Saw a weird ink mixing setup at the Portland Pen Show last weekend

Some guy had a whole station with 30 tiny vials and a digital scale. He was mixing Diamine Oxblood with a shimmer additive. Said it was for a 'blood moon' effect. Looked messy and the shimmer kept clogging his tester pen. Anyone else tried adding shimmer to dark reds? Does it ever flow right?

2 comments

2 Comments

juliaa257d ago

I used to avoid shimmer in dark inks because my Pilot Metro clogged every time. Then I tried adding just a pinch of gold mica powder to Diamine Writer's Blood, like maybe 1/8 of a teaspoon for a whole bottle. It actually flows fine if you shake the pen a little before writing. The key is using way less shimmer than you think you need. Now it's my favorite combo for journaling.

the_jennifer7d ago

Honestly that whole shimmer mixing thing sounds like a huge pain for no real payoff. Saw a guy ruin a perfectly good bottle of ink the same way, just ended up with gritty sludge. Dark inks look better on their own anyway, all that sparkle just looks messy.