Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2016

[Truffle Finder]

This week has been quite a productive one [business-wise]. Several things have happened without any warning!

Firstly, an Australian friend of mine sent me an E-mail, to ask me if I still had a Waterman's Patrician, which he had seen when he was over here during he summer! I informed him that I still have it, and told him the price for the pen. He got back to me straight away, telling me that he would like to buy it.

The second thing that happened was that a gentleman got in touch, to ask me about buying a silver William Morris overlaid pen for his wife. The outcome of that was that he has made payment, so I will be sending the pen off to him after the weekend.

Yesterday afternoon, a dealer friend of mine phoned to ask me if I had a travelling Ink Well for sale. I was pretty sure that I had one 'somewhere', but that I would have to look for it! I had a delve around after we had finished the phone call, and low and behold, I found it! He will be coming to see me at my booth at Portobello today.

All in all, it has been a very good week, and Portobello looks as though it is going to be pretty good as well!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

On Saturday, my identity [so I discovered] had been mistaken by one of my old friends up at Portobello Road. I bumped in to John Mackenzie on Saturday last, [he was pretty 'big' in terms of pen dealers when I first started collecting pens], and he immediately said that he was glad to hear that I had 'not' passed away!

Apparently, a friend of his had met with him, and he had said that he was sorry to hear about Henry's death last week!

It turned out that there was a Vintage Watch Dealer named Henry who was well established in Portobello Road, and he had died last week!

I was relieved to discover that it wasn't me!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

!!!!!

[esterbex]

That was a close call!

[Truffle Finder]

Today I will be attending my old school's Careers Fair, which I have done for the last three years.

So, I have packed up a few 'props', which might spark some interest from a few of the students who will be there. I have decided to take my engraving tool and a leather mat, and my 'jam-jar bottom' magnification glasses [because I'm getting old now, and I need to use them when I'm doing very close work!] so I'm all ready for the fair.

Fortunately, they are providing a buffet lunch for all of us, and I'm planning to get there early, as the parking situation can present problems sometimes, but I will have my book with me, so I can settle down and read until it actually starts!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I am pleased to say that the Careers Fair went off very well, in that I seemed to have attracted more than a handful of Students who approached my table, [it would have been very disappointing if only a few students were inquisitive enough to come up and ask a question!]

So. having sorted out my lunch, I settled down, and set out my table, but unfortunately, my space was directly in front of the main entrance to the sports hall, so when the fair started at 2.00pm, the door was kept open to allow the flow of students to come in! The weather outside was very cold, and as a result I was subjected to the constant breeze of very cold air!

I had originally decided to 'slip away' by about 5.00pm, but in the end I packed up and left at 4.30pm as I was feeling so very cold!

In a little while, I will write an E-mail to the organiser of the Fair, to let him know that I would be reluctant to attend the fair next year, unless I was placed a long way away from the entrance doors!

Truffle Finder.

[View from the Loft]

Oh that is a shame, and indeed it was cold yesterday.

 

You were very wise to give yourself time to sort out parking as I suspect that it was worse than usual yesterday due to the industrial action on the Central Line. Hope your journey home wasn't too bad, because traffic in the whole area reached gridlock in the evening peak.

 

I hope that they will guarantee you a more sensible spot next year; too many schools career fairs concentrate on professions or big name schemes, and ignore the opportunities for craftsmen.

[billydo]

Here's some action shots kindly supplied by the Forest School.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2017 by billydo

[esterbex]

Enrapt audience, as usual....Let's hope next year is warmer!

 

P.S.: Nice coat, there, Truffle!

[Ghost Plane]

Typical Truffle, surrounded by women. The coat didn't hurt. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more...

[Truffle Finder]

Today's portobello was really quite good [again], which is very nice at this time of year.

The day kicked off with a visit from an old collector friend of mine, who I hadn't seen since before Christmas, so between 'chewing the fat' he looked at my more recent fountain pen acquisitions, and asked if he could try a black Onoto Magna [lever filler] pen. It was lucky, as the pen had a broad[ish] nib in it, and like most Onoto nibs, this one was flexible! Needless to say, that he fell in love with it! Anyway, we sorted the money situation out, and he departed.

The rest of the day was taken up with one or two pen customers, and a couple of people came to pick up their repaired pens. The only other thing that happened, was that a young man came up to my stand, and asked me if I would mind if he took a few photographs, [just my face!] anyway, I agreed, and he took them. I'm not sure quite why he wanted to take them, but I hope that he just thought that my stock for sale was interesting!

Stranger than fiction!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

Truffle might find himself on the cover of a romance novel... One never knows where these stock photos end up!

[Truffle Finder]

That sounds scarey Ghost Plane!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I recently discovered that I was running low of my stock of boxes for the overlaid pens, so I phoned the supplier and placed an order for 20 lacquered boxes.

The boxes that I use, are actually designed to house bracelets, so I have to make my own 'liner' to go into the base of each box, [covered in velvet material], and then fit each one in place. I use strips of quadrant-cut wood [cut to the exact length] which are stuck to cardboard oblong panels cut to fit snugly into the base of each box!

You can imagine my 'delight' when I discovered that the 'craft-adhesive' ran out halfway through this process! So, today while I'm out doing the weekly 'big-shop', I will visit the local DIY store, and get a replacement bottle of glue!

Some might say that I would be better off, ordering boxes which are designed to house 'pen-shaped' items, but I cannot deny that I find this kind of 'craft-work' very therapeutic, so I will continue to keep adapting my boxes, even though it might take me three days to complete 20 boxes!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

Work on the box liners stopped yesterday while I did my usual visit to Portobello Road, it being Saturday!

The weather wasn't too unpleasant for this time of year, and there were plenty of people looking around, but sadly not many of them were 'pen-people'! I did sell a few pens to a collector friend who came to see me, but the rest of the day was quite quiet. I did buy a few pens during the course of the day, which included a Conway Stewart 28 in Tigers Eye patterned plastic, which I was very pleased about. Tigers Eye pattern are definitely rarer than Cracked Ice in my opinion!

The most important thing that has happened this week, was that I received an E-mail from a gentleman who hails from California, who has asked for details about how I make my overlays. We have exchanged E-mails, and later on I will probably phone him and have a chat about it. It will be good if I can help him in some ways.

I think that I should point out that he already makes his own pens, and he is attending a course on Silver-Smithing, so he is not a complete novice!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

A month or so ago, I received an E-mail from the people at Clouds House, to tell me that they had decided to use me as the main subject for their 'yearly review'.

After a few exchanges of E-mails, they told me that their photographer would like to come over to see me with a view to doing the photography for their 'review' including my pens, as well as 'yours truly'! So, I suggested that they could come along on any Saturday, at the Arcade, between 9.00am and 2.00pm.

Apparently their photographer is not available on Saturdays, so I assumed that they would use the photographs that they already have of 'me', or they might have to use another subject for their yearly review!

I received another E-mail yesterday from them to say that the photographer 'can' do it this Saturday ['if that would be convenient for me'] so, I wrote back to give them directions about how to find the arcade, and that if I happen to be dealing with a customer when they arrive, where they could go to have a coffee, to 'kill time'!

'Sods Law' says that I will quite possibly be busy this coming Saturday, but I'm sure that we will be able to sort something out!

I might even wear my red jacket for the occasion!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

Swooning readers everywhere if you do.

[Barkingpig]

YES, for the Red Coat!

[Truffle Finder]

Well, it looks as though it has been decided then, the red jacket it is, I just hope that the cold weather that has been forecast for this coming weekend won't be too much to cope with!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I received an E-mail from the PR lady from Clouds House, asking me for my mobile phone number, so that the photographer would be able to let me know when he had arrived at Portobello Road tomorrow. The problem is, that although I have one, [a mobile phone!] I only take it with me in case of emergencies. But there is a secondary reason why it would not be any help by me having it with me, is because we cannot get a signal inside the arcade! Very helpful!!!

The lady wrote back to say that I am the only person that she has ever met nowadays, who doesn't have a mobile phone with them!

A friend once told me a while ago, that I was an anachronism! After he had gone, I looked it up in the dictionary, and he was right!

I actually took it as a compliment!

Truffle Finder.