Monday, June 30, 2014

July meeting info

Date: Thursday July 17, 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: Special Edition & Limited Edition Fountain Pens
If you have any new pen-related stuff to show, please bring it along as New Acquisitions is always our secondary theme. No RSVPs required for regular meetings!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Orange is the New Black



Some photos of my gorgeous new Delta Dolcevita Slim fountain pen, which I received at our June meeting. This beautiful pen is hand-turned from solid bars of orange and black resin to create a dramatic & bold effect. The cap ring is made of sterling silver, hand-engraved with a decoration that was found in old paintings from Pompeii. I can honestly say that the pen looks even more stunning in person...and it writes like a dream. Many thanks to the Delta Pen Company for this generous gift!



Look at that gorgeous Fusion nib! Patented in 2012 by the Delta Pen Company of Naples, Italy, it was made by fusing a layer of 18K gold to a steel alloy to create a unique nib with enhanced ink-flow properties. The nib on mine is a Fine, but it writes a bit more like a Fine-Medium, which is perfect for me.
~~~~~~ Review by Maja Furlong ~~~~~~

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Photos from June meeting ~ Italian Pens

Twenty-one members attended an excellent & informative talk on Italian Pens by VPC member Glenn Marcus on Thursday June 19th. Glenn spoke at length about his visits to the pen factories of Aurora, Omas, Montegrappa, Visconti, Stipula and Delta and his conversations with the owners & designers at those firms about their past history, current production models, and future plans for their writing instrument lines. To illustrate his presentation, Glenn brought many fine examples of the fountain pens produced by these companies from his own pen collection.

Many of these pens can be seen (beautifully photographed by Glenn) on his personal pen blog ~ "Glenn's Pens". As a matter of fact, Glenn created an excellent blog post about his talk here that nicely summarizes what he spoke about at our meeting.

Thanks to Delta's generosity, we were fortunate to have two examples of their current model, the "Journal" to see and try out. One of the pens came with a steel nib that was a wonderful writer, and the other pen came with a "Fusion" nib, a product unique to (and patented two years ago by) Delta. This innovative design features a steel nib fused with a layer of 18K gold to create a nib with enhanced ink-flow properties. The Fusion nib is gorgeous, so if you are looking for a smooth-writing nib that will elicit compliments on its appearance, treat yourself to a Delta fountain pen with a Fusion nib :) Well done, Delta!

Many thanks to Glenn for his excellent presentation, and to the Delta Pen Company (official site) for providing the pens and literature on their products. Delta posted some of Glenn's own photos from our meeting on their official Facebook site here

And now, some photos from Thursday night's meeting (all photos by Richard Clarke):
(pictured above, counter-clockwise from left: Glenn Marcus (light shirt), Stephanie, Julienne, Peter, Tony, Bruce, Charles, Patti (who came with her husband Aaron, one of our newer members) and Derek

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click on photos to enlarge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(pictured above, counter-clockwise around the table: Glenn, Stephanie, Julienne, Peter, Bruce, Tony, Charles, James, Aaron, and Derek. In the row behind Glenn are (L-R) new members Nasya and Sam L, Marey and Brian (light blue shirt). In addition to Nasya and Sam, we had two other brand-new members at Thursday's meeting - Melody and Jeff (who are peeking out of the extreme lower left-hand corner of the photo)
(That's me--Maja--in the navy blue t-shirt behind the Rhodia rotating display, and Stuart in the yellow polo shirt).
(Bill Kempton, one our club's founding members arrived a couple of minutes into Glenn's talk, but was glad he came to the meeting! That's Bill standing between James and Patti above)
A hearty and well-earned round of applause for Glenn!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our next meeting will be on Thursday July 17 at the usual place and time (Perks pen store-5844 Cambie Street in Vancouver, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm or so). Theme/topic: to be announced! Check our website for more details at the end of June. Many thanks to all members who have attended meetings in 2014---your participation & input is greatly appreciated!