Namaste from Nepal!

Just received an email with a letter from our pen club's founder, Tim Conklin, who is in Nepal visiting friends. Tim wanted me to share the letter with the members of our club, so here it is, written with a Parker '45' flighter fountain pen and Cross Black ink:

Thanks for the letter, Tim! Tim will be back in town for our November meeting, and I look forward to chatting with him about his adventures then.

Don't forget that our October meeting will be held next Thursday (October 17th) at the White Spot restaurant inside Oakridge Mall in Vancouver, BC. Meeting starts at 6:00pm and will go to about 8:30pm or so. Please RSVP (only if you'd like to attend) by October 12th at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com so we can save a seat for you. Our October topic/theme will be New Acquisitions (pen-related). Hope to see you there!

Another one!

Mamma mia!

Glenn has just emailed me a photo of another new acquisition made recently on his trip to Italy! This one is the stunning new limited edition OMAS Vintage '360' series in smoke colour: (click on the photo below to see a close-up of this marvelous material)

Glenn writes: "These are stunning pens, with the incredible smooth OMAS nibs. The body and cap have a fine diamond pattern engraved in the cotton resin body." He goes on to say that this is apparently the last colour in the 360 Vintage series, and if you wish to get your hands on one before they sell out (only 360 were made), he recommends contacting Marco or Derick at Novelli@novelli.it (store website here), where Glenn purchased his own pen.

Glenn's (Italian) Pens!

Glenn Marcus, one of our long-time Vancouver Pen Club members, just sent me a couple of photos of two recent acquisitions from his trip to Rome. The fountain pens are so beautiful that I just had to post them on our website (with his permission, of course :)

The first is a scarlet red OMAS Ogiva limited edition in celluloid created for the Novelli Pen shop in Rome. Glenn's particular fountain pen is #2 of 30 pens made, and it "writes like a dream", he says:

The second pen is another OMAS limited edition--an OMAS Extra Lucens in celluloid . Only 331 were produced, and Glenn is one of the lucky few to own this gorgeous fountain pen. In his email, he called it "a sexy pen", and I'm sure you would agree:

(click on images to enlarge)

Many thanks for the photos, Glenn, and congratulations on your two spectacular purchases! You can find photos & reviews of many more great fountain pens (and fountain pen inks, fountain pen-friendly paper & some great pen stores) on Glenn's excellent & informative website, Glenn's Pens.

Venue change for October 17th meeting

The venue for Thursday October 17th's meeting has been moved to the WHITE SPOT restaurant inside Oakridge Mall, and will be held from 6:00pm to 8:30pm or so. Please RSVP your attendance for this meeting before Saturday October 12 as per the group email instructions (or if you wish to join our club, at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com).

Because of the difficulty in doing our usual "show & tell" while seated, our October topic/theme will be New Acquisitions. These can be any pens, inks, or pen-related accessories that you've acquired and want to show those seated around you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you to everyone who came to our September meeting (last Thursday) with your "most frustrating & most improved" fountain pens. I forgot to bring my digital camera but we had 14 members in attendance and the meeting was enjoyable and informative. Valerie, the B.C rep for Staedtler dropped by with some information about their new line of fine writing instruments (which include fountain pens!) and we got to see a couple of examples in ballpoint form---one made of plum wood and another made of glossy black resin. Impressive quality and design! Looking forward to seeing more Staedtler products on pen store shelves later this year...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We will be having our biannual Ink Exchange at our November 21st meeting, when we will be back at Perks pen store. Our November topic will be "The Pens You'd Never Sell", an older topic that Glenn C. suggested we bring back. Many thanks to all members for their participation, enthusiasm and theme/topic suggestions! Cheers, ~Maja

September meeting details

We're back to our regular themed meetings next month, so here are the details about our September meeting:

Date: Thursday September 19, 2013
Place: Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: "Most frustrating fountain pen & most improved pen".
Thanks to Graham and Anne for this topic idea! Please bring the fountain pen that has been the biggest problem for you from the day you got it (e.g. a "hard-starting" pen, a pen with a scratchy nib or flow issues, etc) as well as a pen that has been made to write properly, either through your own efforts, or a professional's. I love hearing stories about other people's fountain pens, and I think I'm not alone in that regard :)
Our secondary theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so if you have a new pen/ink or some cool new fountain-pen-friendly paper to show us, please bring it/them along.

VPC summer dinner at Moxie's!

A nice photo taken by Moxie's hostess Ruth last night at our summer dinner:

(click on photo to enlarge) From L-R: Tony, Charles, Sienca, Glenn Marcus, Nash, Maja, Anne, Greg S, Graham, Al, Richard, Brenda (Jim's wife), Bruce, Glenn Collins, Tristan and Jim. Many thanks to everyone who attended---a good time was had by all!

VPC Summer Dinner

The summer dinner for VPC members will be held on Thursday August 15. Space is limited, so VPC members please RSVP me no later than August 7th, as per the instructions in the members' group email I sent on July 21st. Please note: this is not a regular meeting...We will return to our regular "themed" meetings at Perks on Thursday September 19th. Have a great summer, everyone!

Pacific N.W. Regional Pen Round-Up! a smashing success!!

The first annual Pacific N.W. Regional Pen Round-Up! (of which I wrote about in this blog post) was a great success, according to organizers & attendees... and the folks in charge are already working on preparations for next year's Round-Up!

VPC member Charles (back to camera, light blue shirt) talking to pen seller Alan Brooking. Charles was one of two members of our pen club (Dave M. was the other) to attend the Round-Up... (Photo by Mike Rosen)

Co-organizer Michael McNeil posted a report on the event on various online pen boards, and allowed me to repost his thoughts here. In Michael's words:

We had the event Saturday July 13th at the Lucky Labrador Brewing Co., in N.W. Portland. I would like to thank all those who attended, including the vendors! We had a very good cooperative effort for our 1st attempt at the Pen Round-Up!

We had some pretty good local advertising and I saw a lot of faces that I did not recognize. We had a good turnout for the event. There were people who attended from British Columbia, Washington state and of course from around Oregon. There were vendor/collectors from B.C., California, Washington, Wisconsin and Iowa and several of us from Oregon.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I enjoyed talking with everyone who wanted to chat and look at pens. I think I bought about six pens and did trades for a couple of others. There are three that will go into my own collection. I also bought nine pens and a mechanical pencil the day before, at the big local antique show.

Here are a couple of comments from people who attended Pen Round-Up: "I thought the event went very smoothly. It was friendly, relaxed, casual, and I have the feeling that people who came were satisfied. I really liked the fact that there was no admission charge, and only a very modest table charge too." And, about the location, "... it was truly perfect for this event. Location, food, parking, the room itself, access to the freeways, etc."

Ingrid Hansen wrote on her blog: "I had a fabulous time at the Portland Pen Round Up on July 13, 2013. It was a small as far as what I’ve heard of fountain pen shows, though it was not a pen show, and I liked it very much because of that. I met an old friend, Bill Sexauer and several new friends: Michele, Larry Jones, John Strother, Michael McNeil, Jim Leonard and Stuart Hawkinson. I bought some pens and was able to try many more. I’m impressed with the mid-80s Omas Paragon that Jim let me try. Larry has an extensive pen collection that he’s selling. Jim and Stuart spent the last hour talking pens, pen shows and drinking beer. What a perfect day." You can view her blog at: http://inginkpen.com/2013/07/14/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many thanks to all who organized the show (esp. Stuart Hawkinson and Michael McNeil), to Mike Rosen for the photos, and to Ingrid for her blog post. I'm already looking forward to the 2014 Round-Up!

Déjà Vu All Over Again...

Many thanks to all who showed up for our July meeting, which featured fountain pen "knockoffs", "look-alikes" and "tributes" ("homages"). This time, I remembered to snap some photos *before* the meeting got really busy! (click on photos to enlarge)

Dave M. brought in some fine examples, including: a Waterman Expert look-alike, MB Copernicus LE and MB StarWalker "clones", a cloisonné Hero fountain pen with a Parker '51'-like hooded nib, a Morrison lever-filler with an overlay reminiscent of a vintage Waterman, a vintage no-name Parker Duofold look-alike, a very Parker-like pencil made in Japan, some lovely Parker Duofold replicas (in colours not used by Parker) made by Chris Thompson, and a Parker '51' "homage" in rippled ebonite created by Howard Levy (of Bexley pen company fame).

Dave also brought in a Parker '61' mark II set (made in Argentina, I believe) with two small metallic "dots" on the fountain pen's shell, in place of the traditional "arrow" for this particular model.

To demonstrate how vintage pen design has carried over to modern pen design, Bruce R. brought in part of his amazing Italian fountain pen collection (including: an OMAS Paragon with its Wahl-Eversharp Doric-inspired Art-Deco styling, a Visconti Wall Street made of Parker Vacumatic-like striped celluloid, a Visconti Metropolis with retractable nib that harkens back to the safety pens of the early 20th century and some cool vintage-inspired Visconti Voyagers), a lovely green Retro 51 'Double Eight' model (with faceted body, reminiscent of Art Deco-era fountain pens), a Bexley Americana (undoubtedly inspired by the Doric model), a TWSBI Diamond 540 (or was it a 580??) & CONID Bulk-Filler, pens which, Bruce claim, remind him of the iconic Pelikan M800 model.

And on the cheaper side of things...I brought in some inexpensive examples for our topic (original---non-knockoff--- model names in parentheses): Left column (top to bottom): a Foster "High Class Pen" model (Parker Vacumatic), Baoer 388 (Parker Sonnet), Hero 200A (Parker '75'), Hero 336 (Parker '61'), Rainbow 231 (Parker '61') and the ever-popular Hero '616' Jumbo (Parker 51). Right columnn (bottom to top, this time): Baoer "Skywalker" (Montblanc StarWalker), Nine Rings Green fountain pen---no brand name on it (Montblanc Nicolaus Copernicus LE), no-name pen (MB Meisterstuck Solitaire), Wing Sung 237 (a variety of Sheaffer Triumph-nibbed pens). The top pen is a lovely Ariel Kullock-made Parker 51 'fantasy' in an iridescent blue finish (a colur never made by the Parker Pen Co.). Ariel makes these pens in a variety of finishes and sells them in his eBay shop here (no afilliation with his store, just a happy customer :)

Important note: Our August meeting will be our annual summer dinner for VPC members (info in group email to be sent to VPC members within the next few days). Regular (themed) meetings will resume on September 19, 2013 at Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street (our usual place).

Portland + Pens = FUN !!

For those of you who can't make it to the Miami Pen Show, here is a cool pen-related event being held in Portland, Oregon in mid-July:

The 1st annual Pacific Northwest Regional Pen Round-Up!

Time: Saturday July 13th, 2013 - 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Place: The Lucky Lab Brewing Company, 1945 N.W. Quimby Street, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

As described by co-organizer Michael McNeil, the event is an opportunity to "buy, sell, trade, show, inform, talk, listen, learn, mingle, have fun and share our collective addiction to pens and other writing instruments"

The Pen Round-Up! will be held the same weekend as the Summer Palmer Antique (Expo) show, the biggest antique show in the Pacific Northwest (more details here, on their official website) so it's a good chance to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak (and take advantage of Oregon's tax-free shopping!)

If you are interested in reserving a table at the Pen Round-Up! please contact Michael at michael@northwestpenworks.com or Stuart Hawkinson at s.hawkinson@comcast.net as soon as possible, as table space may be limited! For further details on this event, please check out Michael's post on Pentrace about the event here. The organizers hope to make this an annual event, so I hope you can make it there!