Diamine Inkvent 2024: Day 25 — Good Tidings
Day 25!
Merry Christmas, readers! The final day of the 2024 Inkvent calendar is here! For day twenty-five, we have Good Tidings.
The color/properties:
Good Tidings is yet another one of Diamine’s new “Extreme Sheen” Inks. The base color is an advanced-darkness black that dries into a bright green sheen where the ink pools. I want to say it’s not quite as sheeny as the other Extreme Sheen inks, but not quite as sheeny is still incredibly sheeny.
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
How did it perform?
Good Tidings performs okay. It has a wet flow, but I didn’t find it to be quite as smooth as the other Extreme Sheen inks released in this year’s calendar. It also ran into a few hard starts with each of the nibs. It was more than just lifting off too long — that’s typical of any high-sheening ink — but these were happening in the middle of writing, especially in print.
Thankfully, there weren’t any stains left in the pen after cleaning, but it still takes longer than an average ink. It’s not so bad, but I would recommend sticking with pens that have easily soakable nib units to reduce the time spent flushing it out. Despite not staining my test pen, I would also advise keeping it away from demonstrators or light-colored pens that stain easily. Just in case.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
My personal thoughts…
So… Good Tidings, huh? That’s an easy one — it’s a reference to the classic Christmas carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”:
Good tidings we bring
To you and your kin
Good tidings for Christmas
And a happy new year
The phrase can also be found in some translations of the story of Christ’s birth from the book of Luke.
But… what’s with the choice of color?
Even if it wasn’t referring to anything specific, Good Tidings? More like Bad Omen. Yeah, this feels like an arbitrary choice. The name itself is perfect, exactly the kind of on-theme Christmas reference that I want from the calendar, but making it such a dark color is just confusing. Is it bad? Not at all, but I’m not sold on this one. I’m underwhelmed. And to be honest, it feels like we’re ending the calendar on a low note with a big bottle of disappointment. If they wanted to end it with an Extreme Sheen, I would have been happier with Sleigh Ride, or any of the other beautifully performing, thematically appropriate inks in this calendar, but alas. At least it wasn’t Fruit Cocktail. 🤷♂️
Maybe it’s a reference to Hugin the crow. 🤔
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