The South West Pen Show 2009 - Bristol UK

[ianpwilliamson2]

What a relief - the first South West Pen Show went off without a hitch! A great big thank you to all of you guys who took the trouble to turn up, without you the show couldn't happen.

 

We had around 100 visitors throughout the day with most of the action happening in the morning and a steady trickle coming through in the afternoon. Quite a few newbie pen people came along which we were very pleased about and we were amazed how far people had travelled to get to the show.

 

The venue was perfect, plenty of parking, a good sized light and airy room with plenty of space to move around comfortably and lots of natural light and of course very handy to get to for car travellers.

 

Ann and I had a drink in the bar with Oxonian, davidh and rogerb. Ann and I along with Oxonian then disappeared off to have dinner and were joined by David Wells and Graham Jasper, two of the foremost Conway Stewart experts. After dinner I'm afraid that I became a party pooper and went off to bed leaving Oxonian to do a bit of pre-show selling in his usual inimatable style.

 

Next morning I was up bright and early but not 'bushy tailed', went off to check on the show room only to find that it was locked up so I went off and had a great breakfast - now I was beginning to feel 'bushy tailed'! Got back to the show room to find it open and some dealers already in there setting up. The set up ran very smoothly leaving everyone very relaxed and in a convivial mood.

 

All of the dealers put on a very good show and there were several thousand fountain pens to drool over. One innovation that seemed to work was the demo tables were visitors could sit at their leisure trying out pens and ink colours. Did the badges work, I'm not sure and some feedback from you would be very helpful. It was good to see that the current economic 'crisis' did not seem to deter people spending.

 

On the technical side Laurence Oldfield was answering repair questions and John (I am not a nibmeister) Sorowka AKA Oxonian was working his magic on nibs (he said he wasn't going to do so but I knew that he wouldn't be able to resist :roflmho: ). As usual it was good to meet up with old friends and customers and to meet FPN people that I didn't know. Casmi was sadly missed as was Carrie and BlueMax. You can see a few pictures of the show here Visit My Website

 

The good news is that its going to happen again next year! The provisional date is Sunday 7th February 2009 I'll confirm this at a later date. The other good news is that there will be another NEW UK show next year - we plan to organise The Eastern Pen Show, this will take place in the Cambridge area on 14th. March again this will be confirmed at a later date.

 

Now for the REALLY GOOD NEWS the NORTHERN is only just over nine weeks away :roflmho: The Northen is the only UK pen show that I am not involved in organising - it also happens to be my favourite show and it will be great to see all the FPN Crazy Crew up there.

 

Hope to meet up with you soon

 

Regards

 

Ian

www.cathedralpens.co.uk

www.customerpreview.cathedralpens.co.uk

www.ukpenshows.co.uk

www.wesonline.org.uk

Edited February 27, 2009 by ianpwilliamson2

[I am not a number]

Apologies for the delay but my wild and carefree jet-set life this week (Westminster, Harwell and Oxford) has overtaken my FPN life...

 

It was a great show and accompanied by the lovely Scrybe I had the pleasure of meeting up with rogerb and David6 the evening before the show. Others were eating in the hotel but the savings that could be made by visiting my local Indian restaurant versus the Hilton restaurant could be converted directly into inky joy the next day. Having previously dealt with Roger in an ink swap and a purchase from the Marketplace it was a real delight to meet him in person and to find out the almost spooky way in which our past lives overlapped (as did our weapons of choice in the nib world). David was great to speak with and we had an all-too-brief but very interesting chat.

 

On to the day itself, the venue was easily accessible and I have to say that from the point of view of the punter, the organisation was flawless. There were a good number of stands and I had the chance to meet quite a few people that I had previously traded with. Pre-eminent amongst them were Ian (an organiser - see above post), Sarj (more of that later), Mucephei (who evidently never finished at juggler school - more later) and Oxonian (also more later). I managed to not lose myself in a blur of handing over hard-earned cash for at least three minutes until a gorgeous red CS Dinkie with a distinctly funky oblique nib caught my eye. Given the nib and the ink capacity of the Dinkie I reckon that I will be able to get about 12 words out of it between refills but in the great scheme of things, that is a small price to pay.

 

Just one of the stands of joy!

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow1FPN.jpg

 

Two aerial photos of Sarj's minefield of temptation.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow4FPN.jpg

 

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow5FPN.jpg

 

Wandering around was a delight and bumping into so many other pen fiends friends made me feel less isolated in this hobby. Calliej was there and on very good form and I was gently castigated for my ninja skills in hitting the FPN Marketplace a few picoseconds before her on most of the pens she was interested in.

 

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow3FPN.jpg

 

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow6FPN.jpg

 

Visiting Ian's stand was excellent and I will be buying a few items that I had put to one side as soon as my salary goes into my account. I was jealously eyeing up a Conway Stewart with an italic nib and Nebula finish when I wandered over to Sarj's Emporium of joy. Having taken a few pens along with me for folks to try out I casually handed the CS Churchill that I recently reviewed to someone who will remain nameless. Unfortunately when the pen was uncapped (unfortunately at Sarj's table) the Churchill had taken on the persona of a spurned lover and disgorged a considerable quantity of ink, the collateral damage was a Parker box and a tablecloth (see picture). Sarj was very gracious about the entire event and as the owner of the errant pen I assumed responsibility for restitution and a replacement box will be in the post today. I also felt morally obliged to buy an exquisite CS Levenger Duro LE with a 2B nib that had been adjusted into an italic by Deb Kinney.

 

Collateral ink damage from a jealous CS Churchill.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow7FPN2.jpg

 

After a skim of the other tables (and by now under the watchful gaze of hotel security) I made my way over to John (Oxonian's) table where he was busy practising his craft. In another of those slightly spooky co-incidence fields it seemed that our other interests and previous employment histories had an unreasonably large degree of overlap and we ended up with Mucephei, Oxonian, Roger and myself spending a long time discussing things that had happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Apologies to Scrybe for speaking what probably sounded like a foreign language.

 

Oxonian works strange and powerful magic whilst muttering darkly that he is not a nibmeister - there may or may not be strong evidence to the contrary, I could not possibly comment...

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/photoboris/PenShow2FPN.jpg

 

To sum up, I went in solvent, walked out flat broke but happy and am already looking forward to the next event where hopefully I will be able to meet even more members of the FPN family and wider fountain pen community. For anyone who may have been in two minds about getting to a pen show, hopefully this and the reports above will sway you into attending.

 

IANAN

Edited February 27, 2009 by I am not a number

[bbs]

For anyone who may have been in two minds about getting to a pen show, hopefully this and the reports above will sway you into attending.

 

IANAN

 

 

Thanks for the great reports, everyone, wish I could have been there, and now having seen those pix NOTHING is going to stop me being at the London show ....

 

Glad to hear it was a success!

[Oxonian]

Hi Folks,

 

Now that I have had chance to catch up with myself, finish just about all the work that I picked up at the Bristol bash I can get my nose away from the grindstone for a few minutes I thought it time to say a belated thank you to everyone who pitched up and made it a thoroughly enjoyable if at times hectic weekend for me. BTW... All the pens and nibs will be in the post on Monday at the latest.

 

It was good to see all the usual suspects (they all know who they are) and catch up on things with them, as well to put faces to names,I am reasonably sure that several of these names will be added to the usual suspects list for future shows.

 

Several people, one or two of them complete strangers, let me play with their pens and watched (not sure whether in horror or fascination) as I chiselled lumps off the nibs and attacked them with assorted abrasives, still the owners all seemed happy( or perhaps it was more a case of relieved) when they found that their pens worked the way the owners wanted them to work when I handed them back, this is always a good sign .

 

Mark you there were one or two pens I was loath to hand back but, after I had been sedated ( the bruises are just about gone) and distracted by having even nicer nibs and cash waved in front of my eyes, they managed to retrieve the pens with aid of several burly passers by, (I usually have my own minders to deal with these situations but they were otherwise engaged) so thanks to Simon, Bruce, Roger and co who so kindly stepped in.

 

Unusually at this show I managed to get some time to browse and annoy several of the dealers,( only joking I hope) as well as to spend more money than I intended to spend, as a result I failed in my avowed intent of going home with less pens than I had when I arrived, it was just as well that many of my new pens were traded rather than bought or I would have failed miserably.

 

Good weekend, I would do it again if I am invited.

 

Cheers.

 

John

[rogerb]

Thanks to all ... I think IANAN summed up my feelings, too.

A very pleasant couple of days...even with the price of drinks!

[Scrybe]

I have little to add other than to agree with the general sentiments already expressed in this thread. The show was highly enjoyable and I will definitely be makng arrangements to attend future meeting of madness.

 

Being both fairly new to fountain pens in general, and to FPN (has it really been three months already?), I was unsure what to expect. About five minutes in on Saturday evening, I realized that I still have tons to learn about FPs, but FP users are generally very nice, not to mention highly capable of encouraging this affliction for good inkstruments. I also learned that you can contribute to a custom nib-grinding by banging the table the not-a-nib-meister is working on (I'm innocent here, just an observation).

 

A lot of sellers had gorgeous pens I had no paper persuasion for, but I was able to peruse them freely without sustaining any major injuries. Whether this had anything to do with being a Ninja of Toxteth, I cannot possibly say. I left the show with a couple of inexpensive Conway Stewarts, and had an F nib Cross Verve made more than usable by He Who Shall Not Be Named, and observing the zen-like process of not-nib-meistering was very interesting indeed.

 

I also learned that a required qualification for FP use is a military background. As I doubt growing up in the shadow of a Militant Tendency council suffices in this regard, I have now sent off my application for the Foreign Legion, and have stowed all my FPs carefully away until I have passed basic training.

 

All in all, a wonderful show, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone and being further inculcated in the Black Market ways of addinktion.