I have a sore throat and a mild fever today. I also have body aches that only a massage from my personal therapist would have been able to fix, if only I were in Quezon City, near her. I usually get a massage twice a month, but the weather has been really bad over the past few weeks, with rains and floods almost everywhere, and I didn’t want to inconvenience my therapist by asking her to come to my place for a massage.
So now I’m feeling it—the body aches, the sheer exhaustion from all the commuting and work-related busyness. Our bodies and minds can only take so much, so I guess I have already reached my quota of energy for the week, this early. Last weekend, I slept a lot, hoping that would power me up for this week. Turns out, it’s only Wednesday, and my battery has drained completely. Last night was the worst. I drank soda before bedtime, and my hyperacidity kicked in. I had a vivid nightmare, woke up, and puked. That’s when I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to the office today.
This made me realize how truly important it is to slow down once in a while. I sometimes forget that my body and soul need to unwind or reset so that I can be energized enough for the next day’s challenges. It’s a good thing that my colleagues are nice enough to wish me well. My team is the greatest!
But, knowing me, I know I won’t be idle. I’ll slow down, but I won’t stop moving—if you know what I mean. Hence, this blog article. I also decided to swatch my new inks!
I went on an ink-buying spree, no thanks to a couple of friends who enabled me with their nice ink swatches that made me drool. As someone who has collected so many watercolor paints because I saw how they are used by professional artists, I naturally gravitated toward buying fountain pen inks because my pen friends recommended them. Today, I have a few swatches to show you.
New Inks Swatches
The first ink in this swatch is the Kobe Strawberry Ink. This is my first Kobe ink which I got during our local fountain pen network’s anniversary meet-up in UP Diliman campus this year. I bought it along with my first Benu pen which I also featured in the blog below if you would like to read a full review of the ink (and the pen):
The next ink I swatched is currently one of my favorites, I’m so grateful to the reviews online I read and friends who spoke highly of this ink: the Rohrer and Klingner Alt Bordeaux. I love this color because it is like red wine – deep magenta or reddish purple when wet and dries to a more neutral red wine/purple color. On my Yusari notebook, it shows a bit of shading. The ink is well-behaved, just enough wetness in my TWSBI Eco with medium nib, and simply one of the most affordable inks I’ve bought. Rohrer Klingner inks come in 50-ml bottle at only about 10 US dollars so a bottle of this ink is truly bang for your buck. I have five RK inks at the moment in my stash and I love them all. I’ll write review of each in my next article.
The Diamine Writers’ Blood is easily one of the most well-reviewed in Reddit and other sites based on my research on it. It’s primarily the good reviews I found online and the enabling of a friend that I got one from an online store. Actually I wanted to get this ink last year but it was sold out for months. Do I love this ink? I sure do! I have two pens inked with it – my Majohn 139 with flex nib and my Benu Strawberry Neapolitan pen. The Writers’ Blood is deep Bordeaux red that shades differently depending on nib size and paper substrate – from deep red to dark purple. This ink is wet even in fine nibs and takes a while to dry, about 30 seconds, but paired with a medium to broad nib, drying can take longer. However, for me, waiting it to dry is worth the wait because of this ink’s shading property. It’s also an ink that I would use for longer writing in the office.
The Vinta Sibol 1970 or Sunflower Fields ink is from a local ink maker. I got this ink during the local fountain pen network’s anniversary last July of this year. Before getting this ink, I was eyeing Diamine Pumpkin in preparation for autumn season. While we don’t have autumn season in the Philippines, it became my favorite season when I visited Shanghai, China, in 2023. I love how the maple leaves that fell from trees painted the roads with vivid colors of reds, browns, maroon, green, and orange. Vinta offered to have this ink available exclusively for the local fountain pen network’s anniversary this year and since it won’t be produced again, I just decided to grab it. I like how wet this ink is in my Jinhao X169 and how it shades from reddish brown to light orange. Just like the Writers’ Blood, expect this ink to dry slow.
If you’ve been around this blog a while, you’d know that I’ve had my Diamine Earl Grey for more than 2 years now. I love it. The only reason I’ve included it in my swatching session today is because I wanted you all to see how it compares with my new grey ink which is Diamine Lady Grey.
Compared to Early Grey, Lady Grey is lighter and has crazy sharing of light periwinkle blue to pink. In large swabs on my Yasuri notebook, shading shifts depending on the angle of the light. I find it too light on EF to F nib but with broad nib in my Kaweco iridescent pearl, it’s darker and shading is there especially if you use fountain pen-friendly papers. 🙂 I love this ink, the pink and light blue shading do give it a feminine, so the name is quite fitting. Diamine did a great job on this one!
Thank you for reading this far.
xoxo,
Grass
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