The Well-Appointed Desk

Since I didn’t align my 12 Days of Inkmas properly, I decided to give you a bonus Inkmas. So, on this magically, snowy Christmas Eve here in Kansas City, I give you a toast of Diamine Wine Divine ($20 for 50ml bottle) to celebrate.

As you can see, there is gold sparkle to the burgundy ink. And I had a little trouble with my spelling. No worse than any of my other swatching crimes!

I loaded this up in my Wing Sung 698 Demonstrator with EF nib. It appears to be a knock-off Pilot nib in a pseudo-TWSBI-esque style pen so I’m wondering if I could swap out the nib for a Pilot Plumix calligraphy nib to get maximum ink coverage?

With soft light, you can see the gold in the large painted letters very clearly and a few hints of the gold in the smaller letters like “extra fine”. It’s not nearly as apparent as yesterday’s Spearmint Diva.

With more directed light, I tried to pick up more of the sparkle in the painted letters. It’s hard to get the effects in still photos.

I made a few more attempts using a flash to get the sparkle to reveal itself but, in writing, Wine Divine was not nearly as sparkly in a fine nib pen as Spearmint Diva.

As for color comparisons, there is not another sparkle ink in my collection anywhere close but Robert Oster Maroon 1789 was similar in hue.

So, I enjoyed playing with this sparkle ink because sparkle inks are always fun but Spearmint Diva was more sparkly. Wine Divine is a bit more subtle and the burgundy/gold combo is certainly classier but, c’mon, we’re talking about sparkly inks so how classy can I really be?

Happy holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy New Year!

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TOOLS

• • Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 18 with 7mm guide sheet
  • Pens: Empire vintage traveling dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Wing Sung 698 Demonstrator Fountain Pen ($24)
  • Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards ($10 for 100 cards)
  • Brush: Blick Studio Synthetic Round #0 Brush
  • Ink: Diamine Shimmer-Tastic Wine Divine (50ml bottle for $20)

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

On the last day of Inkmas, I finally broke and dipped into the glitter ink. This is Diamine Shimmer Spearmint Diva (50ml for $20), the perfect Christmas Eve eve ink… all sparkly, icy and seasonally green.

The sparkle is a fine silver and it catches the light really well.

There’s even a really nice bit of magenta shading in the swatch and with the dip nib. HAWT!

Shimmer-licious!

I filled my TWSBI Mini Demonstrator with the EF nib which is the first time I’ve actually used a glitter ink in a fountain pen rather than just dipping into the ink. This was the ink to jump into glitter ink full monty.

Even with an EF nib, I was able to coax sparkle out. It was very visible once the ink dried and the ink dried quickly with the fine nib. Double bonus for a lefty. Thanks to the transparent body, I was able to see when the sparkle had settled and give the pen a good roll on the table to redistribute the flakes.

I don’t have any other sparkle inks that even compare. J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor is much darker and DeAtramentis doesn’t make a sparkle ink even close. The only ink I had that compared colorwise was Kaweco Paradise Blue.

All-in-all, I was super happy with Spearmint Diva, except the name… It’s a little silly but so is sparkly ink. Great color, great sparkle distribution and so far, no clogging.

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TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Empire vintage traveling dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), TWSBI Mini Demonstrator EF
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Blick Studio Round #0 Brush
• Ink: Diamine Shimmer Spearmint Diva (50ml bottle for $20)

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Am I really on the eleventh day of Inkmas already? Today, I guess I’m still in Poland with KWZ and I’m Warsaw Dreaming ($15 for 60ml bottle). It seems oddly appropriate to review the darkest ink on day after the darkest night of the year.

Warsaw Dreaming is a dark, dark, dark blue black. It’s almost a violet blue black. It’s listed as a black ink but there is a visible sheen of blue-violet tone. It’s not sheen-y like some of the Oster inks but its not as blackout black or flat black as other inks.

(My apologies for how messy this writing sample is… I did it at 6am in the morning. And it took two tries to get it THIS legible! I even had to tape two pieces together and its still a train wreck. It’s not a reflection of the ink. I’m a tragedy.) The ink is a solid option for a black that’s not black-black. This KWZ ink is thicker in consistency than others. I didn’t notice the signature scent as much as other KWZ inks.

Compared to other off-blacks and Waterman Intense Black (for a control sample), Kyo-no-oto No. 1 is more bluish, Bookbinder’s Snake Ink Red Belly Black is cooler and more greenish (IMHO, maybe?) and Sailor Chu-Shu is clearly more purplish.

Black inks are something we all need to have around but its not always the most exciting thing we have to buy. While Kyo-no-oto No. 1 is a popular option, its pretty pricey. Warsaw Dreaming is a great alternative for a black that’s not as run-of-the-mill  but still might add a little variety to your day-to-day writing. It’s still water soluble so it won’t cause too many issues in clean-up and it’s half the price of Kyo-no-oto.

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TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Empire vintage traveling dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Esterbrook #2442 nib in a Shawn Newton custom nib holder
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Blick Studio #0 Round Synthetic Brush
• Ink: KWZ Warsaw Dreaming (60ml bottle for $15)

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

On the tenth day of Inkmas (I’m starting to think I didn’t count my days correctly or maybe I should have done Inkmas Advent because I have a ton more inks I could review!), I decided to go to Poland and take a walk with KWZ Walks Over Vistula ($15 for 60ml bottle). The name derives from the Vistula River which runs through southern Poland, through Krakow and Warsaw.

The ink swatches up with a good deal of shading. Its a deeply saturated blue with turquoise undertones and a reddish sheen. Because of the saturation though, when confined to a finer nib, there is less color variation.

In writing, there is more evidence of shading but the Rhodia paper does not show off any sheen. The dry time was a little slower than I expected so I smudged a bit (lefty problems).

KWZ is definitely making efforts to encroach on Oster territory with Walks over Vistula. This ink splashes solidly between Blue Sea and Lake of Fire in the color range. All three are competiviely priced as well.

This is a very saturated color and KWZ inks have been known to stain so be cautious if you are putting this color in a favorite demonstrator or light-colored acrylic pen. Its a lovely color but I would hate to see this ink stain a Pelikan M605 Ghost (AKA Transparent White). I plan to test drive it in my Wing Sun 698 first.

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TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Empire vintage traveling dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Esterbrook #2442 nib in a Shawn Newton custom nib holder
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Blick Studio #0 Round Synthetic Brush
• Ink: KWZ Walks Over Vistula (60ml bottle for $15)

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.