{"id":9892,"date":"2023-03-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=9892"},"modified":"2024-02-04T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T19:22:55","slug":"bwips-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/bwips-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"BWIPS 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last weekend was Baltimore Washington International Pen Show<\/a> (BWIPS<\/a>) weekend. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, or if you know me, then you know BWIPS is my favorite pen show. This year, however, was significantly different than previous years for me and Jim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We attended this year’s BWIPS<\/a> without any responsibilities. We didn’t volunteer, and we didn’t commit to teach any classes. It was nice, from that perspective, to attend a show like “normal” people. We didn’t have to worry about schedules or anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

But, because of Athena’s<\/a> daily shots and pills, we had to drive home in the evening and back in the morning. Parking was a pain in the butt (more on that later). We didn’t have a hotel room to relax, rest, or decompress in. And we were on the go from waking up to falling asleep. Talk about exhausting. We definitely won’t be doing that again if we can help it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were so done in by midday Saturday that we decided to skip Sunday. Granted, work-related and Athena-related stress probably played a large part in our tiredness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Show<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Friday was VERY slow, both from an attendance and a vendor perspective. Bert \u2014 of Bertram’s Inkwell<\/a>, the show organizer \u2014 had previously mentioned that the tables were sold out. However, there were quite a few empty tables. Most of them were full on Saturday, but not all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, some familiar faces were missing, including Ryan Krusac, Ken with Yafa brands, and the usual representatives for Coles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday attendance was significantly higher. We arrived about a half hour before the show opened to the public, and already there wasn’t a single parking spot. I was able to snag one of the last street spots across from the hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, the show itself didn’t feel overly crowded \u2014 at least not while I was in the main room \u2014 but we did spend a lot of time in the lobby to rest our feet, backs, and knees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I planned to do my main shopping on Friday, with potential supplementary shopping on Saturday and Sunday \u2014 which is mostly what happened. My shopping list included ink, Pilot converters, and the dragon pen from Ryan Krusac that I didn’t buy at DC last year. I also had rules for other purchases. I didn’t want to buy anything similar to pens I already own, any blue or purple pens, or any pens just<\/em> for the material, unless it’s something super unique I hadn’t seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much ink at the show. At least not from the brands I wanted. I only picked up one of the five inks on my list. I did, however, pick up a few extras, mostly courtesy of Luxury Brand’s<\/a> ink testing table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I completely forgot about the converters on Friday, but I did pick them up on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, with Ryan not in attendance, I didn’t get that pen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purchases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What I did buy were 5 new inks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n