More photos from our December meeting (Part 2)

As promised, here are some more photos taken during our December 2019 meeting (which was held on December 19), these courtesy of Ricardo!
(Part 1 of the December meeting photos--with more detailed captions--are at this link )

~ all photos courtesy of Ricardo ~ please click on images to enlarge ~

Our meetings are always a hubbub of activity for about half an hour before the actual meeting starts, so you don't have to worry about arriving on time...

That's our resident nibmeister Jerred (middle) talking to Rene, while Christopher listens in...

(Photo below) Our meeting host Tony...

Dana inking up a fountain pen using a plastic ink syringe to draw up the ink...

Tim (our club's co-founder) putting his mystery wrapped pen into the "pen swap" basket that I'm holding. Tim wound up getting my blue Kaweco 'Sport' fountain pen and I got his Rotring 'Core'!

Starting the meeting with a brief intro (or am I snacking on some chocolates ???). From left to right in photo--Stuart, Wai, me (Maja), Ben, and new members Cyanea, Isabella and Louise...

John Parnell of the London Pen Club (middle of photo) came all the way from Ontario to attend our December meeting! John was accompanied by his young grandson, Zepherin, sitting to his left...

Our December topic was "Pens and/or Inks that are named for, or remind you of specific places". The topic was Jerred's idea, so he kicked it off with his Martemodena "Citizen" fountain pen 'Beijing' model...

Another pen Jerred brought in for our December theme - his Platinum #3776 Century fountain pen in "Chartres Blue"...

A beautiful Monteverde 'Catalina' fountain pen, also belonging to Jerred...

Tony carefully inspecting a pen...

Tony's colourful TWSBI 'Diamond 580' "Republic of Taiwan" Special Edition fountain pen...

Three longtime VPCers (L-R):: Barry, Stuart (showing us one of the examples he brought in for our December meeting theme) and Wai....

Jenny talking about one of the special edition Japanese-made fountain pens she acquired recently...

Here's a close-up of the pen Jenny is holding in the photo above--a lavender Sailor 'Pro Gear' Hachimoniya store Exclusive...

Another special edition made for a Japanese store---Jenny's Sailor 'Pro Gear Slim Mini' Kingdom Note Exclusive, pink sea slug model (with a sea slug engraved on its nib!)...

This fountain pen belonging to Jenny is a Sailor 'Pro Gear' Nagasawa Exclusive Black Demonstrator which sports a quirky engraving (a chicken weather vane - the Nagasawa logo) on its music nib...

Another 'Pro Gear' of Jenny's--this one in the lovely "Morita Blue" colour...

Jenny's Pilot 'Kakuno' in "Soft Blue" Nagasawa Special Edition that has the skyline of Kobe, Japan imprinted on its barrel (Kobe is the location of one of the Nagasawa stationery stores)...

Another great Japanese-made fountain pen of Jenny's--a Sailor 'Realo' Demonstrator with blue finials...

A close-up of the cap top, showing the famous Sailor anchor logo...

Another demonstrator fountain pen - Dana's Franklin-Christoph '46' demonstrator in "Italian Ice" (made of a clear material that glows lavender in UV light)...

Dana also brought in her Platinum #3776 Century in the clear red "Bourgogne" colour for our topic (3776 being the height of Mt Fuij, in metres)...

Dana's lovely orange Sailor 'Sapporo' (a/k/a 'Pro Gear Slim') demonstrator...

Tim proudly showing us another nice orange fountain pen - his Conklin 'Duragraph' in "Orange Nights"...

Stuart and Barry...

Barry brought in his great new leather 48-pen carrying case by Girologio (which we forgot to photograph!) and this classic fountain pen - a burgundy Montblanc '146'....

Our meetings are usually a casual 'show & tell' (unless someone is doing a presentation) where members bring items related to the monthly meeting theme/topic and/or newest acquisitions, and briefly talk about them. Here I am showing one of the (many) pens I brought in...

That's Glenn Marcus in the center of the photo. Glenn is a longtime member (since 2009!) who put a lot of effort into getting our 2019 Vancouver Pen Club Limited Edition pens made by the Leonardo pen company (more on that in a future blog post ;). Thank you again, Glenn, for all your efforts!

Pen-related new acquisitions is always our secondary topic. Here is one of Daryl's - an adorable pen stand in the shape of a small crab (a gift from his son)...

Of course, when we say "new pen-related acquisitions", we really mean "new writing instrument-related acquisitions", such as these cool Blackwing wooden pencils, recently purchased by Julienne...

These particular pencils are Blackwing's 'Volume 155', created in honour of the Bauhaus school of design...

Blackwing "Point Guards" - pencil covers created to protect your Blackwing pencils!

For more info about this particular line of Blackwing pencils and many more, check out the official Blackwing site here...

In addition to the pencils she recently bought, Julienne also brought along another new acquisition--a lovely grey striped Pelikan M1005 "Stresemann" Limited Edition (the largest pen in the photo below). This Pelikan model was named in honour of Gustav Stresemann, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. The clear red pen in the photo is Ricardo's Pelikan 'M205' "Star Ruby", the special edition M205 for 2019. I'm still trying to figure out the owner of the bright blue Pelikan in the same photo (I know Rene has one, but it's not his!); I do know it's an 'M120' "Iconic Blue" special edition, a throwback to the vintage M120s that were produced in the 1950/60s...

A closeup of the Pelikan M1005...

Tony trying out the M1005...

...and Dana writing with it, too! (it's a great fountain pen :)

Speaking of great Pelikan fountain pens, here are Joie's fabulous Pelikan M600/M605 'White' models...

The beautiful M605 "White Transparent" from 2017...

The newest member of the M600 white flock---the "Violet-White" model from 2019 (the "Pink-White" model came out in 2015 and the "Turquoise-White" in 2018) ...

(there's some excellent info on the "white" models here and here on Joshua Danley's informative Pelikan blog)

For our meeting theme, Joie brought this scented "Seoul" ink by De Atramentis...

Another gorgeous fountain pen---a Sailor 'Realo' with aftermarket Raden finish made of multi-coloured abalone pieces, owned by new member Louise...

...and another great modern fountain pen - an Aurora '88' Nettuno Limited Edition, also belonging to Louise. The "Nettuno" was named after the planet Neptune and is part of the Aurora's "Stellar" series of fine writing instruments...

Mr. Crab holding up two Pilot fountain pens - Jenny's 'Decimo' Special Edition in "Soft Green" and Candice's 'Vanishing Point' in glossy black (creatively customized by Candice with stamped nail enamel)...

Lest you think our club is only about modern pens, here's a shot of Christopher's handsome vintage 'Ty-phoo' fountain pen made of mottled red hard rubber (ca. 1920s). The Ty-phoo fountain pens were free with proof of purchase of the tea of the same name (there's a nice article about the pens here)...

Ricardo's wonderful drawings (made during our meetings!)....

Many thanks to Ricardo for the great photos he took...and to Tony (below) for booking our venue!

Thank you to all who came to our December meeting, whether you brought anything for our topics or not :) Photos from our first meeting of 2020 coming soon!

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)

Happy New Year!

(~ Click on image to enlarge ~)

Happy New Year 2020!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, spent with friends & family. The fountain pen that Santa's holding in the photo above is a modern Kaweco 'Student' in the cool "70s Soul" colour combo, a Christmas gift from my in-laws :)

We're back in 2020 with a meeting on Thursday January 16 (all details in the previous blog post), so I hope you can make it! Best wishes for a happy 2020! ~Maja

First meeting of 2020!

When: Thursday January 16, 2020 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm (don't worry if you're late, as we usually start at around 6:30 pm)

Where: A meeting room (the Strathcona room) in a smaller building located next to Vancouver City Hall, 453 W. 12th, Vancouver, BC (on the corner of W. 12th and Cambie).

This is the same place where we had our last two meetings. If you wish to attend but are not a member yet, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com for more info re: the location.

Parking: There is free parking along Cambie Street after 6:00pm, or in the underground parking at the VanCity Building at 10th & Yukon when VanCity is closed. Parking along Yukon Street is $2.00 per hour.

Topic/Theme:WHITE FOUNTAIN PENS! (off-white or *light* beige fountain pens are ok. Fountain pens with a pattern to them are ok, too )

We've never done "White Fountain Pens" as a meeting theme before, so many thanks to Jerred for the idea.
Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc---so if you have anything new you wish to show, please bring it to the meeting. Hope you can make it!

November meeting pics

Our November meeting saw our pen club at a brand-new venue---a nice, cozy meeting room near Vancouver City Hall! Nineteen VPC members (including newcomer Nathan) were in attendance to see and hear about the items brought in for our "Open Format" theme...

The purpose of this open-ended theme was to allow members to bring in writing-instrument-related items that didn't fit in with previous topics. Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions" and we were lucky to see some great new pens, such as the ones René brought in... (~click on images to enlarge~)

(Photo above) René's haul included some nice vintage fountain pens (maroon Parker '45', a woodgrain ringtop, a Lady Sheaffer Skripsert' in the "Balicon Red on Gold" fishnet pattern, a swirly Morgan lever-filler, and a Waterman cartridge-converter fountain pen--all in the bottom row) and some lovely modern ones (the Montblanc 'Petit Prince" LE and a Lamy 'LX' in "Maron" at the top of the photo). Another recent acquisition was René's all-black Lamy 'Studio', also shown above.

(Above) Another new acquisition of René's - this ornate Cross 'Sauvage' 2020 Year of the Rat Special Edition fountain pen

A closer look at René's vintage Morgan lever-filler. The Morgan Pen and Pencil Co had was located at 116 Nassau Street in New York City and made second/third-tier writing instruments in the 1930's/1940's. Some were made of interesting plastics, such as this caramel-y swirly example shown above

Stuart brought in some interesting items for us to see, including the book "The Art of Cursive Penmanship" by master penman Michael Sull.

(Above) Stuart's vintage (aluminum? vanadium?) lever-filler (possibly made by Morrison) and a handsome black Parker '51' used by his maternal grandfather at his job at Vancouver's City Hall:

(Below) A few more pens brought in by Stuart for our November meeting (L-R); Platinum Century 3776 in "Chartres Blue", Pilot 'Vanishing Point' in "Blue Carbonesque", yellow Lamy 'Safari' and a modern Conklin 'Duragraph' in the cool (heh) "Cracked Ice" pattern.

Candice's lovely collection of short Japanese fountain pens made by Pilot. Actually, these are examples of long-short pens---short pens that, when capped, become full-sized pens:

Mindy's vintage Esterbrook 'J series' fountain pen in pastel grey:

Modern and vintage----Jerred's Cross 'Verve' in dark navy blue (a new purchase) and Christopher's vintage black Swan fountain pen:

Three Deltas---(top to bottom) a Delta '366' (cs. 2003-2004), a pink Delta 'Unica' and a bright yellow Delta 'Nabi'--all owned by Jerred:

A classic vintage fountain pen - the Sheaffer 'Balance'. This one was recently acquired by Alejandra:

Tony's Moonman 'Wancai Mini' fountain pen. This diminutive pen measurs 3.4 inches long when capped but a comfortable 4.7 inches long when posted. The fountain pen is filled using bottled ink and has a generous capacity of 2ml:

Dana's "Old-Style" Pelikan M250 fountain pen. After 1997, the cap top and cap rings were changed, and a trim ring was added to the turning/filling knob:

Another classic vintage Sheaffer---Christopher's lovely striated green Sheaffer 'Triumph' fountain pen:

(Photo below) Longtime VPC member Glenn Marcus brought in three gorgeous fountain pens from two Italian pen companies-one old and one new. The fountain pen on the far right is a Scribo 'Feel', made by the newly-formed Scribo pen company of Bologna, which was started by former employees of OMAS. This blue-black 'Feel' model was part of their regular production line, whereas the lime-green version on the far left (in the "Verde Prato" colour) was a limited edition of only 219 pieces . The nibs were made on machinery owned by the late-lamented OMAS pen company. Glenn has a great review (and much nicer photos) of the Scribo pens on his website here.

The pen in the middle has a very interesting story. It was made by the Cervinia fountain pen company (founded in 1936) in its factory in Turin. This pen and many others were hidden during WWII but were eventually found, and then acquired by the Stipula pen factory, who started refurbishing them---essentially bringing them back to life---in 2014 (!). This particular model is the Cervinia 'Transparente', a piston-filler which has a semi-clear celluloid body, an ebonite feed and a 14kt gold nib. Glenn talks about this fascinating wartime story on his pen blog here.

Brand-new VPC member Nathan brought a few pens to his first meeting, including the two classic modern fountain pens below---a blue-striped Pelikan M805 and a Montblanc '149. The two-pen leather case is by Girologio:

Nathan's Leonardo 'Momento Zero' fountain pen in the gorgeous "Hawaii" pattern:

Two recent acquisitions. The iridescent fountain pen is my (Maja's) Parker 'Frontier' "Chromaflair" model in purple and red. This pen was made in the last quarter of 2006, which was the very end of its production run. How do I know this? Because the back of its cap (like many Parkers, both vintage and modern) is stamped with a date code (in this case, a "Y" - see this page for a very useful reference list). Below the Parker is a very unusual pencil (one of a lot recently acquired by Justin) - a Dur-O-Lite wooden pencil fitted with a plastic mechanical pencil mechanism! (thanks for the pencil, Justin :)

A few other other pens I brought in for our November meeting (from L-R): a pink Platinum 'Cool' fountain pen, a sterling silver Waterman LeMan 200 fountain pen, a ThINK rollerball in the "Poolside" pattern, and a Retro 51 'Cioppino' rollerball made of polished pieces of genuine seashell:

Well, that's all the photos from our November meeting! Congrats to Dana on winning the door prize draw, a two-pack of Zebra fountain pens (like the ones in the last phoro of this older blog post)

Don't forget---our next meeting is this Thursday (December 19th)--same place and time as our November meeting (link to info about our December meeting)!.

Last meeting of 2019!

~~~ VANCOUVER PEN CLUB ~ DECEMBER 2019 MEETING DETAILS ~~~

We normally don't meet in December (due to the holidays), but I thought we'd do it this year in case the VPC limited edition pens that many of us ordered arrive in time for our meeting.

When: THURSDAY December 19 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm (don't worry if you're late, as we usually start at around 6:30 pm). Please note: this meeting falls on a Thursday, not a Friday.

Where: A meeting room (the Strathcona room) in a smaller building located next to Vancouver City Hall, 453 W. 12th, Vancouver, BC (on the corner of W. 12th and Cambie).

Full information about the location was in the group emails sent out to VPC members.
If you wish to attend but are not a member yet, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com for more info re: the location.

Parking: There is free parking along Cambie Street after 6:00pm, or in the underground parking at the VanCity Building at 10th & Yukon when VanCity is closed. Parking along Yukon Street is $2.00 per hour.

Topic/Theme: Pens and/or Inks that are named for, or remind you of specific places (cities/countries, buildings, landscapes, etc.) Please try to limit it to 3-4 items per person, due to time restraints. We've never done this topic before, so many thanks to Jerred for the idea.

Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc---so if you have anything new you wish to show, please bring it to the meeting.

FOUNTAIN PEN SWAP! For our December meeting, I thought we might liven things up by doing something we've only done once before. It's 100% voluntary, so if you wish to participate, here's how it works: if you have an inexpensive fountain pen (maximum value $20-$25 + in good working order) that you don't want or need, wrap it in some gift paper (it doesn't have to be fancy), bring it to the December meeting, toss it into the basket, get a "ticket", and then pick out another wrapped pen from the basket later in the meeting.

Hope you can make it to our next meeting! No need to RSVP for this meeting or any other not held at a restaurant. Any questions or concerns? Please let me know at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com