From sample to bottle, a Celadon Cat story

I habitually forget about my collection of ink samples. The vials sit in their racks, quietly astride the shelves in my office closet. They wait patiently until I use my ink spreadsheet to choose a currently inked color palette. Otherwise, I tend to dig through my boxes of ink bottles.

My good friend BF loaned me a sample of Diamine’s Celadon Cat last winter. I experimented with three different nibs and feeds so feel out whether I’d like the ink.

I started with a feed I dug out to be a gusher in any Jowo-friendly pen. Celadon Cat is a dark grey-mint-teal with smoky teal-black haloing and strong shading. Show-stopper.

Then I moved onto a dry writer: my Visconti Homo Sapiens. (You read that correctly: the EF is tuned to disciplined moderate-to-light ink flow.) Celadon Cat was mostly a teal whisper punctuated with dark lines where I applied writing pressure.

I then split the difference, inking my Pilot 912 — sporting moderate ink flow with the option of adding ink with slight pressure through Pilot’s SF nib. Celadon Cat is a medium teal-grey with strong green undertones. Shading shows up frequently and haloing shows on 1/3 of my lines, easily controlled with changes to my writing pressure. Bespoke shading.

Be still my heart you shady Cat

The allure of beautiful ink bottles and box art is powerful. But the freedom to try ink with only a minimal commitment? That’s fun.

It’s also why I now own a bottle of Diamine’s Celadon Cat.

The consequences of your kindness, BF

This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. The week’s standout combo is my Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with its SF nib. The pen saw bountiful use and is now actionably empty. The 912 is light with a resilient clip — excellent for pocket carry. The SF nib allowed for comfortable writing, even with notebooks laying across my lap. Accent meeting notes, accent reading notes, D&D notes, scratch notes and pocket notes. Feed only.

• Pelikan m805 (F CI) — 1/6. The Pelikan saw little use last week. Perhaps the time has come to transition into a pairing with a stronger siren song …

• Franklin-Christoph 03 (EF/B) — 1/6. The 03’s narrow section helps with maintaining the fine control I find useful for small letterforms. I used this pairing for scratch notes and for sketching ideas out for students’ research projects. A one-on-one consulting combo.

• TWSBI 580-ALR (EF/M) — 1/4. The hairline thin EF lines render this pair a clean, no-fuss combo. Reverse writing for M lines proved finicky as shimmer would clog after a night sitting unattended. Task management, meeting notes, scratch notes, and some reading notes.

• TWSBI Vac 700R (F CSI) — 1/3. This pen-and-ink combo sat unused in my pen cup all week. Odd as I deeply enjoy the pen and the ink.

• Nahvalur Nautilus (Mini-Cutlass) — 1/2. A floss before writing produced wet lines and subtle green shading that was peppered with gold shimmer. The flared Nautilus section is comfortable for both short, precise bouts of writing and long-winded reflections. Meeting notes, reading notes, and D&D notes.

Notebooks. Work bujo. JetPens Kanso Noto Grey (A5). I knocked my way around seven new pages in my work bullet journal. A well-used two-page weekly spread followed by five pages of meeting notes.

Celadon Cat reigns as the primary accenting ink throughout my notetaking last week. Quickly-jotted post-meeting debriefs. Tasks and questions in a sit-down administrative meeting. Scheduling and in-situ commentary across another two curriculum meetings.

Cat is the brightest color in this week’s palette, shouting its presence over the other pain-and-ink pairings’ subdued colors. All characteristics well-tailored to accenting notes.

The rounded soft fine nib comfortably accommodated writing on a notebook perched in my lap well, too.

You springy dancer-on-pages, you

My slowest-moving meeting last week was a methodical review of the final assessments for my modern history course. The deliberate pacing of my notetaking offered elbow room for the Nahvalur’s mini-cutlass nib, which can be sharp on the page when held away from its favored writing angle. The slow progress of this type of meeting lets me hold the Nahvalur at the proper angle through short, targeted strokes.

Vert Atlantide’s unsaturated green sits speckled with infrequent gold shimmer. A spring-like end to the school year’s assessment planning. I dig a fitting theme.

Line variation from a teensie nib grind

Journal. Kleid Notes Tiny Grid (B6). I did not journal last week. Evening conferences, early morning meetings, and an abundance of grading encroached into my journaling time. It happens.

Successful journaling is picking up my pen again.

I have designs on visiting with you this coming week …

Written dry. The Pilot 912 has an empty converter. It continues to write on with the Celadon Cat in the pen’s feed. The clock is ticking down on this pair.

A hard-used tuxedo of a pen

Newly inked. I’ve been content to carry my planned six pen-and-ink combos throughout the week. Content enough that I journeyed the whole week without entertaining notions of inking a new pen. A success of sorts.

The collection

Incoming / new orders. I am under a strict purchasing embargo until the DC pen show arrives in August. Until then, I’ve added stationery that elicits ooh’s and aah’s to a growing wishlist. Discipline, scholar. Keep disciplined.

Outgoing / trades or sales. The assortment of reflections across the stationery blogosphere selecting singles from each pen manufacturer to keep has me reflecting on my own collection. I have over three pens from at least seven separate brands: six each of Sailor and Pilot; five TWSBIs; four each of Platinum and Kaweco; and three each of Franklin-Christoph and Nahvalur.

And yet there’s variety in my repetition

A small voice has repeatedly asked whether I could cull my ink collection down to one ink from each manufacturer. That endeavor is for a future week. Intimidating.

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. I concluded a re-read of Chambers’ excellent The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet last week. Chambers’ uplifting, earnest characters are a breath of fresh air from the dark stories that otherwise comprise my reading.

I also took a reader’s excellent suggestion and began John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire. Earnest characters, slightly darker tone, similar good humor. I read my way through the first 66 pages — enough for the story to have started rolling forward. Pleasant time spent in my Books app, with music playing.

Nonfiction. I tapped the next book in my to-read list: Levitsky & Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die. The spine is uncreased. The page edges crisp and even. The margins unmolested by pencil, highlighter or page markers.

The chaos and customization and scribbles and highlighting is nascent

Music. I broke from my lo-fi comfort cave and returned to the land of prominent vocals last week. I’ve spent hours with The Ting Tings’ subdued Manchester masters of their album The Black Light. “Fine and Dandy” is a stand out for me: energy without getting all shouty.