Diamine x Art from the Heart Damp Squib — 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: Officially described as a dark chocolate brown with a vivid green sheen. On my swatches the written colour reads as a very dark olive green-black rather than an obvious brown — the brown base only shows clearly where the ink runs thin at the start of the dip-pen bar and around the edges of the drops. In pooled areas the green sheen is so dominant that it takes over entirely, with dark plum-brown patches showing through underneath and a coppery-brown halo at the rim. Buyers expecting a brown on the page should know it writes much closer to a green-black.

Shading: Moderate. Highly saturated, so line-to-line shading in handwriting is subtle; the more striking effect is the chromatic separation between the brown base and the green in swabs, washes and broad wet strokes.

Sheen: Strong metallic green sheen, clearly visible on Tomoe River even in the writing sample and overwhelming in pooled areas. Needs good coated paper to show fully.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Medium.

The interesting bit: Damp Squib is one of a pair of Diamine exclusives made for the UK stationer Art from the Heart, released in spring 2023 alongside the teal-and-gold Throttle Bottom — the shop releases these inks in twos, named after British comic turns of phrase. A damp squib is a firework that has got wet and fails to go off, hence the idiom for anything that fails to live up to expectations. Fitting for an ink that looks like an unremarkable near-black in the bottle and then dries to a sheet of metallic green.

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.