Diamine Celadon Cat — 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: A cool, muted grey-green. Diamine and retailers describe it as a light grey-green or pale jade, and some list it as a pale teal. On my swatches on Tomoe River it reads noticeably greyer than that — a soft slate-grey body with the green-teal showing mainly where the ink concentrates at stroke edges and pooled areas. The written line is a pale, dusty grey with only a faint green cast; the jade note is far more obvious in a swab than in handwriting.

Shading: High. Marked light-to-dark variation, and a pronounced chromatic separation — the grey body separates out to a much darker blue-teal at every edge and pool, which is the ink's main visual character.

Sheen: None.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Medium.

The interesting bit: Celadon Cat came out of the Diamine Reddit Ink Project, an ongoing collaboration in which members of the r/fountainpens forum vote on a new Diamine colour and then name it. The 2022 vote was close enough between two candidates that Diamine released both for 2023 — Celadon Cat and Sailor's Warning. Earlier rounds of the same project produced Earl Grey, which went on to become one of Diamine's best sellers. Celadon is a Chinese ceramic glaze known for its cool, milky grey-green finish, and the ink is a fair likeness of it, particularly the darker tone that gathers in the crazing and crevices of the pottery.

This is a hand-decanted 4ml sample vial from my own bottle.
Photos are my own swatches on Tomoe River Paper.
I'm a collector and I'm always happy to talk ink, so please message me if you have any questions.