Saturday, September 29, 2012

Happy Autumn! (October meeting details & more!)

~ Japanese maple (momiji) in beautiful Miyajima, Japan; photo taken November 2008 ~

Many thanks to all who attended our September meeting. It appears the cold & flu season has started up already, as evidenced by some of the emails I've received from members who were unable to attend that meeting. As an aside, there is no pressure to attend all VPC meetings---we realize that not all topics are of interest to everyone, and of course, many members have work & family commitments, etc. Oh, and the only RSVPs we require are for meetings held outside of Perks.

Now, here are the details about our upcoming meeting!

Date: Thursday October 18, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: French Fountain Pens (note: these can be French brands such as: Cartier, Dupont, Michel Perchin, Recife, Stypen, Jean-Pierre Lépine, Oldwin, Stylomine, Edacoto, Bayard, Unic, Gold Starry, Météore, Mallat & others....OR fountain pens made in France, by companies such as Waterman, Parker, et al.)

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Hope to see you there!

Seattle Pen Club -- October meeting in Bellingham, WA: The Seattle Pen Club (SPC) is planning to have their October meeting in Bellingham, WA on Saturday October 20th (pending approval by the Bellingham Public Market, the proposed venue) and Vancouver Pen Club members are warmly invited to attend. Normally, SPC meetings are held in Seattle, but a couple of times a year they have them in Bellingham to make it easier for folks in northwest WA state & the Lower Mainland to attend. The Bellingham meetings are normally held in the morning, usually from 11:00am to 2:00pm or so, but check your Inboxes for details re: exact time & place once I get them from SPC President George Long. Please check their website at SeattlePenClub.com. for more info on this active & friendly pen club.

Future VPC Topics/Themes: "Sheaffer Fountain Pens" will be our November 15th meeting theme/topic, and will include both modern & vintage Sheaffers. We don't have meetings in December due to the holiday season, but we'll be back in January 2013 with some great new topics, such as: Vintage Pencils, Calligraphy Pens, Limited & Special Editions, Demonstrator Fountain Pens and a topic that that Bruce calls "Errors of Commission" (pens which have been commissioned from a maker and sold under a house name). Many thanks to Bob Morgan for October's theme/topic of French Fountain Pens.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Flexy Nibs!

We had a good turnout for our September meeting two days ago---15 members braved the heat & humidity of a late summer's evening (well, it was warm inside the store) to see some very cool fountain pens with flexible nibs.
(first three pics courtesy of Richard, the rest taken--poorly--by myself, Maja ;)
Photo above (L to R): Charles, me, Sam & Graham chuckling as I attempt to fill my ultra-flexy Blackbird twist-filler with ink.
I brought a few pens with flex--an Eversharp Skyline, an English-made Waterman lever-filler, a Parker Vac in the Demi size, a no-name lever-filler with a three-tined music nib, the Blackbird (made by Swan) and a Noodler's Ahab. Sam brought some nice examples of Ti(Titanium)-nibbed pens with flex (or perhaps "with spring" is a more accurate description; there's also some nice 'feedback' with Ti-nibbed pens)---an OMAS Emotica, a Stipula Modello T and a Delta Titanio---and Graham brought some gold-nibbed examples, including his Pelikan M1050, and a couple of steel-nibbed flex pens by Noodler's (the Ahab & Konrad)
Photo above (L to R): Graham, Ralph & Mike M enjoying a well-attended meeting.
Photo above (L to R): Mike M, Dexter, Greg S, Bruce & Anne (in foreground), all watching intently.
Greg brought several examples of vintage fountain pens with very flexible nibs (his three Salz pens) & semi-flexible nibs (Noodler's original flex pen, Noodler's Ahab and a Conway Stewart), as well as some pens whose nibs have little to no flex to them (TWSBI 540, Pelikan M200, Pilot VP), just for comparison. Bruce brought his wonderful CONID bulk-filler with Titanium nib, a recent acquisition.
Greg talking about the pens he brought:
Writing samples of the pens Greg demo'd at the meeting (click on image to enlarge--sorry for the blurry photo!):
Charles brought a pen with an interesting nib (see photo below)-- a Visconti Rembrandt fountain pen with a very flexible 0.5mm italic nib (only available as part of the Visconti Rembrandt calligraphy set) that produced the lovely copperplate-type calligraphy shown at the top of the page:
Thanks to all who attend this meeting! Our next meeting will be on Thursday October 18, 2012 at Perks on Cambie Street (usual place & time). Theme: TBA.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

September meeting details

Date: Thursday September 20, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: Flexible ("Flexy") Nibs!

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Hope to see you there!

Meetings are held monthly, on the third Thursday of each month, except December (there is no meeting in December, due to the holidays)...Please check this website for last-minute schedule changes/updates...Any questions? Contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com No RSVPs necessary for any meetings held at Perks pen store. We're a very friendly, casual club with no membership dues or duties. New members are always welcome!