{"id":16126,"date":"2025-12-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=16126"},"modified":"2025-12-09T20:08:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:08:46","slug":"2025-brand-discoveries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2025-brand-discoveries\/","title":{"rendered":"My 2025 Brand “Discoveries”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Another year almost gone! How? Regardless, it’s time to start my end of year retrospective<\/a> posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gentle reminder, this isn’t a list of brands I didn’t know about before this year. It’s a list of pens I purchased this year from brands I’ve never purchased from before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time since I started the brand discoveries post in 2021, I actually purchased from more new brands this year than last year<\/a>. I purchased pens from 4 new-to-my-collection brands, and added pens from three new Stanford Pen Studio artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Drewnem Pisane<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Drewnem<\/a>
Orion Magic Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I finally did it! After about three years of lusting after Drewnem Pisane’s pens, I finally picked one up at the DC Pen Show this year. It’s gorgeous, and there will almost certainly be more floral pens in my future. There is also an experiment in the works; *fingers crossed* that it goes well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schon Dsgn<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Schon
The Machined Pen v2 in 3D Bronze<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I made the mistake \u2014 *cough* excellent decision *cough* \u2014 of sitting down at Schon Dsgn’s table at the San Francisco Pen Show and testing out their nibs. I hadn’t understood the Monoch hoopla up to that point. But then I tested the cursive Monoch and fell in love. Which meant I needed a pen to put it in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been waiting for a Schon Dsgn pen to grab me, as none of the designs had made me say “I need<\/em> that.” This guy, though, felt like a great accompaniment to the Monoch, and I also picked up the ballpoint section so I can use it more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zek Pens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Zek<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Zek<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’d never heard of Zek Pens before I came across their table at the DC Pen Show. I had such a hard time choosing between these two pens that I picked them both up. They are both hand-painted, and, though completely different, beautiful works of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tactile Turn<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Tactile
Side Click Mini Icefall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\"Tactile
Side Click Short 16-Bit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I fell in love with the texture and color of the Icefall at the Baltimore Pen Show, and it turned out to be a nice pen. Then I was able to trade for the 16-Bit at the DC Pen Show<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stanford Pen Studio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Stanford<\/a>
Intwana Chameleon with Carla Nel’s art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"SPS<\/a>
Intwana Seahorse with Lisa Strachan’s art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Stanford<\/a>
Intwana Kitten with Brandon Brandon Lodewyk’s art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Stanford
Jabulani Bi Pride with Lana le Roux’s art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lana, Carla, Lisa, Brandon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically, all of these are last year’s pens, because that’s when I ordered\/commissioned them. But, they all arrived this year, so I’m counting them. Of course, Stanford Pen Studio isn’t new to my collection, but the artists who painted these pens are. Unfortunately, with as crazy as life has been this year, I haven’t managed to get a pen porn post up for Lana’s pen, but the other three all have posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Have you purchased anything from any of the brands on my list? Do you plan to? Or do you want to? Let me know in the comments! I love hearing from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure to subscribe to my blog<\/a> or follow me on Instagram<\/a> so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I purchased from 4 new brands in 2025, breaking a multi-year trend. Find out which brands, and what I got from them.<\/p>\n

Keep ReadingMy 2025 Brand “Discoveries”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[458,437,169,461,279,462,454],"class_list":["post-16126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fountain-pens","tag-drewnem-pisane","tag-end-of-year","tag-retrospective","tag-schon-dsgn","tag-stanford-wood-studio","tag-tactile-turn","tag-zek-pens","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/brandDiscoveries2025_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Z77k-4c6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8911,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2022-brand-discoveries\/","url_meta":{"origin":16126,"position":0},"title":"My 2022 Brand “Discoveries”","author":"Rachel","date":"December 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I \"discovered\" quite a few brands in 2022. 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