Photos from November meeting at Buchan's!

Many thanks to the good folks at Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery for hosting our November meeting at their lovely store last month (November 20th, to be exact)! There were refreshments, great prizes, lots of fountain pen eye candy to look at, and the company of our amazing pen club members (and guests), so I think everyone had a good time 😊 Sherman took some photos during the meeting (thank you, Sherman!), so in case you couldn't make it, here's what you missed...

(pics courtesy of Sherman, except where noted ~ click on images to enlarge) "Selfie King" Sherman with (left to right) Linda N, Carmen L and David L.

All smiles! (left to right: Lawrence C, myself/Maja, Nathan, Andrii and Sherman)

Door prize time! That's Buchan's staffer Yugo (who's also in our club :) in the black hoodie recording the prize draws; Yugo made a really nice short video about our meeting and posted it on Buchan's Instagram ➡️ here ⬅️ (thanks so much, Yugo!)

Everyone checking their door prize tickets ... 

Amy H. (above) won one of five Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr.1 "Mix & Match" ballpoint door prizes and got to create her own pen (with Paul --in cap--looking on) ! The separate components (barrel, end cap & nose cone) were in the box of Leuchtturm parts shown above, as well as the ("Parker-style") ballpoint/gel pen refills the pens take. The Drehgriffel Nr.1 "Mix & Match" ballpoints aren't sold in stores or online, but the nice thing about the versions you *can* buy is that they come in a multitude of colours :) Our thanks to Leuchtturm1917 Canada for donating the ballpoints! 👍

Grant (who was kind enough to call out the winning numbers--thank you, Grant!) was one of two winners of a stilform pen! Rumi won the other stilform pen, and Stuart was one of two winners of a bottle of Stilform fountain pen ink, a new product Buchan's is now carrying in their store. Congratulations to everyone who won a stilform or Leuchtturm door prize! 👏

From stilform's website:
"stilform is a design studio based in Hamburg, which is operated by Christoph Bohrer and Martin Wagner. It was founded in 2013 and creates high-end office products and pens. Always with the focus on creating visually appealing products with clear lines and esthetic form language, attributes like emotions, function and innovation are of utmost importance in the design process.

All parts are from high-grade titanium or aluminium. The superb materials are well known for the extremely high durability and exceptional light weight. The unique magnetic mechanism makes it easy to open and close the pen in just one movement.
Stilform received the Design Award in 2019 and 2021."

I also won one of the Leuchtturm ballpoints! (that's Asifa on the far left of the photo, Renz --who came all the way from Winnipeg!-- on the far right of the pic, and Buchan's owner Inna in the bright blue top)

A quick shot of me assembling my custom Leuchtturm1917 ballpoint (Liz R and Amy are also in the pic; apologies for not identifying everyone in the photos--it was a packed house!). There were a ton of possible colour combinations, but I immediately knew which combo I wanted -- orange ("Rising Sun" colour) barrel with black end cap & black nose cone! It's not my first Leuchtturm Drehgriffel Nr.1 ballpoint (I bought my first one at Nikaido) but I've always loved the weight and balance of these capless & clipless German-designed pens, which are made of precision-milled aluminium and brass.

Buchan's also had a "Guess the Inks" contest where you had to identify a set of mystery ink swatches! Linda N and Carmen L both got 6/12 correct (that's my photo of the answer key above), and each won a bottle of Ferris Wheel Press ink---bravo! 👏   Thank you to Sheila L of Buchan's (Sheila is also in our pen club :)  for putting the quiz together!

Sherman brought a few pens to the meeting to show our fellow members (and somehow managed to colour-coordinate them with the lovely Christmas card--in the upper left corner above-- he got from Mark & Sharon at PenDen.ca lol)

Sherman's classy Cleo Skribent Classic Gold Bordeaux fountain pen....

....his Rhodia scRipt ballpoint made of brushed aluminum.....

...and his handsome vintage Waterman '52V' Red Ripple fountain pen!

Above: My mini haul from Buchan's---my prize (and prized, LOL!) Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr. 1 ballpoint resting on a Leuchtturm1917 A6 Forest Green Notepad (debossed with my name on it), and a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku "Shin-kai" ink (** Buchan's has complimentary in-store debossing with Leuchtturm notebook purchase until the end of the year! **)

It might not look busy in my photo above, but I counted over 65 people (at least 60 members & guests plus a few folks I didn't recognize) in attendance! Thank you to everyone who came to our November meeting at Buchan's!!

Our warmest thanks to Buchan's owner Inna for her generosity, store manager Irena, and everyone at Buchan's for their great customer service and warm hospitality! 🙏

Buchan's is located at 2141 West 41st Avenue in Vancouver, BC and they're open Mon-Sat: 10:00 am - 6:30pm and Sunday: 11:00am - 5:00pm for your shopping convenience. Official web store at https://www.buchanst.com/

(** Update--more photos from our meeting at Buchan's were later posted here)

(~blog post by Maja~)