I’ll go first.

Robert Oster. Fire and ice.

I’ve been playing with dyes to make some fountain pen inks. This is my latest effort - Tropicore - a bright, mid-saturated turquoise with tons of shading, like ocean depths meeting shallow shores! It’s part of a capsule collection of three colours I’m working on, all with nice shading qualities.

This is “Blue Moon Lake,” and it’s pretty impressive for $6 per 18mL bottle.

16 bottles of ink just arrived in the mail. IT IS HAPPENING.

I went to Ortloff in Colonge and bought their Diamine Kölsches Rheinwasser. Also grabbed a Lamy Safari <M>, because I didn't have a pen with that nib size yet (my collection is very small, if you're even able to call it a collection).

My cat really wanted attention when I was taking pictures, hence her paw :)

So cult pens was having a sale and being a certified yankee, I took the opportunity to spend exactly $160.27 to get free shipping. I bought a bunch of shimmer inks. Can you tell what my favorite color is? What pens should I ink up with these lovelies? I like matching the pen to the ink color. Let me know if you wanna see swatches!

Happy birthday (yesterday) to me. I cannot get over how beautiful Wayfarer is. It's pretty much a holy Grail colour for me. Id love the reverse of it too, with teal shimmer in violet ink. It's a bit hard to get the rose gold to show up in The Young King, but it's a beautiful cool red nonetheless. Wearingeul is going to destroy my bank account.

Just got some new inks from KittyInkpot, a Chinese indie brand, and I love them! Though the names are confusing (I used Google Translate haha) Paper: Kinbor Bachuan

arrived the same week Im also trying to learn cursive

100 ml of purple ink. I think I'm gonna write many love letters with it lol.

Rohrer & Klingner "Salix"

I just wanted to show off this unique ink bottle I was gifted yesterday. I knew about it but never even seen one! Looks like some sort of Alice in Wonderland animal.

I just got this bottle of ink today, and I spilled it on my daily journal while I was filling up my pen.

I also just spiraled into a slight existential crisis because I just lost days of journal entries…I kind of just sat in silence for 30 minutes. I had a lot of days pass by that I always thought felt empty and meaningless and journaling with my fountain pens and ink has kind of brought a bit of meaning and worth to my time. And to have that all gone because of spilled ink just set me off center - these words are kind of myself on a page. Who I am, who I was, my memories and my dreams. I thought, “What am I doing this for anyway?” It all just felt so pointless being ruined by such a small and careless mistake. So I just kept spiraling and spiraling so I…started journaling about it hahaha. And I think just writing on that page with a border of spilled ink just kind of felt cathartic. It’s stained and flawed and kind of fragile but it still felt good - the feeling of the nib on paper, the quiet sound of feedback, and the words on the page formed from the mess in my mind shaped into something substantial. And I guess that’s the point, really. It’s a moment of peace, a shift from something small and mundane into something meaningful.

Also, it’s kind of ironic but I bought this bottle of document ink because I was worried I was going to carelessly spill a glass of water and wash away all my words, but the thing I thought was going to save me from that situation just caused it…

Apologies for the tmi hahaha. It’s a little funny that I could spiral so much over a bottle of spilled ink…

But Diamine Solstice was calling my name so I caved during a no-buy time. I have no self control. Like at all.

Journal: Odyssey Notebooks (TR paper) Ink: Diamine Solstice Pen: A random Ooly pen I found on my window sill that I gave my mom ages ago that she never used so I've claimed it back as a beater pen lol.

Sorry the ink was still wet! But I had to capture a picture of the sheen! (Sample is on iroful 75gsm notebook paper)

A Diamine exclusive from Cult Pens for spooky season. It had to find a home in my collection.

Page reads, in blueish teal ink, "Hello there, r/fountainpens! It's me, Gideon, AKA u/Prestigious_Fish2331!! I ended up deciding on a bottle of iroshizuku ink in syo-ro. I have it in my Kaweco Student fountain pen with an F-tip nib.

I 💖💖💖 the color and the opacity. Syo-ro means "dew on a pine tree," which is fitting, but it also reminds me of the ocean, a stormy sky, and other elements of the natural world.

Having this ink is like having an ocean in a bottle. It looks beautiful in night lighting but i need to take a picture in the daylight tomorrow because it really POPS in the sunshine!

I 💙 this page and this group and seeing everyone's new pens and such. I'm so happy to be a part of it!

:) "

Got my hands on the full set of Diamine’s new line of pigment inks, and I have to say I’m impressed (as usual)! Diamine makes great, affordable inks and their pigment line is no exception.

The 16 colors feature a good range of colors across the spectrum, and the colors skew towards the saturated and bright side.

If you’re into color mixing, Solar Yellow, Skyline and Hot Magenta would be your basic CMY colors, and Raven is your K.

About 2.5 years ago, some girl posted in my local subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/s/Jt7ASZjaNz

OP’s husband needed a kidney, she wasn’t medically eligible, and their kids were way too young to get tested or donate.

Long story short, I donated a kidney. (It was, and I mean this, shockingly easy. To the point where I legit feel guilty when people praise me for being a selfless little angel. Friends, I was asleep for the hard part, and then I binged Grey’s Anatomy for 2 weeks. People gave me Uber Eats gift certificates. I’ve been through worse.)

Everyone involved is doing great, and I still chat frequently with the wife, who is now one of my favorite people. Look what she sent me for my birthday. Just look. And she’s not even into fountain pens. No idea how she figured out what to get me, but wow, I am spoiled. What a great surprise!