A few photos from our August 18, 2022 in-person meeting!

Many thanks to everyone who turned out for our first in-person meeting since February 2020! It was great to see so many familiar faces (even behind your masks :) We had 14 members in attendance, and I think a very good time was had by all. In fact, in all the excitement, I forgot to get a group shot of us.... but I did snap some photos of what our members brought. Enjoy!

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

(Above) Just some of the pens and inks we saw on Thursday night at the Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano branch meeting room. Our meeting topic/theme was "Newest Acquisitions", but because our club hadn't had an in-person meeting in over two years, some members brought a mixture of very recent purchases and older acquisitions for us to see, which was great!

Nathan brought some amazing fountain pens he purchased, including a couple of platinum fountain pens he later anodized himself, and some KWZ sheening inks (in the lower left of the photo) for us to sample (thanks, Nathan!) Kelley also brought some really nice fountain pens for us to see -- her Lamy 'Al-Star' in "Pacific Blue", a black Pilot 'Falcon', an orange Noodler's 'Nib Creaper' and a gorgeous Benu 'Euphoria' "French Poetry" fountain pen (all in the pic's lower right quadrant). The grey marbled pen next to her Lamy is a vintage Parker 'Challenger' that Kelley bought from Christopher, who brought an assortment of vintage fountain pens (the ones with the price tags on them :) to sell.

(Above) Stuart's beautiful Montblanc 'StarWalker Doué' fountain pen that he bought at the Vancouver Pen Shop's annual sale in the Fall of 2020. Every October, the Pen Shop has a month-long anniversary sale with reduced prices for almost all of the brands they carry, so start saving your pen money now!

(Above) The handsome Pelikan M605 Streseman fountain pen that Joie brought to our meeting.

If you're reading this and would like to attend the Vancouver 2022 Pelikan Hub, make sure you register at  https://www.pelikan-hubs.com/ before August 21, 2022. This isn't a Vancouver Pen Club event, but I'm sure a lot of our club members will be there.

(Above) Rene's gorgeous vintage Parker 'Moderne'/'Duette Jr' fountain pen in the amazing "Bronze and Blue" celluloid. Rene also showed us many more great vintage pens, including two large Eclipse flat tops, some Parker 'Vacumatics' and more. We saw a lot of vintage Parkers (belonging to several different members) at the meeting, which attests to their enduring popularity among vintage pen fans.

(Above) Stuart's 1948 Parker '51' Aerometric "Magnetix" desk set (reviewed by Stuart here), which positively glows! Photos cannot do this beautiful vintage desk set justice.

(Above): The wonderful Robert Oster "Australian Shiraz" ink I got from Alejandra (thanks, Alejandra!), and a brand-new Pilot 'Lightive' fountain pen that Stuart bought earlier this week at the Vancouver Pen Shop. From what I've read, the 'Lightive' appears to be the same model as the Pilot 'Explorer', but with a better inner-cap design to prevent the pen from drying out.

(Above) Last, but certainly not least, Christopher's vintage Parker 'Duofold' "Big Red" fountain pen and mechanical pencil that he acquired recently. We'll post Christopher's full review of this set on Sunday, so watch this space...

I was so excited to see everyone that I forgot to take more photos, including any of my own pens (lol) or Jerred's, but happily, the majority of the pens we brought were reviewed by Jerred and myself on this blog already. Jerred brought the highlights from his "pandemic era" Delta acquisitions, including his newest Delta fountain pen --a sterling silver Delta 'Prestige' with a guilloche pattern.

Trevor showed us his brand-new silver-plated Parker '95' ballpoint in the elegant "Fileté'" pattern (purchased the day of our meeting), and a couple of cool Lamy 'Vista' rollerball clones that take fountain pen ink (a piston-filler version + a C/C version) that he got from fellow VPCer Steve. Julienne brought along all the wonderful fountain pens she purchased during the pandemic, including some beautiful Narwhals (including two 'Nautilus' models), a handmade London Pen Company fountain pen, and a couple of amazing Pilots, including one urushi model (if I recall correctly).

Alejandra and Nox brought both modern (Nox's Rotring 600 mechanical pencil, Alejandra's Charles Lethaby 'ION' fountain pen) and vintage writing instruments to our meeting. The latter included some vintage treasures Alejandra found at a local antique store --a Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline' and a 1970s Pelikan '120'. Peter showed us his own vintage treasure---a black hard rubber Waterman '52' fountain pen that he bought from fellow VPC member Mark (Peter said that the Waterman had one of the most flexible nibs he's ever tried). Ben showed a lot more restraint than any of us, with regard to pen-buying during the pandemic, as he didn't have any new acquisitions (Bravo, Ben!) but he did show us his current daily users - a TWSBI and his trusty Muji fountain pen. 

P.S. Many thanks to Trevor for the wooden pencils he gave away at the meeting! :)

~ Information about future in-person monthly meetings (including location, which may or may not be the VPL Kitsilano branch) will be posted on this blog, and will also appear in the blog header ~

Photos from our February meeting (Theme: Multi-coloured Fountain Pens)

We had a full house for our February meeting, with 26 VPC members (including two newcomers--Jaime and Gary) in attendence! Our meeting theme was "Multi-coloured Fountain Pens" (including crazy colour combos & shimmery, iridescent pens), and we saw a lovely array of them that night.
I snapped some photos during & after the meeting, so without further ado, here we go!

(~please click on images to enlarge~)

(Standing, L-R): Isaac, Glenn and Jim. (Seated, L-R, clockwise around the table): Ben (lower left corner of photo), Daryl, Armando,Chuck, Jerred, Christopher, Tony, Julienne, Natasha, Louise, Melodie, Nathan, Tristan, Justin, Stuart, me (Maja), René, Dave, Jaime and Gary (photo taken by Candice)

(L-R, clockwise around the table, L-R): Natasha (lower left corner of photo), Louise, Melodie, Nathan, Tristan, Justin, Stuart, Maja, René, Dave, Jaime, Isaac, Jim, Armando, Chuck, Glenn (standing), Jerred, Christopher, Tony and Julienne (photo by Candice)

(Above) A lovely selection of colour-shifting fountain pens belonging to Candice (L-R): three inexpensive Chinese-made fountain pens (Lamy Safari clones/"tributes") from AliExpress.com, the aptly-named Benu 'Chameleon' and a LIY 'MITU' fountain pen.

(Above) More cool-looking iridescent fountain pens belonging to Candice (L-R): three Waterman 'Kultur Reflectics', a Diplomat 'Magnum' and a Parker 'Frontier' "Chromaflair".

(Above) "Newest Acquisitions" is always our secondary theme, so Isaac brought his new Pilot 'Vanishing Point' fountain pen in "Blue Carbonesque" pattern to show us. It's a great fountain pen---a modern classic---and one that's well-suited to those who don't want to worry about losing their fountain pen's cap.

(Above) Glenn's new fountain pen made by Leonardo Officina Italiana---the "Messenger" model in orange ("arancio" in Italian). This large-but-well-balanced fountain pen (approximately the same length as the 'Momento Zero Grande' model) is made of a beautiful semi-translucent resin and currently comes in five colours. With 2020 being a leap year (366 days in length), the Leonardo pen company created 366 pens of each colour. Glenn posted a review---with much better photos than mine---of his 'Messenger' here on his website.

(Above) A fine collection of colourful fountain pens by PenBBS, owned by Dana.

(Above) Some new vintage acquisitions belonging to Christopher--a handsome black & cream no-name fountain pen, a black vintage fountain pen and a green Sheaffer 'Cadet' fountain pen.

(Above) A mix of new purchases and pens René brought in for our topic (top to bottom): vintage Parker Striped 'Duofold' (a/k/a the 'Duovac' because of its vacuum-filling mechanism), vintage Eagle fountain, vintage President fountain pen, vintage Traveler fountain pen, and a gorgeous modern fountain pen--the Edison 'Beaumont' in "Bedrock Flake".

(Above) More of René's great fountain pens! From top to bottom: a classic Waterman '54' in red ripple (red and black hard rubber), a Onoto de la Rue 4601 B8 plunger-filler (the prototype for the vacuum-fillers later produced by Sheaffer et al), a vintage Sheaffer 'Balance', a Sheaffer 'Imperial' model "444", an attractive Eclipse fountain pen in gorgeous green marbled plastic, and an unmarked ringtop in chased black plastic (most likely an Eclipse).

(Above) You can't see it in this photo, but Liz's Kaweco 'AL Sport' in "Petrol" finish *does* change colour depending on the light! This particular material finish was a Benelux Special Edition (made for retailers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) as well as a Limited Edtion (only 500 pieces were made world-wide).

(Above) Two wonderful pens belonging to Melodie. The large one is a beautiful custom-made fountain pen made by 18111.com featuring two rabbits, and the smaller one is an Opus 88 'Fantasia' eyedropper-filler.

(Above) Jerred's nice collection of PenBBS fountain pens on the left side of the pen case (and one Campo Marzio fountain pen in blue and yellow---last pen in top row), and on the right side (L-R) are his compact LIY "Future" fountain pen in the "Blue Coral Sea" material, a PenBBS '456' model in "Tiny Happiness" resin material, a Moonman N3, and one of Jerred' newest acquisitions--a Delta 'Fusion 82'.

(Above) A lovely pocket Sailor half-demonstrator fountain pen-Jaime's Sailor 'Pro Gear Classic' "Angel's Delight" Limited Edition (LE). The "Angel's Delight" was the eighth in Sailor's popular "Cocktail" series of LEs and was made for the Japanese domestic market only.

Jim's newest pen-related acquisition---a ensso "XS" minimalist pocket fountain pen made of black aluminum. When posted, this 12-sided pen becomes the size of a regular fountain pen (it also makes a delightful popping sound when you take its cap off ;)

(Below) Two of Nathan's newest pen purchases---a modern Fuliwen '017' fountain pen (with cool snake clip) in the "Starry Night" material, and a vintage Esterbrook 'J' fountain pen:

(Below) Some pens brought in by Stuart for our topics -- a colourful vintage Arnold lever-filling fountain pen and some Muji ballpoints he recently acquired:

Natasha's gorgeous Tailored Pen Company (formerly JRLPens) 'Churchill' model in "Lava Explosion". My photos don't do this lovely fountain pen justice...

(Below) New VPC member Gary's fountain pens. Gary just started collecting a few months ago, but he already has a really nice collection of fountain pens! In the top row of his pen case are (Left to Right) a nine-function Monteverde 'Tool Pen', a Franklin-Christoph model '02' in "Antique Ice" material, a J. Herbin 'Clear' fountain pen, a Lamy 'Safari', a Lamy 'Lx' Marron brown (special edition) and a Lamy 'Lx Studio' "All Black" (special edition). In the bottom row are (L-R) two Kaweco 'Liliput' fountain pens, a vintage Sheaffer Lady Skripsert 'VI' (Paisley) model, a Kaweco 'Sport', a Kaweco Brass 'Sport', a Kaweco 'Supra', a Graf von Faber-Castell (GvFC) 'Classic' "Guilloche Rhodium" . a GvFC 'Classic' "Sterling Silver", and two Pilot 'Vanishing Point' fountain pens:

Gary's very first fountain pen---a Kaweco 'Liliput', pictured next to a Hershey's "Kiss" candy (for scale):

I've been collecting colourful modern fountain pen for many years, and here are some I brought for our topic...Top row (L-R): ThINK fountain pens in the "Shag", "Punch Bowl", "Bee Bop", "Bayou", "Tigerlilly", "Iceland", "Sahara", "Mojito", "Poolside" and "Lobster" patterns, and two Levenger 'True Writer' fountain pens in "Carnval" and "Sea Glass". Bottom row (L-R): Levenger 'True Writer' in "Kyoto" material, Laban 'Mento' fountain pens in "Autumn Flake", "Celebration Red", "Celebration Blue", "Pumpkin Seed" and "Terazzo Pumpkin", a handcrafted fountain pen in swirly red, black & white made by Chris "Appleman" Hughes , a Noodler's 'Naponset' "Jersey Devil", a Conklin 'All-American' in "Yellowstone", a Parker 'Frontier' "Chromaflair" in purple & red, and a Sheaffer 'Mini Agio' in iridescent dark purple shades:

Some of the new fountain pens I brought to the meeting: (L-R) a green-yellow Yiren (Lamy Safari clone/"tribute") whose section and nib are both multicoloured, a Pelkan "Level" 'L65' model, a Schneider "Ray", a Visconti 'Saturno' "Black Rhea" (a Limited Edition--only 88 pieces made), a ThINK 'Gatsby' model in "Derby" material (which is the official name; others call it "Chaplin"), and a pink "Tornado" rollerball by Retro 51:

I was saddened to hear about the uncertain future of Retro 51 on their official blog but decided it would be wise to acquire a few more now (before the prices went up!), so here are my most recent Retro 51 purchases-(L-R): 'Tornado' rollerballs in the "Birthday Greetings-Yellow", "California" (special edition made for Goldspot Pens), "Elephant and Rhino Rescue" (first version) and "Lincoln" designs, "Lincoln" fountain pen and a "Santa Jaws" fountain pen (special edition made for Goulet Pens...and yes, it's an image of a Great White Shark wearing an ugly Christmas sweater ;):

I forgot to snap a photo of my new leather 12-pen case by Four Pines Supply company as well as the two great inks (Leonardo Officina Italiana "Purple" and Diamine "Skull & Roses", a shimmer ink made for the German market) I bought from Louise at the meeting, so I took a quick pic of them at home (photo below):

(Below) Last, but certainly not least, a few photos sent to me by newcomer Jaime, who brought some wonderful fountain pens for us to see. It was such a busy meeting that I forgot to take photos of them, but Jaime was kind enough to send me her own photos after I contacted her:

(~click on images to enlarge~)

Jaime's diminuative "Pocket 6" fountain pens in the "Unicorn" and "Dark Unicorn" by Schon:

Jaime's handcrafted 'Norsemen' fountain pen in "Raven Black", made by Genesis, a team of penmakers located in Hong Kong:

Jaime's "Westminster" model fountain pen made of "Oil Slick" resin, handcrafted by The Tailored Pen Company in Kentucky :

Photos from our December meeting (Part 1)

Many thanks to the 24 VPC members (including four newcomers) and one special guest (from the London Pen Club in Ontario) who attended our December meeting!

Normally we don't meet in December because of the holiday season, but I was hoping the VPC Limited Edition fountain pens made by Leonardo pens would arrive in time, so I scheduled one just in case. Unfortunately, the pens didn't arrive before our meeting, but we had a lot of fun anyway...

(L-R: Maja, Daryl, Ben, new members Cyanea and Isabella, Glenn, new member Louise and Julienne)

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ all other photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)

As a way of injecting more fun into this holiday-month meeting, we had a (voluntary) blind pen swap (which was Wai's idea from several years back) where members could select a wrapped pen in exchange for another (wrapped) pen they didn't want. The only criteria were that the pens had to be fountain pens under $20-$25 in value and in good working order. I donated my blue Kaweco 'Sport Classic' which came home with Tim, our pen club's co-founder. In a nice coincidence, I wound up getting Tim's Rotring 'Core' fountain pen :) Many thanks to Tim and everyone else who participated in this event!

Our December meeting theme ("Pens and/or Inks that are named for, or remind you of specific places") was suggested by Jerred (thanks, Jerred!). It was actually an old theme idea from the early days of our pen club that was never implemented, so I'm glad he suggested it because we saw some very interesting examples. For the theme, Jerred brought in (top to bottom, in photo below) his Monteverde 'Catalina' fountain pen in "Blue Pearl" filled with Private Reserve "Electric D.C. Blue" ink (which matched our theme!), his Platinum '3776 Century' in "Chartres Blue" and his Noodler's 'Konrad Acrylic' in "Baikal Blue", named after the world's oldest and deepest lake:

Stuart also brought some nice examples for our December meeting topic--a Waterman 'Expert' in the "Ombres et Lumières" pattern (an homage to Paris, the "City of Lights"), a Sheaffer 'Connaisseur Levenger Seas' fountain pen in "Aegean Green" (a tribute to the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey) and a Lamy 'AL-star' in "Pacific Blue":

In addition to the modern pens above, Stuart also brought some vintage examples for our theme - a Wahl-Eversharp "Fifth Avenue" fountain pen and mechanical pencil set in original box (and with original warranty):

The Montblanc pen company was named for Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and 11th highest mountain in the world. Here is a lovely example made by that manufacturer---Barry's Montblanc '146' fountain pen in the harder-to-find burgundy colour:

(Photo below) Continuing with our geographical theme are Dana's Japanese-made Platinum '3776 Century' fountain pen in the beautiful clear red "Bourgogne" colour (3776 being the height of Mt Fuji, in metres), Jerred's Martemodena 'Citizen' - "Beijing" model in red and yellow (the colours of the Chinese flag), Tony's TWSBI 'Diamond 580' "Republic of Taiwan" Special Edition in the red, white and blue colours of the Taiwanese flag, and Dana's Franklin-Christoph '46' demonstrator in "Italian Ice" -a very cool (pun intended) fountain pen made of a clear material that glows lavender in UV light (who said fountain pens were boring??)

In the middle of the photo above are a couple of Jenny's newest purchases---a Kaweco 'Perkeo' in the "Bad Taste" (yes, that's the official name!) coral & black colour combo and her Platignum 'Studio' in pink. The pen on the far left is a TWSBI 'Diamond Mini'---a great pocket fountain pen--- belonging to Mariana, and at the very bottom of the photo is Tony's ballpoint with the City of Vancouver logo on it (which suited our meeting venue *and* fit our meeting theme).

(Photo below) My (Maja's) collection of writing instruments related to cities or places---Top row: OMAS 'Bologna' "L'Acqua Di Bologna", Sheaffer Connaisseur Levenger Seas "Adriatic", Fuliwen '017' "Blue Danube", PenBBS '309 Gradient' "Hawaii", PenBBS '308 Gradient' "Hawaii" ThINK "Iceland", ThINK "Sahara", Monteverde 'Napa' in red, ivory and blue patterns, Monteverde 'Catalina', and Monteverde 'Mountains' "Cortina".

Bottom row: Campo Marzio "Ambassador", Noodler's Ahab "Hudson's Bay Fathom's Blue", Noodler's 'Konrad' "Galapagos", Noodler's 'Konrad Acrylic' "Jersey Devil", Wahl-Eversharp "Fifth Avenue" ballpoints, fountain pen and mechanical pencil, Shanghai M&G Stationery fountain pen, Platinum '3776 Century' "Bourgogne", Montblanc '221', and Retro 51 'Tornado' "London Skyline" rollerball.

Joie's "Seoul" ink by De Atramentis, a scented fountain pen ink...

Our secondary theme is always "Newest Acquisitions" (pen-related). Here are a few that we saw that evening ---(top to bottom) Julienne's Lamy 'Scala' in "Glacier", René's Lamy 'Studio' in "Aquamarine", and Julienne's own 'Studio' pens in "Terracotta" and "Imperial Blue". Our club members love Lamys!

VPC member Louise attended her first meeting in December and brought along some amazing fountain pens, including (top pen in the photo below) a stunning Sailor 'Realo' with aftermarket Raden finish made of multi-coloured abalone pieces, and a gorgeous custom-made fountain pen made by the Carolina Pen Company that was inspired by a photograph of a galaxy that Louise sent to the penmaker:

Louise's lovely collection of Lotus fountain pens, handmade in India:

This writing instrument of Louise's was made much closer to home---it's a clipless fountain pen made of "Cenote After Dark" Alumilite (a resin material) made by Butterknife Creations, a Canadian pen company located in London, Ontario:

My photo doesn't even come close to doing this gorgeous fountain pen justice, but I had to include it in the December meeting photos. It belongs to Louise and was made by 18111.com:

Another fabulous fountain pen belonging to Louise - a "Carina Hapalua" model in Abalone made by Eric Sands of Atelier Lusso, a maker of bespoke writing instruments located in Lake Arrowhead, California:

The pen on the far right belongs to our youngest member---Zepherin---who came to the meeting with his trusty Lamy "AL-star" "Ocean Blue" fountain pen...and our special guest from Ontario-his grandfather John Parnell, one of the founding members of the London Pen Club. The five large pens in the photo were all made by Sean Allot of the London Pen Co. John helped to design the protoype (the green pen in the center) for the "Parnell" model line shown here. The model on the far left was created to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the London Pen Club:

(Photo below) Jenny attended the 2019 Kobe Pen Show in Japan and came back with some beautiful fountain pens, several of which were limited/special editions commissioned by well-known Japanese stationery stores. Among her recent acquisitions were (top to bottom): a lavender Sailor 'Pro Gear' Hachimoniya store Exclusive, a Sailor 'Pro Gear' Nagasawa Exclusive Black Demonstrator (which has a chicken weathervane - the Nagasawa logo - engraved on its nib), a Pilot 'Kakuno' in "Soft Blue" Nagasawa Special Edition with the skyline of Kobe (where a Nagasawa stationery store is located) imprint, and finally, and a Sailor 'Pro Gear Slim Mini' Kingdom Note Exclusive, pink sea slug model (which has a sea slug engraved on its nib :). This latter model was made for the Kingdom Note pen store in Tokyo, which had previously commissioned a vegetable-themed series of Sailor pens! Longtime VPCer Mindy also recently acquired the same sea slug pen, but in another colour (not pictured)...

Inspired by Jenny's purchase of the Pilot 'Decimo' limited edition in the "White Art Deco" design (made for the Japanese Mitsukoshi department store chain ~ only 100 pieces made), Candice managed to snag one of her own---this lovely example:

Not forgetting our members' vintage acquisitions, here are Christopher's Parker ballpoint and three vintage fountain pens--a black Esterbrook 'J' transitional model, a pretty rose-marbled Parker 'Challenger' and a green-marbled Mabie-Todd 'Blackbird' "Self-Filler" model:

Last, but not least - one of my newest acquisitions- a handsome blue Lamy 'Safari' given to me by a dear family friend, purchased in Rome, during her recent trip to Italy:

Many thanks to everyone who brought pens and inks and other pen-related items to our meeting. René brought in a marvelous selection of fountain pens and inks for our topic, including a Benu 'Minima' fountain pen in the sparkly "Baikal Ice" pattern. He actually won a contest to name this particular 'Minima' model (belated congrats, René!), so I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of it (the official website's photo of it is here). I'll be posting another set of photos---by Ricardo, this time---from our December meeting in a few days, so watch this space!

Don't forget---our next meeting is this Thursday January 16, 2020! (all details here)