The Edison Pen Company

The secondary theme for our meetings is always "Newest Acquisitions", and on Thursday, one of our members (Greg) brought a lovely example of a new handcrafted fountain pen he recently acquired. The pen was made by Brian Gray of the Edison Pen Company in Ohio, and it's a stunner:

(click on image to enlarge photo)

Brian makes both customized fountain pens for customers (sold through his website), and non-customized pens (sold through authorized dealers). The one above is from his non-custom line and is the "Collier" model in the Persimmon Swirl pattern. It's a large fountain pen (5.9 inches capped) that does not post, although the length of the barrel (5.1 inches) and width of the pen (0.59 inch) makes it unlikely you'd even need to post it. It's one of the largest fountain pens I've tried, writes beautifully, and, weighing in at 30 grams, is very comfortable to hold. Many thanks to Greg for bringing it to our meeting for all of us to see. It's definitely on my Wish list!

"The Pens You'd Never Sell" -- November 21st meeting

Many thanks to all who attended our November meeting to see "The Pens You'd Never Sell", an old VPC theme that we decided to reuse, as many of our members found the topic of interest. The examples seen on Thursday did not disappoint; we saw irreplaceable pens that were gifts or inheritances from close relatives, pens that were valued for their impeccable writing performance (i.e. their nibs), and treasured pens that commemorated special occasions....and we got to hear the stories behind each pen (something I always enjoy). One of our longtime members, Glenn Marcus, wrote a nice piece about it on his blog here.

I snapped a photo of some of these examples here:

(If you enlarge the image, you can see Graham's Pelikan M640 'Sahara' in muted yellow on one side of his 12-pen case, and his lovely Visconti Divina 'Desert Springs' fountain pen on the case's other side. Those are Glenn's hands---busy scribbling notes for his website article---on the far left of the photo).

Winnipeg pen maker, Dr. Ken Cavers, dropped by to say 'hi' and brought some fine examples of his work to show us. I snapped a couple of photos (see below), but you really have to see the results in person to appreciate the care and craftsmanship that he puts into his work:

(from left to right: two nice examples of bamboo fountain pens, a greenish-blue ebonite fountain pen and a celluloid fountain pen---all handcrafted)

Ken's work is in high demand, so his wait time is over a year for custom commissioned pens, but he does occasionally sell non-commissioned examples on his website- Ken Cavers Custom Pens.

After I posted the above, I realized I'd forgotten to mention that we had two other first-time attendees--Tim's niece Kjensmo (who lives in the U.S) and new VPC member Crispin! New members are always welcome to join our club. If you have any questions, please email me at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our November meeting is the last VPC meeting for 2013, as we don't meet in December. Fear not, though - our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday January 16, 2014 at Perks pen store on Cambie Street, so I hope you can make it! Theme/topic: to be announced.

Cheers,
~Maja

Fountain Pen Day!

Official website: here

November meeting info ~ last meeting of 2013!

Many thanks to all who attended our October meetup at the White Spot restaurant. We're back at Perks for our last meeting of 2013 (as we don't have meetings in December), so here are the details!

Date: Thursday November 21, 2013
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC.
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting)
Theme: "The Pens You'd Never Sell" (and Ink Swap--see below).
This is an old theme that Glenn C. suggested we bring back. Actually, our old topic was limited to just one pen ("The Pen You'd Never Sell"), but you can bring two pens this time :) Our secondary theme is always "Newest Acquisitions" (pen-related).

Ink Swap! We'll be having our twice-annual ink swap at the November meeting. It's completely voluntary, of course, so if you have any ink(s) you are not using and would like to trade with fellow member(s), this is your chance. Bottles do not have to be 100% full and ink cartridges are allowed.

Hope to see you at our November meeting! (no RSVPs required for meetings held at Perks)

Namaste from Nepal!

Just received an email with a letter from our pen club's founder, Tim Conklin, who is in Nepal visiting friends. Tim wanted me to share the letter with the members of our club, so here it is, written with a Parker '45' flighter fountain pen and Cross Black ink:

Thanks for the letter, Tim! Tim will be back in town for our November meeting, and I look forward to chatting with him about his adventures then.

Don't forget that our October meeting will be held next Thursday (October 17th) at the White Spot restaurant inside Oakridge Mall in Vancouver, BC. Meeting starts at 6:00pm and will go to about 8:30pm or so. Please RSVP (only if you'd like to attend) by October 12th at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com so we can save a seat for you. Our October topic/theme will be New Acquisitions (pen-related). Hope to see you there!

Another one!

Mamma mia!

Glenn has just emailed me a photo of another new acquisition made recently on his trip to Italy! This one is the stunning new limited edition OMAS Vintage '360' series in smoke colour: (click on the photo below to see a close-up of this marvelous material)

Glenn writes: "These are stunning pens, with the incredible smooth OMAS nibs. The body and cap have a fine diamond pattern engraved in the cotton resin body." He goes on to say that this is apparently the last colour in the 360 Vintage series, and if you wish to get your hands on one before they sell out (only 360 were made), he recommends contacting Marco or Derick at Novelli@novelli.it (store website here), where Glenn purchased his own pen.

Glenn's (Italian) Pens!

Glenn Marcus, one of our long-time Vancouver Pen Club members, just sent me a couple of photos of two recent acquisitions from his trip to Rome. The fountain pens are so beautiful that I just had to post them on our website (with his permission, of course :)

The first is a scarlet red OMAS Ogiva limited edition in celluloid created for the Novelli Pen shop in Rome. Glenn's particular fountain pen is #2 of 30 pens made, and it "writes like a dream", he says:

The second pen is another OMAS limited edition--an OMAS Extra Lucens in celluloid . Only 331 were produced, and Glenn is one of the lucky few to own this gorgeous fountain pen. In his email, he called it "a sexy pen", and I'm sure you would agree:

(click on images to enlarge)

Many thanks for the photos, Glenn, and congratulations on your two spectacular purchases! You can find photos & reviews of many more great fountain pens (and fountain pen inks, fountain pen-friendly paper & some great pen stores) on Glenn's excellent & informative website, Glenn's Pens.