"Slackvent" Days 14 - 19

Previously: Inkvent Exchange: Days 1 - 5, "Slackvent" Days 6 - 13

Slackvent continued to be a very fun daily surprise this week. My swap buddy did a great job picking out a variety of inks, a few of which I was wanting to try sometime. It's like they are a mind reader! It could also be because I'm pretty vocal about my tastes here on the blog and elsewhere. 😅

Overall Thoughts

Taccia Ume Murasaki is quite an odd ink. The swatch doesn't look too odd, per se, a rosy brown color. However, when I swatched it, it was more rosy when wet, then dried to a brown, and almost looked kind of like it was a time lapse of fruit spoiling? At least, that's the thought that I had at the time. 😅 The color change during drying surprised me since I didn't know its final color, but I'll have to see how it performs in a pen. Regardless, it's an intriguing shade. I think I'd seen some other swatches online that did not look like the swatch I made, so I wondered if perhaps it was swatched on different paper, or maybe the posted swatches weren't color-corrected the same? That is a confusing thing when you see a swatch online that doesn't match the real-life appearance, for whatever reason.

Sailor Manyo Hinoki is a magical chromoshading gray. On Tomoe River it appeared a straightforward gray initially, but then the rainbow of colors – green, purple, and pink – came out as it dried, transforming a mild-mannered gray into an opalescent one. I'm definitely looking forward to putting this in a pen.

Robert Oster Barossa Gilt is one of those inks that I'd seen swatched somewhere and wanted to get a sample of. It's a pretty violet-blue with gold shimmer, though the shimmer seems muted. It's probably fine since I'm not in much of a mood for shimmer inks, despite it being the holidays. 🤔

When I opened the sample of Papier Plume's Honey Island Swamp Monster, I was psyched since I'd seen a video about the ink, but hadn't picked up a bottle yet. Of course, it is now sold out. Like my brown inks, this kind of green is a shade I'd liked and had been exploring. Luckily, I think this green looks similar to ones I have (either samples or bottles), like Vinta Leyte, or Troublemaker Hanging Rice. I'll have to actually compare their swatches, but these came to mind.

Diamine Syrah was a funny one, because I happened to open another sample of this ink from someone that I'd gotten at an SF Bay Pen Posse meetup last Saturday. Even though it's now a dupe, through no fault of my swap buddy, it's no problem, as it's a very pretty wine red that I'm interested in seeing from different nibs.

Finally, Anderillium Atlas Moth Brown is a fun brown, because the base shade looks chocolaty, but in areas of heavier pooling, it becomes a redder brown, and has a darker chocolate brown outline. Very interesting swatch to analyze, but you won't get the breadth of those colors in regular writing. Not sure if you would even with a really wet, broad nib, but it's possible.

Another batch of inks that I want to fill pens up with...the problem is there are too many I want to try at once, plus the Diamine Inkvent inks! Good "problem" to have. 😅

What inks did you all like from this batch? As always recommendations and other comments are welcome here, on Mastodon, or Bluesky.