Enjoy Collection 2025: Q3
Since I started on this ink tracking adventure back in 2021 I’ve really started to notice that some years I use a lot of ink variety and other see relatively little change. Comparing 2025 Q3 to 2024 Q3, it is vastly different. In fact, it was a pretty quick count up this round as I only used 25 different inks over the three months. It’s exactly half of what I used last year. Interestingly, the color spread wasn’t even all that similar, other than blue being the most commonly used color (which doesn’t surprise me in the least).
2025 Q3 Inks (Key: ^dusty ink, +added in 2025, *sample)
Red (2): Diamine Waxed Seal*, Ferris Wheel Press (FWP) Currant Crumble+
Pink (1): Diamine Peach Punch
Orange (0)
Yellow (1): Diamine Honey Burst
Green (4): Diamine Wishing Tree^ (x2), FWP Brilliant Beanstalk (x2), FWP Catnip Cafe+ (x2), FWP Sprouting Pastures+
Blue (8): Diamine Celadon Cat, Diamine Teal (cartridge), Diamine Thunderbolt, FWP Superman Heroic Blue+, FWP Harlequin Dream, Robert Oster Romeo & Juliet*^, Teranishi Brilliant Mint*+
Purple (4): Colorverse Milky Lavender (x2), FWP Whispers of Twilight (x3), FWP Phantom Mist+, Wearingeul The Black Cat (x2)
Brown (5): Franklin-Christoph Bronze Age, FWP Browned and Buttered+ (x2), FWP Citrine Mirage+ (x2), FWP Majestic Maple Syrup, Sailor x Tinterias Homemade Tortilla
Black/Gray (3): Diamine Grey (cartridge)(x2), FWP Wayfinder’s Slate+, Laban Athena Grey
Three of these inks made an appearance in the same time period last year: FWP Harlequin Dream, Pennonia x Amarillo Stationery Azul Frida, and Laban Athena Grey. Amarillo Azul Frida is such a nice middle of the road blue and Laban Athena is a pretty standard dark grey. FWP Harlequin Dream is an unexpected member of this trio. I still consider it a blue that leans towards purple. It’s a rather whimsical color that gets stuck in my head every now and again. In this quarter it was to keep me from buying special edition Papermate Inkjoys which had some pretty colors (and I had pretty much all of them in fountain pen ink).
Amarillo Stationery just recently re-released Azul Frida, I have the old packaging.
Another big difference between 2024 and 2025 was how many inks had more than one fill. In 2024, it was 5/50 (10%) and in 2025 is was 9/25 (36%). I think a big factor in this change is my shift to using primarily converters in my Kaweco pens thanks to the clever folding converter which has allowed my beloved liliputs to be refilled directly from the bottles. This removes a step in the refill process (don’t have to get out an ink syringe to refill the cartridge) and makes it much easier to just go, “I don’t feel like cleaning my pen right now, I’ll just refill it.” It is important to note that the mini converters don’t have a ton of ink capacity (probably .5 mL-ish) so in a really good writing session I can take it from full to dry.
This thing is genius. I’ve been using it for six-ish months now and it’s still going strong.
Another contributor to using fewer inks was that, except for my trips, I had 7+ pens inked at a time. When I have that much variety I tend to gravitate to one or another and then use it until it needs to be refilled or cleaned. If I’m enjoying the writing experience, the ink color, or both I tend to refill it rather than switching to a new pen. With that many pens inked up it also takes me much longer to write them dry. I prefer to do that rather than dumping ink, although if an ink is really not working in that pen I’ll still dump it out.
Overall, I was using inks that I had been sent and revisiting ones that I know that I enjoy (looking at you Colorverse Milky Lavender and Diamine Celadon Cat). I have a good number of inks that I know I love, but when I look for them in my ink passport I discover that it may have been a year (or longer!) since the last time I used it. I want to remember to use my favorites more.
Speaking of the ink passport, the current one is going to be retired at the end of this year and I plan to start fresh with a slightly different organization structure. I have another old Hobonichi weeks (a 2024) which is getting set up and waiting for me to do the final round up of the passport I used for two years. I’m starting to gather my end of the year thoughts, which is giving me plenty of opportunities to use more inks in Q4.
The waiting new ink passport. I am drafting out my lists in a Mnemosyne x Kleid landscape notebook. And of course it needed a sticker - I picked this one up at a cute stationery shop in Juneau, AK called Kindred Post. They sold stationery goods like cards and stickers, most from Alaskan artists. They are also a post office!
Currently Inked
I’m still working through the fills of FWP Highland Smoke and Catnip Cafe. Diamine Alpine is going to stick around as the October header ink.
Colorverse Brinicles (2024 Colorvent) - Kaweco liliput copper B ‘imperial’ - It’s almost ink advent season and it brought me back to the fact that I still haven’t tried all of them from last year. Brinicles was inspired by the ice “stalactites” that exist in the polar regions of our planet. It’s a pretty good representation of an icy blue. It’s pretty, but it’s not super unique amongst some of my other blues, even just Colorverse blues.
Diamine Wilted Rose (2024 Inkvent) - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M ‘journaler’ - The last time I picked up this ink was when I pulled it out of the Diamine Inkvent last year. I’ve swatched it quite a few times and I always like the dried rose color of this ink. I was feeling a pink and decided to give this one a go. I love how delicate and earthy it is.
Ferris Wheel Press Madame Mulberry - Ferris Wheel Press Carousel Billowing Blush M - I wasn’t planning on inking this ink, but I was refilling a felt tip pen with it (one of the ones that can take fountain pen ink) and really wanted to scribble with it. This is an early FWP ink and it’s a sort of gray-purple. It was one of the first bottles from them I ever bought. I’m enjoying revisiting it after not using it since 2023.