While I didn’t specifically travel to San Francisco to attend the pen show, it kind of felt like I did because I went there so soon after landing in the US. It’s also my first pen show, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Here’s how the third day of my trip looked.
The night before the show, I spent time making a wishlist of things I could get at the pen show and checking out the list of vendors. Mainly, what can I budget for and bring back with me? I knew I probably wouldn’t get a fancy fountain pen at the show that day (but that’s a possibility for the future), and I learned to limit the amount of ink I buy since it had to go into the liquids bag and be under 100mL. I wasn’t sure I had room for a notebook, so options were limited. I settled on trying to find a cute pen to take home (under $50) and one, maybe two, bottles of ink.
I woke up at my ‘usual’ time at 7 AM and after a short breakfast, we were off to Millbrae which was where the pen show’s venue was. It’s convenient for people flying in for the show because it’s right beside San Francisco’s International Airport! We arrived around 11-12 o’clock and parking was very difficult to find, we ended up having to park elsewhere and walk back to the hotel. So if you decide to go in a future year, I recommend getting there early for parking. The local Caltrain station is Millbrae but it’s a 1 mile (~1.6 Km) walk, there is a bus but I’m not sure how often it runs.
Entry was $10 USD, which was alright, but the venue inside was packed! At many parts of the venue, I was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with other patrons. There were so many artisans, and I immediately got tempted by some handbound notebooks, some of these notebooks actually had bestseller book covers too which was interesting. The pen show was a mix of artisan vendors, nib-work stalls, collectors, and official brand/store tables. I think it took me about an hour to walk about half of the venue used for the pen show. It was also pretty warm inside due to the amount of people.
I was scouting around, trying to see if anyone had certain pens that I’d been eying so I could get a feel for them in person and help me narrow down which to get in the future. But despite my dedication, I couldn’t find the Sailor Pro Gear First Snow or Iris Nebula anywhere. I did get to see a variety of other pens being sold, especially the artisan ones, and try out different pen nib sizes at some stalls.
In the main pen area I picked up a dip pen for about $8 USD. Before travelling, I finally picked up some calligraphy ink from Ferris Wheel Press and I needed some sort of dip pen to use them. I didn’t opt for glass because I worry about accidentally breaking/chipping it, but this plastic one for $8 isn’t that bad. They also had boxed sets for both the pen and ink, but none of the boxed pens were fine nibs. I did manage to find the ink I wanted at another stall though, I think it was $20. This was Sailor’s Dye Ink in Byakuya. I couldn’t find this specific colour in Toronto, but luckily there was one more at this one ink stall.
Byakuya looks like a murky green in the bottle, but when put onto paper it’s supposed to look different depending on the paper used and the amount of time it’s left to develop. On the regular paper I use for letter writing, it looks like a light grey-green colour. On MD paper (I don’t remember which one) it shows more like a light grey with a purplish-green sheen, which is kind of similar to swatches seen online. This ink was more of an impulse purchase, but that’s okay.
The one ink that I set out to find that day was Wearingeul’s World Myths Ink in Persephone. I saw a swatch of this at a stationery show in Toronto and fell in love, unfortunately, I couldn’t find it anywhere in Canada. If I couldn’t find that, I was going to look for a nice fountain pen ink from Colorverse. I was thinking of either Cat (a glistening ink) or Delicious Sleep (regular dye ink). If all else failed, a nice purple colour ink was what I was going for.
I was extremely lucky that day because the same ink table had a few bottles of Persephone left. I got one for myself – I think it was $20-$25 USD – and also managed to persuade someone else to get one too. Now, the reason why I’ve been searching for Persephone is because it’s a beautiful purple-violet colour that is dark but still light enough for people to make out that it’s purple. It’s also a glistening ink with red glitter to represent the pomegranate seeds from the myth.
After finishing my shopping, my family and I planned to get going and that was when I saw the special ink for the 2024 pen show; San Francisco Bay. It was a nice grey-teal colour that’s supposed to represent the colour of the bay, and I was also tempted to buy that. But by this point, I worried about having too much ink and I knew I have a variety of blue-ish inks waiting for me at home. The 2023 ink representing the Golden Gate Bridge was pretty too.
On our way back home, we stopped by my family’s favourite gelato shop and got some ice cream. I think one of the most popular flavours was Durian but by the time we got there it was sold out (around 2-3pm). I opted for my trusty matcha flavour, and it was delicious.
Later that same day, my family and I went out to eat Pho for dinner and had bubble tea for dessert. When we got back home I decided to try packing the two ink bottles into my liquids bag. It was a bit of a tight fit, so I’m lucky that I didn’t decide to get any more ink.
