Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Photos from January 2017 meeting

We had excellent attendance for the January VPC meeting, which was held at the Oakridge branch of the Vancouver Public Library----22 VPC members attended, including six newcomers (Angela, Connie, David, Lionel, Ray and Ricardo)!
The meeting theme was "Old Friends"--fountain pens that you haven't used in a very long time, but "rediscovered"--and we saw some very interesting examples, some of which I hadn't seen before at any other meeting. Thanks again to Paul of the Calgary Pen Club for the theme idea.

Now, onto the photos!
(all pics by me, except for the one directly below)

Speaking of old friends....
I was so happy that our club's founder, Tim, came to the January meeting. Tim started the Vancouver Pen Club just over 10 years ago (our first meeting was December 7, 2006) after he and fellow fountain pen aficionado Bill K. discussed forming a local pen club. Here I am pictured with both Tim (on my right) and Bill, at the January meeting (thanks to Tim's friend Lionel for taking the photo):
In all the excitement of our club's 10th anniversary, I forgot to photograph the pens they brought in for the meeting theme---Tim's Rotring 'Core' and Lamy '2000' and Bill's Parker 'Sonnet' --- sorry, gentlemen!

Our secondary meeting theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so I was happy that June brought some recent purchases (and other newer pens I forgot to photograph in the past). From L-R: Pelikan M600 in striped pink (a Special Edition--SE), vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Doric', Visconti 'Titanic' Limited Edition (LE), Visconti 'Cosmos' LE, Visconti 'Rembrandt' "Merry-Go-Round" SE (made to support the Meyer Childrens' Hospital's Hematology Department in Tuscany, Italy), Visconti 'Ragtime', Visconti 'Opera Elements', two more Dorics and another Ragime. Lovely pens, each and every one of them! (click on images to enlarge)
It was nice to see longtime VPCer Sabrina at a meeting again. She brought some new(er) pens to show, including (from top to bottom) a Pilot 'Decimo', a couple of Pelikan 'Souveran' models, a TWSBI 580, a Pilot 'Prera' and a green vintage Japanese-made crescent filler. Sabrina also brought along a very cool Kaweco 'Sport' in the special edition Lagoon colour (in the Kaweco box) and some new ink acquisitions by Sailor (the 'Jentle' line of inks, and a line made for the Japanese store 'Kingdom Note'--in the black boxes) and P.W. Akkerman:
New VPC member Ray brought in some amazing pens, including several by Montblanc (the gridded 'Starwalker', the Meisterstuck 'Solitaire' with green cap, the massive '149' model, and the small 'Bohème' with its uber-cool retractable nib... among others) and a sterling silver Marlen 'Ariane' fountain pen (far left):
Who needs a pen case? That's Jenny with her Lamy 'Safari' in the photo below :)
For this meeting's theme, Jerred brought along his Rotring 'Freeway' (blue pen) and his Waterman 'Kultur' (clear pen) and a new acquisition---a metal Porsche Design 'Slim Line' fountain pen. He also brought along his mother's Parker '21' (not pictured), an often under-appreciated "cousin" of the famous Parker '51':
Sometimes you literally rediscover a long-forgotten pen when you find it in a cupboard, like Tony's vintage Pelikan 400NN (on left-hand side of bottom pen case)! Pictured with the Pelikan is a TWSBI 'Eco'. The other two pens (in the top pen case) are also TWSBIs:
A handsome vintage Sheaffer 'Crest' set and a modern Sheaffer 'Legacy', some of Stuart's newest acquisitions:
Stuart's new Faber-Castell 'WRITink' fountain pen in black (I wrote about mine here):
New VPCer Ricardo brought along some cool modern pens, including (from L to R): two TWSBIs (a white 'Eco' and the clear '580'), a Monteverde 'Intima', and two modern Platignum 'Studio' fountain pens:
Some of Bruce's Italian beauties---a Visconti 'Wall Street' in gorgeous red stripes, an old-style OMAS 'Paragon' (middle pen) and a Limited Edition Visconti 'Australis' in the Opera Master design:
Some of my recent acquisitions (an Online 'Campus--2nd pen from the left--- as well a large orange dragon pen made by Namixin, a dark gray and ivory Delta Journal and the smaller orange pen---a Regal 'British Museum' model), along with my "old friend" for the meeting theme (my red-striped Pelikan M800) and two pens I brought to show a couple of my fellow VPCers who wanted to try them out (my lime-green Pilot 'Metropolitan and my charcoal Lamy 'Safari' (and no, it's not a special edition---I just scraped the black paint off the clip because I liked the look :):
I didn't snap photos of them, but a few more of our members brought in pens for our themes---Marzieh's Monteverde 'Poquito' fountain pen, Harry's vintage Penol cork piston-filler, Justin's Parker '25' (brought in for our primary theme),TWSBI 'Eco','Gist' fountain pen by Tactile Turn (introduced in a Kicktarter campaign) and Pilot 74 Custom, as well as some really nice pens (incl. some dip pens) and a cool blotter brought in by brand-new member Angela. It was a busy evening, so my apologies for not snapping pics of everyone's pens. Thank you to all members who brought in stuff for our themes, and thank you to everyone who showed up at the meeting and brought their enthusiasm!

Monday, February 13, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ahhhhh, the mysteries of love......

Just a couple of quick shots of my new Faber-Castell WRITink fountain pen, purchased from the good folks at the The Vancouver Pen Shop a few days ago...


The pen comes in different colours; I chose the white cap & barrel with black fingerprint (a very cool design, btw). As far as I know, all models come with a black steel nib, with the F-C logo imprinted on them. My particular pen sports a Medium nib, and it writes very smoothly.

Many thanks to Margot & the staff of the Vancouver Pen Shop for their excellent customer service over the years!
( Click on images to enlarge )

Sunday, February 5, 2017

InCoWriMo 2017! (International Correspondence Writing Month)

From the FAQ page on their official site:

What is InCoWriMo?

InCoWriMo is the short name for International Correspondence Writing Month, otherwise known as February. With an obvious nod to NaNoWriMo for the inspiration, InCoWriMo challenges you to hand-write and mail/deliver one letter, card, note or postcard every day during the month of February.



Ok. So you forgot about InCoWriMo 2017 and it's already February 5th already... fear not! You can still "catch up" by writing extra notes/letters/postcards during the rest of February...

Now, I, myself am a wee bit behind in writing... but I *did* write a "Get Well" card to a friend on Feb 2nd--Groundhog Day--with this lovely Bexley Poseidon Magnum:
(click on image to enlarge)

The Bexley has been one of my Grail Pens (along with the Signum Nova pen in my previous post) and I was so happy to have found one for sale and in a pattern I adore (a gorgeous non-production colour called "Admiral Red") on eBay. It is uses a cartridge/converter-filling mechanism and sports a gold-plated two-tone nib.

In the photo above, the Poseidon is being held by Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog, who predicted six more weeks of winter. Given Vancouver's recent snowy weather, I think Phil was right, so stay warm, everyone :)