Alright, this is it, the final installment in my 2017 DC Pen Show series. I can’t believe that when I set out to write my overview, I thought it was all going to fit in one post. Silly me.
Allow me a moment to geek out over Brian Goulet commenting on and tweeting about yesterday’s post (W-O-W!) and Brian Gray commenting on — and Edison Pen Co retweeting — my post about getting a pen from them. That felt pretty awesome.
Ok, enough fangirling. Yesterday’s post ended with heading off to check out the rest of the large room after my epic meeting with Brian Goulet.
First stop was the Modern Chocolatier booth. Because chocolate. They had little sample pieces cut for people to try (unfortunately, without signs, so you didn’t know what you were tasting). The piece I tried was really tasty, with an intense chocolate flavor. If they were local, I’d probably check them out. But my money for the day was earmarked for pens and ink, so I gave them a pass.
My friend, Anthony’s, purchase more than made up for it, though. He bought two, maybe three, boxes of four, and very much enjoyed them all.
Right next to the chocolates was Ryan Krusac’s booth. I was still in awe over meeting Brian Goulet, so I didn’t think to take a picture, unfortunately.
Once Anthony was done buying his chocolates, we went back out to the hallway and finish seeing the tables there. There were several woodworking tables with pens, boxes, etc. Then there were several ink tables, including Vanness Pen Shop and their “wall of ink”.
From there we went back into the large room and just started walking up and down the aisles, seeing what there was to see. Once again, we ended up losing each other and seeing things at our own pace. It was probably a good thing that what money I had left of my pen show budget wouldn’t have covered another pen.
John M Russell had these amazing pens made from circuit boards. At the Anderson Pens table, I managed to pick up a bottle of Tudor Blue. I’d gotten a sample from Goulet Pens and fell in love. As if the name isn’t awesome enough (you know I love me some Tudor goodness), the color is beautiful, and a great fit for my Prisma 88.
Jim and Anthony caught up to me around this time, and we visited the Visconti Table. Their pens are beautiful, and I’ve sort of had my eye on the Homo Sapiens for a while. I did a lot of research, and the varied reviews, plus the lack of an ink window, made me decide against getting one. But I picked it up while I was at their table, just to know how it would feel in my hands.
I really shouldn’t have done that. It was SO SOFT, like a kitten. I just had to pet it. I understand, now, what people mean when they say it feels warm. Most pens feel cool, even if just slightly, when you pick them up. The Homo Sapiens doesn’t. It’s like it’s the exact temperature of your hand. If they ever add an ink window to it, I’m sold, but until then, I’m on the fence.
Down another aisle, I came across some interesting wooden pens with watch faces by MikesPenTurningZ. Crazy Alan’s Emporium had several tables full of notebooks and various types of paper. I came close to getting a couple, but reminded myself that I already have four notebooks waiting to be used. Jim snagged a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-iro, though.
He tried to get a good look at the Franklin-Christoph table on the last row, but it was so crowded, he decided to try again later. A bit further down that last row, I was entranced by Barry Gross’ table. His recycled watch parts pens were so cool, especially with the bright blue showing through all of the gears. He explained that the watch faces are real, but the gears and other parts come from much less expensive pens in order to keep the prices from becoming astronomical.
He also had some fossilized shark vertebrae pens. Those were beyond cool. I wish, so much, that I’d had some more money left, because I want one of those pens. He gets certified, fossilized shark vertebrae from dealers and incorporates them into acrylic before turning the pen parts. He also had beetle wing and cigar label pens. Just some really unique stuff I hadn’t seen done ever before. Kudos to Mr. Gross.
Just past Barry Gross’ table were a couple of tables with REALLY fancy/expensive pens. You know, the kind that come in big display boxes. Those ones where if you have to ask how much they are, you probably can’t afford them. I really liked the Visconti Jacques de Molay that comes with a mini Templar sword and signet ring. Out of curiosity, I looked it up later, and, I could pay my mortgage for a couple of months for the price of it.
We finished up the last bit of the large room and exited to check out the tables in the small hallway in front of it.There was a table with notebooks, and a guy selling pen cases advertising the idea of a pen room instead of a wine cellar. Just across from him was the Yafa table. At the time, I didn’t realize it was Yafa. I just saw a bunch of Stipula boxes and decided to talk to the nice man that was sitting there.
I explained the problem I’m having with my Stipula, and Jim chimed in with the problems he’s having with his Stipula Etruria Rainbow Demonstrator. Jim’s pen was a showman’s model he got on sale at Bertram’s Inkwell, so it’s been well-loved. It’s really no surprise that it has a couple of issues.
The lovely gentleman, whose name I can’t recall now, asked to see the pen and carefully scrutinized it. He said the feed was a bit crooked. With permission from Jim, he adjusted it. As I understand, the adjustment helped, but it still gets a little cranky when flexing.
He also took a look at my pen. There wasn’t really anything wrong with it, technically. He separated the tines, just a tiny bit, and it seems to have helped a lot. I still get a very occasional skip on the downstrokes, but nowhere near as much as before. I won’t lie, for writing, my new Edison Pearl is smoother, but the Prisma 88 is just so pretty!!!
The man at Yafa reminded me that Stipula pens have lifetime warranties and that if I have any further problems, I can send it to them for servicing. We’ll see how Prisma’s writing improves/holds up over the next few months.
After Yafa, we decided to head up to the ink testing room. It’s not really what I was expecting. It was very quiet, like a library with about 6 tables were set up in a U shape. The inks were grouped by brand. The concept is fabulous, but the execution was a bit lacking. Very few ink bottles have the color listed on them, so most of what was available to test had no indication of the color name.
Jim and I ended up staying for about 20 minutes to create Col-O-Ring cards for the Pilot Iroshizuku and Kobe inks, as well as a few of the Organics Studio inks (the ones I was sure of the names of) before leaving. Of course, I realized about a day later that the Organics Studio Emily ink was Emily Dickinson, not Emily Brontë. Oops.
Jim wanted to try the Franklin-Christoph table again, and this time it wasn’t quite so crowded. It took him a while to decide between pen bodies. He was stuck between a pearlescent purple and marble-esque black and white. The guy standing next to him explained to us that the guy who poured the acrylic for the black and white pen also does the acrylics for the Kanilea Pen company. Having a back story made the decision. Jim likes having stuff that has a story. He ended up getting the black and white Omnis with a 1.5 stub calligraphy steel nib.
While he finalized the purchase, and waited to have the nib fitted, I headed over to the Sailor table to get a bottle of ink. It took me a while to decide between Fuji-Musume and Pȇche. The Sailor table was pretty busy, so I scooted around to the side to try to catch someone. One of the guys working the Sailor booth was having a hard time understanding the question a customer was asking. Language barriers are a bitch.
Once they worked things out, I was able to catch his attention and get a bottle of Jentle Pȇche. While he got my change, I decided to give my (very minimal) Japanese a try. I’ve only just started the lessons on Duolingo. I had a furious mental battle over whether it would be appropriate to go with ありがとございます (Arigatōgozaimasu) or if I should stick with ありがとう (Arigatō). I couldn’t remember if the longer version was specific to a situation, and I know Japanese can be a very formal language, so I went with the safe (in my mind) shorter version.
It was nice watching his eyes light up and as he answered with a very sincere “You’re quite welcome.” It can be easy to forget how much it means to people to make a little effort. I asked Jim about it later, and he told me the longer version is a more formal thank you that is ALWAYS appropriate, whereas the shorter version is very informal, more like a “thanks”. Live and learn, I suppose.
I went back to the Franklin-Christoph table where Jim was still waiting to get his nib fitted. Thankfully he wasn’t having it tuned, as that line was a 4+ hour wait! So I searched out our friends to see about lunch options.
A couple of them were going to stay and continue going through the show, but Anthony was ready to head out for lunch. I collected everyone up so that we could say bye to those who were staying, and show off our purchases. Jim joined us once his nib was fitted.
We made our way along an aisle toward the exit, and got distracted by the Anderson Pens table. Jim ended up finding the Blackstone Daintree ink he’s been wanting. I found lots of interestingly named Noodler’s and De Atramentis inks (Mata Hari’s Cordial, Widow Maker, Jeanne d’Arc, Madame de Pompadour, etc.), but without really knowing the colors, I wasn’t willing to commit to a whole bottle.
With some quick good-byes to our friends and a last look at the large room, I left the DC Pen Show feeling as though we’d not allotted enough time or money to the experience. Next year, hopefully, we can go both days. Maybe when I’m not so amazed and overwhelmed by the show, I’ll remember to take more (and better) photos to share. That said, here’s my haul from the pen show, and our combined ink haul.
I had a blast at the 2017 DC Pen Show and look forward to repeating the experience many times in the future. Did you stick around for my entire overview? Leave me a comment to let me know what you thought. Were you there this year? If not, did my overview convince you to go next year? Am I infecting you with the fountain pen virus? I hope so! And come back tomorrow to read the next installment of my Friday Reads series!
