PMG Article

[JimGo]

Jeff,
I wanted to say thank you to you and Pen World Magazine for posting the article on the PMG. I think the article does a great job helping to promote handcrafted pens, and to remove some of the "stygma" associated with kit pens. Hopefully this will lead to more acceptance in the marketplace, and allow us to move from, as Rich put it, the craft-show-only market and attract higher end customers.

If you haven't seen it, the article is on the homepage, and can be accessed here: http://www.penturners.org/content/PWI_PMG.pdf

 

[jeff]

The one to thank is Rich Kleinhenz (scubaman) He got permission from the magazine to post the article and got us the discount subscription offer.

I wanted to post the highest resolution copy they provided, but it's pretty large. A slightly lower quality, but much smaller file is available here. It's optimized for Adobe 6.0 and later, so earlier versions may have trouble with it. The free Adobe Reader 7.0 is available here.

 

[btboone]

Thanks Rich. I never realized that Acrobat did full color. The ones I've downloaded before were always black and white.

Yup, my sad old computer took a while to view the file. It seems like with most software, newer versions of them take more and more resources to have it work properly. The older computers like my internet computer feel the strain. I have a fast one that I do my design work on that's not connected to anything but some machines.

 

[Johnathan]

Thanks Jeff and Rich. It is pretty big, but I'm glad to have the quality in the photos.[^]

 

[Geo in Winnipeg]

The quality in the photos is good. I thought I'd try the magazine for $25 but to send it to Canada is an additional $21.

 

[PatLawson]

I know there have been a couple of people who were somewhat puzzled by the pen photos in the article and I'd like to offer a little bit of clarification on that.

With the exception of Bruce Boone's pens, and Brian and Mark Gisi's pens, all the rest of the pens pictured in the article are about 1 1/2 to 2 years old.

PenWorld magazine became interested in the Penmakers' Guild when Rich Kleinhenz sold Guild members' pens at the Wash. D.C. pen show in 2004, and the magazine intended to publish this article shortly after that. At the time, they required us to send in our pens to them right away to photograph, so we had no time to make special pens for the article and had to send whatever we had on hand to make the article happen.

Unfortunately, the magazine then went through some staff changes and we ended up waiting over a year and a half for the article you now see, to be published. We knew at this point our pens might look dated, but we were very grateful to Pen World for this great opportunity and certainly were not going to complain about outdated photos!

So, if some people seeing the article think some of the pens do not look as "innovative", or up-to-date, as what they are used to seeing from these people now, this is the reason why. Bruce Boone and the Gisi's were allowed to join in the article a year or so after the others, and to add their current pens, but all us, including those of us with the dated pen photos, are very happy to have had a part in this wonderful promotion of independent penmaking.

Pat Lawson

 

[JimGo]

Thanks for the clarification Pat! I'm glad that Bruce got in there; not to belittle Brian and Mark, their pens are absolutely amazing (saw them earlier this year in person), but I'm glad to see one of OUR "regulars" getting a nod, too.

And, for the record, I look forward to a day when I feel comfortable enough with one of my pens to submit it for membership! []

 

[btboone]

I didn't mean to crash the party. [] I had met Susan Bowen at the pen show in Atlanta the previous year and had my twist fountain pen and mokume titanium pen. They were prototypes that weren't quite dialed in enough for production. She said to let them know when I thought I had something to show. I felt my next designs were more solid, and I sent some pics of Spyra and Spectra. They were interested in photographing them there and wanted me to send the pens in. I did that, and they happened to fit nicely with the article that they had already been working on, so they put them in the article. I didn't originally have that in mind when I sent them, but it worked out nicely.

 

[PatLawson]

Originally posted by btboone
<br />I didn't mean to crash the party. [] I had met Susan Bowen at the pen show in Atlanta the previous year and had my twist fountain pen and mokume titanium pen...

So glad that you did Bruce!!!
Your pens are truly beautiful and it's great that they got to be seen in a magazine like Pen World. I suspect it may not be the last time either! []

Pat

 

[rtjw]

Thanks Pat. That is all I wanted to know. I thank you for explaining it.