Diamine Grape Review

Purple is not a typical ink color I use due to it being a little out there. However, after a rather amazing experience with Iroshizuku Yama-Budo, I started to see how I could use purple as more of a color for personal stuff. I like to keep a bullet journal going, so I first started to use this ink as a specific color for tracking my tasks for the day. That was almost 2 months ago and I’m still using it to this day. In fact, the 30 mL bottle I had is almost finished and I’m contemplating getting more. I don’t know whether I want to make this a permanent member of the rotation given that Diamine and other brands all have offerings in a similar shade. Personally, by not making something permanent, I can go and get a variety of inks that I’ll be able to review and I might find some other ink that becomes a new favorite. I’m honestly a little stuck regarding this.

However, you guys came here to learn about how this ink handles, so I’ll get back to the review. The ink is on the darker side of purple, which appeals to me a lot as I can see it being something that fits in with all the other inks I have. The shading is really nice but on the medium side due to how dark the ink already is. I found that you can’t see much difference between the second and third passes as it’s too dark to really tell. It can be exaggerated through the use of a folded pen, like I did in the first photo, but its limited. It’s pretty smooth flowing and the performance is up to Diamine standards, so it behaves well in every different pen I’ve tried it with.

One complaint I have with it is that it feels a little dry when in use. Don’t get me wrong, it flows smoothly, but the actual ink itself makes me feel more feedback when writing. I tried it out in the TWSBI ECO, Lamy 2000, Platinum Preppy and others, but the same feeling of dryness persisted. An example of an ink that doesn’t have this problem would be Iroshizuku Yama-Budo, it has a bit of a slick feeling to it, allowing a smoothed nib to glide across the page. With Grape, it lacks that same feeling, but at the price point that Diamine offers it at, it performs pretty well. If you’re looking for a dark purple with subtle shading at an affordable price, this is a great contender.

 

Diamine Red Dragon Review

A review that I personally have been delaying for a while now. The main reason is that I just hadn’t been able to get a good chance to use it. The way I review inks is by inking up a daily use pen like my Pilot VP or my Lamy 2000. I use these pens specifically because I know how well they perform with my favorite inks like Diamine Asa Blue, Iroshizuku Shin-Kai and Kon-Peki. I have a solid grasp of how well they perform and by inking one of them up I can get the best grasp on how a particular ink performs. I use them for a week and a half minimum before I’m comfortable enough to voice my opinion on them. The biggest issue I had with this ink is the problem of incorporating it into my daily use.

As anyone could probably tell by now, I love blue inks and all the shades they come in. One could even say I’m partial to the color blue. I’m not into red inks for the most part as I find no use for them when taking notes for my classes. My notes are done in different notebooks all with different shades of blue. The only other color I have used other than blue is black for the occasional diagram or note of importance. As one could imagine, suddenly transitioning from blue to red would be a little difficult. However, I chose to do so for my marketing class that I took for 6 weeks over summer. I started using Red Dragon halfway through the course and made sure to finish it by the time I was coming back home.

I can say with confidence that I am definitely happy with the experience. The ink shows consistent performance that one can expect out of a Diamine ink, but also be in such a tasteful color. The biggest gripe I have about colorful inks is that they always feel a bit too garish for my taste, I prefer subdued and subtle colors and that’s exactly what Red Dragon is. The shading is nice and visible at the points the nib is lifted off the paper. Its nice and smooth coming out of the nib, much like my favorite Asa Blue and to top it off, its available at the affordable prices that Diamine sets for their inks. I’m probably going to find some way to use this in my daily note taking for the upcoming Fall semester. If you’re looking for a very nice, subdued red ink that performs well, I cannot recommend Red Dragon enough. After I use up this 30mL bottle, I’m gonna go for the bigger 80mL, becuase that’s just how good this ink is.

Masgrimes Leather Calligraphy Writing Pad

Now this was a review that I initially didn’t anticipate doing. While I did initially start this blog off as only a stationary review blog and nothing else, I have since started to review my oblique pens and other calligraphy tools.

I bought this pad as a step up from my normal style of using newspaper to help cultivate a lighter touch. The problem with newspaper was it was really hard to maintain a constant thickness due to all sorts of different reasons. Sometimes, the ones I picked up didn’t suit me and the bright colors on the page distracted me during my drills. I decided that this would be a good investment and boy was I right about that.

David had a limited amount of this particular Italian patterned writing pads available and I was able to jump in and snag one before they went out of stock. I was still in my dorm when the package arrived and it was absolutely beautiful to look at in person. The pad was rolled into a cylinder and a little piece of the leather was used to tie it down, allowing it to keep its shape.

Since it arrived back in February, I’ve been using it all the time. Whenever I sat down to practice, I would always have it ready. It has been a wonderful addition to my burgeoning collection of calligraphy related tools. It has allowed me to cultivate an almost feather-like touch and inhibits the smooth, gliding sensation of my nib every time it touches the paper. If I had one complaint, it would be that I’m not allowed an iron in my dorm to be able to straighten this pad out after traveling with it. Otherwise, it’s an absolutely amazing and affordable tool that will benefit anyone from a calligraphy noob like me to an amazing calligrapher like David.

Hiatus is Over

Hello Everyone,

A lot of things happened since April that made it more and more difficult for me to post. Chiefly, I developed a problem with my laptop that put it out of commission until I could get it fixed once I got home. Immediately after getting home, my family went on a road trip for 8 days and we’ve finally come back and settled down. I would like to apologize as I couldn’t upload anything new having left most of my stationary at home. Now that I’m back, I can start getting back to reviews again. I’ve left it off for longer than I’m comfortable with and can’t wait to get back to posting some new content. The posts I need to make up for are one from April, two from May, two from June and two for July. Seven reviews in total. Starting tomorrow, I will be posting one review per day until I make up for all the ones I’ve missed so far, so look forward to it. It’s great to be back! 🙂

Cheers,

Anchit, The Passionate Penman