How many days/months/years have you been collecting inks now? For me its been a few years (I'll steer clear of counting how many~!) now. I enjoy even a tiny bit of difference in shade between inks. And in the last 3-4 years, the ink industry has seen a huge shift. While sheening and shimmer inks are always exciting, now we have dual shade inks, inks that dry a different color, color changing inks, mixable inks, etc. The list goes on.

While I love my Pilot Iroshizuku inks for all default writing and mess-free handling of fountain pens, I love the new additions to the ink properties the newer inks bring. And given I am an avid sketcher, and use fountain pen inks to sketch with when I am out and about, an ink's reaction to water is another fun area I love exploring.

I have been collecting inks for years now, and I am also a brand ambassador for an ink brand (Ferris Wheel Press), and receive samples and full bottles to try out. I need a space to swatch my ink collection and organize it by shade. I don't care much for brand-level swatches as long as I can quickly reorganize my inks by brand. Having a swatch card for each ink and organizing it in an album is my ultimate choice to organize all the various inks.

Here are some of the key themes I came up with for Ink swatching:

  • Organize ink by shade
  • Quickly shift ink swatches left/right to add in a new swatch
  • Full catalog of shades of colors at my availability
  • Plan a sketch by using swatch cards
  • Re-organize ink swatches as needed.
  • Share swatch with a friend
  • Carry around my swatch book to a Pen show/ Pen meet-up

All of these themes are satisfied by one option that I went with - a trading card album coupled with watercolor paper as swatch cards. No - not my idea. I adapted the idea from Rachel Crawford from Rachel's Reflections, who adapted it from what pen stores use. Here is a link to her original post: https://racheldelafuente.com/blog/ink-trading-cards/

Here is a small video of my swatch album.

Ink Swatch Album

Tools of the trade:

  • 9x12 watercolor paper pad ( I prefer Canson's)
  • A glass dip pen (My favorite)
  • Access to a printer (Any printer that can take in a watercolor paper)
  • Swatch card template (to print on to the watercolor paper)
  • A pair of scissors or paper cutter
  • Trading card Binder/album (Here is what I use)
  • Watercolor Brush Pens (Here is what I use)
  • Optional: Dip pen with a nib

And a few representative images of what your swatch binder would look like 😊, as you start filling it.

Ink Swatch Album

Here is an image of the swatch card template. Please send me a message if you would like a copy of the template.

Swatch card template

Note: The links in the post are affiliate links for Amazon.