Sf Pen Show Report

[AltecGreen]

I got back from the show earlier than expected so I figure I'll throw up some reports for Friday and Saturday.

 

 

 

This is the second year for the revived San Francisco Pen Show. This year the location of the show moved from the East Bay where I live to San Mateo which is south of San Francisco. I have fond memories of the hotel having spent my high school years there going to Dundracon. The hotel used to have a medieval theme with castle towers. The hotel is now a Marriott and boasts many large banquet and meeting rooms. Unfortunately, we were in none of those as the hotel was running multiple large events. We were situated in an odd area that consisted of four meeting rooms, the outside corridor and the remnants of one of the old castle towers. There probably was more room than last year but it was broken up into essentially six different areas.

 

 

The crowd was decent on Friday. I arrived there before lunch but a number of dealers had not even arrived. Blame it on the fog.

 

 

Here is Kudzu exiting the 'castle tower' room.

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When I arrived, Pendleton was already busy grinding away in the central hallway area.

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Here's some of the early Friday action. The lighting was weird because the meeting rooms had windows and weak interior lights. It made photography tricky.

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Here's Teri Morris and Tiger

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Steve Curnow made a brilliant strategic move to relocate his table from one of the rooms the hallway outside of the room. This will pay off in spades on Saturday.

 

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Some of Steve's leather samples

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Lisa aka Nakayanatutrix picked up John Mottishaw and Jonella from the airport. Their flight was delayed so their set-up was delayed.

 

Lisa was helping out John again this year while also acting as a field reporter for FPGeeks. Here is the live video interview. This exchange was too funny but I do not have it captured. I hope Lisa posts the video.

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Here we are shooting each other.

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The rare Nakaya ring-top

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Nakayas can have a strange effect of people. Here is Lisa the Duchess of Urushi (I coined this one) aka Nakayanautrix aka the Nakaya Evangelist. What is she wearing you might ask? That's the fountain pen tie Pendelton gave Lisa. We then had an adventure while I tried to show Lisa how to tie the tie. I think we have that fiasco on video.

 

 

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She's hogging all of the Nakayas

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In other Pen show action, we have self service pen repair.

 

Here's Farmboy using pb2's self service pen repair station.

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That's all of the pics for Friday. Friday night was the night for our formal Pen Posse dinner. So I spent the remainder of the day 'winging it'. We had around 20-22 people at a Greek-Italian-Pizza place. It wasn't long before a Pen Posse broke out. Sorry no pics for this kind of event.

[JonSzanto]

Thanks, Ricky, I knew I could count on you for documentation!

[AltecGreen]

I got to the show on Saturday early enough to catch breakfast at the show. Saturday was much more crowded with a lot of one-day people showing up.

 

 

 

 

Rick Propas was there selling his pens and promoting the Swann Auction Galleries pen auctions. Rick brought some pens that will be up for auction next March.

 

 

Here's a sneak peak. I've already planned out my targets for the next auction.

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Here's Doug Berg showing Bert Oser the rare Conklin 'prototype' pen. I'll let someone else tell this story.

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Actually, it's more of a how not to use an ultrasonic cleaner. I personally blame BSB.

 

 

 

 

 

Our own Syd is entering the pen business with the re-introduction of Eversharp pens. Here are the prototypes.

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The pens will be available from Pensbury Manor and at pen shows according to Syd.

 

 

 

Speaking of Eversharp, look at the pretty colors.

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Pendleton's still at work

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The line for pen work was long. Mike Masuyama's list started around 9 am and it was almost impossible at times to even reach John's table. Pendleton always had a crowd at his table and he even skipped our Pen Posse dinner on Friday to do pen work.

 

 

 

Newcomers Sula Jane and Earl had a beautiful display of colorful leather pen wraps and other pen related leather goods. I love the brilliant colors. They were also blessed with a location with good light for photography so I can bring pictures that show off their goods.

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Also sharing the tower room with Sula Jane and Earl was Susan Wirth

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Roger Cromwell is always good for bring something different. You need this.

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Here are some of Roger newest pens. These are ebonite pens in a really elegant and timeless shape.

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Edited October 7, 2012 by AltecGreen

[AltecGreen]

More Saturday stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's Marta who came all the way from Long Island. She did this cool art thing that I can't remember the details to. Ether is going to flog me for forgetting. Marta came with us for our Pen Posse Dim Sum excursion. Here she is waiting for her new Nakaya being fitted with a nib.

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Here's Ether showing off Marta's work.

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Ether's hard at wokr for FPGeeks interviewing Bert Oser

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Our part of the hotel included this cool little balcony area. Perfect for some Pen Posse outdoor pen repair action.

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We had a 'cross cultural event' at the show. The hotel had another bigger event going on outside of our area. But the other event was using some of the meeting rooms near the pens show area so the attendees of the other event had to go through the pen show corridor area to get to their meeting room. This worked out for Steve Curnow who was setup on that path. The women for the other event saw Steve's hand bound journals and leather goods and all went crazy. many came back after their meeting to partake in the pen goodness. I think Steve made out ok.

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There were several seminars today. Here are scenes from the journaling class.

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Sailor set-up a pen testing station.

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Here's ParkerBeta testing some pens.

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Now time for random shots of Saturday action

 

 

 

 

 

Miles Cohen-the next generation

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Some Faux wax

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Not wax. These were pretty good.

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Beautiful Joe Calli Pens

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DSC_5899 by AltecGreen, on Flickr

 

 

The Nakayapocalypse

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Some new Taccia pens

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A new prototype Taccia done in Nashiji Nuri urushi with silver overlay and jadite stone.

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Small journals perfect for your pets.

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That's all for now. I have more pics of pens but I'll throw those up tomorrow. If anyone wants pics of something let me know and I'll try to snap some shots tomorrow.

Edited October 7, 2012 by AltecGreen

[ParkerBeta]

Great pics of the new Taccia! I even forgot to ask Shu-Jen Lin what it is going to cost, but I'm afraid it's probably much more than I'd be prepared to pay

[esterbex]

Ricky, your photography is just friggin' awesome! I could almost reach out and touch the subjects in the image.

Your reports are the ones I look for and enjoy the most.

Thank you for that virtual experience. Can't wait to see the videos by ether!

[travberg]

Great pics Ricky!

 

Sunday pics for those of us who want to be there, PLEASE

[whichwatch]

I love these reports. For those of us who can't attend, it's almost like being there! What fun!

 

Thanks so much for taking time to post these great photos.

[JustinJ]

Thanks for taking the time to post these pictures and write ups. It is very enjoyable to read about the pen show and have pictures to go along with the report.

[PenandDesign]

Marvelous! I love the pictures - and the supporting narrative! Thanks for all your hard work!

[Skyppere]

Hey Ricky! Soooooo glad you posted these! I've been to dc and la shows but was really curious about the SF show... so I'm glad I got to see it.

Do you happen to remember where you saw those little leather journals (I like the coment 'perfect for your pets!')... do you happen to remember

the seller?

skyppere

aka skip

[carroll]

HA! Thanks Ricky. Great photos...

 

You know, I did notice Lisa and Cherry were EVERYWHERE!

 

My only complaint was the $9.00 parking, and the random tiny rooms. I think I missed some sellers, because of the layout. Otherwise, great location for us Peninsula pen people.

 

Carroll

[ArchiMark]

Excellent pics and commentary!

 

Thanks for sharing it....was almost like being there again....

 

[WOBentley]

Great report, thanks for doing this. I must plan to make it there one year, looks like a great time!

[lsmith42]

Being there was almost like... being there!

 

I am now down an undisclosed amount of currency, but I am up:

 

1 Nakaya

2 Mars Pens Mini-Mag pens in hard rubber (write up to come soon!)

2 full bottles of Parker 51 Tunis Blue

1 1950s Omega Sub-Second automatic watch to drive Glenn crazy

1 Seiko Diver's automatic watch that was just too cool to leave behind

 

Not including various little gifts for friends, as well as the wonderful little project conversations...

 

It was fun...

[ethernautrix]

Oh wow... ha ha ha, thanks for documenting the pen show, Ricky! When I turn in my report to fpgeeks, it's going to be the URL to this thread. :-D

 

I am so tired in the best way. I had a great time, and I feel like thanking so many people for making the SF Pen Show feel like a huge Pen Posse/FPN bash; that is, so much fun!

 

Loren, congratulations on your beautiful Nakaya acquisition. The black matte with rhodium trim is gorgeous.

 

I have to transfer my photos and clips to the computer. I'm aiming to have a report up by tomorrow afternoon.

 

Fun people, fun show -- yay! (So tired!)

[tenney]

Yeah, gee thanks Loren! But that Conklin helps make up for it :-)

(thank you, Ricky!!!)

 

Great to meet you, Marta!

 

And all that time spent looking at Nakayas... does help figure out what I'll eventually want. So many choices, that it just takes lots of hands-on time to figure it out.

 

Can't wait to hear next week's FPGeeks podcast to hear Ether's commentary.

 

Nice pics, Ricky!

 

 

And another note: I had a nice chat with the chap from Yafa about the problems quite a few of us had with Stipula steel nibs. John Mortishaw fixed mine. When the guy from Yafa heard that, he offered me a small something very nice to make up for having had to spend money on it. He said that the Stipula people evidently did tighten up the steel nibs reducing ink flow, but have now fixed that. I sure hope so, since having the same problems for quite a few people causes a loss of faith in the Stipula products. To me, though, with Yafa's efforts things sure seem MUCH better! Thank you Yafa.

[mcolen]

Hey Ricky! Soooooo glad you posted these! I've been to dc and la shows but was really curious about the SF show... so I'm glad I got to see it.

Do you happen to remember where you saw those little leather journals (I like the coment 'perfect for your pets!')... do you happen to remember

the seller?

skyppere

aka skip

 

 

I am pretty sure that the tiny journals were at Pendemonium - info@pendemonium.com or www.pendemonium.com

[Andrew H]

The back of my head (and my bright orange backpack) keep popping up in photos.

[ethernautrix]

Instead of asking Ricky to move the continuation of his excellent report back to this thread, here's where he's posting more photos and reporting: San Francisco Pen Show thread. (Shhh... Don't tell him!)