Scenes from NY NOW and the National Stationery Show, 2020

Even though I’m sitting in my hotel room, absolutely exhausted after a full day of hoofing it through the Javitz Center and across New York City, I couldn’t let the day pass without posting some pictures from my adventures with the Vanness Pens team at NY NOW, the National Stationery Show, and Shoppe Object. These are wholesale shows, so much of what we saw is “to the trade” only, including some not-yet-released products, so photographs are limited. I can say, however, that I left amazed at the extent of what is out there in in terms of both brands and products that I’d never seen or heard of. This blog apparently has barely scratched the surface. We’re beyond blessed to live in a time in which makers have the resources to bring their ideas to life, and it’s going to be a great year!

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What better to kick off the show than a LEGO model of the Javitz Center?

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I also had the opportunity to visit Shoppe Object, a “smaller” show featuring smaller and independent makers.

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The other side of Shoppe Object.

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And it wouldn’t be a trip to NYC without stopping by C.W. Pencil Enterprise.

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I put together some colored pencil sets off the Caran d’Ache color bar. One for my daughter (and maybe one for me)….

Travel Tips: Packing a Writing Kit for the Road

I travel quite a bit for work, but one thing I’ve managed to avoid thus far is extended work travel, which I consider five days or more at a stretch. Not only is this type of travel a pain because I prefer to travel light and I end up having to check a bag with multiple days worth of work clothes, but I also have to be quite intentional about personal effects, making sure that I carry enough essentials with me to maintain my sanity while not over-complicating things. This latter part boils down to three things: stationery, books, and coffee.

My Travel Stationery Setup

Way back when I first started the blog, I wrote a piece about my “travel kit” that I took with me on the road, which consisted mainly of rollerballs, gel pens, and a pocket notebook. I updated this post last year, reflecting a bit more confidence in myself traveling with fountain pens, and adding the Nanami Paper Cafe Note B6, which I still maintain makes for one of the best travel journals out there. I figured that since I’ve kicked off January with nearly two full weeks away from home, why not revisit this topic again and discuss the pens and stationery I’ve chosen for extended travel, and how they’ve fared so far?

• Lamy 2000 Bauhaus 100th Anniversary, EF Nib. Since I’ve chosen this pen as my “2020 One Pen Daily Carry,” I couldn’t leave it at home. But a Lamy 2000 with an extra fine nib also serves as an excellent workhorse for conferences and business meetings. The Lamy 2000 holds a lot of ink, and the EF nib helps stretch the supply a bit longer. I unfortunately had to take a break from my Leonardo Momento Zero Grande, since that pen hasn’t fared well with air travel. The Lamy 2000, on the other hand, remains free from major “inksplosions.”

• Matthew Martin OG1. Maybe this is nothing more than recency bias, but paired with a Franklin-Christoph EF SIG nib, my newest Philly Pen Show acquisition is turning into a favorite. Its durability is a plus since I can pocket carry or bag carry this pen around a conference without worrying about damage (or self-defense).

• Kanilea Pen Co. Mauna Kea. I’ve tried to use my time at night to get caught up on journaling and letter writing, and my Kanilea Mauna Kea is one of the more comfortable pens I own for longish writing sessions. It’s also not a coincidence that the Kanilea and the Matthew Martin pens both accept cartridges, which have always been my preferred method of refilling fountain pens when traveling. Not only do you not have to worry about bottled ink or traveling inkwells in your carry on, but in my experience pens filled using cartridges are less susceptible to burping ink on airplanes.

• Montblanc Classique Rollerball. Always carry at least one rollerball or ballpoint when traveling. There will be forms to fill out. Without fail.

• Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil. Along with a rollerball, I carry a mechanical pencil for drawing and reading notes. I prefer the retractable tip of the Rotring 800 over the fixed pipe on the Rotring 600, especially for travel.

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It’s not going to win any awards in the style department, but this BUBM (“Be Unique Be Myself”???) electronics organizer has been one of the better inexpensive purchases I’ve made lately.

The Nock Co. Sinclair still serves as my primary travel pen case, holding the three fountain pens along with a pocket notebook and some notecards. As I noted above, the Nanami Cafe Note is still my primary personal notebook, but this time I also brought along my Jibun Techo planner, my A6 Hobonichi, and an Endless Recorder A5 notebook for work. One piece of gear that I added to my backpack this time is this double-layer “electronics” organizer, which not only does an excellent job of holding things like cords, cables, and chargers, but also has loops that can be used to secure pens and pencils, zippered pouches for things like ink cartridges, post-its, and headphones, as well as a zippered pocket at the back large enough to hold a Kindle or a small notebook.

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Digital meets analogue? Cables on the left, stationery on the right.

Personal Observations and Requests for Suggestions

Because I write first thing in the morning while drinking my daily coffee(s), I’ve found that travel is MUCH less stressful to me if I can maintain this simple routine. It’s also much less expensive to not have to purchase decent coffee outside the hotel, not to mention more convenient than stumbling around looking for a coffee shop at 6a.m. (or earlier). People have been recommending that I do this for years, but I finally splurged on some inexpensive travel coffee gear, consisting of a collapsible travel kettle and a small hand grinder. (I’m considering an Aeropress but for now I just went with a simple pour-over and some filters that I already had lying around the house.) I don’t consider myself a huge coffee snob, but the ability to have your own coffee in the morning on the road is revolutionary, and I’m kicking myself for not doing this earlier. I’d be interested in hearing other suggestions for mobile coffee setups.

New York City Meetup Friday!

Speaking of more travel, tomorrow I’m flying to New York City for the 2020 National Stationery Show, and Lisa Vanness and I will be hosting a meetup with the Big Apple Pen Club at Grand Central Oyster Bar on Friday night at 7:00pm. Let me know if you’d like to attend so that I can give Lisa a proper headcount!

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NYC Trip Recap: Big Apple Pen Club, CW Pencils, & More!

November has always been a huge travel month for me. In addition to the start of the holiday season here in the U.S., I typically have at least two conferences I’m required to attend, and everyone at the office seems to shift their projects into overdrive in an (often futile) effort to get them done by the end of the year. On the bright side, I get to spend a lot of time in New York, a city I love and which is chock-full of stationery enthusiasts and, increasingly, boutique stationery stores. I’ve written before on the shops I frequent, and not much has changed, other than a planned trip to the new Goods for the Study location over on West 8th Street before I take off tonight.

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My Musubi journal and pen case, as well as my CW Pencils package (tastefully wrapped, as always), and some Hi-Tec-C Coleto refills and .38mm Uniball Jetstreams I picked up at Kinokuniya.

On this trip, however, I unintentionally timed my travel to coincide with the November meeting of the Big Apple Pen Club, a group of enthusiasts from the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut-area who gather once a month to talk pens, share their latest finds, and even host speakers and guests from within the pen industry. Within minutes of my arrival, cases were opened, pens were on the table, and what I’d consider a mini-pen show ensued. To make matters worse (for my wallet), Daryl of Atelier Musubi was visiting from Singapore, and brought a selection of his journals and pen cases made from Japanese fabrics. I purchased an “Edo” journal in the “Iroha” pattern, as well as an oversized two-pen case in the Seigaiha “wave” pattern and natural fabric. I managed to stay away from Yoshi Nakama’s hand-turned pens, because I knew that wouldn’t end well!

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A pair of Oldwin pens in Ebonite and Arco celluloid.

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And, like all pen gatherings, I came across several items to add to my “must-have, eventually” list. An Oldwin pen, from Mora Stylos in Paris, remains firmly on the list, after handling my friend Dan’s oversized ebonite version that he acquired from M. Mora at this year’s Tokyo Pen Show. Oldwin pens feature a variety of rare and unique materials, particularly celluloid and ebonite, and can only be purchased at retail directly from Mora Styles, though Sarj Minhas sometimes has a handful of pens for sale at shows. I also had the opportunity to play around with an “Epilogue” nib from Regalia Writing Labs (Ralph Reyes), and believe it or not, I think I could find quite a practical use case for this nib for highlighting and annotation. (So, of course, I’ll have to buy one if they’re ever in stock!)

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The Regalia Writing Labs “Epilogue” Nib, on a unique pen from Kasama in the Philippines that Dan obtained courtesy of Leigh Reyes.

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A full shot of the Kasama demonstrator - I really hope these become available internationally soon! (And I love their logo!)

I made a quick Friday night trip downtown to CW Pencil Enterprise, where I stocked up on annotation pencils I had run out of, and picked up some scratch-’n-sniff stickers for my daughter. If you’ve never visited the sticker boutique in the back, you need to! Today, I’m off to explore what else NYC has to offer, including Goods for the Study, Muji, and perhaps the Apple Store to test out the new iPad Pro and the supposedly new-and-improved Apple Pencil 2.0 I’ve heard so much about.

If you ever find yourself in New York City on the second Thursday of the month, consider dropping in on a meeting of the Big Apple Pen Club. As with most circles in the pen community, it’s a welcoming group, and this experience made my trip!

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NYC Stationery Tour 2016

I don't have a review or anything for you all this weekend, but if you've been following along on Instagram, you'll know I've been posting some photos of my trip to New York City, including the various - and all too brief - stationery shopping stops I've made around town.  Today is my "free day," so I'll have more time to explore. Stay tuned. I should have some good stuff to show off later this week. 

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Kinokuniya Bookstore has the full array of Midori Travelers Notebooks and refills. 

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And, of course, I stopped by C.W. Pencil Enterprise on the Lower East Side.  This is an older picture. Unfortunately I couldn't take a new one because their outside storefront is under construction. 

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A view of the Freedom Tower from outside my hotel in Battery Park City

For further reading, please check out my Top 5 Stationery Stores in New York City post from last year. If I run across anything new, I will be updating this list in the coming weeks. 

Happy Fountain Pen Day! (One day in advance)

Happy Fountain Pen Day to all you pen enthusiasts out there.  I'm on the road today, so I won't be able to post tomorrow.  This is just a reminder that the Gentleman Stationer's Fountain Pen Day giveaway ends at Midnight on Friday, November 7 (tomorrow).  I will announce a winner on Saturday, and the winner will have until Midnight, CST Monday to claim his or her prize.  Here's a link to the post in case you missed it the first time around.  The usual giveaway rules apply:  leave a comment in the giveaway post, and I will number each comment received and randomly draw a winner.  If the first winner doesn't claim the prize, I will draw another, and repeat until someone claims the pen!

So how will I be spending Fountain Pen Day?  I'm in New York City all weekend, a great place for pen, stationery and book shopping.  Granted, it's not as good as it used to be (R.I.P. Art Brown), and every day it seems that stores we used to think of as "institutions" are closing to make way for generic chains, but compared to what we have available here in the Nashville, Tennessee area, there are more than enough to keep me busy for two days. What's on my list?

• Fountain Pen Hospital:  Unfortunately the last independent brick and mortar dedicated pen store left in NYC.  I'm going to try to make it down to FPH, but since I'm in a conference for most of the day on Friday, and they're closed on the weekend, it may not be in the cards this trip.
• Kinokuniya Bookstore:  THE place to go in NYC (if not the entire United States) to buy your Hi-Tec-C's, Signo DXs, Sharbo's, .5mm Jetstreams and Acroballs, Sarasas, Coletos, etc.  Did I mention they stock the entire line of Midori Traveler's Notebook refills?
• Sam Flax:  Harry Marks reminded me of this one, which I had completely forgotten about.  They have a great selection of paper and notebooks, including Quo Vadis and Rhodia.
• Muji:  This trip will be my first in which I'm going to try to visit Muji.  They have a wide array of gel pens and paper, which I've seen reviewed favorably.

If I'm missing anything, give me a shout.  I'm always looking for new places to visit and new products to try.