Diamine Inkvent 2023: Day 11 — Glacier
Day 11!
Hello again! For day eleven of Diamine Inkvent, we have Glacier.
The color/properties:
Diamine labels this as a “Star Bright” ink. It’s not a category I’ve seen Diamine use before. It’s a shimmering ink and, from the looks of it, there’s not only a ton of particulates, but they’re also incredibly reflective. The particulates are bright silver to the naked eye but, interestingly, they appear gold in scans. While taking the macro photos, I also noticed that the particulates can appear black when they’re not reflecting light.
The base color is a cool icy blue. It shades crisply with high contrast, appearing considerably darker where the ink pools. Together, the base color and particulates give this ink an especially frosty appearance.
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
The particulates as seen when not reflecting light
How did it perform?
Glacier’s performance was a lot better than I expected. It had a medium and consistent flow and felt slick enough for a comfortable writing experience. The particle distribution was mostly good, but with the fine nib specifically, I barely noticed any particulates in the writing at all (photos in the more images/info section at the bottom). The medium and broad nibs were a different story: there was a high amount of particulate distributed evenly across the writing, and the pen needed minimal agitation to keep the shimmer flowing. However, I noticed that the particulates didn’t stick to the paper well, and the silver shimmer rubbed off onto the back of the previous page (notably more than usual with shimmering inks).
I was afraid that cleaning would be an issue with this ink, but shockingly, it wasn’t. The particulates washed out easily and there weren’t any particulates left behind in the pen or the nib units after a basic flush and soak. The color washed out just the same. Nice.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
My personal thoughts…
Glacier is an especially frosty color, and quite honestly, one of the shimmeriest inks I’ve ever seen. I had a lot of hesitations when I first pulled it out of the calendar, but in the end, it was a lot of fun. I think it’s an excellent addition to Inkvent. The particulates can definitely be messy though. They don’t stick to the page and get everywhere. Like sand. That might be a turn-off to a lot of users, but in my experience, the fun factor heavily outweighed any of the caveats this ink might come with. For me, it’s one of the most exciting inks in the 2023 calendar thus far, and will most likely end up on my shelf when a full-size bottle is available.
Written in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook
More Images/Info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 3 nib units including a Fine, Medium, and Broad. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
Shimmer distribution with the fine nib
Shimmer distribution with the medium nib
Scan of the writing sample
Particulates coming off the page in the Leuchtturm notebook