TWSBI Diamond 580 Smoke Rose Gold II Medium nib

TWSBI has a cult following, so I think it needs no introduction. For those of you who are new to TWSBI, you will find no lack of rave reviews online crooning about this Taiwanese brand. TWSBI Diamond 580 series got its name from the diamond-faceted pen barrel – which gives beautiful reflections as the pen rotates. Mesmerising!

I’ve decided to break out of my usual review style and write you a love sonnet to show my love for the pen. If you read it carefully, I have hidden nuances of review on the pen and inserted some familiar pen terminology to add poetic justice.

Here goes:
The sun is out, the skies are blue.
But no one is out to play.
Today is Day 13 (of circuit breaker), I heard,
Not that I am counting my days.

It makes more sense to know my dates and what day of the week it is, than getting obsessed about “jail” time. Think of casinos, you’d never find a clock in casinos because it is intended to make you lose track of time and keep you in the casino for longer.
I took a positive spin on this and decided to lose track of what makes us nervous, and just focus on what can give us joy in the meantime.
That’s how I am going to do it for my time under the circuit breaker (city lockdown).
I will take time to connect with pens, inks, paper – so much to think about! Which pens work with each ink, how paper enhances the outcome. You ink up your pen, write on and on, then after a while, you look back at what you’ve done, and you realized the ink has responded to the paper, the pen being the facilitator of that conversation.
The color of the ink is different from when it first landed on the paper – there is more character now, more intense and some subtle variation in the shade.

Photo by @missmuffat 

It’s almost as if Amber de Baltique (ink) told TWSBI Rose Gold(pen) to write a love letter to Tomoe (paper) in a medium moderate tone. Nothing too scandalous or over the top, just moderate.
It was, after all, a love letter for an average day.
TWSBI obliged and dutifully wove the words of care and concern to relay Amber’s thoughts. TWSBI works in mysterious ways (maybe because of its smoky rose gold appearance) – it seems like it was sent by Cupid to spread love and compassion. Its diamond facets on the barrel would seal the deal
for Amber and Tomoe, if they needed something to present each other with tokens of love.
And just like that, Tomoe was moved.
He liked the forthright approach that Amber took, and TWSBI Rose Gold had executed it flawlessly.
Tomoe took a moment – he let the pale amber tones settle on him and thought pensively.
“How do I reciprocate Amber’s gesture without too much attention and risk embarrassing Amber?”.
Tomoe thought. After all, Tomoe is an elegant gentleman, he is very thin and almost accommodating of all inks that come knocking on his door. He may be courteous to courtship, but he is selective, and definitely prefers subtlety in his approach.
So he came up with a plan. He added intonation to what TWSBI wrote, so that Amber’s words would start to shade and develop into warmer hues, and that would make the conversation look more affirmative.
He wanted to tell Amber that he had “warmed” up to her and that he is definitely on the same page.
When TWSBI Rose Gold saw what just happened, she was delighted! “I am a wand of love,” she thinks proudly. I could really get used to doing this!

So there, that’s my story about pen, ink, paper. Hope you got some of the puns.

Write on!!
Yours truly,
@missmuffat