fountain pen ink swatch #1: Diamine Marine

Preamble:

I've been into calligraphy for a few years and this makes about 8 months into fountain pens and fountain pen ink. I rely on other people's reviews of ink before I buy a new color, and I'm grateful to everyone who makes photographs of their samples because I scrutinize them, but they don't always have exactly the information I'm looking for. Also it was fun. I will probably do this regularly.

I bought Diamine Marine due to a review that named it for exceptional shading, which it certainly has, particularly if you write with a broad nib like the 1.1 mm stub I used. It’s a vivid color that I fell for at first line, which works for me in blocks of text, where I don’t like the ink to be too bright generally, but also works for fun, eye-catching doodles and lettering that call for a little pizzaz.



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fountain pen ink swatch #2: diamine sargasso sea

Diamine Sargasso Sea on Tomoe River Paper, done with Shaeffer Pop M nib and Noodler’s Ahab flex nib and a detail brush dipped in water. Shown with the Shaeffer Pop Star Wars limited edition R2D2 fountain pen.

In short, this ink is a lovely color with pretty shading and the sheen, especially on Tomoe River paper but even on Rhodia, is stunning. But I still wouldn’t recommend it because it is inherently stinky.

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