Inky T O D - Inks For Your Journal Or Diary - Do You Have Inky Preferences?

[amberleadavis]

Not everyone journals, but many FPNers do some personal writing. So, if you do write to yourself - is it in a journal or diary (or random scraps of paper) and what inks do you use and why?

[napalm]

Blue. The non-teal variety.

[amberleadavis]

The Inky TOD today is in honor of Mrs. Napalm. You reported that Blue Cashmere was ink she would use in her personal correspondence and journal.

[MBFan]

Rhodia journals, and I try to mix up colours, at them moment it's Kon-Peki blue, MB green and royal blue, Diamine salamander, ancient copper, and deep dark red, and Noodlers Squeteague, brown 41, Borealis black, bad belted kingfisher...like I said, I try to use several colours to keep it interesting

[MyriamV]

Blues, browns, greens, teals, turquoises. Those are the main colors and I change color every day. That way the ink doesn't get a chance to dry out in the pens and it keeps things interesting. I also doodle on loose pieces of paper once in a while, when I feel inspired to do so and have the time.

[setriode]

Rhodia webbie gets ESSRI or Salix because these look best on the cream coloured paper. Moleskine gets Pelikan 4001 blue-black sometimes fortified 8:1 with 4001 brilliant black because the paper is otherwise prone to show-through and feathering.

[Charles Rice]

Mostly brown. And believe it or not, I did use pink once. I had an old Sheaffer red cartridge that had half evaporated so I added some distilled water and what was the result? OMG - Pink!

 

After an extended stay at the local hospital and many cards and letter of sympathy, I am recovering nicely.

 

I use Fiorentina journals.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Charles Rice

[napalm]

The Inky TOD today is in honor of Mrs. Napalm. You reported that Blue Cashmere was ink she would use in her personal correspondence and journal.

 

Yes she likes lavenders. So I have two quests on my hands: the perfect blue and the perfect lavender

[napalm]

After an extended stay at the local hospital and many cards and letter of sympathy, I am recovering nicely.

 

I agree that sympathy letters written with Shin Kai would make pink look like a great place to be

[amberleadavis]

Mostly brown. And believe it or not, I did use pink once. I had an old Sheaffer red cartridge that had half evaporated so I added some distilled water and what was the result? OMG - Pink!

 

After an extended stay at the local hospital and many cards and letter of sympathy, I am recovering nicely.

 

 

I'm glad you are fully recovered from this pinking experience.

[Hallel]

I also switch things up. My journal writing is where I test out my inks. Especially my less professional ones that otherwise wouldn't get a lot of use. It's fun for me to flip backward through my notebook and see all the different inks I've used over time.

 

A chromatology timeline.

 

I'm currently in the middle of a shoot out between Kon-Peki and Sailor Jentle Sky High to see which one I like better. I also use greens, browns, purples and greys.

[Josey]

Either tons of different colors or only black or only dark brown (although I have a bottle of lovely taupe ink I mixed that I'm saving for my Seven Seas journal...).

[ac12]

A daily journal, that I started when I was working on improving my handwriting.

This is either a spiral bound notebook or a composition book. I was thinking of changing to loose leaf filler paper which I would then file in a binder, but the Staples 17 cent sale price for the spiral bound notebooks, put that on hold for at least a year...or longer until I use up the 30 notebooks I bought plus whatever remainder that I have from this year.

 

My inks are varied. Some are to match the flow characteristics of the pen.

Fountain pens:

• Waterman, (my wet ink), green and black (I deinked the brown for lack of enough use)
• Cross/Pelikan, (my dry ink), blue and black
• Sheaffer Skrip, turquoise and red (Turquoise was reported to be a close match to the old peacock blue. The red may get deinked for lack of enough use)
• Sheaffer Skrip, mix red+black (I am working on finding a nice DARK red-black)
• Private Reserve, DC Supershow blue (cuz I read so much about this ink, and it is a nice blue, not the purple blue of other blue inks).

Dip pens:

• Speedball, acryic, green and sepia (this was my original dip pen ink, then I switched to Higgins Eternal, now I only use it when I want to use a colored ink; green and sepia)
• Higgins Eternal (this ink is easier to use, as it does not cake up like the acrylic ink does)
• Daniel Smith Walnut ink

I will usually do an entry in one color, then the next time I do an entry will be in a different color.

But if I'm bored, I may do one entry in several colors.

Edited August 5, 2014 by ac12

[RudyR]

I use every color ink in my ink chest. When I start writing for the first time I usually write the date and the inks full name. Good reference for long term review of how the ink will eventually work out with age.

[Jared]

Ideally - a nice journal, like a Clairefontaine notebook, written with care using an archival ink - currently Montblanc Midnight Blue (Iron Gall). Reality - written hastily on scraps of paper using the nearest writing instrument (usually an office roller-ball or gel pen) which are immediately later sometimes never transferred to the journal.

[Dottie]

That's a good idea, to write the name of the ink. I use all colors of ink too and sometimes I do go back and look for a certain color. If I wrote the name, I wouldn't confuse two colors that are close in hue.

 

I tend to do each paragraph in a different color in my journal pages and lately I write bullet lists at the bottom of each page, too. When I don't get something done, I move it forward. I use a large Doane spiral bound tablet for daily pages and handwriting practice.

[ac12]

I also do as Rudy does.

The first line of a new color is pen and ink data. Examples:

- Parker 51sp, M (nib), PR DCSS blue

- Parker 45, M, Sheaffer red

- Esterbrook blue LJ, M, Cross blue

 

When I have similar color inks, this tells me what pen and ink did the writing.

The pen is important as the same ink out of 2 different pens may look so different that one could think it was 2 different inks.

With only a few inks, the ink specifics does not matter much (brand Sheaffer might be enough, color is implied by the color of the ink), but as you get more inks in use, you need to get more specific (Diamine Midnight blue, cuz it might look similar to other Diamine blue inks).

And when I am using mixed ink, I might even write down the mix ratio, such as Sheaffer red+black 1:3

[Oranges and Apples]

I use blues with purple or violet tones or purples or violets. Just find it a very comfortable color.

[Hallel]

Rudy and Ac12 - that's a good idea. I imagine in a few years I'll have forgotten which inks were which when I see them on a page unless I write the name down somewhere. Something to consider.

[Bookman]

In the early rollerball and gel-pen days, all entries were in medium-dark blue ink or black ink. For a long while after switching to FPs I used a small variety of colors—black, blue, purple, orange, brown, red, and green. I tried not to use the same ink two entries in a row. But my journal has always been more than a chronicle of my thoughts and ideas and hopes and plans and dreams: it is the chronicle of my life. It is the first place to which I turn to refresh my recollection about what happened when in my life, or where it happened, sometimes who else was involved, sometimes what happened after that. And I rifle through the pages of my journal at least twice a week, looking for personal historical facts. At a certain point I noticed (1) it was easier to find specific things in past entries if all the ink on a given page were the same color or at least very similar both in color and shade and (2) light, bright inks were harder to quick-scan. Ever since then I've tried to stick to one color per day, always a medium-dark to dark ink, almost always blue or black.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Bookman