San Francisco Pen Show - 2015 Update

[Farmboy]

It's May and the 2015 San Francisco Pen Show will be here soon. Show dates thi We have been busy and wanted to update the community on what has been going on.

We expect this year's show will be much bigger than last year. Most of the dealers from last year plan to return and we have many new dealers going this year.

Some Highlights:

Michael Sull Handwriting classes

Master penman Michael Sull has graciously offered to teach two hands on tuition handwriting classes on Friday August 28th. The morning class will be American Cursive while the afternoon class will be Spencerian. Each class is limited to 20 people. This will be hands-on instruction from a master penman. Each class is $90 which includes a weekend pass to the show. The classes are bring your own pen. You will need any fountain pen for the American Cursive class. The Spencerian class will require an oblique holder. Oblique holders can be purchased from Michael Sull ($15 for a plastic holder and $45 for a hand turned wooden holder). We hope to have the registration form up later this week on our website but you can always RSVP by sending an e-mail to sfpenshow@gmail.com.

Full Seminar Schedule

We have greatly expanded the seminars with a full slate on Saturday and Sunday. For the first time, we will be offering a Pens 101 class to cover pen basics. Susan Wirth will again offer her class on both Saturday and Sunday. Susan Thom will offer her Journaling class again this year and will add a Letter Writing Class. We have several other seminars planned but will announced those once we have final confirmation. Please check our website for the latest seminar schedule.

Ink Testing Station

This year we will be offering an ink testing station. The SF Bay Area Pen Posse has been working hard to provide a mind blowing ink testing station. We plan to have roughly 300-500 inks available for testing including many rare and unobtainable inks like the Pilot Iroshizuku Tokyo LE inks. We are working from a list of 1200 inks. If people have requests, let us know and we try to have it available.

More than Just Pens

The SF Pen show is about more than just pens. Once again we are offering live music and drinks on Friday night. This concert is open to all so come to the show and bring friends to the concert. We are pretty sure we will have food surprises all weekend thanks to our sponsors.

Stay in Touch


Please visit sfpenshow.com for show information.

For the latest info, please check out our FaceBook Page.

One of these days we will figure out Twitter.

[Jon Szanto]

[ethernautrix]

Love me some Leslie Knope!

I'm excited, too!

[manoeuver]

oh. man.

[tandaina]

OK guys, it looks amazing. I think I may have to plan to go next year, I want to do one big show next year and since I'm in Seattle this would make sense. Is it always about the same time of year so I can block it off?

[AltecGreen]

OK guys, it looks amazing. I think I may have to plan to go next year, I want to do one big show next year and since I'm in Seattle this would make sense. Is it always about the same time of year so I can block it off?

We are booked for 2016. I can't remember the exact dates but it is the weekend before Labor Day weekend.

[tandaina]

Thanks!

[Farmboy]

OK guys, it looks amazing. I think I may have to plan to go next year, I want to do one big show next year and since I'm in Seattle this would make sense. Is it always about the same time of year so I can block it off?

We are booked for 2016. I can't remember the exact dates but it is the weekend before Labor Day weekend.

August 26, 27, and 28. Easy to remember, Last Weekend in August.

Todd

[Jon Szanto]

Room booked. Two months to go. Bumpety-bump!

[Jon Szanto]

Won't be long now, just a few weeks. Time for fun!

[AltecGreen]

We are a little more than a month out from the 2015 San Francisco International Pen Show. We wanted to give everyone a big update.





Hotel

The deadline to reserve hotel rooms at the show rate is August 5th. The show rate is $133/night. To reserve a room, call the Sofitel San Francisco Bay Hotel directly at (650) 598-9000.



Michael Sull Handwriting Class

Michael Sull’s Spencerian class is sold out with a waiting list. We have a few slots left for the American Cursive but act fast if you want to take this class.



New!!!

Deborah Basel Handwriting Classes

Deborah Basel will be offering shorter two hour classes on Handwriting. She will be offering a shorter version of the American Cursive class on Saturday. On Sunday, Deborah will offer a class on italic handwriting. The classes are $40. To register, send an RSVP to sfpenshow@gmail.com with the subject Deborah Basel class. Payment should be made at the show. Course summaries for the two classes can be found below. The Cursive class is scheduled for Saturday 1:30p-3:30p. The Italic class is scheduled for Sunday 11:00a-1:00p. The times are still tentative. We will update the schedule on the website as soon as possible.

Basel Cursive Writing Class Description

Did you miss out on cursive writing in elementary school? Do you find that your cursive writing is mixed with block printing? Do you want others to be able to read what you write and to take pride in your script? This class is for all levels and ages.

The amazing penmen (and women) from the Golden Age of Handwriting didn’t have any special penmanship muscles. They used their writing skills to write legibly for hours every day without getting tired, by learning a few simple techniques. We will begin with pencils and warm-up exercises and progress to using pens for upper and lower case alphabet letters. Handouts are excerpted with permission from Michael Sull’s American Cursive Handwriting book. The ability to write legibly and beautifully lies within all of us. All materials are provided. All you need to bring is your willingness to practice.


Basel Italic Writing Class Description

The workshop will be an overview of the Italic hand. Students will work with Shaeffer student fountain pens. The goal is to have a lot of fun, learn basic strokes and some letters, and see how the letters are related to each other, thereby making learning the whole alphabet a less daunting task. You will have enough information to take your studies to the next level – through self study or via opportunities through a local guild. You CAN do this! And Deborah will show you how.

Deborah Basel is a certified American Cursive Handwriting instructor. She is a Contributing Editor for Pen World magazine and a past President of the Washington DC Calligraphers Guild. She has taught classes at Bertram’s Inkwell, Roland Park Country School’s Kaleidoscope program in Baltimore, Maryland, and at Pen shows all over the United States.


Ink Testing

The ink testing stations are ready for the show. For the show, the SF Bay Area Pen Posse will have 500 inks available for testing as well as a variety of different papers. This has been made possible by the efforts of SF Bay Area Pen Posse who donated the ink testing stations and much of the inks and papers. We also want to thank pen friends and dealers from around the world for contributing to this effort. We are currently deciding which 500 inks we will have for testing. Believe it or not, we have to down select to a group of 500. We will post a list of available inks once we have down selected.






New Dealers

We are pleased to announce a number of dealers new for this years show. Vaness Pens will be at the show with a large selection of unique inks. Many of their inks will be available for testing and sale at the show. Stylo Art Pens from Japan will also be in attendance. For those not in the know, Stylo Art are makers of small batch custom pens from Japan. Mr. Kuzuno Motoshi is a master of turning pens from rare Japanese woods. These pens can be fitted with a range Japanese nibs from the big three in Japan (Pilot, Sailor, and Platinum) including many of the specialty nibs not available in the US. Staedtler-Mars will be in attendance. Staedtler are well known for their technical pens and pencils, but have recently launched a line of fine writing instruments. They will be at the show showing off their range of fine pens. Kenro Pens, distributor for fine Italians pens such as Aurora, Montegrappa, and Omas and many others, we will at the show showing off their newest pens. Check out the show website for the current list of exhibitors.


Seminars

In addition to the handwriting classes, the show will offer a wide range of seminars on both Saturday and Sunday. The current lineup is posted below and are still tentative. We are working on adding a few more so the schedule is still subject to change.

Saturday

Susan Wirth “WHY SOME FOUNTAIN PENS CAN MAKE ANYONE’S WRITING LOOK GOOD!” 10:30-12:00 pm
Susan Thom “JOURNALING - WRITING AS A PRACTICE”WHY SOME 12:00- 1:30 pm
Pens 101 1:30pm-3:00 pm
Micahel Sull 3:30pm-4:30 pm




Sunday

Susan Wirth “WHY SOME FOUNTAIN PENS CAN MAKE ANYONE’S WRITING LOOK GOOD!” 10:30-12:00 pm
Susan Thom Letter Writing 1:00-2:30 pm
Greg Minuskin 2:30-4:00 pm

[AltecGreen]

Stylo Art from Japan will be at the show. They make custom pens using rare Japanese woods. The pens can be fitted with most nibs from Pilot, Sailor, or Platinum including the full range of Pilot #10 and #15 nibs. (No Sailor Specialty nibs). Nibs like a Platinum Music nib or Pilot FA, Po, Su,, etc. nibs are brought over in small quantities. So if there is a nib you are interested in, please let us know so I can inform Stylo Art.


Additional dealers are committing to the show. Ryan Krusac Studios will return to the SF Pen Show with his range of custom made pens. Paul Erano of the Black Pen Society will also be in attendance. There are a few more that we are trying to confirm. We shall update as additional information comes in.


We are currently down selecting to 500 inks for the ink testing station. Some people never want to see ink ever again. Once we have down selected the inks, we shall post a full list of inks that will be available at the SF Pen Show. If you want to follow the madness in real time, ask to join the SF Pen Posse group on FaceBook.

[AltecGreen]

Greg Minuskin's seminar on Sunday will be entitled, "“Vintage Flex Nibs; Affordable Calligraphic Fun”. Greg will have a good supply of flex pens for sale at the show

[Giovanni Abrate]

I'll be there! Come and say hello!

[Jon Szanto]

I'll be there! Come and say hello!

Aha! Great news, looking forward to meeting you.

[Giovanni Abrate]

Same here!!!

[dms]

I'll be there! Come and say hello!

Looking forward to meeting you, Giovanni!

David

[AltecGreen]

Some updates on seminars.


Michael Sull's seminar is titled "With Pen in Hand, the Story of American Penmanship"



Susan Thom's Journaling class



Journaling

Writing as a Practice.

Are you wanting to start a journal but can never seem to keep it going or even get started?

This workshop is intended to get you over the hurdle and into writing in a journal on a regular basis. Find out why journaling is so important and can contribute to your health and creativity. Bring paper and pen and find out how writing on a daily basis helps to explore your inner world, solve problems, and develop new ideas.

The workshop will be an hour in length and will be of value for those who have never tried journaling or those who already keep a journal but are looking to expand their writing.

The only requirements is that you bring multiple sheets of writing paper and a pen.

This is a way to make great use of all those pens that you love. We will also talk about all of the tools available for journaling that help you get even more enjoyment out of your pens.

Susan Thom resides in San Francisco and collects fountain pens, vintage and modern. She has been using them for over 40 years to keep journals.






Greg Minuskin - “Vintage Flex Nibs; Affordable Calligraphic Fun”


Vintage Flex Nibs;

Affordable Calligraphic Fun

I. What is flex?

a) The ability to apply pressure to a nib and achieve about

a 10-14 fold increase in line width.

b) Must have a tipping width of only .10 or .20mm size for

best flex results

c) The ability of the nib to “snap” back once pressure is

released from the user.

d) User’s ability to control pressure the “key” to desirable

line width.

II. How do I know what nibs will have good flex?

a) Alloy of the gold in the nib is key.

1. Vintage 14k nibs are the right “Ratio” of gold to

other metals, durable .

2. Tempering to achieve the correct “spring” in the nib.

3. Capillary action down the slit is well made.

III. Its all about the Feed!

a) Vintage pens have deep feed channels

1.Three direct channels for ink to flow

b) Very often ebonite/hard rubber feeds.

1. Air return on these feeds is also ideal

IV. Modern 14k gold nibs, and feeds The Good, The Bad, the

Ugly

a) The Good; While 14k ratio is correct, tempering is

missing.

[AltecGreen]

The show is only a few days away. Just a reminder of the show schedule.

Friday*
9:00a - 11:00a Dealer Setup
11:00a - 6:00p Dealers and Traders

Saturday
8:00a - 10:00a Dealer and Traders
11:00a - 6:00p General Public

Sunday
8:00a - 10:00a Dealer and Traders
11:00a - 6:00p General Public


* Friday attendance requires either a dealer badge, 3-day trader pass ($60) or Michael Sull class attendance. There is no general admission on Friday

[Empty_of_Clouds]

I'm sure the show will be a huge success. Wish I could go really.

Oh, and...

Vintage Flex Nibs; Affordable Calligraphic Fun

Clearly a rare and distinct definition of 'affordable'. Shoot me now!