WOW, Sunday was even better than Saturday!
I met Nicholas Frederick who is also an IAP member at the show, and he was selling some drop dead gorgeous burl pens. He had several of the Mokume Gane pens, and sold his Damascus Steel pen on Sunday! Beautiful stuff, and it was a pleasure to meet another IAP member. I had a blast hanging out with Nicholas!
Carl Seidl who is also an IAP member and his wife were also set up selling a wide variety of awesome looking pens. Carl had everything from antler, casing pens, acrylics, and modified classic pens that he has engineered for a second chance at life! Carl and his wife were very generous with their time.
Alan Shaw and his wife were wowing the crowd with his awesome display of the Dogwood series, the Philadelphia pen series, and his beautiful fountain pens. I appreciate Alan letting me hang around and giving me very valuable information about the trade, and about pen turning in general. I am grateful for the time and energy Alan and his wife spent with me this weekend.
Well the time came and the drawings were held for several pens and other stuff. Dante Del Vecchio was there to personally hand out the grand prize, and was very gracious and outgoing with the crowd! I actually got a picture with him, and he is a very fun figure! The $13,500 maki-e pen went to someone that knew Alan Shaw!
I was VERY fortunate on Sunday as well. I won a Double Eight Retro 51 pen that was awarded by the PenWorld Group. Susan Bowen was there representing the magazine, and awarded the pen and a gorgeous book titled PenSpeak. The pen is stunning, and weighs a ton. I will get some pictures posted in the next few days, and I was thrilled. A big thank you goes out to Susan!
If you get a chance to see the Pen Show in a city near you, do not hesitate to go. It was fun seeing designers such as Dante, and Jerry Yeh, who were very generous with their time, and were extremely down to earth. I learned a ton from Jerry Yeh and his line of Laban pens. For those of us looking to do pens with less of the kits, you should check out Jerry's stuff. I purchased two of Jerry's larger pens, one a rollerball for Robin (my wife), and one of them a fountain (for me). It was a pleasure spending time with Jerry Yeh, and I look forward to seeing him again at the show next year.
While I was floating around the halls looking at incredible pens, I bumped into a few IAP members that were running around the show just like I was. Chris Higdon was in on Sunday for a while, and it was good to catch up with Chris. Several other well known local turners were there admiring the turning craft from the "pen" perspective as well.