Night Sky is in some ways the hardest of the Shimmertastics to describe. It’s subtle, even with all the shimmer. The darkness of the black ink can swallow the silver particles when you are staring straight at the page from a distance. But once you pick up the paper, Night Sky sparkles and shimmers. And on some paper, the silver particles can make the words look almost entirely silver.
The shimmer of Night Sky comes across very clearly in photographs. With many of the Shimmertastic inks, photographs don’t really do justice to the real-life shimmer. But the black ink of Night Sky shows off the silver shimmer beautifully in photos. In real life, the ink is blacker, if anything.
I used Night Sky in a fine nib Parker Reflex, just for something different. Ink flow was perfect, and it dried very quickly from the fine nib. I still see plentiful shimmer from the fine nib.
Night Sky is a beautiful ink. Before trying it, I wondered why Diamine put shimmer into a black ink. I associate black ink with just-the-facts business use. But black and silver combines elegantly. Like Shimmering Shadows, Night Sky brings to mind festivity and glamour — formal parties and evening wear.
To use Night Sky with a wider nib, I also inked up a vintage Pelikan 400 with OBB nib. However, that pen, which usually requires iron gall ink, proved much too wet for the ink. It’s not the ink’s fault. And the results looked great.
I then put it in a vintage Pelikan Ibis with a broad nib, which matched the pen’s flow better and gave the exact same look as the Pelikan 400. Notably, even with these broader, wetter nibs, Night Sky dried in a very reasonable time.
Looking at the Shimmertastic line, it seems to me that Night Sky fits in especially nicely with Sparkling Shadows, the gray ink with gold shimmer, and Shimmering Seas, the blue black with gold shimmer.
I received this ink sample from Diamine, and I would love to pass along the favor and let someone else try Night Sky. So if anyone would like to receive a free sample from me, just leave a question or comment below. If there’s more than one interested person, I’ll randomly choose.
Wow, the silver gives it such depth! I normally avoid blacks for being too boring, but this one is exciting
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Please enter me in the Night Sky sample giveaway. Although my preference is for blue inks, this looks like a nice ink and is one that would pair perfectly with my night sky Jinhao X750 fountain pen. Plus my background is in astronomy, so how can I pass up a chance at a “night sky” ink? 😉 Thanks for the offer!
P.S. — Sorry if this appears multiple times (please delete the duplicates if so), but WordPress is giving me some trouble right now and I can’t see what I thought I already posted.
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ooh, look at that, they have a grey or black with gold, and one with silver! They don’t do things by half, love that!
When I first saw the pictures for this I thought it looked like another grey, a darker one, or maybe a lighter black. So I was like, huh, they have one grey, why two ? But then I read the post and realized it was silver bits vs gold bits and I had to bow to the genius! 😉
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Is this close to stormy gray?
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I would say that Sparkling Shadows, the gray ink with gold particles, is more like Stormy Grey.
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