I had a great time at the 2nd annual Pacific Northwest Pen Show last weekend (July 13-14, 2024) and thought I'd share a few photos and thoughts about the show...
(all photos in this blog post by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge )
The 2024 show was held in a new location--the Monarch Hotel & Conference Center in Clackamas, Oregon, a suburb southeast of Portland. There was lots of good signage and helpful volunteers to guide us to the pen show floor on the lower level. Members of PDX Pen (pen club in Portland) were on hand to greet us there, confirm our registration (I prepaid for my 2-day ticket online) and give us our show lanyards. There were more volunteers ---well-identified by their blue pen show t-shirts---walking around the show floor helping attendees and vendors throughout the show. There were also security guards present, but they were completely unobtrusive.
And now, here's the show floor!
...and the two photos directly above were taken on the other side of the room. The vendor tables were spaced a comfortable distance apart, so that attendees could stand on each end of a table to browse, if the front of a table was occupied; I found this very helpful.
The first vendor I sought out was actually Pen Realm (so I could sign up for a nib grinding session with nibmeister Kirk Speer), but then I raced over to Dromgoole's (above--they had a huge display, so you couldn't miss them) to buy some special limited edition pen show items before they sold out...
..and here they are---a limited edition "Solo pen sleeve" & "Musette bag", made by Rickshaw Bagworks for the 2024 Pacific Northwest Pen Show! 😀
The design was inspired by Portland’s city flag, and there was also a zippered "Sinclair" Rickshaw case that came in the same design. I'd just bought one of the cases a few months ago --with a SugarTurtle Studios design-- so I passed on that one. I had the pleasure of talking to Rickshaw’s founder (Mark Dwight) the following day and thanked him for creating these great commemorative items. Dromgoole's was also selling a store exclusive Retro 51 'Tornado' rollerball special edition called "Good Boy Sheldon”, a tribute to Dromgoole' bulldog mascot 🐶-- so I bought that (lower right corner of the photo above) as well.
Next stop was Oblation Papers (who have a brick & mortar store in downtown Portland) to look for a pen I’d spotted on their website before the show—a Vertex” fountain pen in a confetti pattern by the Karas Pen Company (upper left corner of photo above). I’m a huge fan of Karas’ pens and an even bigger fan of their 'Vertex' fountain pens, so I knew I had to buy it at the show because I’d never seen it for sale anywhere else (according to its packaging, it's a Baltimore Pen Show special limited edition!)
Above: Zodiac Pen Company 'Taurus' model in (Bob Dupras') Corrl Creations' "Polar Cenote" handpoured resin (Isn't it beautiful??)
I'd contacted Bart Conner of the Zodiac Pen Company (the maker of those beautiful handmade fountain pens) just prior to the show about a particular model in a particular material that I'd seen on his website. All of the models on Bart's website are named after Zodiac signs and Taurus is my sign, so I wanted to buy a special fountain pen to (belatedly) commemorate my birthday. I didn't feel comfortable asking Bart to hold that particular pen for me, but he kindly offered to do so and bring it to the show.
I played a wee trick on Bart when I first saw him at the show. The pen in question wasn't among the ones Bart was selling at the show (because he said he'd put it on hold for me), but I fake-innocently asked him: "Excuse me, do you have a Taurus in Polar Cenote for sale?". We hadn't met in person before, so Bart didn't recognize me, but then he looked at my name tag and slowly started to smile, saying I'd fooled him. Anyway, sure enough --- Bart remembered to bring the pen with him to the show...and when I saw it, I immediately bought it from him :) My photos don't do it justice--there are so many shades of blue in the material--but it's gorgeous (and very well-made).
(Photo of Bart and myself, taken by his helper --and huge Zodiac Pen Co. fan-- Lexi)
I then headed over to Pen Realm's large vendor display to buy another fountain pen I'd made inquiries about, prior to the show. The pen in question was made of a DiamondCast®️ resin (which made each pen unique-looking), so I'd asked Kirk Speer of Pen Realm if he was planning to bring more than one example to the pen show. He said he'd bring several of them, so I was very pleased to hear that. I asked Kirk's wife Crystal about the pens at the show and, yes--they'd brought multiples with them, yay! Each pen was different than the rest (as I expected), but I wound up choosing this beautiful example below: My new Nahvalur 'Voyage' Pride 2024 special edition fountain pen!
I love colourful pens and this one is amazing. Crystal said it had a Broad nib on it, but it wasn't marked as such, so I was a bit confused. Turns out that Nahvalur put "F" and "M" engravings on the Fine and Medium nibs, but left the Broad nibs unmarked. The boxes for the pens were left in Colorado (too bulky to carry!), but Crystal said they'd ship it to me right after the show at no charge. I've always had great customer service from Pen Realm and this show was no exception. I had signed up for a 3:30 pm nib-grinding appointment with Kirk and decided to get the Nahvalur's Broad nib reground to a cursive italic or stub.
I asked Kirk for a quick selfie after he reground my Nahvalur nib (to a great cursive italic Broad), and he kindly obliged (he held my phone --I'm terrible at taking selfies). There was a selfie station at the show, but I couldn't get a good solo photo with it lol. Still, it was a nice little detail, one of many at this well-organized pen show.
I’d known Shawn for many years (we were both Admins on the Fountain Pen Network-aka FPN) and I’d seen many of his YouTube videos over the years, but had never met him in person. Well, I can tell you that he’s just as nice a guy as I expected 😁 and I spent a fair amount of time chatting with him on both Saturday and Sunday. Don’t get me wrong—Shawn had a steady stream of customers, but he made time for everyone and was incredibly welcoming to anyone who came by his table to see the beautiful pens he had for sale.
Earlier on Saturday, I'd bought a specially-engraved JoWo nib --a limited edition nib engraved by Kirk Speer of Pen Realm for the 2024 Pacific Northwest Pen Show (in the photo above)-- and subsequently put it in a lovely fountain pen I bought from Shawn (there's a photo of the entire pen in the second-to-last photo of this blog post). The nib engraving, incidentally, is that of the design on the carpeting used at PDX— Portland’s International Airport—which gained a cult-like following.
I needed a little break after all that pen show excitement, so I had a delicious Buenos Aires sandwich ("Shaved cold cut roast beef, chimichurri horseradish, shaved white onion, arugula, tomato, warm baguette and au jus") at the hotel's restaurant, de Fuego Grille. Boy, was it ever tasty...and the service at the restaurant was really good, too.
Back to the pen show now! (Ahhhh, the pool right by the pen show floor...)
It was really hot in Portland that weekend, so the pool looked especially inviting, but I had a 1:30pm class on "Experiments with Handwriting" to go to! (a class on handwriting + true crime----how could I pass it up? lol) It was a well-attended, interesting (free) class with Jacqueline Joseph, one of the top forensic handwriting examiners in the United States. Next time, I'll sign up for more classes---I wanted to maximize my "floor time" this year :)
I think the whole family was on hand at the pen show, but I had a nice time chatting with Ink-a-Pet's head honcho, 10-year Calvin (who patiently explained all the cool pen-related references in the company's brand-new colouring book --seen in the last photo of this blog post).
The other Ink-a-Pet products I bought were all 3-D printed (they had a printer going during the show—how cool is that??) -- very cute designs, very well-made and highly functional as ink vial holders or single-pen holders. If you want, you can buy accessories for them, such as the removable blanket I bought for the Sleeping Cat, a palm tree I got for one of the dogs (“Ink’s Best Friend”), or swim gear (goggles & floatie) for the Little Penguin. There’s also pirate-themed gear, sun hats and umbrellas for these items as well as the Inktopus vial holder and Sleeping Cat/Dog pen rests (which I didn't get) for sale on their website.
The adorable “Pen Mule” keychain (designed by Angela He of inkyconverters on Etsy) next to the Waterman was purchased from Entropy Ink (Nikola Pang), who had an amazing selection of vintage pens at the show (below):
He was really busy, but nibmeister CY of Tokyo Station Pens (above) and I had a short chat about the special nib-grinding event at Buchan's Stationery that CY was doing this weekend in Vancouver (more info at this link: https://www.buchanst.com/blogs/blog/sign-up-for-our-exclusive-nib-grinding-event-with-cy-from-tokyo-station-pens) (Note: I did get a nib reground by CY after the Portland show--ie. during the event in Vancouver ---my Pelikan M600's 14K gold Medium nib was reground to lovely Stub)
The last fountain pen I bought at the pen show was this stunning handmade pen from Mike Green of Mike's Pen Fun. It was made from a resin blank called "Full Tilt Boogie", handpoured by The Pensmiths. It's such a well-made pen, and beautifully polished to a mirror finish. Mike has a really wide selection of nibs to go with the fountain pens he makes and sells, but I knew I had to get a colourful nib for this multi-coloured beauty, so I chose a rainbow JoWo Broad nib for it.
Mike’s nibs are all expertly pre-tuned by Kirk (Pen Realm) Speer, and this one is a wonderful writer. Oh, and the pen came with a handmade cotton towel pen sleeve made by Mike's wife Theresa (you can see the pale yellow sleeve in the last photo of this blog post)
Above: Mike and his lovely wife Theresa (they drove all the way from Minnesota for the show!). I spent a lot of time chatting with them because (a) they were so friendly and (b) because I couldn't decide which of Mike's fountain pens to buy! They had a great selection of handmade fountain pens made of different materials (resin, ebonite, Micarta), and it was really tough to choose just one.
I first heard of Mike's fountain pens while watching pen review videos by Larry Berrones of "Larry's Fountain Pens" on YouTube. Larry is always raving about the great handmade fountain pen made by a guy named Mike Green, so when I heard that Mike was coming to Portland for this year's pen show, I had to check out what he was selling. Good thing I did because I love the pen I bought from him! (thank you, Larry!)
The lovely fountain pen in the middle that I'd mentioned earlier (the one with the JoWo 2024 Pacific Northwest Pen Show nib on it) is an exquisite Newton Pens “Moody” model (in the Medium size) in a gorgeous material called “Ivory Roses”, a handpoured resin made by Jonathon Brooks of The Carolina Pen Company. Jonathon was at the pen show, and I made a point of swinging by his table to thank him for all the amazing handpoured resins he created over the years :)
Shawn has been making fantastic handmade pens since 2012, and this one is no exception -- it's so lovely, and so well-made. The pen came with a beautiful multicoloured single-pen sleeve handmade by Shawn's wife Elizabeth. The pen sleeve is in the photo below (to the left of the pen) and it's an elegant design that protects the writing instrument inside, and also prevents it from falling out (without the use of a flap!). Shawn usually includes one of Elizabeth's pen sleeves when you purchase a pen from him -- a nice touch!
Above: My complete haul from the 2024 Pacific Northwest Pen Show, including the official pen show t-shirt I bought on Sunday :)
Many thanks again to show producer Staci Paley, all the vendors and speakers, and all the volunteers! I had a wonderful time at the show and hope to be back for the next one!
~Blog post by Maja~
(*photos from yesterday's monthly meeting of our pen club will be posted early next week!)
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