Diamine Shimmer Inks - Part 3

October 13, 2017

First Impressions.

We have already seen the colours but here is one of my 'first impression' reviews, including written examples. As usual, all of my written tests have been done using a Sailor Sapporo pen with B nib, so roughly equivalent to a Western M, and the standard Rhodia 80gsm white grid paper. I chose the Sailor for the simple reason that the pen is very easy to clean out, even taking the nib apart should it become necessary. It wasn't! Although I used a rubber bulb to speed up the flushing process between colours (just for time's sake) all the inks were easy to remove from the pen by simply using the converter for a relatively short period of time.

Firstly I used cotton wool buds to give an example of just the colours. I let the bottles stand for a while and hopefully didn't have as many particles in those samples. Obviously, the bottles need to be agitated before filling a pen and to keep the suspension 'going' a gentle shake while writing is recommended.

Firstly I sampled the inks with the gold particles: Firefly, Wine Divine, Cobalt Jazz and Golden Ivy.

They are a very pleasant set of colours and I’m sure they will be very popular. Although hues like Firefly are not generally in my list of favourites, I’m actually quite ‘warming’ to this ink!

Next, here come the written samples.

I’m impressed with the whole of the ‘golden’ range and will definitely be buying Cobalt Jazz and Golden Ivy.

Now, the inks with the silver particles: Citrus Ice, Electric Pink, Frosted Orchid, Arabian Nights, Arctic Blue and Spearmint Diva.

I like almost all of these as well. Citrus Ice could be a little pale for some; Electric Pink just isn’t my colour(!) and Spearmint Diva is also a little pale. The colours are good though.

And the written samples.

Again, I’m impressed with most of the range and will be getting Arctic Blue.

To sum up, this is another range that will contain favourites for many of you. Likewise, some that people will not like, but that’s the nature of the ink business.

AND - it's 14th October in Helsinki!