A few photos from our May meeting

We had excellent attendance at our May meeting, which was held on Thursday May 15th at the Vancouver Public Library's Renfrew branch. At least 32 people (including brand new members Janet, Jennifer and Frederic) were present for a casual gathering where our members chatted about, traded, bought and sold all things pen-related. It was a busy night, but I remembered to snap a few photos during the get-together, so here they are...

(all photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)

I forgot to take a photo of it at the April meeting (which featured pocket fountain pens), so I'm glad that Allan also brought his brass Hongdian 'M2' pocket fountain pen to our May meeting. It's a very nice (and affordable) pocket fountain pen with some heft to it; there's also an aluminum version of the 'M2', if you prefer a lighter pen...

Andrew brought a newly-acquired vintage fountain pen to the meeting -- his Parker 'Duofold' Jr. in shiny red 'Permanite' (Parker's name for their patented plastic). The 'Junior' model first came out in 1922, a year after the introduction of its full-sized counterpart. Doesn't it look great for a 100-year-old pen? 😁

Vladan brought a beautiful new modern fountain pen to the meeting -- a Graf von Faber-Castell that he recently bought from Charals. Sadly, Charals announced that after 39 years in business, they will be permanently closing their lovely store this summer 😢 (link to their Instagram announcement from April here)...

On a happier note, during our meeting I managed to acquire a pen I'd been seeking for a very long time. It's one of the two colours I was missing from my Signum 'Orione' fountain pen collection --the dark green with yellow flecks model (on the far right above)--and I bought from Hyung-Gu, a local pen aficionado (thank you, Hyung-Gu!)

Phil also brought some newly-acquired pens to the meeting ---a black and teal Pelikan 'M75 'Go!' model (top pen) and a vintage Pelikan '120'. The '120' was a piston-filling fountain pen made from 1955-1965, while the M75 was only made from 1992-1996 and came in two forms--piston-filler or cartridge/converter filler.

Larry B, a local penmaker, came to our meeting with lots of lovely handmade kitless resin fountain pens to show and sell...

Among the ones Larry was selling was this gorgeous teal and brown swirly fountain pen (with matching pen stand!)

We also saw some new accessories at our meeting, such as Asifa's cool new Peanuts-themed laptop holder (converted to a pen and notebook case)...

It's not a new acquisition, but it was newly discovered by Stuart --a handsome burgundy vintage Sheaffer 'Tuckaway' Touchdown-filler that he very recently found in an old desk drawer at home!

This is Rumi's cute pen roll by TheCoffeeMonsterzCo (a local artist) with four colourful fountain pens on top of it --(left to right): a Jinhao '10' in yellow/green gradient, a Gravitas 'Entry' in the wonderful "Skittle" finish and two PenBBS fountain pens. The one on the far right is a model '266' that Rumi purchased from fellow VPC member Jerred during the meeting.

Several members of our club who are avid ink swatchers attended our May meeting---that's Catherine's ink journal closest to the camera...

...and this is a page from Michelle's ink journal (the Vinta ink is one that I bought at Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery just before the meeting and showed to the swatching gang).

My apologies for not taking more photos during the meeting--I wanted to take a posed group shot, but I didn't want to interrupt all the fun everyone was having 😀. Thank you to all who came to the meeting!

(~Blog post by Maja~)

Happy Chinese New Year 2023! (Sherman's collection of red fountain pens)

Today's post is courtesy of Sherman (thanks, Sherman!), who sent these photos in for the first day of the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit...

He writes: "I would like to take this opportunity to share my humble collection of fountain pens in Red for this special day! Red symbolizes good luck in the Chinese culture, in general. Maybe that’s why I love red colour in particular, wohahaha…. All the best everyone!😍😍😍

For the 2nd photo: For Fountain Pen Lovers, showcasing the nibs I believe is essential, wohahaha…. Wish you all feeling happy today!!

Sincerely,
~Sherman"

(~ photos courtesy of Sherman~ )

(To see close-ups of the photos, left-click on a photo to enlarge it, then right-click & select "Open image in new tab" or "View image", then left-click on the image in the newly-opened tab)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 264

 As promised, here's another Italian-made beauty recently acquired by Jerred!

(all photos courtesy of Jerred ~ please click on images to enlarge)

Jerred: "This particular pen is an Invicta Murano. Invicta is best known (or perhaps notorious for) their large, garishly designed watches, though the company also owns the maker Glycine and makes more classic looking models through that brand. For some reason, about 6 years ago Invicta decided to release a series of italian-made fountain pens. They're mostly rather ugly, strangely designed models, but I think this particular one is quite attractive."

"Let's get this out of the way - this is a re-branded Signum Murano. Not only is the pen identical to the Signum Murano, there is a silver hallmark on the cap that corresponds to the maker Signum in Italy."

"The pen has a number of interesting design features. The most striking feature of this pen is the striped, solid glass body. There is a small metal inset that holds the threads for the section, but it only extends 2-3cm into the barrel, and the rest of the barrel is unlined."

"The glass is rather thick and heavy. This particular model also has a sterling silver cap, though in this case it's plated in ruthenium. This is not a design feature that I've seen in any other pen. The section is angular and metal, and also coated in ruthenium. Despite being metal and pretty shiny, I didn't find the barrel slippery or difficult to grip."

 "Finally, the pen has a pretty basic, #6 stainless steel nib. I believe the nib is made by Bock. It's rather simply engraved, and lacks the plating found on the cap and section. The nib is a smooth and very pleasant writer, and on the wet side."

Love the colourful stripes :) Thanks for the photos and write-up, Jerred, and congratulations on another interesting find!

Our 100th meeting! (February 2017 meeting photos)

Wow, time flies! I can't believe we had our 100th VPC meeting last month! It seems like just yesterday when we had our inaugural meetup at Moxie's restaurant on Davie Street in downtown Vancouver, back on December 7, 2006....

Though attendance was a bit down for last month's meeting, it was a small-but-keen bunch who met up to talk fountain pens, specifically Esterbrook writing instruments (our primary theme) and newest pen-related acquisitions (our secondary theme). Thirteen members (including newcomer Dana) and one out-of-town guest (Chris T. from the Ottawa Fountain Pen Society) met at the Terry Salman branch of the Vancouver Public Library on February 16th, along with two students from BCIT Radio --- Veronica and Twyla--- who interviewed my pen mentor Brian and I for their radio show (when I get info re: the air date, I'll post it on here).

Now, onto the photos!

(Standing, from L-R: Chris, Brian, Stanley, Ricardo, me (Maja), Barry K, Bruce and Justin.
Seated, from L-R: Richard W, Dana, Glenn M, Jerred, Marzieh and Stuart)

(Many thanks to Veronica for taking the group photos! (Click on photos to enlarge)

A quick photo of Chris' new fountain pen--a gorgeous Signum 'Murano'---that he purchased from the Vancouver Pen Shop during his visit. According to their website , this handcrafted, glass-barreled fountain pen was designed by Signum with the assistance of a glass master craftsman from Murano (Venice, Italy). Each pen barrel takes about four hours to create, and involves using different types of glass to achieve the desired colour and effect. Many thanks to Chris for coming to our meeting again (Chris was at the February 2016 one, as well), and bringing his newest treasure for us to see!

One of our newer members (Stanley) brought in some some amazing new acquisitions to show us (from L to R)-- a Visconti Limited Edition (LE) 'Venetia', a Visconti 'Homo Sapiens" LE demonstrator, a Sailor 'Pro Gear II Realo', a Visconti 'Millionaire' LE, and a Visconti Traveling Inkwell.

Stanley also brought some other pens in his brown leather Franklin-Christoph Six-Pen 'Penvelope' case. I can't see all of them, but I can definitely see a lime-green TWSBI 'Eco' peeking out! This is a very popular economy-priced fountain pen by a Taiwanese pen company that is known for making well-made, well-designed fountain pens that use piston- and vacuum-filling mechanisms (as opposed to ink cartridges or converters). I think this is the fourth 'Eco' I've seen in the last two meetings (and I have one at home :).

Among the other pens he brought to the meeting, you can see Stanley's blue Esterbrook pen in the photo below. I did a short talk on Esterbrook writing instruments and brought my own examples (photos of them at the very end of this blog post):

Another shot of Stanley's wonderful new acquisitions...

Speaking of new pens... Jerred brought in a few interesting new acquisitions, including an all-metal Porsche Design Slim Line fountain pen (bottom of photo), a Japanese-made Pilot Seremo model FCM-500R (an amazing value---a fountain pen with a 14K nib for <$70 CAD on Amazon.ca) , a Jinhao '8802' (a beautiful pen I mis-identified as the '1008' model until its owner kindly corrected me :), and an all-metal Diplomat 'Lord' model.

I'm always fascinated by the large variety of styles of fountain pens that our members own. Pictured below are the pens Dana brought to the meeting (from L to R): Wing Sung '698', Platinum 'Preppy', Pilot 'Prera', Lamy 'Safari', Sailor 'Clear Candy', Pelikan M200 Café Crème (Special Edition), Platinum 'Cool', vintage Esterbrook 'CH' (aka "purse pen"), Pilot 'Decimo', Pilot 'Vanishing Point', and Lamy '2000'.

Newer VPC member Ricardo brought in his brand-new Pelikan M205 in blue marble for us to see...

...and also made some sketches using an assortment of fountain pen inks (nicely done!)....

Finally, a quick shot of my Esterbrook writing instruments. The left side of the pen case has my colourful Esterbrook J, SJ and LJ model fountain pens and a blue ballpoint, as well as an early Esterbrook 'Relief' 2-L pen in black hard rubber with 14K nib (made in England by Conway Stewart for Esterbrook!) and a black bandless 'Dollar' pen (these two pens are in the lower left hand corner of the photo).

Closer view of the other side of the pen case, showing (L-R) three more pens from the 'J' family, a 'Deluxe' model with tan body (it looks yellow in the photo for some reason) and metal cap, a green 'Safari', an 'M2', a 'CX-100', a couple of 'Scribe' ballpoints and an assortment of Esterbrook desk pens.

I missed the very start of the meeting due to my radio interview, but Glenn had brought his new Visconti Wall Street (Chatterley Luxuries Special Edition/Ltd Edition) to show the club. It's a gorgeous pen and I'm sorry I didn't snap a photo of it as well as Justin's new acquisitions---a Pilot Vanishing Point in metallic orange and his new Lamy Al-Star in Pacific. Thanks again to all who came to the February meeting!

National Handwriting Day

Well, National Handwriting Day (which always falls on January 23rd) has come and gone, but I'm really glad I had the chance to put these two beauties to use on that occasion---a Sheaffer ballpoint desk set with a lovely onyx base, and a gorgeous Signum 'Nova' fountain pen in Cinnamon, both very recent acquisitions (~Click on images to enlarge~):

You don't need to use a fancy desk set or write with an expensive fountain pen; this Pelikan 'Style' fountain pen writes smoothly with a well-made steel nib and cost <$22 USD (and I love how the white trim complements the black pen body):

Many thanks to Pendemonium for the Sheaffer desk set, longtime Pentrace & Fountain Pen Network member "ArchiMark" for the Signum, and eBayer "thestationerystore" for the Pelikan!

Photos from July meeting - topic: Pen Cases

Our July meeting was well-attended, with 18 VPC members in attendance, including brand-new member Dennis, and longtime VPCer Sienca, who came with her beautiful baby girl April (who brought a plush toy in the shape of a fountain pen---well done, April!). Many thanks to all who came to Perks that night to hear us talk about the theme/topic of the month - pen cases. Here are some quick photos I snapped during the meeting ~ Click on images to enlarge ~

We saw a wide assortment of pen cases brought in by our members for the theme/topic. This particular one is a black leather Diplomat pen case belonging to VPC member Leo Chu. Leo said he bought it in 1980, which is remarkable given its excellent condition! Diplomat is a German pen company that's been around since 1922, and is still in the business of producing writing instruments.

VPCer Glenn Marcus brought in a wide assortment of pen cases, including this lovely leather example:

That's Glenn on the left (with Ralph--in green--and Mido--in blue--listening in) holding a black leather Visconti pen case. Visconti makes an assortment of great leather pen cases, from single pen cases to multi-pen cases, in zippered and non-zippered form. In the photo, Glenn is pointing to a handsome leather case (which is actually a repurposed cigar case) that fellow VPC member Kiyoshi brought to the meeting. The orange pen case on the table in front of Glenn is his "Markiaro" case, made by Delta Pen. I myself own a two-pen "Markiaro" case in orange (note: they also come in black leather) which is probably my favourite, both for the quality of its construction and its bold, yet tasteful colour.

Mido brought in a few pen cases, including a Montblanc case made of alligator skin, and a pen briefcase made by Lee Valley Tools. This hard-backed leatherette case has flocked grooves with elasticized bands that can hold up to 32 pens.

Montblanc fan Tony brought in (what else?) a very nice Montblanc pen case! In addition to writing instruments, Montblanc makes an assortment of leather accessories, including pen pouches, wallets and bags.

For our topic, Anne brought in a zippered pen roll made by NOCK. The "Brasstown" model she is holding in the photo is a pen roll that fits into a zippered case, providing double protection for the contents inside. An innovative idea by a relatively new company! Ben R (far left, in photo) brought his Sonne leather pen case, and newer VPC member Erin (far right, in photo) brought in a nice leatherette 12-pen case.

Bruce always brings in cool cases for his writing instruments, and the one he is showing us in the photo below is made by the well-known German company Pelikan. He also brought a large Visconti pen case that can hold several pens (not pictured----sorry about that! It was gorgeous, so I'll have to take a photo of it another time).

VPCer Stuart brought in three pen cases---the zippered leatherette 12-pen case he's holding in the photo below, a zippered pencil case by Campo Marzio (in the photo with Bruce above) and a multi-pen case by Signum Pens of Italy (shown in the photo with Anne--it's the reddish brown one in the foreground).

One of our newer members, Alejandra, brought in a Leuchtturm pen loop, which is (as described by the official website) a "self-adhesive pen-holder made from sturdy elastic" that is "suitable for any size of pen. The self-adhesive loop is simply affixed to the inside back cover" of a notebook or journal.

Brand-new member Dennis brought in two very stylish cases---the dark brown leather case with white stitching (I love that feature!) he's holding in the photo below, made by the Pilot pen company of Japan, and another case made by Mignon, a French company.

Last, but not least, for our secondary theme (New Acquisitions), Tony brought in a Bic fountain pen!

As usual, I forgot to photograph the items I brought for our topic, so I snapped some quick shots at home. The single leather pen case was made by an American company called Aston Leather, and purchased at World Lux in Seattle, the brown leather triple-pen case to its right is part of the Cross pen company's "Autocross Leather Collection". The twelve-pen leatherette case on the bottom of the photo is the same one that Stuart brought in (I bought mine from Wood-Bin but I see it's no longer being sold on their website).

This is the nice brown leather "Girologio" 3-pen case I purchased from from Matt of Toys From the Attic at the 2015 Los Angeles Pen Show. The flap on the inside of the case lets you take a quick peek at its contents without removing the pens inside--a clever idea and one that the pen store requested of the manufacturer (according to Matt). When I wrote about the L.A. Pen Show on this blog back in March, I included a photo of the case, but never showed this innovative feature, thus the close-up of it here. I love this case!

A group shot of a few more cases I brought in---Top row (L-R): brown leather two-pen case/business card holder made by Conway Stewart (an English pen company), a simple fabric pen roll with U.S. flag motif purchased from a Chinese seller on aliexpress.com (it holds 12-14 pens---there are some double- and triple-pen slots...not the best for pricey pens, but ok for cheaper one that won't scuff easily), and the aforementioned case bought in L.A. Bottom row: three pen cases made the Campo Marzio pen & accessories store in Pacific Centre mall in downtown Vancouver (note: they also have a store at Metrotown mall in Burnaby). The red and pink cases hold two pens, and the orange one in the middle can hold a single pen and a pair of reading glasses (I managed to fit two or three pens and no glasses inside mine :)

A repurposed cigar case purchased from Perks pen store on Cambie Street (where our club meets) that now holds two fountain pens, and a new acquisition--- my great new Monteverde "Napa" fountain pen, purchased from Jim Sanders of Pooh Corner pens, who was selling it on the Pentrace online Marketplace.