2024 DC Pen Show

I’m alive! Mostly. I’m still sick as I write this. Someone dropped a free case of COVID in my DC Pen Show shopping bag. And, since I don’t know who did it, I can’t even return it. *sigh* So, please forgive how long it took me to get this written and posted.

That said, I had a blast at the DC Pen Show this year. As I mentioned in my pen show prep post, I had an initial shopping list to get me started:

• 2 broad Jowo nibs
  For my nibmeister appointments
• 3-pen case
• Diamine Sailor’s Warning
  I needed this after the Wistful Watermelon/Sailor’s Warning battle. And I was hoping to get a bottle with the Sailor’s Warning label (rather than the new Red Sky label).

I also wanted to see some ink swatches in person. I’d seen them on Instagram, and they looked great, but cameras lie, even unintentionally, so I try not to buy ink without at least seeing swatches in person.

• Colorverse Gold Rush (?)
• Herbin Nude (?)
• Colorverse Winter of Mudeung (?)
• DeAtramentis Pearlescent Red (?)

For those unfamiliar with the DC Pen Show, here is a screenshot of the interactive show map so you know where the rooms were. At the time of posting, the map is still up, so you can take a look at it if you’re curious.

Now, get yourself a snack, because this is a fairly long post on what I got up to each day.

Friday

While I’d planned to do all of my minimal shopping on Friday, it turned into a socialization day with a bit of ink shopping. I spent some time with Akhila and Nirmal — Smruti Pens — to set up the Glass By Ariel pieces they’d agreed to host before setting out to start my show.

My first real stop was at Jonathon’s — Carolina Pen Co — table to pick up two broad Jowo nibs for my nib appointments. Then, I made my way through Room 2 and then the outer perimeter of Room 3. I think Friday’s attendance was a bit lower than usual, as the vendors all seemed to have more time to chat than in previous years. But I did make sure to stand off to the side of the table to not block the view from shoppers.

When I stopped by Damien’s — All in the Nib — table, he had my stacked reverse chimera pre-order ready for me. I got to sit and test it before he packed it up for me. I’m very much looking forward to playing with it more once I’m more myself again.

I must admit, though, that the highlights of Friday were my nib appointment with Gena — Custom Nib Studio — and my Inky Messes class with Azizah — Gourmet Pens.

This was my first appointment with Gena, and their nibs are fantastically smooth and wet! I requested an italic left-foot oblique on a B nib. Because I got so many specialty nibs at the show — 5! — I’ll dedicate a post to them later.

Between my nib appointment and my class, I managed to make my way over to Ralph’s — Regalia Writing Labs — section of the Nahvalur table. Unlike with his Instagram nib drops, I managed to snag a Crossflex nib.

Somewhere in there is also when Jim arrived and I was able to grab my contribution to the DC Pen Show-run Share the Wealth table. I collect up items between pen shows — ink, inexpensive pens, notebooks, washi tape, etc. — and donate them at both Baltimore and DC. Way better than throwing things away that you don’t like or no longer need.

My class with Azizah was the first paid class I’ve taken at a pen show, and I can’t recommend it enough. By happenstance, the Friday class was all women and we had a blast! When you’re blowing ink around, you can imagine the fun innuendos we came up with. I really liked the art I created, and am working on another one that combines what I learned from Azizah’s class and my class from Saturday.

Friday night was, of course, all about socializing, per usual. But, the vintage pen event must have run over, as there were less people hanging out in the lobby than usual. On the plus side, it meant I went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Saturday

As one would expect, the show was significantly busier on Saturday. It really brought home how much the DC Show either needs to limit vendors or find a new venue. There were many bottlenecks, with the rows becoming uncomfortably tight in several places if anyone stopped to look at a table. I lost count of how many spots were impossible, or nearly so, for people with mobility devices to pass through, even when people moved out of the way for them.

Outside of that, it was another fun show day. I did even more socializing, including catching up with some people I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to the day before. I also made sure to spend some time in Room 1, since I hadn’t really looked at anything there on Friday.

I’d scheduled a nib appointment with JC — Nib Tailor — for right before lunch, but I hadn’t decided what I wanted. Jim knew what he wanted, and hadn’t gotten an appointment, so I gave him mine. I did want to try out JC’s tester nibs, though, so I took a seat and started writing. About three nibs in, I had the brilliant idea to start a nib reference. So, I switched to my mini 5 notebook and started writing. Then I turned and went across the aisle to Gena’s table, as they had a seat open, and tested all of their nibs.

But, I made a mistake, sort of. I tested Gena’s Spencerian mod. You likely know I love my Spencerian nib from StyloSuite. Gena’s gets almost as much line variation, but is slightly smoother and doesn’t require as much pressure. I’m assuming some of this is the difference between a steel (StyloSuite) and a 14K gold nib, but I’m sure some is just in how the two approach their modifications. Anyway, after testing Gena’s Spencerian, I seriously wanted one, but they could only be purchased with the pen body — a Custom Heritage 912 — and my goal was not to buy any pens. So I made myself think about it for a while.

Ultimately, I decided to buy it, with the justification that I won’t be keeping the body, so I was really just buying a nib. I haven’t decided, yet, if I’ll buy a different pen body and swap nibs, or if I’ll ask an indie pen maker to make me a different body and cap to house the nib.

After lunch, I got to have a fun new experience. I’ve been a “pen show guide” before, having introduced three pen-curious people to shows so far, but never quite like this. Instead of pointing out my favorite materials, or where to go to find the best art pens, etc., this tour focused on pen knowledge.

My padawan was helping their partner run a table, but was very new to the pen world. I didn’t sense much interest in pens, so much as an interest in understanding the pen world. So, I tailored my route to explaining the benefits of nib grinds, the differences between indie makers and manufacturers, and pen adjacent items commonly found at shows. What I didn’t count on was how much I would get to learn. Tim — Turnt Pen Co — and Sean — London Pen Co — both had great discussions with us about making materials and the difference between various types of materials. That was a lot of fun.

I dropped my padawan off back at his table before running up to my second class of the show, Candace’s — Inks.And.Anchors — Doodling with Fountain Pens. Like with Azizah’s class, I liked the art I created, and have doodled some more since then. My goal with both was to get out of my head and just let myself have fun with art. Azizah and Candace definitely helped me accomplish that.

Of course, I indulged in the post-show hangout. It was fairly quiet at first, as the Black Pen Society meeting and Wajima Recovery Auction were both happening. Had I had more funds available for the show, I would have gone to the auction, but the starting prices for items I was interested in were more than I could comfortably spend.

Jim and I both had fun socializing. Remembering the discomfort I had from the noise levels last year, I brought along a fidget cube that significantly helped when I wasn’t engrossed in a conversation. I didn’t get all jittery this year. We still turned in fairly early compared to others. I think we went upstairs around 11:30.

Sunday

All I had left on Sunday was my nib appointment with Damien. But, I walked around some, enjoying some more socializing. To be honest, though, my social battery was maxed out for the rest of the year at that point. But, I knew I wouldn’t see most of the people until next year’s Baltimore show, and some not until DC next year, so it was worth pushing through the burnout.

Jim took me to see the pen he’d purchased from seY, although it wasn’t quite done and would be shipped to him after completion. While there, I spotted a beautiful butterfly pen, and ran away before I could be tempted. When he found me later, Jim mentioned that it had already been sold, so I wouldn’t have to worry about battling my self-control.

I made a point to stop at JJ’s — J.J. Lax Pen Co — table to create a reference sheet for his nibs as well. He was still setting up, so I didn’t have to worry about taking up space. Then I wandered over to Damien’s table to get an italic left foot oblique grind on a spare Sailor nib I was gifted a bit ago. And I created a nib reference sheet for his nibs as well.

I stopped at Les’ — StyloSuite — table for a bit of flexible nib fun, but ceded the main seat when someone else showed up, as I wasn’t planning to buy anything.

There wasn’t much time after that before checkout, so I made my way out to the lobby stopping at Matthew’s — Matthew’s Nibworks — table. While I didn’t have the time, or money left, to get another nib grind, he was kind enough to let me test out his sample nibs as well.

By the time I was done, Jim and I needed to check out, and decided to just head home as well. I still had to pack up the remaining Glass by Ariel pieces to ship back before her next event, and that took us well past lunch. Neither of us were particularly eager to make a final sweep of the show to say good-bye to everyone, so we just snuck out. Hopefully no one was offended. If anyone was, I’m sorry, we were tired and hungry.

The Forgotten

Because I lied to myself that I would remember what I wanted, I didn’t write down items I thought about getting while at the show. So, after we were most of the way home, I remembered that I hadn’t gotten around to picking up a Pilot con-40 converter — I’m a weirdo who hates the con-70. I realized a little later that I’d also forgotten to pick up a pretty nib holder for my Kakimori nib and a rod or three of material to get made into pendants.

That’ll teach me to not write things down.

No, it won’t. I forget to write things down all the time.

My Haul

I’m really happy with my tidy haul. I managed to keep to my goal of making this a nib show. The eggshell urushi pen you can see in the photos is one that Diwakar — District Urushi — has had for a while. Since I didn’t make it to the July DC Pen Crew meetup, he brought it to me at the show. So it doesn’t count as a pen show purchase.

I picked up five bottles of ink:

• Colorverse Winter of Mudeung
• Colorverse Gold Rush
• Colorverse Blue Dragon Glistening Blue
• Colorverse Lucky Cosmos
• Dominant Industry Autumn Forest

I also ended up with 6 total nibs:

• Jowo B, ground to italic oblique by Gena
• Pilot FA nib with a Spencerian mod by Gena (came in a CH 912 body)
• Reverse Chimera grind on a PenSloth double stack nib by Damien
• Sailor F, ground to italic oblique by Damien
• Crossflex nib by Ralph
• Jowo B, originally meant to be ground by JC.

I got my 3-pen case; I chose the one by Girologio. I did not, however, find Diamine Sailor’s Warning. Throw in some stickers, materials from my classes, a few items from the Share the Wealth table, some Jinji chocolate bars, and a pair of adorable 3D-printed dragon-like creatures, and that’s my haul. I think it may be my smallest pen show haul ever. You can see additional pictures on my Instagram post.

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Did you go to the DC Pen Show? If so, what did you do and what kinds of things did you pick up? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

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