2014 Ohio Pen Show Report
Full Show gallery here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/00phot...7648834752328/
I was not planning on attending this pen show. I had already gone to the Chicago and Michigan shows and this one wasn't even on my radar. HOWEVER, I am very enthusiastic about calligraphy. Both the Chicago and Michigan shows lacked any calligraphy classes, the Ohio show had not one, but two classes by the very talented Deborah Basel. As an added bonus Michael Sull was going to be there. Since it was relatively close I decided to go for the classes and to meet Michael Sull. Not to buy pens. Just to have fun with calligraphy. I took Friday off from work and got the family up at 0300 (they were so happy!) :P. We packed all 20,000 pounds of my camera gear and sweater vests into the car and left by 0400. It was so fun I am considering getting up at 0300 every morning.
We got to the show between 0900 and 1000. I'm not sure exactly when as I was sleeping. Thank goodness for self driving cars. The show was pretty easy to find thanks to the huge banner!
Since check in for the hotel wasn't until the afternoon we immediately dove into the pen show. To just look. At this point I'm not planning on buying a pen. I am a listener to the Anderson Pens podcasts so I knew there would be two rooms of vendors but what I wasn't expecting were all the vendors in the hallways between the two rooms! There were literally pen people EVERYWHERE! In the rooms, in the hallways, every where you looked! It was a sight to behold. The first thing we encountered were the super friendly check in staff who turned out to be the organizer as well, Terry Mawhorter!
At the Michign Pen Show I made up a family contest. See who can find the coolest pen for $20 or less. This way we can get a pen "for the challenge" and I can still claim I didn't buy a pen HAHAHA.
We got our super official badges and started to oogle. Day one, room one, vendor one: Anderson Pens. Of course!
True to my word we chatted with the Anderson's and even after being tempted with a Noodler's Neponset, we left their table penless. As we made our way around vendor after vendor I realize I have made a serious tactical error. Most of the pens at this show are priced to sell. I am seeing awesome deals everywhere! I remind myself I am saving up for a blue Visconti Divina Elegance and force myself to keep moving. If the show had contest for sexiest shirts the next guy would have won hands down. Ryan Krusac always looks like he is modeling for a harlequin romance novel cover. His pens are just as sexy. I really like the scrimshaw ones.
Gerry Berg and his wife were awesome and Gerry had some SPECTACULAR examples of Sheaffer's with awesome Minuskin stub nibs at what I thought were great prices. At this time the camera was still packed in the car. I must not have been the only one impressed because by the time I got the camera out the next day, THEY WERE ALL GONE. If you look at this photo the back row, third tray over was full of beautiful and wonderous pens on Friday. In this photo that tray is empty save for one lone barrel. They were amazing and now you can only see the empty tray LOL.
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