Thursday, May 29, 2014

Our June meeting topic? Italian Pens!!



Date: Thursday June 19, 2014

Place: the usual place (Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC)

Time: the usual time (6:30pm-8:30pm, but "early birds" welcome at 6:00pm, to chat before the meeting)

Theme: Italian Pens ~ a short talk by Glenn Marcus

Longtime VPC member & pen collector Glenn Marcus of GlennsPens.com has kindly agreed to do a short talk on modern Italian fountain pens and his personal experiences with the companies that produce them. Over the last several years Glenn has had the privilege of visiting several factories in Europe that produce modern writing instruments and we are honoured that he has agreed to do an overview of Italian pens for our June meeting. Please bring your very favourite Italian fountain pen (yes, just one pen!) with you to this meeting.

As a side note, our 2014 summer dinner will be held on Thursday August 21 at the White Spot restaurant inside Oakridge Mall, right across the street from the Perks pen store where we usually meet. This is a members-only, RSVP-required dinner, so I will send out invitations to VPC members in mid-July. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Upcoming out-of-town events in which VPC members may be interested:

Seattle Pen Club meeting will be held in Bellingham, WA this Saturday May 31 at the Bellingham Public Market (1530 Cornwall Ave, in Bellingham, WA) from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and VPC members are invited to attend.

The 2nd Annual Northwest Pen Round-Up! will be held on Saturday July 12th, 2014, at the Lucky Labrador brew pub/restaurant (1945 N.W. Quimby Street) in Portland, Oregon, from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Admission is free and they only charge a nominal fee for vendors who want to set up. If you would like table space, please contact Stuart Hawkinson (s.hawkinson@comcast.net) or Michael McNeil (michael@northwestpenworks.com) directly.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Group photos from May 2014 meeting



Clockwise from lower left: Dexter (wearing glasses), Maja, James (partly hidden), Bill K, Tony, May, Stephanie, Kiyoshi, Marey, Bruce, Sienca, Ken, Beverley, Adrian, Mark, Stuart, Mido and Peter. Missing from photo: Graham, Charles, Dave M and Richard (actually, you can see Dave and Charles--wearing glasses---in the lower right of photo #4 below) (Click on photos to enlarge)



Many thanks to Richard for taking the photos!

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Laban 'Mento'

My Laban Mento fountain pen in the "Pumpkinseed" pattern, one of the everyday carry pens I brought to our May meeting:
The Mento is a lovely oversized fountain pen (apparently, it's larger than a Montblanc 149) that is light in the hand and very comfortable to hold. Many thanks to Bob in our pen club for selling this pen to me a while back! Cheers ~Maja

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Everyday Carry (EDC) writing instruments

From our May meeting (click on photos to enlarge):
Charles' nice leather Libelle pen wrap and his everyday carry (EDC) pens---a blue-striped Pelikan M800, a Montblanc 149 highlighter, a Diplomat Excellence in the Guilloch Rhombus pattern and a Bexley Poseidon in Tortoise. I believe the red/maroon pen on the far left is a British Parker Duofold. All great choices for daily carry pens!
Who says a (very) limited edition pen can't be an ED carry? This is Bruce's impressive CONID Bulk-filler, limited to 60 pieces worldwide. Bruce says he loves using his TWSBI Vac 700 when he needs a "casual" pen, and his OMAS Dama on more "dressy" occasions.
I forgot to photograph my own EDC, but I took a quick shot at home after the meeting. From L to R: Pentel retractable eraser, Paper Mate Precision pencil, Romet Americana ballpoint, Cross Bailey ballpoint, Online Academy fountain pen and Laban Mento fountain pen (I carry these in a leather Signum multi-pen pouch).

All in all, the topic of EDC writing instruments was well-represented at our May meeting. In addition to fountain pens, other types of writing instruments were brought in---mechanical pencils (e.g. Dave's Parker '51' and Dexter's Staedtler 925 25 2mm pencil), ballpoints (Bill K's Parker Jotter, Dexter's Rotring, and others), multi-pens (Bill's Cross Tech3) and even some brush pens & other art pens used for sketching (brought in by Adrian).

Fountain pens, however, were (by far) the most popular EDC writing instrument (seeing as how we're primarily a fountain pen club, that should come as no surprise!) with examples by Lamy (Bill's Nexx & Safari), Parker (Mark & Dave's '51's and Graham's '21'), Sailor (Peter's '1911'), Pilot (Sienca's Petit collection, James' Prera and Peter's Vanishing Point), Platinum (a '3776' belonging to Peter), Pelikan (Stuart's M200, among others), Noodler's (a 'Nib Creaper' model owned by Stephanie), Montblanc (Graham's '14') and Sheaffer (Stuart's Sagaris). VPC member Tony brought in his everyday pen---a nice-looking black no-name fountain pen with his name engraved. Newer member Kiyoshi brought in a couple of nice Chinese-made fountain pens and Mido brought in an assortment of wonderful vintage fountain pens from the "Big Four"----Waterman, Wahl-Eversharp, Parker & Sheaffer.

Speaking of Sheaffer, here is a group shot of Stuart's ever-growing Lady Sheaffer Skripsert collection. My poor photo doesn't do the lovely patterns justice, but they are gorgeous vintage pens:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks to all 22 VPC members who came to the May meeting, including our two newest members---Marey and Peter! Next VPC meeting will be held on Thursday June 19 at the usual meeting place (Perks pen store on Cambie Street in Vancouver). Meeting time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm (approx.) Theme: to be announced!

Friday, May 2, 2014

May meeting info

Date: Thursday May 15, 2014

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: "Everyday Carry Pens" (EDC Pens) & Ink Swap!


EDC pens are the writing instruments that you carry with you on an everyday basis (thus the name ;) and can include a mixture of fountain pens, ballpoints and rollerballs (or pencils). Please bring the pen case(s) you use with these writing instruments, as well. We will also be having our twice annual Ink Swap at the May meeting, so if you have any unwanted inks (or ink samples) to trade with other VPC members, please bring them with you. Trading can be done before the meeting starts or at the end of the meeting---it's up to you. Inks can be in full or partially-full bottles, ink cartridges or small plastic sample vials. Our Ink Swap is 100% voluntary, so don't feel obligated to bring any ink(s) if you like the all the ones you own!

No RSVPs required for any meetings held at Perks. Questions? Please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com