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

[Bookman]

 

 

Woops. Wrong button.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Bookman

[Dottie]

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.

I don't keep my old journals, just the one I am working on. If they were records of things that happened in my life and were rather impersonal or clever, perhaps I'd keep them but alas they are drivel and messy. I would be so embarrassed if one of my family read it.

 

I began writing "morning pages" from the The Artists Way by Julie Cameron years ago and so the entries just are brain dumps that I use to organize my thoughts about what I have to do that day, what's bothering me, things like that. Mixed in is mindless handwriting practice work done while watching tv and examples of what ink is in my pens. Occasionally I think I need several journals, each for a different purpose but I never get around to doing it.

 

Do any of you have more than one journal?

Edited August 6, 2014 by Dottie

[Paddler]

I journal; not daily, but on a regular basis. I have used up most of the fancy journals found in bookstores and office supply stores and switched to bound "Record" books. I like the green color of the paper and the numbered pages. I want waterproof and lightfast ink. To that end, I usually write with a dip pen and India ink, either bottled or stick. Sometimes I use a bulletproof ink like Legal Lapis, Upper Ganges Blue, or Fox Red.

[CharlieTurtle]

Whatever colours I have inked in my non-uni pens get used to journal. Currently, it's Momji, Lamy Neon Coral, and Diamine Apple Glory rotating.

[Bookman]

I don't keep my old journals, just the one I am working on. If they were records of things that happened in my life and were rather impersonal or clever, perhaps I'd keep them but alas they are drivel and messy. I would be so embarrassed if one of my family read it.

 

I began writing "morning pages" from the The Artists Way by Julie Cameron years ago and so the entries just are brain dumps that I use to organize my thoughts about what I have to do that day, what's bothering me, things like that. Mixed in is mindless handwriting practice work done while watching tv and examples of what ink is in my pens. Occasionally I think I need several journals, each for a different purpose but I never get around to doing it.

 

Do any of you have more than one journal?

 

I think the dates and chronological order of your entries would prevent its becoming a true mess. But to each, his or her own. My journal is over 3,500 pages. It is most assuredly a salmagundi, but it's all in the bowl and not on the floor. As to other journals, I do keep a travel journal. Reflective entries about my experiences land there as well as long storylike narratives, rants, irony, etc. I also take along my regular journal to log the basic who, what, where, and when of my travels. On a recent two-week trip up the Pacific Coast, for example, I bought nearly forty books. The list of bookshops I visited, the dates, and the books I bought at each one were noted in my regular journal.

 

Edit: Just to clarify, the physical properties of my journal have changed many times. For the first fourteen years of its life I used Mead 5-Subject notebooks with pre-punched perforated sheets. When I reached the end of a notebook I removed the sheets and archived them in large 3-ring binders. After switching to FPs I began a seemingly endless quest to find a notebook/journal medium I could live with. I've used hardback casebound journals; various wirebound notebooks; several semi-homemade Kinko's notebooks, including one with Tomoe River paper; two soft leather journals I bought at Barnes & Noble, one of which I used as my regular journal and which I abandoned after several weeks and another which I stil use as my travel journal; an Apica Premium CD notebook; and currently a Kokuyo Campus Wide notebook. The quest continues.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Bookman

[sgage]

For the past 8 months, I have been keeping my journal on loose leaf Tomoe River cream paper, folded in half. When the sun is up, I use Herbin Eclat de Saphir blue, when the sun is down, I use Diamine Twilight. Both look great on the cream paper. I usually fill 2-3 pages a day.

 

Been journalling one way or the other for 40 years now...

 

[Ted A]

I use whatever inks are in the current pens. I write the date on the first page for the day and then the first paragraph of text following that is in a different ink. That makes it easier for me to find the date. I will use multiple colors in a day. I often write short entries during the day if I have a break that allows me to and I usually change colors when I come back to it. When I'm testing inks I sometimes change every paragraph or 2, but now I mostly do at least one page per color.

[inkspot]

For my personal writing I tend to use oranges most often, though most ink colours make an appearance at some point.

[TeaHive]

Inks with lots of beautiful shading. I do journal, but my life is rather boring. So the writing should at least be visually interesting. I recently made a 1:1 blend of Iroshizuku Syo-ro and Yama-budo, and after diluting it, the shading is phenomenal. It's now in my Noodler's Ahab just for daily writing. (The amount of water I put it makes it feather somewhat, so I'm compelled to use it up in my journals, while I leave the jar open to evaporate a bit.)

Edited August 6, 2014 by TeaHive

[knarflj]

I write to myself all the time. My official journal is usually a decent-ish bound book (Clairefontaine, Leuchturm, etc.). I change up inks depending on my mood and what's in a pen on that particular day. I've recently started noting in this journal whenever I ink a pen, writing a bit larger than my usual handwriting, so that it's easy to go back and check what ink I was using in the entries that follow.

 

I also brainstorm or figure out projects on paper, usually using various colours for different kinds of ideas. (I even ask myself questions and try to answer them on paper sometimes.) That kind of writing I do either on scrap paper or in cheap spiral notebooks.

 

And I keep occasional reading journals - notes, mostly from non-fiction sources. I used to use always the same colour for these, something blue or blue-black, but I've found recently that I prefer switching colours when I start reading a new book. So ideally, all the notes from any given book will be in the same colour.

[TeaHive]

I forgot to comment on what kind of paper I use. I use Miquelrius leather-like graph notebooks for general note-taking and my everyday writing. I have 6, three of which are in use: one for every day writing and project planning, one for a tea journal, and one I'm using to write my novel currently in progress. I just got a Clairefontaine French-ruled clothbound notebook in the mail today, and it will also likely be an everyday, all-purpose book. I really love the paper, and it makes all my inks pop. Plus, no show-through at all is always a plus. (I'll soon be ordering a Rhodia Webnotebook and an Ogami stone paper notebook! Exciting!)

 

For my regular journals, I have a variety of store-bought books.. mostly leatherbounds from Barnes & Noble, some comp books, a hemp-based rag type paper for a dream journal, a blank sketchbook for my poetry, a Moleskine Passions journal for books/reading, and all sorts of decorative, heavy papered journals and sketchbooks to accommodate both writing and artwork. I also use cheap pocket planners for my one-haiku-a-day-for-a-year project, then convert them to the poetry sketchbook.

 

I'm more than a little obsessed with stationary.

 

As for ink, I'm still collecting and trying a variety of them, so I try to use a different one every day, using a different fountain pen each time as well. But I tend to favor earthy colors: greens, dark dark blues, sepia, black, burgundy. Jewel tones burn my retinas.

[MusterMark]

I'm very fond of A pic 6A10 notebooks for journaling. The paper is slightly lower quality than that found in the other, glossier Apica notebooks but something about the texture of the paper just feels right for journaling. This paper is oddly particular, though, about the inks and pens it seems to like. My Lamy 2000 is not welcome, nor are most italic or rubbish nibs. I usually stick with a vintage fine/medium point with a wet ink like Waterman Blue or Aurora Black.

[ac12]

I forgot to mention, the reason I use the Staples single subject notebook is that I write a LOT. Or at least I used to. So cost becomes a factor, for me. With low cost notebooks, I can just write w/o trying to save paper, to save $.

Since about Aug of 2013 to now, I have gone through about 15 notebooks. I average about 3 weeks to fill a notebook/composition book.

I just have a single journal. I do not have a journal for different major topics/subjects, which is why the journal gets a lot of writing.

[SaskNapolean]

I like to use every ink that I own with every pen that it happens to be in. This lets me actually use all of my inks, and keeps my writing interesting. At the end of each entry, I write a brief description about the pen and ink I used. One day I will fill a leatherbound journal with all dark brown or something... but today is not the day!

[Runnin_Ute]

Journal:

Franklin planner classic size

black n red wire a5

Leuchtturm a5

Black n red bound a4

 

The a4 bnr gets the official daily/wkly stuff

The leuchturm is notes and doodles while in mtgs.

The orhers for various things..

Inks- the a4 try to do each daily entry in a different color, although some entrirs get more than one color. for example a few days ago I wrote a "race report" for a 7k race I ran Sat. It got up to 6 colors. since 7k is 4.3x miles each mile got its own color. That is 5.plus whatever I usef for intro and ending. I think I used a blue black (Pel or Diamine) more than once.. Or it would have been 7....

Bit of an anomoly. Usually only or two onks per day.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Runnin_Ute

[Vgimlet]

I use a leather bound journal from Barnes & Noble as my daily journal.

Black is the primary ink color. Noodler's HOD is the always-inked black, but I have 3 pens that are always inked with black ink right now.

This year I am keeping track of the Sunrise and Sunset times as my yearly statistic in Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses (very irritated about the formula change, darn those suppliers!!!). Any special purchases are in green - it depends on the greens I'm testing ATM, right now Noodler's Gruene Cactus & De Atramentis Cucumber. The question of the day is in blue, Noodler's Liberty's Elysium is the always-inked color, but 4 other blue inks. Red is for important stuff for the year end round-up. Brown for "awful world events"

 

Then I have a spiral bound notebook (miquelrius) for my daily tarot draws, in a different color each day.

 

My Jumbo Book (an oversized spiral notebook from bookbinders.com) where I keep my tarot deck reviews has black ink for the initial entry, and then blue-black for my impressions of the deck.

 

My ink journal where I do a weekly "what pens have what ink" list, in all the colors.

 

Other various journals - what the spousal unit calls the Dead Pet book - all the pets we've had since we've been married, with pictures. Mostly black for those. etc.

 

Also going to buy some decomposition books from bookbinders for various things.

 

It is very funny I went back looking at my teenage-years journals, and they were all written in FP, and I wrote in a different color every day.

 

I have a thing for journals, and the inks go skipping right along with them.

[JoeyZ]

I have just started keeping a journal (and trying hard to not buy more until I need them, no matter how badly I want to).

 

I use a different ink than the previous entry, sticking with one of the 3 or 4 that I currently have inked up. On the last page of the journal, I write the name of the pen/ink combination each time I use a new pairing (for a record outside of my entry and to see how the grouping behaves on that journal's paper).

[VivienR]

I currently use and will use in the future Bomo-Art's diaries. Have no ink preference to write diaries, so use whatever currently in pen(s), so my diaries are tend to be very colorful, noticeably the pink-purple line is more prominent.

[inkstainedruth]

I swap inks for every entry. It's whatever I have inked up at the moment, with the only (personal) stipulation being that it's different from whatever color I had used the day before. Occasionally, I have entries in more than one color, if I run out of ink and write a pen dry, but for the most part it's one color per day. This morning it was Akkerman #10 (the iron gall ink). Yesterday was Akkerman #19, Rood Haags Pluchte. The day before I think it was J Herbin Vert Empire, and the day before that was Waterman Mysterious Blue. I think. Tomorrow it might be diluted Noodler's Kung Te Cheng. Or possibly whatever the heck blue black is coming out of the Parker 61 I bought at DCSS (which is a very nice color, BTW) when I went to try flushing the pen out.

There's no particular rhyme or reason other than going "hmmm, what pen should I use today?" (everything is mostly inked up with a different color). When I first started journaling I had one pen (Parker Vector) and only used Permanent Blue cartridges until I couldn't get them easily anymore. But now I have enough pens and inks to swap out daily -- and then maybe use other pens for other purposes later in the day.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Six Dollar Dave]

Over the years, it's probably been black for the most, but recently I just use whatever is in the pen I'm using.