Atlanta Pen Show 2012 aka my first pen show
The Atlanta Pen Show 2012 was April 13, 14 and 15th. Since I had taken the weekend off work to attend the entire show, I decided to leave on Thursday evening after work which didn't get me into Atlanta until almost 10pm (it's a good 3.5 to 4 hour trip from Savannah to Marietta where I was staying).
From pen pals who suggested I make a list of things I want to see, buy, do (to avoid being distracted) and being the avid list maker that I am, I wrote everything down (even price points). That was probably the single most helpful thing I was told prior to attending the show as I certainly would have forgotten everything.
As I said this was my first show and listening to your podcast (prior to the LA show) certainly got me into the mood for this show. The show was separated into two of their ballrooms which were separated by a short walk. In between the two doors were tables set up with so many pens that it ended up being sensory overload.
Friday morning I bought the weekend pass and was given a very nice orange (us FP users sure do love colour!) bag (reusable) with that months edition of PenWorld magazine and even before seeing a pen I was in heaven. I walked around and greeted everyone and completely forgot that I was wearing a name tag and wondered how everyone knew my name. Thankfully I had my trusty list (and cash) with me as I wanted to buy everything I saw. However I made myself a promise to walk around once and just notate what I wanted to purchase before I actually bought anything.
On that initial walk through I stopped by Mike-It-Work and watched Mike Masuyama work. He didn't mind my standing up and watching him work and asking odd questions, even if he wasn't working on my pen. He took the time out to do a little bit of show-and-tell with how different nibs look and what makes an Italic a Cursive Italic etc. I'm sure the gentleman getting his pen worked on was pleased at his unexpected lesson on the difference in nibs and how that affects your writing and what the pen can do. It wasn't until a week or so later (after listening to more of your podcasts) that I discovered who he is and that's probably just as well as I was in enough awe of him that I probably wouldn't have said anything had I known. Mike was really down to earth and has an offbeat and quite the "pen" sense of humour.
I was almost through my first walk through the first room when I was suggested to go and see Susan Wirth to go and test out some pens. One thing I will say about having gone on Friday morning is that it wasn't very hectic so I was able to sit at Susan Wirth's table and play with all of her pens with John Martinson and even added a few "for future buys" on my list after having tried those pens out. Funny that in your podcast you talk about Susan Wirth and how much she likes cats. I have a pen wrap that one of my pen pals made for me that shows cats (and other animals) in bright colours and she remarked about how much she liked it and we got to talking about cats.
During the course of the day I stopped by and spoke to Martin Ferguson and Sam Marshall (and his wife Reenie) who were kind enough to give me "tours" of the different types of pens and filling systems and who also introduced me to the Visconti Traveling Inkwell (who knew they were so pricey).
At the end of the first day I had purchased a Sheaffer Imperial (NOS), an Esterbrook Dollar pen (also got quit a bit of history on the Esterbrook's dollar pens and even was able to see the range of them from different years showing the minute changes in barrel design), and a Pilot Prera (mainly because that was on my buy list and there didn't seem to be many in stock). At least two of the tables were vacant on Friday so I made sure to save some money incase those tables had anything I couldn't miss.
I spent all Saturday there and Susan Wirth did the workshop that day on writing and finding good pens at a pen show. Of course that meant I was back at her table again, this time looking at the needle grade nibs that she suggested. It's because of her that I'm considering getting a few cursive Italic nibs to play around with (even if I have to get spare nibs for those. Does anyone do that already?).
After two days on my feet all day I left early but not before buying some Rhodia Dotpad No 19 paper.
By Sunday I was more or less past sensory overload and the only corner of the show I hadn't stopped by was Pendleton Brown's (he always had a crowd) and I think I spent a good bit of time between that table and Franklin Christoph's (I love their tester pens, too bad those weren't for sale). The plan was to leave right after Mr. Brown's workshop but that didn't quite happen. I met up with a few people from FPN who mentioned they were also going to be at the show and lucked out and got (dare I say the last) P. W. Akkerman ink well in Parkpop Purper. It's all Pendleton Brown's fault as I saw one on his desk and remarked how much I liked it. I fell in love with the bottle but the FP faeries were on my side as the ink colour is a purple shade and that was about perfect. I also snagged one of the last Monteverde Artista Crystal pens.
At the end of the show I learned more than I thought possible, brought home 4 pens, paper and a bottle of ink and I still had cash left over. There were tons of pens to be had from all ranges of the price spectrum, the people there were super friendly and were eager to answer any question no matter how silly. I was surprised that I wasn't able to find stationary, brass seals, sealing wax or certain brands of inks. However with saying all of that, it's probably just as well as I wouldn't have had any money left, plus I went there for pens primarily and I wasn't disappointed.
Before you get too excited about cash left over, that's no longer the case. One of the pens I wanted to buy was the Noodles Flex and Mont Blanc Oyster Grey which I didn't find there, so those were ordered as soon as I returned to Savannah.
All of my friends got a long email about my trip and how much I enjoyed it and was even invited up to Chicago to stay with a friend. If I had more money I probably would go to the Chicago show, but maybe next year.
Footnote, Lisa (from SF) was working at the Franklin Christoph table and she allowed me to play with her Nakaya's. Now I have to save up some money for one of those (along with an Edison and a one of F-C's new desk pens and... ) as they were just a dream to write with, apart from being just gorgeous pens.
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Originally Posted by caribbean_skye
Especially Dark Lords.
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