Better late than never, right?
I’ve been attending the SF Pen Show for 5 or 6 years. This was the first year I decided to focus more on classes than walking the show floor. I’d say that helped me spend less, but that wouldn’t really be true…
Now, the SF Pen Show normally runs Friday through Sunday. I don’t recall any classes and seminars on Thursday in the past, but they did it this year, and I’m glad I was able to attend Thursday through (most of) Saturday. It was a crowded show – more so than last year, which is a good thing, but I dare say it is outgrowing the space.
I stayed at the hotel for 2 nights, which was a nice reprieve from my normal schedule and a much coveted break from my job. It was great just being around a bunch of pen and stationery nerds. Showing up on Thursday, I could see a lot of the vendors arriving and beginning their setup. There’s a lot of friendships between pen and stationery folk, and seeing them reconnect brought a smile to my face.
I can’t say I’ve ever attended past shows on a Thursday, and I don’t recall classes and seminars being scheduled that early, but they did this year. I attended the Buttonhole Stitch Binding class, led by Cheryl Ball of Rickshaw Bagworks (shoutout to her sister who was there to help during all of her classes as well!). This was my first time ever doing something like bookbinding, and it was a blast!
Cheryl is a great instructor, so I was able to quickly pick up the process, and once I got into the rhythm, it felt easy to keep going. It was a lot of fun learning the basics in a 2 hour class – the cover & punch template, cutting the cover, folding and punching your signatures (pages), and sewing everything together. I was nervous about the sewing -especially the part where you have to begin and end – but this binding in particular was actually really easy to start and didn’t require tying any tiny knots to finish either!
The final result was a roughly A6 size book, with a textured cardstock cover, and 8 sections comprised of 5 full-pages folded in half (80 pages, 160 front & back). We used Mohawk Superfine paper, that Cheryl had pre-cut to the size everyone would need. It’s smooth, with minimal bleed and some show-through; overall handling my fountain pen inks pretty well, with only the most minimal feathering from a wet ink+nib combo.
Seeing everyone focused on making this little book was fun, and I was able to help a couple people around my table when they got stuck. That’s one thing that’s great about these classes, usually everyone is very helpful!
For my Thursday afternoon I then attended two separate seminars. First was ‘Behind the Scenes with PLOTTER’ and then the ‘Panel Discussion with Vendors from Singapore and Japan’. The PLOTTER seminar was great to actually see their notebooks in person, and get a feel for them. They’re definitely not for everyone, but they look and feel like a quality product. Plus, they come in a ton of sizes and colours. Not to mention, getting to see a great video about the launch of PLOTTER TOKYO, the new flagship store! #TravelGoals
Lisa Vanness, of Vanness Pen Shop, led the panel discussion later that afternoon, and it was a really great to hear the insights and knowledge from such an esteemed range of panelists (thanks to the translators who were present to assist with this panel as well!).
- Daryl Lim, of Musubi, shared his knowledge from the perspective of paper products.
- Sajori Takahashi, of Sey, shared experiences as an artisan pen craftsman
- Naoyuki Takeuchi, the head of ink planning at Nagasawa Stationery, provided insights in his vast experience in the world of inks
- and Yukio Nagahara, a distinguished nib smith of The Nib Shaper, shared his perspective on nibs
Along with some insight into each panelists history in their respective fields, there were some topics of discussion around paper trends in different markets, the use of stationery in different countries, and more personalized preferences for pens, papers, and inks. It was a perfect blend of insight and laughs; a highly enjoyable experience, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next year.
The all access pass lets you get in early on Friday, and since I had nothing to do, I showed up to the lobby 2 hours early. There was already a line forming. One hour before early entry opened, and the line was down the hall and out the hotel doors.
After finally letting everyone in, I had all of 5 minutes to wander the floor before I needed to find where my first class of the day was located. Pro-tip: If you are going to the show looking for something specific, which may sell out, definitely do not schedule classes during the opening hours!
First class of Friday was Mindful Zentangling with Analisa Bevan. I had never heard of Zentangling before, and mostly took this class out of curiosity. I’m glad I did, as it turned out to be a great creative outlet! In my own words, Zentangling is a mindful period of relaxing, pattern sketches.
Analisa is a Certified Zentangling Teacher, and started class by letting everyone know that there’s no wrong way to practice Zentangling! There’s an 8-step process, to relax, go through the sketching, and then appreciate what you’ve created at the end, but you don’t have to follow the steps outright. After the guided practices, everyone laid their artwork out on the tables — they all turned out great, and some were done in very colourful (fountain pen) inks.
Once everyone finished going through the 4 patterns that were practiced, Analisa also shared some of her personal journals where she collects different Zentangling patterns. I didn’t get any pictures of them, but they were absolutely amazing! Lots of deep patterns, great shading techniques, and beautiful artwork.
Shortly after Zentangling class, I went to my second bookbinding class with Cheryl Ball. This one was the Cross Structure Binding, and right off the bat it looked more intimidating than the buttonhole stitch binding because the cover layout was more complex. It was just as fun as the first class! In fact, the cover offered more opportunity for artistic expression, as I witnessed in class, when someone embroidered a flower and accents on theirs!
Some very talented folks joined this 2hr class, and came out with some fantastic looking books in the end. I was very happy with how both of my books looked, and I’m looking forward to practicing some of these skills again. I may even try adding some additional details to my cross structure bound book.
I had planned to attend some other events on Friday, but ended up spending most of the day wandering the show floor, checking out a lot of the products and chatting with different vendors. I’m terrible at remembering to take pictures, so don’t have many to share. I do have the two below, that I took while chatting with Lucas Mahoney of Hanabi Glass Studio about his glass dip pens. A lot of time and talent go into making each of these pens, and they wrote very smoothly. Lucas explained some of the process he goes through to make a pen, including the nib to ensure it writes smoothly and continuously, and changing colours in the more complex pens. I didn’t pick one up this time around, but these are definitely on my “look into getting one of these” list.
The last thing I did during the Friday show hours was to get a couple of nib grinds. I never know when most nib grinders put up their sign-up sheets, so I never end up getting an appointment slot. This year was no different – so I took a chance to see if I could get in with the nib grinders who do first-come-first-serve walk-ups!
One of the grinds I got was from Matthew Chen, of Matthew’s Nibworks, and the other was from Yukio Nagahara, of The Nib Shaper. I managed to snag the last time slot of the day with Takuma Nagahara, Yukio’s son, who also does grinds, but after Yukio’s last appointment was a no-show, they asked if I’d like to sit with him for my appointment and I gladly accepted! It actually worked out better than I expected as my appointment times ended up coinciding, but since they were setup next to each other, I was able to work with both of them at once (I do not recommend this to anyone, it’s probably a great way to lose a grind appointment!).
I’m barely daring enough to use a brass shim on my nibs, so I have a lot of respect for anyone who takes a pen from other people and is confident that they can create a perfectly tuned writing experience. I consider myself very easy to work with, however, and I was really pleased with how both grinds turned out.
My final event, on a very eventful Friday, was to attend a Techo Kaigi put together by Luca Barranco. It was a nice way to end the day, sitting around and chatting with others about how we use our journals and notebooks, what we would like to do better, and sharing experiences with different products. After it ended, I headed back to my room and crashed.
Saturday was my last day at the show, and I really only had one item on my agenda for the day. Some months ago I had put my name on a wait list with Opus Cineris, not thinking I would ever actually get an opportunity to acquire a Harmonic Nib. Guess how surprised I was when Anabelle Hiller sent me an e-mail several weeks before the SF Pen Show! I had a 9:30 AM pickup time for my nib, and it was one of the most delightful experiences I’ve ever had at the SF Pen Show. Anabelle does amazing work, and from a handful of pictures of me holding a pen to paper, was able to put an architect grind on my nib that worked perfectly.
The beautiful nib aside, the experience of sitting down and chatting with Anabelle was an absolute delight. Between giving me a brief intro to music theory and discussions of my entry into the hobby of fountain pens, we decided that between us we made up at least half of Brad Dowdy’s personality by introducing him to F1 racing and journaling/solo RPG’s respectively. Thirty minutes passed too quickly.
While I thought my time at the show would end there, I actually visited a few more vendors, and then sat in at the San Francisco Stationery Meetup. Another relaxing time off of the crowded show floor, with a lot of de-stashing, discussions and ink testing. I used the time to review all of my acquisitions (perhaps a post for another day), and confirm I had indeed spent far over budget. When the meetup concluded, I ended up seeing none-other than Cheryl Ball come in to prepare for her next class!
After discussions and sharing pen show hauls, I found myself volunteering to help Cheryl and Carola with their collaborative class on Creating a Floral Sketchbook. Since I had helped some people during the other bookbinding classes, I felt comfortable going into it and was glad I could assist everyone coming in, and help make sure no one fell far behind.
Cheryl and Carola knocked it out of the park! With Cheryl teaching how to create a small accordion style sketchbook, and then Carola teaching how to sketch several varieties of flower to fill it with!
At this point, I had already spent more time at the pen show than I originally intended to – not that I really minded – and decided I really should head back home. So, after one final chat with Daryl, at Musubi (whom I had a couple small discussions with during the show, and who sold out of nearly all their stock by mid-Saturday!), my time at the 2025 SF Pen Show ended.
It was a great show, and honestly, I surprised myself with just how social I was, considering how usually I am not. It was definitely a drain on the social battery, but well worth it.
This was not the planned “first post” on this blog, but hey, if I’m finally getting out of my own way to post something, so be it!