How I do Ink Swatches

In the spirit of Inkvent, I wanted to briefly go over how I swatch my inks. Everyone approaches ink swatches differently, there’s no right or wrong. Includes a spoiler for day 11 of the Diamine 2022 Inkvent

Supplies

• Swatch cards (I use Col-o-ring), or a notebook
• Paintbrush or cotton swap/Q-tip
• Dip pen, such as a glass nib pen, a Kakimori, or other dip nib

I “paint” the bottom of the card in the ink, and I like to make sure the ink pools in the upper left corner of the square so I can see any sheen that would appear in heavy applications.

After I write the name of the ink brand and the ink name. For the Diamine Inkvent, I also include the year (and edition as 2022 is known as the Green edition) and the day the ink was opened.

Diamine Appletini – Day 11 of the 2022 Inkvent

When I use that ink I write on the back of the card so I can better see usage and I’ve been including the date as well. I do use FountainPenCompanion, but I like being able to physically flip through the cards as well.

The biggest thing to remember is that the block of ink, or however you choose to do your main swatch will rarely look the same as an actual writing sample. A paintbrush lays down a lot of ink, and glass dip nibs and others tend to be a good deal wetter than an everyday fountain pen nib. But the swatch card gives you a good idea of what the ink will look like.

I organize mine by brand and then by color (except for inkvent which is organized by day). Everyone has a different method of organizing their swatches, go with what makes sense to you!

Swatching a new ink is one of my favorite things to do! Flipping through all the colors is so satisfying.

One of three Col-o-rings I own.