Pen Shows and Product Updates

I’m sitting down to write this fresh off of a weekend spent at the Colorado Pen Show. Talk about a great few days! I saw plenty of pen friends and made some new ones. I had my first table and also taught a class. I may have also purchased one or two pens.

I figure it’s time I post a little update, so without further delay, here’s what’s been going on behind the scenes:

Colorado Pen Show

The Colorado Pen Show was a little over a week ago. Pen shows are always so much fun, as they are not only a great chance to find a bunch of fantastic products, but they’re also a great opportunity to be social with a bunch of other pen people! If you’ve never been to a pen show, you should definitely try to make it to one at some point.

In addition to attending the show, I also had a table selling paper samples! This was the first show where I’ve sold paper sample packs and they seemed to be pretty popular. I was much busier than I expected to be. I also taught a paper class, which I try and do every year.

I set up a table to sell paper sample packs at the Colorado Pen Show

Even though I spent most of the show behind my table selling paper, I was able to get out and walk the show floor a few times. I didn’t buy any new paper or ink, but did bring home a few new fountain pens. I got one from James at Bonecrusher Studios that’s made of bog oak and ebonite. When he posted this particular pen on his Instagram feed it was love at first sight and I feel pretty lucky that he still had it for me to buy at the show. The second pen I purchased was from Skogsy Pens. I’ve always wanted a micarta pen and they had some for sale. It’s my first Skogsy pen and I’m impressed with it so far!

My two pens, one made from bog oak (bottom) and one from micarta (top)

Product Updates

Moving along to products that I offer on the site, I have made a few changes. After going through my paper samples for the pen show I decided it was time to change things up a bit. With that being said, the following papers have been added to the Custom Sample Pack:

• Ayush
• Iroful
• Logical Air Swing
• Perpanep Sarasara
• Perpanep Tsurutsuru
• Perpanep Zarazara
• Plotter
• Strathmore Writing Pad
• New Tomoe River 52gsm

In addition to adding those papers, I have also removed a few. Lamy paper is being removed because it seems that no one really wants to sample it and G. Lalo Velin pur Coton is being removed because, as far as I can tell, it’s not being made any more (or at least I can’t find it available for sale anywhere). Eventually some papers like the old Tomoe River 52gsm and Cosmo Air Light will be removed once I run out of the supplies that I have, but for now I have plenty.

Final Thoughts

That’s about it for now. I should have more time for writing in the near future, so expect to see some more paper and notebook reviews, along with a return to regular Ink of the Week posts. If you have any requests for product reviews or blog posts, please let me know in the comments.