Currently Inked January 2024

This set of inks is available as a sample pack (limited quantities).

I’m back! Back in the saddle, click clacking away on my keyboard.

I haven’t exactly been gone, but the blog has been huffing and puffing along, lonely and fed infrequently while I’ve been in my office, instead preparing myself for the long winter ahead by squirreling away small hoards and stashes of stationery, little acorns and peanuts in tins and between books on my shelves. My terrible memory will serve its purpose in February, as I newly discover some small cache of rubber stamps or bundle of wood-cased pencils.

But I’ve returned to life from the zombie chaos of Christmas break, I’ve been chipping away at the emails I’ve been needing to write, the cats are sleeping on the laundry piles and who would dare to disturb them? And here I am having cleaned out pens in various states of stagnant ink, and with five new pens freshly inked up.

The inks are in a Hobonichi Techo.

Diamine Midnight Hour from their Inkvent series. Lots of sheen, a beautiful rich colour. Writing sample with a Sailor 21k Pro Gear medium.

Diamine Best Wishes from their Inkvent line, which was a surprise favourite for me out of all the inks, perhaps because I wasn’t sure what colour to expect from an ink titled Best Wishes. But another ink with lots of sheen, which I love. It’s like I’m writing with magic! Writing sample with a Sailor 21k 1911L medium.

Dominant Industry Winter Wood, an ink I chose based on the name, perfect for a season of contemplation and waiting. Writing sample with a Lamy Safari M.

Diamine’s Gingerbread, another Inkvent ink. A light gingerbread brown, a bit of a vintage or old-timer look. Lovely shading. Writing sample with a Lamy 2000 F.

Platinum’s standard Blue-Black (not a carbon ink). A beautiful blue, a real classic. If you are the kind of person who is looking for just one solid, well-performing, high quality ink, you couldn’t go wrong with this one. Writing sample with a TWSBI M.

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The start of 2024 slipped out from under me a bit, but I’m catching up to my fresh start now. I once read this productivity article about how you have to have lots and lots of balls in the air and you don’t worry about dropping them, instead you just work on whatever balls you can and assume you’re going to drop some and good thing you have so many other balls in the air to make up for it. It sounded pretty chaotic when I read it, and it in fact is very chaotic to be living it.

But would I even recognize life without its chaos, me slipping and sliding about on dropped balls? My camera is broken and I have to bring it into Henry’s, and I borrowed a book and CD set from the library and I think I brought it home without the CD, and Chicken is missing a tooth, and we’re working on phonics, endlessly, and my lovely, silly, low-revenue shop passion projects all have various holes and make-or-break problems, and I am scribbling away in my notebooks all the while.

Wishing you an auspicious start to 2024. Here’s to all the adventures ahead.