On Sunday June 12 we gathered 11 members over Zoom (4 new folks!). Notes as below:
Next meeting: should be Sunday 10 July at the Lucky Lab in NW (in-person/hybrid!). Likely keep the noon time for in-person (stay tuned)
Our members introduced themselves and chatted about recent pen-related acquisitions, including a nib-meistered TWSBI Eco with a cursive grind. A new-to-him Coronet from somewhere in the 30s. A Curas Vertex (and won a titanium bolt). We got a bit more information on Jim L’s made-from-scratch fountain pen that really begs for its own dedicated chat with good close up pictures. He made the nib too! A paper related find: Ampad double sheet writing pad (on super sale at Freddies in SE) was shockingly fountain-pen friendly and was ~$1.25 that would be worth checking out.
Heather shared “Into Mordor, there & back again with a writing desk” that walked through the saga of acquiring and learning more about a solid wood antique writing desk through Freecycle (which has been around much longer than Buy Nothing groups). It has lovely olive green details, a floral motive, letter slots, and (appropriately) ink bottle stains! (bonus: glitter somehow). Skeleton key location from Hippo Hardware still on the wish list, but they have bunches of them! The desk still has a sticker indicating it’s from Rockford Illinois, Cooperative SomethingOrOther that I didn’t quite scribble down, and research from a fabulous public library site in Rockford led to newsletters and a map of the 50-or-so small furniture manufacturers in the town. They branded furniture as coming from Rockford (and put the company name underneath) and this is a fine example of small midwestern town collaboration to promote the local economy. And get this – Heather actually found the ad for what seems to be her actual desk! There was an option to have a leaded glass bookcase on top, and Bryan’s desk/bookcase setup has that configuration (storing – ahem – a few inks).
Looking ahead to a Pacific NW Pen Show next year: Staci, Kelly and Martha have been chatting about what it would take to bring back a Pen Show to Portland.
Key notes:
- Phase right now: Dream the big dream, and get all the details worked out. Determine if this is really feasible.
- We still want to do a Faux Hub assuming Pelikan isn’t doing something this year. There must be ink-tastings!
- Pen Bazaar is still entirely our Pen Club’s thing.
Key takeaways:
- PDX Pen Club is not being asked to run a full-sized PNW Pen Show. We’re being included in the discussion & dreaming because of our experience in both our own shows, other shows, connections, etc. And obviously we’d probably be lining up to get in 🙂
- Please contact us with ideas, dreams, interest in participating, leads on anyone else who is thinking about doing similar things. We’d love to pull expertise from our pen community.