The Inkvent Draft is a new family tradition
The Inkvent calendar facilitated a fun new tradition in my household: the Inkvent Draft. Here’s the rub: each person gets to keep seven colors, chosen NFL-style over six rotating rounds. The undrafted are gifted to folks at the next pen group meetup. Perks of having a family member as stationery obsessed as me.
A tradition that would be even more fun with fewer rounds and more people
Our Inkvent draft begins with a rousing game of Rock, Paper, Scissors for the honor of first draw. The winner selects their first two inks from the collection of 25 Inkvent inks. The loser selects their first two inks from the remaining 23 bottles.
Round 2 evens the odds with the loser of Rock, Paper, Scissors selecting their next single bottle, followed by the winner. We continue taking turns through Round 6. Everything else is given away to friends and pen group folks. Oh the pressure.
A rave’s worth of shimmer
Seven to keep. I drafted Blizzard and Lavender Frost in my first round. Muted colors with silver shimmer? Take my money, Diamine.
I snagged Astral in the second round. The brooding black-brown stands alone in my ink collection. I himmed and hawed between Astral and Moon Beam as Moon Beam is similar to inks I already own. Sugar Snap joined my desk in the third round, followed by Moon Beam in the fourth as I was surprised it had yet to be drafted.
Masquerade’s shading encouraged me to draft the early bottle in my fifth round. The lone gold-heavy shimmer ink in my draft.
My final selection was a challenge as my first choice, Velvet Emerald was taken. I opted for Weeping Willow’s chromo-shading to end my Inkvent take-home. The septet, taken together, offers a wholistic palette. Relief.
That said, five of this week’s seven inks are laden with pretty shimmer. So: broad nibs, wet feeds, and converters with agitators comprise the main host of this week’s ink holsters. I think I drafted well.
Grey/Black
Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Transparent (EF). Diamine Moon Beam (Day 9). Moon Beam is a mid-toned grey dressed for the club. The gold Pilot EF nib is soft enough to ensure enough ink flow so as to prevent shimmer particulates clogging — a fabulous combination. A hair-thin EF line with shimmer that writes reliably. Clubbing it is. My primary task management pairing for the week. Also, the 92’s clip allows for easy carrying for meeting notes, and pocket notes.
Krusac Legend L-15 in Buckeye Burl (EF SIG, by Franklin-Christoph). Diamine Atlas (Day 20). Astral is a brown-black that writes darkly and wetly — a brown in a black ink’s clothes. I chose the EF SIG as it’s nib-feed combo offer a wealth of flow. The result is a narrow SIG nib that forgives on angles. My primary meeting notes pairing this week. The wet writer is also a reasoned choice for quick writing tasks like scratch notes, and recording students’ discussions.
Blue/Teal
Loft Highworth Teal Ocean (M Long Blade, by Hongdian). Diamine Blizzard (Day 11). Blizzard maps onto two of my aesthetic hotspots: muted, cool toned blue hues and silver accents (shimmer, in Blizzard’s case). I chose a wide nib to bring out the darkest, muted-est (a made-up word) personality in Blizzard. The pairing’s strong shading brings drama to long writing sessions — such as journaling and writing story for my D&D group’s ongoing campaign. Blizzard is also dark enough to serve as a readable comment writer on my students’ paper drafts.
Earth Tones
Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard (EF). Diamine Weeping Willow (Day 10). Weeping Willow starts as a whisper of yellow-brown and dries into a faded brown. Strong haloing throughout my writing keeps the light color readable — especially when writing at a slow, deliberate pace. The dry pairing was a surprise given Visconti’s penchant for generous ink flow. The ease of releasing the Blizzard’s magnetic cap closure encourages me to use this combo for making annotations in the margins of journal articles, lesson plans, and reading notes.
Esterbrook Estie Raven (B). Diamine Masquerade (Day 4). The first of two new pen acquisitions. Masquerade’s dusky pink-brown sports shimmer that blends into my letters. The ink color pops when accompanied by the Raven’s stealthy Poe-black colorway. The B nib produces lines that fill my journal’s pages quickly, which serves as motivation while I journal. Masquerade’s muted tones also serve well for easily-legible lesson plans and D&D notes.
Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Clear (B). Diamine Sugar Snap (Day 24). Sugar Snap throws up the best shading of this week’s Inkvent draft. Hearty grass-greens contrast breathy light yellow-greens at the beginnings of letters. The B Pilot nib ensures I get to see both ends of Snap’s shading spectrum. An excellent all-round accenting pair as the ink is easily legible on the page and stands out easily against black printed text and this week’s two daily drivers. Reading notes, marking papers, journaling, and letter writing. Also: longform creative writing and accenting meeting notes.
Wild Cards
Platinum 3776 Uroko-Gumo (M). Diamine Lavender Frost (Day 12). The second of my new pen acquisitions. Lavender Frost offers a cool blast of purple with aspirational shading. Shimmer lends whimsy to the otherwise demure ink color. Platinum’s M nib offers middling line widths which are well suited to detailed writing tasks during quick-moving events like curricular meetings, phone calls, and top-of-mind journaling sessions. All in a classy hammered-faceted pen. Swanky.
