Diamine Inkvent 2022

21 January 2023 • Pens & Ink

The Diamine Inkvent advent calendars are something I never imagined existed—24 small 12ml bottles of unique ink, and one 30ml bottle on Christmas Day. 2022 was the second year they produced one, and although I didn’t buy one for advent itself, I did pick one up at half price a couple of days after Christmas from Cult Pens.

The little 12ml bottles are adorably cute, and all the inks are somewhat Christmas- or winter-themed in name. I opened the calendar all in one go, and spent half an hour one afternoon swatching every ink. I can recommend a dip pen if you’re going to do this—I used a Lamy Safari, dipping the nib into each bottle in turn, but thanks to the feed it was a bit more of a pain to clean between inks than a proper dip pen would have been.

I swabbed three to a swatch for my homemade col-o-ring, and gave the large 30ml bottle its own. These are cards I’ve cut from 350gsm watercolour postcards, rounded the corners using a corner punch, and punched a hole in to thread them through a keyring. The result is a fantastic way to flick through my available inks and make a choice, and I love having it as something to play with sitting on my desk:

Speaking of which, how beautiful is that Van Diemen’s Azure Kingfisher from the Wilderness Series? It has such a beautiful golden shimmer and a slight red sheen. It was a birthday gift from a couple of wonderful friends, along with a custom pen from Just Turnings that matches it perfectly, and shows off its properties fantastically with a broad nib.

I’m not sure I’m likely to buy the advent calendar full price next Christmas—it is a fair amount of money, and I have many inks I still haven’t used yet from it—but I think they’re a fantastic idea from Diamine. Judging by last year, they’ll be selling each of the colours individually later in the year in larger bottles, so if there’s any that really take my fancy I don’t need to worry about 12ml not going particularly far.

So far, my favourite is Flame, but I am particularly partial to a good orange. What’s yours?