Weekly Update: 3 year chemo-versary

It’s been three years today since I finished my chemotherapy and have been in remission. I spent the day celebrating with my family, I’ll have another celebration next week, and I’m about to watch Mischief Movie Night In to finish a very nice day indeed.

Having dealt with cancer at a relatively young age sets certain priorities very straight in life. Health, family, friends are above all. I start my journaling every day with a 4-5 things that I’m grateful for. I’m constantly aware that everything in life is fleeting, everything can be taken away from you at any time, so it’s really important to take the time and appreciate everything that you have, even if it’s not always everything that you’ve wanted.

Teddy bears getting ready to be photographed for Inkvent

Reading

I have finished two books this week, Cal Newport’s “How to Become a Straight A Student” and Samantha Harvey’s “Orbital”. Newport’s book was excellent and I plan on using the advice within it to help me prepare for a big certification exam that I’m taking this year. Harvey’s “Orbital” won this year’s Booker prize, which is why I read it, and it’s a complete waste of time. It’s around 140 pages of bloated, purple description, with no plot, no interesting or fleshed out characters, and nothing but platitudes to say about humanity, humankind or the planet. I have no idea why it won, and it was so bad that it completely put me off of trying to read Booker award winning books.

Inkvent

I’ve managed to build a small buffer, which will come in useful as I have to write this year’s Inkvent summary post and I’m still not sure how I’ll tackle it. This year’s calendar isn’t like the ones previous, and so I will need a fresh approach to this summary post this time.

Planning

I’m gearing up to switch planning notebooks after next week, and to start a new quarter. My plan for next quarter is largely ready, and is a little different this time. I’ve pared things down, and I might even streamline them more. I have a week to hammer out the final details, and I’ll likely be dedicating a post to the process in the end.

Have a great week and remember to count your blessings.

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 21

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 21 door:

Day 21’s ink is Diamine Cosmic Glow, and Extreme Sheen ink that has a royal blue base colour and extreme pink sheen. I used a Lamy Safari fountain pen with a medium nib to test out this ink.

Diamine Cosmic Glow utterly earns its name and its Extreme Sheen designation. The base colour is a very rich, deep, saturated purplish blue, and the pink-purple sheen overlays much of it, literally making it glow.

Here’s an angled view of the Col-O-Ring swab, where you can better see the extent of the sheen on this ink:

Diamine Cosmic Glow sheens less than Diamine Vibe but it still shows a lot of sheen on every letter, even with fine nibs, even on relatively absorbent Rhodia paper:

Here’s an angled view of the writing sample where you can see the sheen:

Different angle of writing sample on Rhodia paper

On original Tomoe River paper the sheen is even more clear:

Writing sample on original Tomoe River paper

And you can see it well on Midori MD Cotton paper in today’s bear sketch:

A closer look at the sheen on Midori MD Cotton paper (you’ll notice that since Diamine Cosmic Glow is a very saturated ink, there’s no shading visible with this ink):

Different angle of sketch on Midori MD Cotton paper

Today’s bear is very special and precious to me. I bought it a long time ago in a beautiful store in Greenwich, London that no longer exists. It was in the Greenwich market, part of an array of wonderful and unique shops that no longer exist in the market, and it sold doll houses and doll house things for collectors, and collector’s teddy bears. People who were trying to create doll houses that were period specific would go there and could find everything, from the house to the wallpaper, furniture, dolls, cutlery, stoves, etc. You could build a Victorian house, including servants and servant quarters, or a ’60s flat, all to the highest level of precision. Apart from that they had a stunning, large and wide selection of collectors’ teddy bears, and the patience to explain the ins and outs of hand made, limited edition teddy bears to a new collector like me. I purchased Midnight Micky (this bear’s name) because he was a black bear, and the only black bear in a store with hundreds of bears on display. The couple that ran the store explained that black bears are difficult to make, and so there’s very few of them. Midnight Micky is one of two bears made by hand by a small English maker, and I cherish him very much both because I love his looks and because he’s one of the few bears I have from that lovely shop, Greenwich Bears.

Diamine Cosmic Glow is likely going to be one of this Inkvent’s stars, and not only because so many of this year’s inks are on the darker or more muted side of things. Its rich and beautiful base royal blue colour in itself would make it pop, but with the added glow of extreme purple-pink sheen it really becomes a super-star. I wouldn’t trust this ink with a vintage fountain pen, and it takes a good long while to dry, but it’s a fabulous ink and one that I would consider buying a full bottle of.

What do you think of Diamine Cosmic Glow? How do you think it compares to Diamine Vibe?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 20

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 20 door:

Day 20’s ink is Diamine Potpourri a standard mauve ink with plenty of shading. I used a Lamy AL Star fountain pen with a fine nib to test out this ink.

There is an insane amount of shading with this ink, even with a fine nib. It’s a very dusky pink, not the most attractive or bright of colours but the shading makes it much more interesting.

Close up of Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Potpourri

Even on Rhodia paper with a fine nib you can see the amount of shading you can get with Diamine Potpourri. Thankfully, despite the name, Diamine didn’t make this one a scented ink. As it is it’s an unusual colour with unusual shading, so it’s worth a second glance even though there have been other inks in similar shades in the past and even in this calendar (Diamine Masquerade, Diamine Wilted Rose, Diamine Harmony, Diamine Memory Lane come to mind).

Here’s a close up on the shading you get with this ink. It’s pretty significant even on Rhodia paper:

Close up of writing sample on Rhodia paper

Diamine Potpourri’s shading gets even more pronounced on original Tomoe River paper:

As I expected, Diamine Potpourri shades even better on Midori MD Cotton paper, and it’s a nice ink to sketch with. Beyond that there’s not much to say about it – it’s a standard, well behaved ink.

Today’s bear is a Dean’s Rag Book company. He’s unusual in that he’s doesn’t have the regular Dean’s bear look. I bought him second hand in York, and he looks as good as new, and very classically “teddy bear” (apart from the blue mohair).

Diamine Potpourri isn’t a very holiday themed ink, but it is on the more practical side of the inks in this year’s Inkvent. It’s a standard ink, that’s clearly readable, has an unusual colour and an unusually prominent amount of shading. It is, however, a bit drab, so I do expect it to be somewhat divisive. At least it isn’t a scented ink…

Do you like Diamine Potpourri or is it too washed out and drab for you?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 19

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 19 door:

Day 19’s is Diamine Fruit Cocktail, an almost neon orange ink with zero shading properties and… scent. Yes, this is another scented ink, again with a sickly sweet artificial smell and an overly wet and weird ink flow due to the addition of said stink (I hate scented inks, can you tell?). I used a Diplomat Aero fountain pen with a fine nib to test this ink.

Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Fruit Cocktail

It is absolutely uncanny just how flat this ink is, especially considering how light and unsaturated it is. I would have expected such a “thin” light ink to have at least a little shading, but as you can see from the Col-O-Ring swab close up, Diamine Fruit Cocktail doesn’t shade at all:

Close up of the Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Fruit Cocktail

It’s weird writing with this ink because you learn to expect certain things from fountain pen inks, and this ink doesn’t behave at all like you’d expect. It’s scented, so it does have the usual flow issues that scented inks have, but it’s much less pronounced with this ink: in fact, it’s almost negligible. There’s also an expectation of some amount of shading in an ink that isn’t a dark, super saturated ink, and that doesn’t happen here at all: it’s like writing with a gel ink pen. And you don’t expect this kind of neon-ish colour in a fountain pen ink, because it’s normally accompanied by some amount of colour variation or shading.

I was tired when I sketched this bear, so the proportions are a bit off. It was wild sketching with a fountain pen and getting the sort of results that I expect from a gel ink pen. Also, I really didn’t appreciate the addition of the sickly sweet smell to this ink.

Today’s bear is Jayson, a one of a kind hand made bear from Cornfield Cubs, a small maker. I bought him in York because he’s got an usual look to him.

Putting aside the fact that Diamine Fruit Cocktail is a scented ink and I don’t like scented inks, I really don’t like this ink. There’s something about an ink that has none of the properties of a fountain pen ink that I find really off-putting. If I wanted flat colours I would use a gel ink or a felt tip pen. The whole point of using fountain pens, for me, is that they’re their own thing, and that includes the way that fountain pen inks look and behave. It doesn’t matter that I don’t really like Fruit Cocktail’s colour nor do I think that it’s thematically tied to the holiday season, what makes me dislike it most of all is that it doesn’t do what fountain pen inks do. If Fruit Cocktail had some interesting shading going on, I could almost ignore the smell and flow issues and rejoice in there being a bright and cheerful ink in what is shaping up to be a pretty dark Inkvent calendar this year.

What do you think? Do you see yourself using Diamine Fruit Cocktail? Does it bother you that this ink doesn’t shade or sheen or have any sort of interest beyond its scent?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 18

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 18 door:

Day 18’s ink is Diamine Vibe, a dark turquoise ink with a pink “Extreme Sheen”. This is in fact the most extreme of all the Extreme Sheen inks so far – there’s so much sheen that you can barely see the base ink colour, even with the Lamy AL Star fine nibbed fountain pen that I used to test this ink.

Tilting the Col-O-Ring swab just a little bit shows just how much magenta sheen there is: you can see the base in colour of Diamine Vibe in just the tips of certain letters and the edge of the ink swab. The rest is just glowing sheen.

Different angle of Col-O-Ring swatch of Diamine Vibe

Even in my Rhodia writing sample, on paper that’s relatively absorbent and with a fine nib you can see the deep magenta sheen. It’s wild to write with this ink: you put down words on the page in a gorgeous dark turquoise and watch them dry into a vibrant pink. It’s like a magic trick.

Unsurprisingly the sheen is even more extreme on original Tomoe River paper. You have to tilt the page away from the light source to even get a hint of the base ink colour of Diamine Vibe. You can see it here compared to another extreme sheen ink, Diamine Grotto.

And here’s a closer look at these two extreme sheen inks on Tomoe River paper:

Close up of writing sample on Tomoe River paper

I tried to get a none sheening angle of today’s bear sketch, but U was only partially successful – you don’t get the sheen but the base ink looks much darker and almost black from the view I did get. The sketch was done on Midori MD Cotton paper, and as to be expected, Diamine Vibe was a sheen machine, and it took ages for it to dry.

Here’s a look at the amount of sheen I got in this sketch:

Here’s today’s bear, Finn from Charlie Bears. I bought him in York, and he’s cute but unnumbered.

I love the base colour of Diamine Vibe and the extreme sheen on it is WILD. I may find myself buying a full bottle of this ink just for the magical colour changing effect when the ink dries and sheen emerges. Is it practical? No. It takes forever to dry and I wouldn’t let it anywhere near my vintage pens. Is it holiday themed? Not really. But in the end, who cares – Diamine Vibe is a seriously cool ink with a big wow effect that is really fun.

Isn’t that something to celebrate?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 17

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 17 door:

Day 17’s ink is Diamine Winterberry, a bright red ink with chameleon shimmer that ranges from pink through red to gold. I used a Lamy AL Star with an extra fine nib to test it out.

After yesterday’s drab Diamine Tundra it’s very nice to a truly festive, joyous ink. Is Winterberry practical? No, but who cares: it will make you smile and brighten up your day. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need an ink to do.

Close up of Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Winterberry

The chameleon effect on Diamine Winterberry makes the letters shimmer and glow, and also tones down the red colour. The effect is an impressive red that isn’t harsh thanks to the chameleon shimmer.

Different angle of Col-O-Ring swab of Diamine Winterberry

Diamine Winterberry is the perfect ink for anything holiday related, and it’s bound to impress, especially if you use it in a wide nib. Even with this fine nib you get the impact of the red colour with some of the impact of the chameleon shimmer:

Here’s a photo of the writing sample from a different angle, where you can see the chameleon effect better:

Diamine Winterberry is a relatively “flat” ink (there’s not much shading going on with it), which is why the chameleon shimmer compliments it so well. There’s something about this ink that wants you to write greeting cards full of Mariah Carey lyrics.

Today’s bear is a small German bear in a very unusual green fur colour. He’s called Apfelino and is No 39 of 133. I bought him in York.

It’s nice to have a completely impractical, utterly joyous ink like Diamine Winterberry. Would I want an entire calendar full of inks like it? No. But after some of the greys and browns in this year’s Inkvent it’s nice to have an ink like Winterberry make its appearance.

What do you think of Diamine Winterberry? Do you see yourself using it regularly?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 16

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 16 door:

Day 16’s ink is Diamine Tundra, a standard grey brown ink with a good amount of shading. I used a Lamy LX fountain pen with a fine nib to test out this ink.

Diamine Tundra really brings out the drab in this year’s calendar, because what’s Christmas without a mousy brown ink?

I had the same reaction to Diamine Tundra as I had when seeing 2025’s Pantone colour of the year: but why?

Diamine Tundra is a pale raw umber colour so it work well for sketching, especially with its shading properties. That’s one of the few things it has going for it.

Today’s bear is tiny (not much larger than the size of your hand) and is a one of a kind British bear called Murdock. I bought him in York and he’s designed and made by Carole Richardson.

I have no idea what made Diamine think that including Tundra in this year’s calendar was a good idea. Was there a need for a depressing colour? Did someone lose a bet? In any case I’m not going to purchase a full bottle of this ink, even though I often use my fountain pens for sketching and it’s a decent colour for that.

What do you think about Diamine Tundra? Do you like it?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 15

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 15 door:

Day 15’s ink is Diamine Sleigh Ride, a burnt sienna (i.e. reddish brown) “Extreme Sheen” ink. In this case the sheen is more pronounced than the last “Extreme Sheen” ink, Diamine Grotto. You can see in the Col-O-Ring swab just how prominent the green sheen on this ink is, at times completely obscuring the reddish-brown ink beneath it. I used a Diplomat Aero with an extra fine nib to test out this ink.

Here’s a closeup of the Diamine Sleigh Ride Col-O-Ring swab. It’s a testament to the amount of sheen in this ink that you can see the green sheen on every letter even though I used an extra fine nib with this ink.

On original Tomoe River Paper the sheening is even more pronounced:

Depending on your viewing angle you can see the sheen as shading (as it appears in the word “Diamine” in the photo below) or as sheening (as you can see the same word in the photo above). Drying time, as is to be expected, was also “extreme”.

Different angle of writing sample on original Tomoe River Paper

On Rhodia paper you see less sheen and more of the shading, as it’s more absorbent:

But on Kokuyo paper you can see the sheening very well (the camera had issues focusing here, I suspect because of the high reflection from the sheen).

Here’s a close up of the writing sample on Kokuyo paper:

Close up of writing sample on Kokuyo paper

On Midori MD Cotton paper the sheening is also extremely visible. You can see it clearly in the writing sample on this paper and in the closeup of the bear sketch later on:

Here’s a close up of the bear sketch. It looks like I was sketching with a green-brown ink at points because the ink sheens at every opportunity:

Closeup of the sheen on Midori MD Cotton paper

Today’s bear is another Dean’s Rag Book Company bear (they’re my favourite bear maker). Franz is a small bear that I bought second hand recently in York. He’s a delightful little fellow with the classic Dean’s look:

If you don’t like sheen on your ink, then Diamine Sleigh Ride is definitely not for you. Personally I think the effect here is striking, even though I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen a brown-green combination for a Christmas themed ink, and I most certainly wouldn’t have thought to call it “Sleigh Ride”. I don’t see myself adding this ink to my collection, but if you’re looking for unusual brown inks, this may be the ink for you.

What do you think of Diamine Sleigh Ride? How do you think it compares to Diamine Grotto, the other “Extreme Sheen” ink?

Weekly Update: Sketching, Inkvent BTS and Fountain Pen Purchases

I went to a demonstration across the street from the American Embassy. The families of the hostages asked Jake Sullivan to pressure our current government to sign an agreement to release the hostages and end the fighting in Gaza. There was significant police presence and I was a bit worried to get too close to the centre of the action as they seemed jumpy, but I did sketch the demonstrators (Lamy fountain pen and Diamine Marley ink on a Cass Art sketchbook).

I bought a Model 03 modified colour prototype from the Franklin-Christoph online pen show. This brings up the total number of fountain pens I purchased this year to three – which is one of the lowest it’s been since I started using fountain pens. The other two pens are the Fountain EDC from Big iDesign, which I got through kickstarter, and a Leonardo Momento Zero Grande 2.0 Galattica Universe. I’ve been buying fewer and fewer fountain pens over the years, and I expect next year won’t change that trend. The reason is twofold: all the vintage dealers I used to buy from have retired or died, and I already have enough modern pens to satisfy all of my needs and curiosities.

Inkvent has been a lot of work, and I haven’t been able to get much of a buffer going on. I basically write each review on the day it’s published, with the writing samples and the sketch being done a day or two beforehand at most. It’s so time consuming that I haven’t been able to find enough time to create a posting buffer this year.

It’s the middle of December and I’ve started planning for the next “13 week year” or quarter, and in this case also moving into a new notebook. I’ll probably write a separate post about setting up my new planning notebook and migrating from my old one, but for now I’ll say that starting a notebook with a few lists is a great way to get over the “first blank page” fright.

Have a great and peaceful week!

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 14

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 14 door:

Day 14’s ink is Diamine Mint Twist. It’s a dark Eau de Nil or light viridian green coloured ink with some shading and chameleon shimmer that goes from green to blue. I used a Pilot Metropolitan with a CM (Calligraphy Medium) nib. This nib is weird one – it lays down a wide line but somehow it’s also a dry nib.

The chameleon effect on Diamine Mint Twist is less impressive than on other chameleon inks. The base colour itself is a nice artificial pastel-y green.

Here’s a close up of the chameleon effect. I think an additional colour here – a pink for example – would have punched it up a bit.

Here’s a writing sample on original Tomoe River Paper. You can see the shading, which is there but isn’t very pronounced, and some of the chameleon effect.

Every Diamine Inkvent has to have its share of green inks, and this year’s calendar isn’t an exception. Diamine Mint Twist isn’t the first or even the second shade of green you’d think of when “Christmas” comes to mind, but it is a nice, calming shade of green with the addition of some shading and a bit of chameleon effect to add interest to it. It really reminds me of the green that Fortnum and Mason uses, and as I love F&M that’s a bonus for me.

I had trouble sketching today’s teddy bear. The first sketch came out wonky because I was distracted while sketching out the initial proportions, so I made a second sketch further down on the page. That’s when I discovered that I had managed to write the pen dry (I purposely don’t fill the Inkvent testing pens full). That meant that when it was time to write the name of the ink used for the sketch I was writing on ink fumes.

Today’s teddy bear is a German Hermann teddy bear, numbered but not named. I bought him in York, mostly for his unusual eyes.

Diamine Mint Twist isn’t the most festive of green inks not the most dazzling ink in Diamine’s lineup (or indeed in this year’s Inkvent calendar). It is somehow in the “also ran” category of Inkvent inks for me, likely because it isn’t very practical due to the chameleon shimmer, yet it also doesn’t have much of the wow effect that the chameleon shimmer usually adds. I’ll be skipping a full bottle of this one, though I have some fondness to the base Eau de Nil colour.

Would you have changed Diamine Mint Twist’s chameleon effect? Do you see yourself using it?

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