vadsamoht

My most recent ink purchase was Dominant Industry’s Earl Grey Tea, and it’s a beautiful orange shade that is well-behaved (albeit not quite as red as I was expecting when I ordered it). Absolutely no complaints - I even love the bottle, however I will probably get through it slowly because I don’t often use colours that are bright and eye-catching.

By contrast, one of the inks that is in my permanent rotation and I plan to continue purchasing over and over is Diamine Saddle Brown. It’s a more subtle, darker brown that can pass for ‘serious’ writing but still has a personality that I prefer over many other browns. If the orange of Earl Grey is a cozy Autumn fire, Saddle Brown is the tree branches holding on to their last leaves and the damp earth underfoot on a cold, foggy morning - both enticing in different ways.

Unlined A5 Clairefontaine for journals, Kokuyo B5 Campus Notebooks for study, and whatever is available for loose-leaf or temporary notes (I do have a lined A4 Rhodia pad in case I need to write something good on a single sheet, but I never do).

Perhaps if I got into letter-writing I might be more interested in exotic papers, but I’m quite content with using things that are pretty easy to find and shouldn’t be disappearing from sale anytime soon. I also don’t use anything larger than a western M, so I don’t need super amazing paper for a lot of my general notes.

Wanting to move away from blacks is how I eventually came to the first of my three main inks, which is also from Diamine: Saddle Brown. I found that I still wanted something that wasn’t too attention grabbing and was still dark enough to provide good contrast on nearly anything, but at the same time it’s still far more interesting than the range of “permanent marker black” to “washed out black” that I was trying to enjoy before.

I hope you find something that works for you!

Same. The puzzles were pretty average, and the writing was like something put together by someone who has just taken a first-year philosophy course and is now convinced that all of their ideas are Very Deep and completely original.

There are two possible reasons (probably more) that the pen may actually be helping your handwriting here:

• You’re probably putting less pressure onto the page, which means that you’re not fighting against that friction every time you need to change direction.

• Your pen seems to lay down a pretty thick line - that’s something that can often make the imperfections in one’s handwriting less visible. (That’s not intended as a dig at your handwriting, in fact it can be a useful thing to keep in mind if you’re writing something like a birthday card where you get one shot at making it look good).