DC Pen Show Recap

Row 1:

• The Pen Habit’s Matt Armstrong scored one of the first Kanilea Pen Co. treasures
• Brian Goulet snuck up on the balcony to get an overview of the main ballroom and didn’t get caught
• The amazing and talented Catharine Mi-Sook

Row 2:

• Brad Dowdy and Deborah Basel captured by Father Kyle
• One of my favorite photos of the DC Pen Show was this shot by The Angry Asian of the ink sampling table
• Lisa Vanness and Dan “The Nibsmith” Smith

Row 3:

• Leigh Reyes, Lisa Vanness and me by JustVanness1938
• MsCollis’s So Much More than Pens
• Me and Vitto from The Story Supply Co. finally got to meet face to face

Once again, I was so busy chatting and working at the DC Pen Show that I hardly took any photos at all so I had to scavenge through the Instagram #DCPenShow2016 hashtag to find all the photos of the show. I hope no one minds that I shared their photos here.

The DC Show was as epic as everyone promised it would be and I met so many people. It was such an amazing experience. I got to meet people I’ve talked to online, made new friends and saw familiar faces from other shows as well. Everyone was incredibly nice, both new collectors and seasoned veterans which made the whole event even better.

Selling ink for the Vanness Pen Shop is an education for me every time I have the opportunity to do it. I love seeing what colors and brands people are drawn to purchasing and what will sell out first. I also learn so much about inks myself and get smarter about them each show — getting better at color matching and putting them on a spectrum from wettest to driest.

The evenings were spent hanging out in the bar or at the ink sampling table visiting with friends and making new ones. The Fountain Pen Day Blogger Meet-Up was a blast on Friday and we packed the room beyond fire code (shh, don’t tell!).

I was, as expected, exhausted by the end of the weekend as was everyone else but the whole trip was worth it. I didn’t buy much, just a few bottles of ink, some paper and one pen but I’ll share those in a future post. I just wanted to share a few pictures and some happy thoughts and let you all know I’m back among the living and already planning for San Francisco.