In this video, I take a brief first look at the Tony Binns Wood fountain pen, checking out its design, materials, and overall feel straight out of the box.

I then fill the pen with Diamine Sleigh Ride ink and do a short writing sample so you can see how it performs in those first few minutes of use.

https://youtu.be/-D2_8kbAIN0

#fountainpens #fountainpen #penreview #unboxing #firstimpression #firstimpressions #writing #DiamineSleighRide #Diamine #Inkvent

2025 Diamine Inkvent Teal – Day 9-12

Resuming the inkvent posts as swatch Wednesday posts. I took pictures of day 9-12 before I got totally swamped with moving stuff, but I’ll have to take the rest of the pictures in the new house. (I do have all my swatches, though!)

Day 9: Bittersweet. Very bright green, no shimmer or sheen. I thought maybe this one would be a bit hard to read but it seems fine. It’s not quite as day-glow as it looks in that photo but it is pretty bright in the sun. I love greens and a lot of my other light greens are a bit muddy in comparison so it’s fairly unique in my collection. Will get used for sure.

Day 10: Nostalgia. Brownish burgundy/purple with pink shimmer. Very pretty, and I rather liked playing with it on the paint brush where it’s a bit lighter than in the handwriting. Not a colour I might have chosen for myself but I’m looking forwards to using it because I think it’s going to fill a nice neutral-adjacent niche in my monthly palettes.

Day 11: Brrr! Light blue with blue shimmer. I love this colour a lot but it stained the heck out of my paintbrush. Which isn’t a huge deal (I mean, it’s a paint brush, it was bound to happen eventually) but I’d probably have used an older brush if I’d realized it would be that bad. Maybe I’ll try some pen cleaner or the ultrasonic cleaner on the paintbrush just to see what happens but I don’t have high hopes. It’s a pigment ink so it shouldn’t be a surprise but I didn’t have as much trouble with Carousel and staining. I’m going to be careful to put this into my pens that are easier to clean and none of the ones with clear feeds. I do rather like how the swatch feathered a bit so it looks like frost, though!

Day 12: Bubbly. A very champagne gold with iridescent shimmer. This doesn’t look too bad in the swatch but the shading makes it go to the edge of hard to read in my journal writing. I’ll be curious to see if it behaves better or worse in a pen. This is another one I wouldn’t likely have chosen for myself, but the iridescent shimmer really makes it pop and live up to the name, plus it’s not like anything else in my collection.

I liked all of these inks a lot, though I’m going to have to be careful using Brrr! now that I know it stains.

Here is a still of the latest masking inksperimentation. The one on the left uses the Diamine Nostalgia and Brrr! inks from the 2025 #Inkvent calendar. The one on the right uses Jacques Herbin Violet Impérial and the Diamine Bubbly.

#CelticArt #CelticKnot #Knotwork #Ink

Another masking inksperiment! This one uses the Diamine Nostalgia and Brrr! inks from the 2025 #Inkvent calendar.

#CelticArt #CelticKnot #Knotwork #Ink

#diamine #inkvent I'm just keeping a bunch of the Inkvent vials on my desk and a dip pen to doodle. Myrrh The Merrier and Let It Snow #fountainpens

smeared because my cat drooled on it

Wahhhhh the paper in the 2026 #Hobonichi Cousin is so much better compared to the 2025 edition!!

I'm so sad that Diamine #inkvent Day 25 doesn't photograph easily because it looks absolutely insane on this paper!

Blue base colour, red sheen and some blue glitters. IN LOVE.

#fountainpen