Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning)

Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning) - Ink drop

Members of Reddit’s r/fountainpens community chose two inks for the 2022 Ink Project, and like the previous collaborations, they looked to Diamine to create them. Red Sky (Sailors Warning) is the shimmer ink of the two, and it’s a real beauty!

[Note: Sailor renamed this ink to Red Sky (Sailors Warning) in July 2023. It seems likely that there were some copyright issues with the original, but I haven’t found any official statements from Diamine. Thank you to reader @SinSalabim for pointing this out to me.]

Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning) - Color Range

Red Sky (Sailors Warning) is a ripe, punchy red with hints of peachy orange in lighter areas and electric blue shimmer. It reminds me quite a lot of Robert Oster’s limited No Fixed Address ink, and I’ve included a comparison image.

Ink Swatches on Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River

In normal writing, this is a potent, eye-catching red that explodes off the page. The blue shimmer adds bling, but the base color alone is a powerhouse of a red. I didn’t find a lot of shading, but that isn’t unusual for a shimmer ink. On coated papers, there’s a very dark stroke edge, and that’s a feature that I always love! Aesthetically, there’s a lot to like here.

Writing sample on Cosmo Air Snow with details

In writing performance, my experience was mixed. I didn’t find much problem with feather or spread, but on uncoated papers, show-through was quite heavy and there was considerable bleed. This isn’t an ink you’ll want to use with cheap copy paper, but it probably isn’t an ink you’d buy for that kind of use, either. Drying times were longer than I like, too.

Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning) - Writing Samples

The blue shimmer brings pinkish violet highlights to strokes that really looks fantastic. However, I had a little more problem with clogging, than I generally do with Diamine shimmer inks. In the paragraph writing sample, you can see that it dumped shimmer in the second line but was more consistent in the others. When I found the right nib and feed combination, it flowed smoothly and worked well.

Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning) - Swatch Card

If you like shimmer inks and nice, bright reds, you’ll really like Red Sky (Sailors Warning). If you’re not a big shimmer fan, this might be an ink you should skip. At its best, this is a beautiful, rewarding red, but it does take the right pen to get the best out of it. You can find it in Diamine’s 50 ml shimmer ink bottles.

Two Reds with Blue Shimmer

Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning) - Comparisons

Diamine - Red Sky (Sailors Warning) - 50 ml Bottle and Box