30 Days, 30 Inks: Day 20
The Ink
Day 20: Troublemaker Abalone
I guess I’m pushing the limits of the definition of “dusky ink” with this one, but if you look at the base color blue, it is a light dusky blue. It also happens to be more of a translucent, chromoshading ink, which are attributes you might not necessarily think of for dusky inks. Oh well. 🙂
I’d been wanting this ink after seeing lots of reviews and mentions on the fountain pen subreddit (before things went sideways on Reddit 😒), but often Troublemaker inks were out of stock. Luckily a Pen Swap purchase I made last year came with partially used bottles of Abalone and Petrichor. These are huge 60 mL bottles, so I wasn’t bothered by the missing milliliters. I do love the abalone-like colors in the chromoshading. It might’ve been nice to have a pearlescent shimmer to complete the analogy, but this is nice, regardless. I also have Troublemaker Milky Ocean which is a similar ink to this, but has more purple undertones/chromoshading, which makes me like it ever so slightly more than Abalone. But I like having both in my collection.
This ink does seem a bit dry sometimes, so if you have a wet-leaning fountain pen, that’d be a better pairing.
The Quote
Be an amateur.
“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are few.”
- Shunryu Suzuki
I think, by the nature of my interest in so many different things, I tend to be an amateur in most of those interests, always learning new things, experimenting with new concepts and ways of doing things. Also because of my love of novelty, I tend not to get so deep on a topic that I would ever consider myself an expert. I may get to a higher level of knowledge at which I can spout facts and do some things with practiced skill, but I think I’ll always consider myself an amateur along the expertise spectrum, leaning towards highly experienced in some areas. Besides, it’s boring to know everything there is to know about a topic! I find it awesome to keep learning something new about a field where I thought I already knew a lot. I suppose in this point of view, being a “jack of all trades, master of none” isn’t such a bad thing.
