My love of Stanford Pen Studio (SPS) started with the first pen I commissioned from them back in 2022. This was when they were still Stanford Wood Studio, and before they began collaborating with other artists. But even then, Di and Dave Möhr were making gorgeous works of art.




Since then, SPS has carved out a large name for themselves in the pen world and my pen collection. I own more pens from them than from any other indie maker — 10, and soon to be 11! I only own 6 from the next most prevalent indie brand in my collection.
That love is what inspired me to reach out to Di to collaborate on this post. And, thankfully, she agreed! Jim added to the idea, suggesting I also have a post for each of SPS’s partner artists. So, make sure you subscribe to see those posts, check the tag page, or come back to this post because I’m going to link to each artist’s post as it goes live — which will be in the order I received their answers.
SPS Series Posts: SPS Overview | Brandon Lodewyk | Carla Nel | Di Möhr | Hanna Farmer | Kseniia Nel | Lana Le Roux | Lisa Strachan | Val Myburgh | Yulia Glas | Zelna le Roux | Initial Wrap-Up
For today, though, the focus is on SPS and the questions Di answered for me. Before we jump in, I want to make it clear, that I’m not affiliated with SPS, I’m just an avid collector. It was my idea to reach out, and I’m not receiving anything for this blog series.
What is the #1 thing you’d like people to know about Stanford Pen Studio?
We get such a thrill out of making these beautiful works of art and we would like our clients to feel that same pleasure-rush whenever they write with one of them.
I think it’s fair to say that they have certainly succeeded! I love each of my SPS pens, in part because they are unique works of art. When I describe SPS pens to people unfamiliar with them, my go-to is “works of fine art that happen to write.”
What instigated your transition to only making pens?
We met while doing an MBA and were both “suits” for the first part of our careers, but needed to get off the corporate freeway as we were forever stressed and never fulfilled. We saved up and went to live in a wilderness area, with Dave rebuilding a derelict barn into a wonderful home, making virtually everything by hand.
By the early 2020s we were living in Stanford, making kit pens from indigenous woods, and Dave was building wooden strip-built kayaks, the first of which took a full year to complete. COVID arrived and overnight we had to shut up shop and rethink: who are we and what do we want to be doing?




Making and selling things online made sense, but a 20 foot kayak would be difficult to export from South Africa, and a $15 kit pen does not make sense to export when your courier cost is $35. We were fascinated to find that people were making complete fountain pens without using kits.



Dave has always relished a technical challenge and started figuring out how to make complete fountain pens on his lathes, and I taught myself how to make resin pen blanks.

How has it felt to so drastically increase in renown and reputation in the past couple of years?
We came for the pens; we’ve stayed for the people. The fountain pen community is made up of the kindest, warmest, most supportive people one could hope to encounter and our clients make our work a genuine pleasure. Plus working with the artists is fantastic.
We feel lucky to interact with such creative geniuses who are at the same time down-to-earth and completely authentic. Artists obviously need financial reward, but in addition they thrive on people giving positive feedback about their work. The fountain pen community is delightful in showing their new pens and talking about how thrilled they are with their discoveries. We would like to encourage this!!!
We also work really, really hard. Dave and I try to take Sundays off, though we are not always successful at that. So when we get new followers on Instagram or Facebook, or a new client discovers our pens (and often comes back for more), we feel elated.
Alright, you heard (read) the lady, make sure you tag both SPS and the artist who painted it when you post pretty pictures of your pretty SPS pens. *grin*
Do you miss personally working on art pens (e.g. beaded, thread-wrapped, dotted)?
Yes! I have a 70% completed pen painting sitting on my work table that has been there for nearly a year. And I took my Japanese Miyuki beads out the other day. But I have to be disciplined and decide what the most valuable role is that I can play in the business so as to keep us growing.
I also desperately want to be Dave’s understudy in the workshop, though that has also got to fit in between my other work. Just by the way, Lana, who has been with us for just over a year and was expected to help only on the admin side, is amazingly multi-talented and in addition to admin, mixing resin colours to match sections to artworks, painting pens as an artist, interacting with clients, making pen blanks, etc., etc., she has already mastered many of the operations on the lathe! I am in awe.
And we reach the downside — for lack of a better word — to being a maker. You want to do everything, but there are only so many hours in a day. Does anyone have a time turner? Or a TARDIS?
How did your first artist collaboration happen? Did you approach the artist, or did they approach you?
We asked Val Myburgh, an artist friend, to design our logo, and while chatting, we showed her that Lisa (@permies.world) had painted onto the bodies of some commercially available pens. Val was intrigued, so we asked Lisa if she would mind if we tried something similar. She could not have been more gracious and said she intended painting pens as a hobby, rather than as a business, gave us her blessing, and wished us every success. So, this is what started us on this path. The reception we received from the fountain pen community was amazing. It was clear we had made something unique and that pen lovers were keen to own an original work of art on a pen.




I am, admittedly, biased, but I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t love to have an original work of art in portable — read as “pen” — form. And I find it fascinating that we have Permies.World to thank for this pen venture. Although, I can’t imagine that SPS wouldn’t have come up with the idea on their own at some point.
How did the recent expansions get started (the pen/knife set, the metal overlay pen, etc.)?
It is in our natures to keep innovating. We are also lucky to come into contact with people in related fields who are as passionate about their work as we are about ours. Inspired by Paul Rossi’s creations, we did a 3-way collaboration to create a pen with a silver overlay inlaid with gold, featuring the ancient Egyptian Sun god Ra and Kehpri, plus a companion hand-painted pen on the same theme. The silver overlay was designed by Val, and carved by Kevin Harvey, an internationally renowned bladesmith who engraves intricate patterns on his hand-made knives, and happens to be my brother-in-law. Val also painted the matching pen and the set is absolutely beautiful.


Through Kevin we got to meet Des Horn who lives in a neighbouring town and has been recognised as one of the greatest living knifemakers. Des was keen to collaborate on a matching fountain pen and folding knife set. We have collaborated on two sets so far, one painted with a dreamy underwater scene Jules Verne-type scene by Hanna Farmer and the other called The Wild Horses of the Camargue by Zelna le Roux (currently available). Both Hanna and Zelna managed to fit so much detail on to these tiny, tiny surfaces that it convinced me they must have magical superpowers.




From a fan/customer perspective, it’s been great to watch SPS’ evolution over the years. Given that Jim is a knife person, I could see an SPS knife joining the pen party at our house. I was fortunate enough to see Val’s overlay and painted pens at the DC Pen Show. They were truly exquisite.
Is there any other media you want to try on your pens?
Not new media so much as new models. We are planning a crowdfunding campaign at the end of November that will feature a new, svelte model intended for people who prefer a thinner, shorter pen compared to our current Jabulani model. It will be at a lower price and in future our aim is to offer this model to selected retailers. We would also love to create a larger model (with a working title of “Stonker”) that would take a #8 nib and Dave has a yen to design a vacuum filler, though this will still take a while.
I have begun learning how to grind nibs and am having fun testing lots of interesting shapes. We have thought about working with a university to make our own nibs, though this is on the backburner, and one day I should really like to be able to do special grinds on gold nibs. So much to do, so little time!!
There’s no question that there are big plans in SPS’ future. I’m keeping an eye out for the crowdfunding campaign. And points to Di for teaching herself nib work.
What is your favorite part of your pen-making process?
I get such a kick out of people buying our pens and letting us know how delighted they are when they receive them and write with them. Dave enjoys tackling technical challenges and figuring out how to do something he has never done before.
Thankfully, us pen people aren’t shy about sharing our pretty new pens.





Looking back now, is there anything you would do differently?
What an interesting question. I wish we had started down this path 10 years ago.
Many thanks to Di for her willingness to collaborate on this post! One of my favorite things about the work coming out of SPS is how clear it is that the artists are enjoying themselves. SPS partners and collaborates with the artists; the artists aren’t employees, and get a right of refusal on any commission that comes in.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about Stanford Pen Studio and that you’re eager to learn more about their artist partners. If you want to learn even more about SPS, check out the article about them in Pen World Magazine, the short article on Your Luxury Africa, and visit their Instagram, Facebook, and website.
Do you own an SPS pen? If not, do you want one? Are you considering an SPS commission? 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.
I love reading your posts! Very talented ❤️
Thank you, Yulia!
Thank you so much, Rachel. You put so much work, and passion, into each of your posts and we are honoured that you decided to shine your spotlight on our work in this lovely post.
Di, I can say the same thing about Stanford Pen Studio pens. I’m honored to own so many! 🙂