A bright aqua blue ink is at the top of my ink bottle wishlist. Something bright and cheerful, but deeply saturated and dark enough to be legible when journaling in half-light. Something to use in my Blueberry Kaweco Frosted Sport fountain pen.
My Kaweco Frosted Sport in Blueberry & three ink tests / writing samples using its broad nib
I know I do not want the Kaweco Paradise Blue (it wasn’t terrible, it just has more yellow / is more of a greenish-blue than I want), so it is between Diamine and Visconti Turquoise.
I’m not performing thorough reviews after meticulous tests of ink with detailed records (see Mountain of Ink for that kind of yum), so I failed to record how good (ex. wet vs dry) each of these felt to write with (and now it’s been so long since I started through them that I’ve forgotten). But it’s okay that I don’t remember or take thorough notes because all I really care about is that they are wet ENOUGH to be pleasurable and not hold out on me (which does actually require quite a bit of wet flow since most of my writing is speedy journaling and brain dumping as opposed to slow calligraphic artistry). I’m also not particularly worried about bleeding or feathering or even dry time; those things would have to be really bad for it to become an issue with me at this point.
The right COLOR is the main thing: a BRIGHT UPLIFTING AQUA BLUE that’s deep enough to be readable in a semi-dark pre-dawn room (so not too light).
The Diamine Turquoise is more complex and interesting than the Visconti. Diamine’s has more shading; there’s a bit of an exotic shadow on the sides and tails of my letters. Visconti’s Turquoise looks kind of flat and even cheap to me by comparison … but for some reason I like the Visconti a little better. It just feels lighter and more cheerful. It puts me at ease and makes me feel hopeful.
Other factors that do matter to me: COST AND PACKAGING.
The Diamine ink is way more affordable than Visconti: ~$15 for an 80ml bottle vs. $17.50 for a 40ml bottle. On top of that, Diamine offers a smaller 30ml bottle for $7.50, so I could get that to see me through until I can try more inks and potentially find a more clearcut winner.
On the other hand, the Visconti bottles are beautiful. Even their cartridges came in a handy, reusable and special-feeling marbled container. And I do lean towards the Visconti Turquoise ink’s purity of color for bringing me joy and pleasure even though the Diamine Turquoise feels and looks more lush and expensive.
Using lines from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself (FAVE) to sample atmospheric bright blue inks
Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have money to blow right now because I just can’t quite make up my mind. I love having this bright light blue color ink always at hand though, and am going through my last cartridge very quickly.
What to do?
Good god! Why am I leaning towards the twice-the-price Visconti ink?!? Is it because the bottle is really special? Plus it’s one of a much narrower range of ink colors offered by Visconti (a pen manufacturer, while Diamine just makes ink); turquoise is one of only half-a-dozen ink colors listed on Visconti’s site. There is a feeling of exclusivity (it’s really easy to find reviews of the Diamine turquoise, but not the Visconti) and there are a bunch of other turquoise-y / aqua blue inks from Diamine that I could try, but this is kind of it from Visconti. Then again, the reviews of the Diamine Turquoise are that it is pretty boring without a lot of shading (so by my assessment the Visconti must be SUPER boring, since there is even LESS shading than with the Diamine ink). On the other hand, why do I care what other people say? Someone else said that Visconti’s Turquoise is DARKER than Diamine’s, which is totally inaccurate through my eyes. Sometimes reading a bunch of opinions on the internet just muddies the waters.
I may just leave the decision for when I place my next order somewhere, and let however-much-more-I-need-to-buy-to-qualify-for-free-shipping be the deciding factor. Not very romantic, but … hey. I can feel already that I’m rooting for the Visconti to be “needed” in that way. In the meantime I still have five Kaweco Paradise Blue cartridges to see me through.
