I just returned home from the 2013 D.C. Pen show, and it was grand! I was there almost all day on Friday and (very early) on Saturday morning. I got to talk to some of my favorite pen people, see thousands of neat pens and pen paraphernalia, and spend some quality time exploring one of my favorite cities.
Here is a list of my loot:
An Edison Menlo pump filler in Tortoise Lucite, with a steel medium nib. Brian Gray tuned the nib to be juicy with just a hint of feedback, and it is indeed an excellent writer. I love the size, the shape, the balance, and the filling system. The tortoise lucite material allows you to see the mechanics of the pump filler; it's a pseudo-demonstrator that looks more like fossilized amber than plastic.
A Pelikan M400NN in tortoise with a nicely flexible fine nib from Rick Propas.
A large, lined TWSBI notebook from Anderson Pens. Also from Anderson pens, bottles of Sailor Sky High, Sailor Ultra Marine, and Iroshizuku Yama-guri. I almost bought a lovely grey Esterbrook from them, but I had to show some restraint!
An couple of Rhodia dot pads and a purple Clairefontaine 1951 carnet from a friendly North Carolinian art supply shop (whose name I have now forgotten--sorry!).
A handbook journal with watercolor paper from the National Gallery of Art's museum store. I left my ink journal at home, and so I picked this up on Thursday morning so I could play at the giant ink testing table. The paper takes ink wonderfully, and it is very nice to write on with both flexy dip pens and fountain pens. The writing feel of the watercolor paper was a nice surprise; I will be buying more of these notebooks from Amazon.
I spent an obscene amount of time at Sarj Minhas's table. He was incredibly kind, and he let me ogle some fairly rare pens. I was sorely tempted, but I had already spent most of my budget and had to walk away empty handed. Next time I will stop at his table first!
Here is a quick photo of my loot (inks not pictured):
What followed you home from the D.C. show?
Bookmarks