I Fell In Love With The Girl At The Pen Show

An ode to hobbies.

There are a few kinds of people who might be reading this: one will be effervescent when I say there were stamps from Traveler’s Notebook, and others who will be curious about what I mean by that and how that could bring such joy to people. Of course, that is the delight in a hobby – different levels of engagement, and the different kinds of conversation you can have, and finding where the joy lies for you. Let me, though, begin at the beginning.

October 10th to 12th was the London (Autumn) Pen Show. In a hotel conferencing suite, many vendors of pens, ink, stationery, and restoration services set up stalls to hawk their wares to willing and excited customers. Many were showcasing excellent vintage pieces, which they were happy to allow potential customers to hold, test, and covet them. The show hosted other businesses who were small manufacturers, hobbyists themselves who’d turned their passion into sales and marketing, as well as a couple of fairly large fish in both the British and Japanese markets. This is like any trade show: you have vendors who like to sell you things, customers who want deals on those things, and a few onlookers trying to build brands, follow next year’s marketing trends, make relationships with mutually beneficial businesses… or who just want to hold the bags of somebody they love, looking for a place to sit. I went for the Sunday as a customer.

The Pen Show was smaller than other trade shows I’ve been to, but still plenty large enough. I’m sure some of that is that pens require significantly less space to display dazzlingly than, for example, clothes, but unlike, say, The Clothes Show, which is a fast-paced and crowded experience with large distances to cover, The Pen Show was a friendly and entirely stress-free environment. Even when it was clear you weren’t going to buy anything so expensive, many vendors wanted to showcase their choicest wares and encouraged holding and testing; rather than jostling to the front or competing to buy limited vintage items, other attendees laughed and joked with us. I learned a lot about both vintage and modern pens, used a flex nib for the first time, gasped at some truly gorgeous antiques, and availed myself of some offers for buyers who picked up several items at the same stall. Upon spotting the stall for cult favourite Japanese notebook manufacturer Traveler’s Company, whose style is a leather cover that you keep for years and replaceable inserts, I was actually less excited than the two other women who approached it with me – but only because I’d found those cult fans, whilst I approve of it from afar. Together we stamped their signature prints into our respective journals (they’re different in every location, and had brought some rare ones to the show!) and showed each other our cutest notebook pages and most loved accessories, before going our separate ways.

There’s a lot of crossover between the hobby of pens and other things I’m into, and it was great to meet other people who fit with me in a venn diagram of interests. I’m not an artists, so I wasn’t really sharing with those people (though I DID enjoy seeing their work), but other book fans (including a bookbinder!) and history lovers and glamour seekers were there, and I enjoyed meeting and chatting with them. I feel like there is a deep seam within myself that I can mine now that I’ve met these people, who are perhaps not people I would have crossed paths with in other ways. They showed me the ways they engage with the same hobby as me, and it was so nice for me to appreciate their style without covetousness and offer genuine advice and appreciation to them. I’d like to think the other parties all enjoyed their encounters with me too.

I’m going to use my experience at the London Pen Show to take my interest in this hobby to the next level: rather than purchasing new things and creating a graveyard of unused inks, nibs, etc, I will be cleaning and renovating some of the cheaper items I picked up, which will teach me about the care and construction of pens. I will experiment with the different inks, paper, and nibs I now own in my calligraphy, trying to understand both my own handwriting and how equipment may affect what I’m doing. More than anything else, I want to continue enjoying stationery without limiting myself. I’ve begun developing quite the system in my current notebook, and that’s almost finished; by the time I start my new one (the third since I’ve been really into the hobby, though I have been a diarist on-and-off my whole life) I should be able to streamline what’s needed, wanted, and exciting to create something unique which suits me. What I love about a hobby is it manages to be a relationship between just me and the thing I’m enjoying, whilst also being a bridge to connect with other people. I suppose that makes these weekly writings a hobby, too – and I wouldn’t give these up for the world.

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On This Topic:

• House Geshtu, who have made a prototype pen I’m excited about.
• Vanessa Langton, an artist I picked up a sticker from at the fair
• and The Writing Equipment Society, which sounds super fun but I don’t know if I have enough time to read their newsletter…

To-Do:

• Email AG!!
• Timeline to Austen peeps
• Tidy stationery drawer, it has grown untenable and ballooned out into the desk

Today’s Culture:

• This half-term is about preparing transport – improving my fitness enough to commute by getting back on my bike, and taking driving lessons
• Finding ways to use up the too-much washi tape I own. Does anybody want to buy some washi tape??
• Halloween is small for me this year, but it is still Halloween and I will still be participating.