Diamine Inkvent 2023, Day 13
The Ink
Day 13: Weeping Willow - Standard
Weeping Willow is an intriguing dual-shading ink with a base khaki or light olive with brown and pink tones. It’s translucent, but on the lighter side. If you layer this very lightly, it would be more transparent.
When I saw the light khaki color of the bottle’s label, and the standard designation, I wondered if it might be a dual-shader, and it was, yay! I was hoping to see more dual-shading inks since I have recently developed stronger interest in this type of ink. I love the watercolor nature of this ink and the multi-tonal look. It appealed to me immediately, and I thought perhaps other people doing Inkvent would also be happy to see such a unique ink in the mix, but the discourse among the people I follow on IG has been mixed, leaning more negative than I expected. I realize that this shade is not going to appeal to everybody, though, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
I actually surprise myself by liking this, as I’ve mentioned multiple times previously that I generally do not like green or brown inks, and this has both shades. But I was starting to turn around on the whole khaki/olive green thing a few months ago and thought about getting a sample of the famous Rohrer and Klingner Alt-Goldgrun to see if I would like it as much as other people have declared. Then I got a sample of Troublemaker Kelp Tea (which is below) from a pen friend, a similar dual-shading ink but on the greener end of the spectrum, and like it a lot. I’m going to have to get more dual-shaders in the near future.
Whoops, a little to aggressive in post-processing trying to get the ink shade correct; RIP white balance
As I mentioned, Kelp Tea was the first ink to come to mind when I was thinking about comparison inks. This is obviously more green, but has a similar vibe to Weeping Willow, with its brown and pink tones.
Below is Ghost from last year’s Inkvent. It’s not the same shade, of course, but it is a dual-shader that you might like if you like Weeping Willow and want a blue/purple/gray version.
For my shimmer inks, I also swatch them unshaken to see more of the base color come through. Olive Swirl is a chameleon ink from last year’s Inkvent. Its olive shade seems similar to Weeping Willow, but much more saturated and lacking the pink tones.
Robert Oster Muddy Grass looks virtually the same as Olive Swirl without the shimmer.
The Quote
Today’s quote is from Parks and Rec, “Citizen Knope”, after everyone in the office declared they’d help run Leslie’s political campaign after her other advisors dropped her due to scandal (just watch the episode, it’s great! 🙂):
Leslie: Giving Christmas gifts is like a sport to me. Finding or making that perfect something. It’s also like a sport to me because I always win. This year, though? My friends won. In fact, I got my ass handed to me.
I transcribed this with a fountain pen instead of a dip pen, since I liked the ink so much I already put it in my Skogsy Pens Cholla, with a Monty Winnfield Utility Nib. This nib has an EF on the front and a broad architect grind on the reverse. Even from the EF side of this nib, Weeping Willow is legible to me (I journaled with this combo last night).
The Utility Nib is nice to have since you can observe how an ink will behave between an EF and a broader nib. The only issue I’ve had with it is that shimmer inks don’t work so well on the broad architect side since the nib is upside down and gets clogged worse than in regular orientation.
But anyway, all this to say that I think Weeping Willow is a great ink and the most interesting one in the set so far, even if it’s not super Christmas-y. What do you all think?
