Hand Over That Pen

Hello friends! Thank you for hanging in there and I hope that you’re enjoying my detailing of the San Francisco pen show. This is the continuation of my SF Pen Show Report – Part 1.

This carries on to the events on Saturday afternoon and evening. And ends on Sunday’s last day of the show. Enjoy!

 

Saturday, August 26 – Continuing on the Second Day

Planner Meetup – Special Event

Around 1:00pm, Pam, Katherine, and Christina had once again hosted a planner meetup and had discussions with others on what they do to decorate, organize, and utilize their planners. There were some exchanges of stickers, washi tapes, and notebooks as well. Photos courtesy of Christina.

 

One of the vendors that were considered a big hit at the show was Atelier Musubi who traveled all the way from Singapore. Their beautiful journals are cloth bound, contains Tomoe River paper, and are handmade in Singapore. In addition, these journals are handmade by a person living with a physical disability.

Here’s Atelier Musubi’s table located in the Grand Salon and was visited by some artists that you may possibly know.

 

Within the same room, the table of the SF Pen Show principal sponsor, Wahl-Eversharp was there and were selling a lot of their Skyline pen models. Also displayed were the Magnificent Seven Decoband pens.

 

Right beside Wahl-Eversharp was the Armando Simoni Club (ASC) table. Pens and chocolates… mmm…

 

Pen World Magazine – Readers Choice Awards Ceremony

A first for the SF Pen Show, Pen World magazine presented a few of the Reader’s Choice Awards at the show. Editor-in-Chief Nicky Pessaroff presented the winners their awards below. Congratulations to all!

• Best Every Day Carry Pen: Franklin-Christoph Model 31
• Best Non-Fountain Pen: Cross Classic Century 170th Anniversary Ballpoint
• Best Artisan Pen: Ryan Krusac Legend L-14
• Best Writing Experience: Aurora Sole 88 Limited Edition
• Best Metal Mastery: RiKwill/Conway Stewart Churchill Prisme and Jour et Nuit
• Pen of the Year: Montblanc Artisan Edition Homage to Kandinsky Limited Edition III

 

Pen Addict Meetup – Pen Dash

This year at the SF Pen Show, the Pen Addict Brad Dowdy, and Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens tried a different type of meetup. In most meetups, people sit down, show their pens, get to know each other, and learn from each other. The Pen Dash is somewhat of the same concept except for the fact that every ten minutes the participants will have to stand up and proceed to another table with a different host or as what I referred to them as subject matter experts (SME). Brad made a write up of it on The Pen Addict.

I was able to do an Instagram Live Video and post it to my personal YouTube. Please forgive my blunder in the video and know that the first room DID follow directions to move tables. I just thought they were signaled to move right then. Ah, the hitches of live television. Haha!

Here are photos I got to take before going live on Instagram.

 

Susan Wirth Memorial

First, a sip of water, deep breath, and go.

As most of the pen community knows, the passing of Susan “Susie” Wirth earlier this year had left a great big hole in the pen show world. Anyone who knew her knows that it’s not a pen show without her. In 2012, she was one of the first five people I personally met in the pen world. This was way before I became part of the SF Bay Pen Posse.

My friend Rebecca Joyce got the chance to film Susie at the 2017 LA Pen Show. If you’re interested, here’s that very informative video.

This was my first pen show to not see Susie’s table, to not see her face, to not smile and giggle as I saw her inky fingers, and to not hear her distinct voice. It felt weird to me and I’m sure to other people as well.

A week before the pen show, I decided to do something to honor Susie. I figured, what’s a small inexpensive thing that people appreciate at pen shows? Buttons! So I edited the picture I took of Susie’s identifiable shawl while she was wearing it and made it into a button. Saturday morning, I gave out these buttons to honor her. I told everyone, “This is her day!”.  I’m sure everyone agreed.

I am thankful that the SF Pen Show Organizers allocated some time during Saturday evening to honor Susie.

I am also thankful to see John Martinson at this show. He worked with Susie at every pen show and has become a good friend to me.  John brought some of Susie’s pens to show people and he also brought out Susie’s banner. I loved seeing it once again.

During the memorial, John M. spoke about Susie. He ended by saying that the best way to honor her memory is to share the love of pens, to write more letters, and share what an italic nib can do for one’s writing. Thanks John!

You were definitely missed Susie. 

 

Groove Situation – Pen Show Concert

Each year, the show organizers gets a band and play a concert after the show. This year, due to the hotel renovations, the concert was held outside by the fountain. The band was different this year but their music, and song selection was still awesome. The band’s name is Groove Situation and their FaceBook page is here.

What’s pretty cool is that their bassist is Pen Posse’s very own, Jon R.

 

Overall, the turnout for the pen show concert was great and a fun time was had.

 

Inside the hotel, my friend Bruce Eimon introduced Taizo Yamamoto and his paper products. They are launching “Paper Tasting” (paper samplers) and they laid it out on an empty show table. Their website is http://yamamotopaper.com/index.html.

Saturday evening went on and we all just hung around and had great conversations. The evenings of pen shows are opportunities to reconnect, interact, and meet new friends. I eventually went home to rest up for another pen show day.

 

Sunday, August 27 – Third and Final Day of the Show

Wow, the weekend is almost over and this is the day I feel happy and sad. Shall we say, verklempt?

Not gonna lie, the past few days were tiring especially with the amount of sleep (or lack of) I’ve had. But Pen Show Time Zone prevailed and got ready for another fun filled day.

I once again arrived around 7:00am to assist the 8:00am class attendees (Sorry Nik!), as well as assist the registration desk. Duty calls! As a reward, I got my name on Masuyama-san’s list as well.

On Sunday, the show had another combination of paid classes, and free seminars.

• Copperplate Calligraphy by Nikola Pang
• Japanese Hanko (stamp) Making by Rui Saito
• Shodo Demonstration (Japanese Calligraphy) by Rui Saito (free seminar)
• Journaling by Susan Thom (free seminar)
• Creative Uses of Fountain Pen Ink by Leigh Reyes (free seminar)
• What can turn a Good Nib into a Great Writing Nib by John Mottishaw (free seminar)

 

Here’s are some photos I got to take during the day.

John Mottishaw arrived in the morning and Joel Hamilton caught him at the registration desk.

 

Janet Takahashi

The Nibsmith, Dan Smith was always busy with a customer.

 

Over at Ryan Krusac’s table, the prototype of the limited/special edition Legend Pen he collaborated with Cary of Fountain Pen Day was on display. It’s beautiful for sure! And the proceeds of this collaboration will be donated to Shawn Newton’s scholarship fund.

Here’s a bit of a penvangelism story. Jon, my co-worker, brought his kids to the pen show and I took the liberty of giving them a tour. Of course the first stop was the Pay-It-Forward table and the kids got their starter kits. One of Jon’s kids wanted a pink ink to match the pink pen and we eventually found J. Herbin Rose Cyclamen from a table of a pen posse member. =) We continued the tour around the ballroom and we eventually sat down and showed them how to fill a pen with ink, how a pen works, etc. It’s inspiring to see teenagers wanting to learn how to use fountain pens.

A bit of background, Jon got into fountain pens when he started to work with a pen addict (me) and he really wanted to come to the show and find a pen he’d like. We found a green pen with a 14k gold nib over at Peyton Street Pens with the help of Nivardo. Needless to say, Jon and the kids were happy.

As the show comes to a close, I got to walk around the ballroom a little bit and take some pictures again.

 

See? Even puppies want to see some pens at the SF pen show! =)

My final purchase at the show was at the Vanness Pens table. Replenished my supply of Akkerman 05 Shocking Blue, and Bungubox Sapphire. Also picked up these special edition Curnow notebooks with Joey Feldman’s artwork in the cover. During the weekend, Joey was doing individual art sketches behind the notebooks when people bought them. He actually did this special piece for me (of me) on Saturday and I just picked it up on Sunday.

Joey has dubbed me, Franzulini: Leader of the Free Pen World. I loved it! If you’re reading this, thanks again Joey! =)

 

Post Pen Show

As the show closed, I packed up the PIF table, and helped with taking home some Ink Testing Stations. Ink Boss Christina was pleased. =)

And I got a chance to have a photo with the legendary Cary of Fountain Pen Day. Thanks Ricky! =)

My Mother and I took a pen vendor friend out to dinner which has become a tradition now. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and found other pen friends coming back from dinner as well. We hung out at the bar for a bit.

Needless to say, I was tired but I was very happy. The photo below was the last one I took before I gave in to the fatigue and finally went home.

 

Final Thoughts

The San Francisco Pen Show has come and gone and I’m very thankful I was able to attend and be part of it. Pen shows for me have evolved quite a lot and it has now become a true social event that I look forward to attend. Whether it be SF, LA, Atlanta, or others, what makes pen shows is the people I meet, or visit with. I mean, pen people are so kind, generous, and cool. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with those kinds of people? There were a lot more stories that you can’t just place in a report and I treasure a lot of them.

A HUGE Thank you and Great Job to the show organizers: Ricky, Todd, and Syd. The SF Pen Show gets better year-over-year and it starts with them. To the amazing Pen Posse peeps, great job and thanks for the volunteer work! Just a reminder, 2018 SF Pen Show will be on August 24-26. So, plan your days off now! =)

And to you my dear readers, thank you for sticking around for this lengthy report. And again, I hope you enjoyed it.

For those who attended the show, comment what your favorite part of the show was and what you bought. For those who weren’t there, let me know if you have questions as well!

THANK YOU!

 

“Pen shows are about the people and the stories between each other. The pens start the story and the people get closer.”