inks). As always, it’s been a joy to play with this most magical of mediums. It never ceases to both amaze and inspire.
This year gave me the chance to get out the automatic pens and have fun creating abstract calligraphy titles for each of the inks.
The Inkvent Calendar 2022 (Green Edition) not only features a lively range of: standard, sheen, shimmer and shimmer sheen inks but also showcases the new Chameleon inks (a kind of duo tone shimmer) plus a couple of scented offerings too. The first 24 colours come in 12ml bottles while the Christmas day ink comes in a 30ml bottle. Their ink names all reflect, in some way, the festive season, so once you’ve opened all of the doors in sequence, you’ll have a collection comprising of: Bliss (Standard), Yule Log (shimmer), Solar Storm (Chameleon), Spruce (Scented), Spiced Apple (Chameleon), Ghost (Standard), Alpine (Shimmer), Jingle Berry (Standard), Cardinal (Standard), Dusted Truffle (Shimmer), Appletini (Standard), Memory Lane (Shimmer), Upon a Star (Chameleon), Three Kings (Standard), Pick Me Up (Scented), Serendipity (Shimmer Sheen), Flame (Standard), Olive Swirl (Chameleon), Silent Night (Standard), Arctic Blast (Chameleon & Sheen), Cosy Up (Standard), Deck The Halls (Chameleon), Celebration (Shimmer), One More Sleep (Standard) and the big one at the end, Best Wishes (Shimmer Sheen).
The swatch cards below are in day opening order (left to right – top to bottom). I’m also hoping that the swatch cards are self explanatory for you to see what type of ink each one is and what they are capable of. Of note: My swatch cards are not typical ink swatches. My project is very much serendipty and fine art driven and in that spirit of investigation I have deconstructed the inks using watercolour techniques, subjected the art to spatters of bleach and photographed the results under various lighting conditions.
From what I can gather, the appetite for the Inkvent Calendar is still there BUT I did pick up mutterings that rising costs are preventing some enthusiasts from participating and also noted that some ink geeks are fairly irritated that already existing inks may have been used in this collection but under new names. And with the market now saturated with hundreds of twinkling shimmering wonders (and I have swatched a few this year), this sheer volume of choice coupled with the dreaded inflation word might suggest that there could be troubles ahead.
From my point of view, any concepts to promote fountain pen ink usage have to be encouraged because evidence from the last 30 days or so reveals that ink enthusiasts, both existing and new, are definitely using fountain pen inks both more regularly and far more creatively and I would hate to see any ink producers or retailers suffer because of what appears to be a slight desperation to be the biggest over supplier of novelty inks instead of listening to what the customers really want and fine tuning offers accordingly. We shall see…
If you’ve enjoyed this post, click here to view the previous inkvent calendar swatches for comparison. And don’t forget to look out for my annual project review and top twelve inks for 2022 which I will post in the New Year.
Swatches conducted on Bockingford 200lb rough, using a Noodler’s Creeper pen, bleach and KUM brushes.
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 