Happy New Year!! (January 2010 meeting details)

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a relaxing holiday season and are ready to start the new year with a new round of pen club meetings! Our meetings will continue to be held at Perks pen store on Cambie and 42nd St in Vancouver, on the third Thursday of each month, from September to May (inclusive) but with no meeting in December. We might amend this to include a summer meetup; if so, you will hear about it on our blog. In the meantime, here are the details regarding our next meeting........

Date: Thursday January 21, 2010.
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm (time to get food and "meet & greet"); 6:30pm-8:30pm meeting.
Location: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street (@ 42nd Ave.) in Vancouver, BC (one block from Skytrain stop "Oakridge-41st Ave" on the Canada Line)

The theme for this meeting will be "FIRST PENS"---the first fountain pen you ever bought (or were given) and/or the first vintage fountain pen you ever acquired...or even the first fountain pen you bought online, etc..... or any combination of the above! This theme was used as the first meeting theme of 2010 by the London (Ontario) Pen Club and the Calgary Pen Club, so we thought we'd share the theme with our fellow Canuck pen club members. I think it's a great idea :)

Our secondary theme is always "NEWEST ACQUISITIONS", so if you have any new writing-instrument-related acquisitions such as pens, paper, ink, etc. please bring them along.

We are pleased that Mike A. has kindly volunteered to do an update on his excellent presentation entitled "Designer Writing Instruments of the 20th Century" at the January 21st meeting. These are fountain pens and other writing instruments that were designed by famous industrial designers (see a partial list of examples in our VPC blog entry here: http://www.vancouverpenclub.com/2009_01_01_archive.html).

Thanks in advance to Mike, and to Richard Clarke of Perks, who has been our pen club meeting host since November 2007!

Next VPC meeting on Thursday November 19th!

Date: Thursday November 19, 2009.
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm (time to get food and "meet & greet"); 6:30pm-8:30pm meeting.
Location: Perks pen store---5844 Cambie Street (@ 42^nd Ave.) in Vancouver, BC.

The theme for this meeting will be "SPECIAL NIBS", which means Stub nibs, Oblique nibs, Italic nibs & Music nibs. Many of you have been asking for this topic, so I hope we get a good turnout at the meeting!
Our secondary theme is always "NEWEST ACQUISITIONS", so if you have any new writing-instrument-related acquisitions such as pens, paper, ink, etc. please bring them along.

This will be the last meeting for 2009 as we do not hold meetings in December due to people's busy holiday schedules, but we will resume meetings in January 2010 (on the third Thursday of the month, as per usual).
Many thanks, as always, to Perks' owner Richard Clarke, for his gracious hospitality.

BIG things in store for our next meeting!

Well, it's almost time for another meeting of the VPC, so here are the details:

DATE: Thursday October 15, 2009 (this coming Thursday).
TIME: 6:00pm-6:30pm (time to get food and "meet & greet"); 6:30pm-8:30pm meeting (approx.)
PLACE: Perks pen shop at 5844 Cambie Street (@ 42nd Ave.) in Vancouver, across from Oakridge Mall and conveniently located near the "Oakridge" Skytrain "Canada Line" station.
THEME : BIG pens .....so bring the largest pens from your collection. Don't have any? Then bring along your latest pen-related acquisition from this past summer or fall----some new ink, a new pen, some fancy new stationery, etc. If you don't have anything that fits these categories, come anyway---there will be lots of stuff to see and discuss!

*Update*-some photos from the October 15th meeting:





We had a good turnout---in total, 14 writing equipment enthusiasts showed up, including first-timers Leo C. from Edmonton and Loan's husband, Gordon. Thanks to all who attended!

Upcoming Seattle Pen Club meeting in Bellingham, WA

Our neighbours to the south in the Seattle Pen Club will be having their October meeting in Bellingham, Washington this month and the Vancouver Pen Club is invited to attend. Actually, anyone and everyone is welcome to attend *any* SPC meeting, so please pass this information along to anyone in the Bellingham/Seattle area who is interested.

The meeting will be held on Saturday October 17, 2009 at the Bellingham Public Market at 1530 Cornwall Avenue, from 10:00 am - 1:00pm (approximately). Meeting themes: (a) Pens connected with "9" years: 1909, 1919, 1929, etc. (or, as close as you can come, (b) because Hallowe'en is coming, bring along your most "blood red" pen or ink, or the same in a "pumpkin orange" shade. Snakes on pens would be nice and (c) the usual show and tell of new acquisitions and pens you'd like to sell or trade. Also, if you have ink you'd like to swap or sell, bring a bottle or two.

This is a great chance to meet some super-nice pen people and see some great writing instruments. Not to mention a chance to do some shopping in the U.S while the Canadian dollar is strong :)

Delta Dolcevita?

Does anyone in the club have a Delta Dolcevita OS, Medium, or piston filler that they could bring to the October meeting? I've been pondering picking up one of the aforementioned next month but I haven't seen them in stores here so I've never had the opportunity to handle one, and with the OS's section being as wide as it is I'd like to make sure it's comfortable for me before I go plunking down a bunch of money.

Thanks.

Some photos from our September 2009 meeting

We had a good turnout for our September 17th meeting. A grand total of 10 members (including 3 newcomers--Loan, Bruce R. and Vikram, who was visiting from Seattle) showed up and a good time was had by all. Our next meeting will be held on Thursday October 15th at 6:30pm, at the usual place--Perks pen store by Oakridge Mall. Topic/theme: TBA.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the first VPC meeting of the season last Thursday, and to our host Richard Clarke, who generously donated a Cross inkwell set for our door prize draw (which was won by Vikram!).


(Photo taken by Richard--From L-R: Vikram, Loan, Michael, Maja)


(Photo taken by Richard--From L-R: Ryan, Loan, Michael, Bruce)


(Photo taken by Richard--From L-R: Ryan, Loan, Ian (back to camera), Michael, Maja, Vikram). Not pictured: Bruce, Brian, Graham, Richard.

Start of a New (pen club) Season!

Our next meeting will be as follows:
Date: Thursday 17 September 2009

Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm (time to get food and "meet & greet"); 6:30pm-8:30pm meeting (approx.)

Location: Perks pen store---5844 Cambie Street (@ 42nd Ave.) in Vancouver, across from Oakridge Centre mall.

The theme for this meeting will be "AUTUMN PENS" (thanks to Graham for the suggestion!), so please bring any brown, yellow, red and/or orange pens (or combination thereof) you would like to show, and/or any new or old writing-instrument-related acquisitions such as pens, paper, ink, etc.

For the 2009/2010 meeting year, we will continue to meet at Perks on the third Thursday of every month from September through May (no meeting in December). Many thanks, as always, to Perks' owner Richard Clarke, for his gracious hospitality.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at our meeting next Thursday!
~Maja

My latest...

Here's my latest acquisition, a Montblanc 146 with a 1.0mm Minuskin cursive italic that I got in a trade with another FPNer.

It's about what I was looking for - a broader italic in a body easier to hold for a long time than my VP. I look forward to showing it off in September!

(Apologies for the slightly-fuzzy picture - trying to handhold in room light.)

However did I manage without one?

Here's pride of place on my desk right now - a Parker desk pen, sent me by my good friend Glenn. (You can find him as Eccles, at FPN.) The base, unfortunately, isn't the original, which broke in transit, but with a little engineering this marble replacement fitted nicely to the pen holder. It's in perfect working order, a good writer (a 51?), and I don't know why these ever lost popularity because it's really the ideal way of keeping a fountain pen on your desk - always in place, and never rolling away under papers. Perry Mason had one of these in his office too, in those 1950s TV shows. What better recommendation? "Della, what was that phone number again? And get Paul Drake in here right away..."

VPC to Celebrate End of Third Season

Dear Pen Enthusiasts,

The third season of the Vancouver Pen Club is coming to an end. We will hold our last meeting of the 2008/09 meeting season with a party to which everyone is invited.

Date: Thursday 21 May 2009
Time: Six O'Clock pm
Location: Moxie's Classic Grill 1160 Davie Street in Downtown Vancouver's West End

You're welcome to bring a guest or two. Please rsvp to Tim Conklin at wordgauge7000@gmail.com by May 14th.