Well, I went to the pen show with good intentions. But, I blew my budget completely out of the water before noon on Friday. I have zero regrets, but I had planned to be good. On the plus side, no one slipped a free case of COVID in my bag this year. Yay!
Before I get started, let me say, I had a blast. It was great to see everyone, especially friends I only get to see at pen shows. I must also acknowledge, though, that it’s also exhausting. I don’t socialize like that other than at pen shows, and it definitely takes a lot out of me.
Jump to a section: Show thoughts | ⇣ Classes | ⇣ Pen case prototype| ⇣ Preparation vs. reality | ⇣ Day-by-day | ⇣ My haul
Show thoughts
I’ve reviewed the DC Pen Show a couple of times now, so I won’t go into depth in this post.
The good
I have to give kudos where they are due; the signage this year was excellent. There were signs in and around the elevators, signs pointing out all of the various rooms, and even large signs to ensure everyone knew there were tables in the back corner of the hallway outside of room 3.
The vendors were also more varied this year, with significantly more “pen adjacent” vendors — think wax seals, stickers and washi tape, etc. — and even some completely vendors with goods completely unrelated to stationery.
There was also an extra area downstairs this year — Room 4. I wouldn’t classify this as “good” necessarily, but it certainly wasn’t bad, so it fits better here.
The not-so-good
I have to mention the sheer amount of everything at the show. Even as a show veteran — 2 shows yearly since 2018 and some extras sprinkled in — the DC show is a lot. The number of people, the crowding, the noise level, and the number of tables all combine to make the show rather overwhelming.
The Vanness Pen Lounge offers some respite, but mostly when classes aren’t happening. I’m well aware that there isn’t really space for one, but the show could really use a true quiet room. I escaped to the bathroom or my hotel room a few times when it all got to be too much.
The bad
The show continues to suffer from some of the same accessibility issues it has in past years, virtually all of which are caused by the show outgrowing the hotel. Mainly, the aisles are too narrow and the show is overcrowded, especially on Saturday.
Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy solution. As I mentioned in my BWIPS 2024 post, it’s not just a matter of finding a bigger hotel. If you have accessibility needs and want to attend the DC Show, I’d advise coming on Friday afternoon or Sunday morning to have the best chance of accessing everything. Is that fair? No. But I don’t know when, or if, the current problems will be solved.
Jump to a section: ⇡ Show thoughts | Classes | ⇣ Pen case prototype| ⇣ Preparation vs. reality | ⇣ Day-by-day | ⇣ My haul
Classes
Like at BWIPS, I taught two classes at the DC show. The first was Habits to Start Early in the Fountain Pen Hobby on Friday afternoon. The turnout was higher than I expected based on BWIPS attendance, so I may keep teaching that class and ask for Friday afternoon or Saturday mid-morning.
The second was Fountain Pen Cosplay that I taught with Alex Friendly. Unlike the BWIPS class, where I focused on information about cosplay in general and how to make it work for fountain pens, this time we focused on the practical aspects of fountain pen cosplay. We made sure to include answers to many of the questions I received at the BWIPS class, including the best tools and products to use and our favorite brands. Attendance was a little lower than I’d hoped, but that may be because it was on Sunday.
Jump to a section: ⇡ Show thoughts | ⇡ Classes | Pen case prototype| ⇣ Preparation vs. reality | ⇣ Day-by-day | ⇣ My haul
Pen case prototype
Recently, I’ve fallen hard down the crochet rabbit hole. I’ve been making amigurumi — small, stuffed, crochet plushies — which is nice, but I wanted to make something more useful. So, I started developing my own wearable pen case. I managed to finish three prototypes before the show to allow for some testing. Two were for friends, one was for me, but I ended up giving it to a friend.
I was pleased with how the case wore throughout the show. None of them showed any signs of problems despite all of us fidgeting with them quite a bit. We all received a lot of comments and questions about the cases, so I may end up selling some at shows once I’ve finished refining the design and come up with a name for it. I also had some interest in the pattern, so if I can figure out how to appropriately describe the trickiest bit, I may make that available. Let me know if you’d be interested in either.
Jump to a section: ⇡ Show thoughts | ⇡ Classes | ⇡ Pen case prototype| Preparation vs. reality | ⇣ Day-by-day | ⇣ My haul
Preparation vs. reality
Although I started my preparation late (as I mentioned in my Pen Show Planning post) I did a decent amount of preparation for the DC show, not that it helped all that much.
I put together several layouts in a Filofax Mini binder. My intention was to use it as my wallet so I’d have everything in one place.
The schedule layout was nice, since I could look at the whole day at a glance for planning purposes.
The purchase tracker worked at the beginning of the show, but as it got busier, I became more reluctant to write down what I was buying and how much I spent for fear of blocking people unnecessarily. The plan was to write down where I shopped, how much I spent, and whether I used cash or card, since I never remember where I spent my cash. I think I need a better system, but I don’t know what.
My “must see” list was most useful. I was able to write down every table I wanted to see and what room they were in. Then, I crossed them off as I stopped by. I made it to all but 2 of my 32 must-see tables, much better than previous years.
I had a couple of other items, including a card reminding me that I don’t need everything (shown above) and a QR code for the pen show map. I didn’t need the QR code, the URL is easy enough, https://penshowmaps.com, and having visited once, Chrome remembered the URL and brought it up as an autofill suggestion.
Jump to a section: ⇡ Show thoughts | ⇡ Classes | ⇡ Pen case prototype| ⇡ Preparation vs. reality | Day-by-day | ⇣ My haul
Day-by-day
I can’t write a pen show post without sharing at least some of what I did each day. But, if that’s not of interest to you, feel free to jump down to my haul.
Friday
Friday was the main day I was bad. It’s the day I went crazy with my purchases, the day I bought three pens. I had two nib appointments, one with Matthew Chen that I signed up for early Friday morning, and one with J.J. Lax that I pre-booked. I got a cursive oblique from both of them as a continuation of my goal to collect an oblique nib from as many nibmeisters as possible.
I had planned to have a neat, orderly walk-through of the show on Friday, but that never happened. Between nib appointments, my habits class at 2pm, and wanting to greet and chat with specific people, I think I only saw about 1/4 to 1/3 of the show on Friday.
I also made some trades on Friday. Marty — if you’ve been to a pen show, you’ve seen him at the Dromgoole’s Retro 51 table — was able to find a Wings of the Monarch rollerball that he traded me for the fountain pen version. I also traded him some other Retro 51s for the Tactile Turn 16-Bit short edition. Not the best trade in the world, that one, but I got to offload three “for sale” pens at once, which was nice.
While at his table, the adorable Yuki Cat pattern caught my eye for how much it looks like Floofenstein. I picked up a Fillmore case with the 6-pen interior configuration.
The major, unexpected happening of Friday was the lack of post-show activities. Many of the people traveling to the show hit terrible weather, with lots of stories of flight diversions and extended drives. As a result, some vendors and attendees were absent or very late on Friday. Some local people stayed up downstairs after dinner, but it was a significantly smaller crowd than one usually finds on a Friday night. Jim decided to not go down at all, turning in early instead, and I went back upstairs after only about 45 minutes.
Saturday
I had two more nib appointments scheduled for Saturday. I got a perspective grind on a B nib from Gena and a cursive oblique grind on my Leonardo x NibsAndFlourishes Aster Bouquet from Damien.
I had a much more organized show walk through, and managed to see almost every table — some were too crowded to get close to — crossing off most of the remaining “must see” items on my list.
Somewhere in my rambles I caught sight of the most adorable pen case and was pointed to Sugar Turtle Studio when I asked where to find it. Unfortunately, they are not currently available to purchase, although the post says that they will eventually be available online.
A former colleague of mine — lucky man has since retired — came to the DC show for a short time to check it out. It was his first pen show, so I led him through rooms 2 and 4 since they had the widest variety of vendors. While he didn’t say so, I have a feeling the show was rather overwhelming for him. He did mention that it was much bigger than he expected.
After the show ended, Jim and I went upstairs to our room to eat our leftovers from Friday’s dinner, and I ended up having a nap. But, we pulled ourselves together in plenty of time to head downstairs for after-show shenanigans.
I don’t know if it was the lack of post-show shenanigans on Friday, the state of the country right now, a combination, or something else entirely, but there seemed to be much more alcohol flowing on Saturday night than usual. And, as a result, there was much more noise, significantly dirtier jokes and conversations, and much more shenanigans. But, everyone seemed to be having a great time. Jim and I both stayed up way past our bedtimes, but it was worth it.
Sunday
While Sunday wasn’t dead, it was certainly slower than Friday had been. Perhaps spurred on my the bad trips to the show, more vendors left early than usual.
Despite the lower attendance, the cosplay class had more, and a wider diversity of, attendees than I expected. It went well, although Alex and I had to ad lib a bit since we’d focused on information for people who wear cosmetics, and we had some attendees who did not. But, I think they still got some good information out of the class, and one older gentleman commented that he had gained a new appreciation for his daughter’s hobbies.
One of Jim and my mutual friends came to the show Sunday afternoon, so I led her around to a few vendors as part of my goodbye walk-through. I made sure to have my semi-annual drool over the Namiki Emperor Goldfish pen and discovered the Mark’s paper survey. I’m not sure if they have partnered with, or been purchased by, Pilot, but they were looking to gain a better understanding of western paper use, similar to the writing survey from a couple of years ago. I took the survey and chose one of the smaller Edit notebooks as my free gift.
I managed to make it through the rest of my farewell walk-through without purchasing the Platinum Shape of a Heart bluebird, but it was a close call. I had to keep reminding myself that I have the exact same pen in a different colorway in the Chai Latte.
Jump to a section: ⇡ Show thoughts | ⇡ Classes | ⇡ Pen case prototype| ⇡ Preparation vs. reality | ⇡ Day-by-day | My haul
My haul
There’s a good chance you’ve already seen my Instagram post. But, if you haven’t, my haul photo below will show just how far overboard I went. I haven’t had a haul like this in years, and, to be honest, never expected to again.
While I won’t go into much detail, I ended up with:
- 3 fountain pens (and associated goodies) — there will be pen porn posts
- 2 rollerball pens — these were trades — (and associated goodies)
- 4 nib grinds
- 2 pen cases
- 4 bottles of ink
- 8 ink samples
- 4 small notebooks (one 3-pack and one freebie)
- 1 set of bookmarks
- 4 cards (3 purchased, 1 gifted)
- 8 rolls of washi tape
- 3 rolls of PET tape (gifted)
- 1 stamp
- 16(ish) stickers
- Some chocolate nommables
- 3 enamel pins
- 3 pairs of earrings
- 2 fidget toys
- And a partridge in a pear tree *giggle*
To be fair to myself, most of my purchases were bits and bobs that added up. But I certainly wasn’t expecting to pick up three fountain pens. At least one of them crosses off a wish list item — thank you, Drewnem Pisane.
Jump to a section: ⇡ Show thoughts | ⇡ Classes | ⇡ Pen case prototype| ⇡ Preparation vs. reality | ⇡ Day-by-day | ⇡ My haul
Overall, it was an excellent pen show. I’m looking forward to attending the San Francisco pen show for the first time in a few weeks, but I wish I had more time to recover from DC.
If you want to see the show for yourself, check out Mike Matteson‘s video, LIVE from the DC Fountain Pen Supershow 2025!.
Did you attend the 2025 DC Pen Show? If so, what did you get? If not, do you have plans to attend any other show this year? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.
Gena’s Perspective nib is one of the best grinds out there. I love a cursive italic but the Perspective is so versatile and usable day to day.