Thursday, January 30, 2020

Our new club pen ~ the "Momento Zero" Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition by the Leonardo Officina Italiana pen company!

When we first laid eyes on Glenn's beautiful Leonardo Officina Italiana "Momento Zero" (No. 1 of 1) fountain pen at our October 2017 meeting, I never dreamt that we could have a limited edition made for our pen club in that same wonderful design. Thanks to the efforts of Glenn and Leonardo Officina Italiana's Salvatore Matrone (who was instrumental in the design of our 2014 Limited Edition VPC pen, the Delta Dolcevita "Caruso" ), however, that dream came to fruition in late 2019.

Meet the Leonardo Officina Italiana "Momento Zero" Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition in "Sand"...

(~please click on images to enlarge~)

It's hard to capture the lovely, subtle nuances of the material in my photographs---the colours of the stripes in the resin change, depending on the light (all photos were taken in natural light with no editing)...

The pen was turned from a solid block of resin, with a section that matches the cap and barrel. Although it is the size of a Pelikan M800, it is lighter (but still feels substantial in the hand) and beautifully-balanced. 

It has a cartridge/converter filling mechanism whose converter is accessible either via a knob hidden under the blind cap, or by unscrewing the barrel from the section (note: the converter is screwed into the nib-section unit, so don't try pulling it out)

My "Momento Zero" in repose...
There were two Bock nib options for our club's "Momento Zero"----a 14K gold nib or a steel nib (both available in a wide variety of nib widths). The nib I chose for my own pen was the steel 1.1mm stub, a truly wonderful writer...
The cap band is engraved "Vancouver Pen Club" in elegant, cursive script....
Each of the 26 fountain pens produced for our club is numbered on its barrel. Mine is #07/26, chosen to match the #07/25 of my 2014 VPC Limited Edition pen by Delta...
On behalf of our club's members, many thanks to Glenn for all of his hard work on this project, as well as to Salvatore Matrone of the Leonardo Officina Italiana pen company in Naples, Italy, and the craftspeople that produced these stunning fountain pens---Grazie mille!

(photos & review by Maja)

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Next meeting ~ February 20th!

When: Thursday February 20, 2020 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm (don't worry if you're late, as we usually start at around 6:30 pm)

Where: A meeting room (the Strathcona room) in a smaller building located next to Vancouver City Hall, 453 W. 12th, Vancouver, BC (on the corner of W. 12th and Cambie). This is the same place where we had our last three meetings. If you wish to attend but are not a member yet, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com for more info re: the location.
Parking: There is free parking along Cambie Street after 6:00pm, or in the underground parking at the VanCity Building at 10th & Yukon when VanCity is closed. Parking along Yukon Street is $2.00 per hour.

Topic/Theme: MULTI-COLOURED FOUNTAIN PENS! (including crazy colour combos & shimmery, iridescent pens)
From white pens in January to multi-coloured pens in February! We've never done this particular theme before, so many thanks to Alejandra, Candice and Jerred for all suggesting the idea to me. If you don't have anything that fits the theme, please don't worry---just come and see what other have brought!
Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc---so if you have anything new you wish to show, please bring it to the meeting. Hope you can make it!

Monday, January 20, 2020

More photos from our December meeting (Part 2)

As promised, here are some more photos taken during our December 2019 meeting (which was held on December 19), these courtesy of Ricardo!
(Part 1 of the December meeting photos--with more detailed captions--are at this link )

~ all photos courtesy of Ricardo ~ please click on images to enlarge ~
Our meetings are always a hubbub of activity for about half an hour before the actual meeting starts, so you don't have to worry about arriving on time...
That's our resident nibmeister Jerred (middle) talking to Rene, while Christopher listens in...
(Photo below) Our meeting host Tony...
Dana inking up a fountain pen using a plastic ink syringe to draw up the ink...
Tim (our club's co-founder) putting his mystery wrapped pen into the "pen swap" basket that I'm holding. Tim wound up getting my blue Kaweco 'Sport' fountain pen and I got his Rotring 'Core'!

Starting the meeting with a brief intro (or am I snacking on some chocolates ???). From left to right in photo--Stuart, Wai, me (Maja), Ben, and new members Cyanea, Isabella and Louise...
John Parnell of the London Pen Club (middle of photo) came all the way from Ontario to attend our December meeting! John was accompanied by his young grandson, Zepherin, sitting to his left...
Our December topic was "Pens and/or Inks that are named for, or remind you of specific places". The topic was Jerred's idea, so he kicked it off with his Martemodena "Citizen" fountain pen 'Beijing' model...
Another pen Jerred brought in for our December theme - his Platinum #3776 Century fountain pen in "Chartres Blue"...
A beautiful Monteverde 'Catalina' fountain pen, also belonging to Jerred...
Tony carefully inspecting a pen...
Tony's colourful TWSBI 'Diamond 580' "Republic of Taiwan" Special Edition fountain pen...
Three longtime VPCers (L-R):: Barry, Stuart (showing us one of the examples he brought in for our December meeting theme) and Wai....
Jenny talking about one of the special edition Japanese-made fountain pens she acquired recently...
Here's a close-up of the pen Jenny is holding in the photo above--a lavender Sailor 'Pro Gear' Hachimoniya store Exclusive...
Another special edition made for a Japanese store---Jenny's Sailor 'Pro Gear Slim Mini' Kingdom Note Exclusive, pink sea slug model (with a sea slug engraved on its nib!)...
This fountain pen belonging to Jenny is a Sailor 'Pro Gear' Nagasawa Exclusive Black Demonstrator which sports a quirky engraving (a chicken weather vane - the Nagasawa logo) on its music nib...
Another 'Pro Gear' of Jenny's--this one in the lovely "Morita Blue" colour...
Jenny's Pilot 'Kakuno' in "Soft Blue" Nagasawa Special Edition that has the skyline of Kobe, Japan imprinted on its barrel (Kobe is the location of one of the Nagasawa stationery stores)...
Another great Japanese-made fountain pen of Jenny's--a Sailor 'Realo' Demonstrator with blue finials...
A close-up of the cap top, showing the famous Sailor anchor logo...
Another demonstrator fountain pen - Dana's Franklin-Christoph '46' demonstrator in "Italian Ice" (made of a clear material that glows lavender in UV light)...

Dana also brought in her Platinum #3776 Century in the clear red "Bourgogne" colour for our topic (3776 being the height of Mt Fuij, in metres)...
Dana's lovely orange Sailor 'Sapporo' (a/k/a 'Pro Gear Slim') demonstrator...
Tim proudly showing us another nice orange fountain pen - his Conklin 'Duragraph' in "Orange Nights"...
Stuart and Barry...
Barry brought in his great new leather 48-pen carrying case by Girologio (which we forgot to photograph!) and this classic fountain pen - a burgundy Montblanc '146'....
Our meetings are usually a casual 'show & tell' (unless someone is doing a presentation) where members bring items related to the monthly meeting theme/topic and/or newest acquisitions, and briefly talk about them. Here I am showing one of the (many) pens I brought in...
That's Glenn Marcus in the center of the photo. Glenn is a longtime member (since 2009!) who put a lot of effort into getting our 2019 Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition pens made by the Leonardo pen company (more on that in a future blog post ;). Thank you again, Glenn, for all your efforts!
Pen-related new acquisitions is always our secondary topic. Here is one of Daryl's - an adorable pen stand in the shape of a small crab (a gift from his son)...
Of course, when we say "new pen-related acquisitions", we really mean "new writing instrument-related acquisitions", such as these cool Blackwing wooden pencils, recently purchased by Julienne...
These particular pencils are Blackwing's 'Volume 155', created in honour of the Bauhaus school of design...
Blackwing "Point Guards" - pencil covers created to protect your Blackwing pencils!
For more info about this particular line of Blackwing pencils and many more, check out the official Blackwing site here...
In addition to the pencils she recently bought, Julienne also brought along another new acquisition--a lovely grey striped Pelikan M1005 "Stresemann" Limited Edition (the largest pen in the photo below). This Pelikan model was named in honour of Gustav Stresemann, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. The clear red pen in the photo is Ricardo's Pelikan 'M205' "Star Ruby", the special edition M205 for 2019. I'm still trying to figure out the owner of the bright blue Pelikan in the same photo (I know Rene has one, but it's not his!); I do know it's an 'M120' "Iconic Blue" special edition, a throwback to the vintage M120s that were produced in the 1950/60s...
A closeup of the Pelikan M1005...
Tony trying out the M1005...
...and Dana writing with it, too! (it's a great fountain pen :)
Speaking of great Pelikan fountain pens, here are Joie's fabulous Pelikan M600/M605 'White' models...
The beautiful M605 "White Transparent" from 2017...
The newest member of the M600 white flock---the "Violet-White" model from 2019 (the "Pink-White" model came out in 2015 and the "Turquoise-White" in 2018) ...
(there's some excellent info on the "white" models here and here on Joshua Danley's informative Pelikan blog)

For our meeting theme, Joie brought this scented "Seoul" ink by De Atramentis...
Another gorgeous fountain pen---a Sailor 'Realo' with aftermarket Raden finish made of multi-coloured abalone pieces, owned by new member Louise...
...and another great modern fountain pen - an Aurora '88' Nettuno Limited Edition, also belonging to Louise. The "Nettuno" was named after the planet Neptune and is part of the Aurora's "Stellar" series of fine writing instruments...
Mr. Crab holding up two Pilot fountain pens - Jenny's 'Decimo' Special Edition in "Soft Green" and Candice's 'Vanishing Point' in glossy black (creatively customized by Candice with stamped nail enamel)...
Lest you think our club is only about modern pens, here's a shot of Christopher's handsome vintage 'Ty-phoo' fountain pen made of mottled red hard rubber (ca. 1920s). The Ty-phoo fountain pens were free with proof of purchase of the tea of the same name (there's a nice article about the pens here)...
Ricardo's wonderful drawings (made during our meetings!)....
Many thanks to Ricardo for the great photos he took...and to Tony (below) for booking our venue!

Thank you to all who came to our December meeting, whether you brought anything for our topics or not :) Photos from our first meeting of 2020 coming soon!