(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)
When Jeff Haskett decided to start a “business to pay for a hobby,” what to call that business was never in question.
“My great grandfather had cherry orchards in Oklahoma called Red Branch. My grandfather, after his chemical engineering career, had a peach and pecan orchard in Texas with the name, I used to go there in the summer. When I started brewing beer I called it Red Branch Brewery.”
The brewing setup was sold off to buy a lathe and tooling for the new pen hobby. “I’m a theater guy, I’ve worked in entertainment since college – sets, lighting, audio – my creativity got poured into that. Now I’m more in management, I do event production for an agency. The creative side has gotten less and less every year.”
Haskett started with kit pens but like many makers did not stick with them long. “It was frustrating because I was limited by the kit.” Having grown up in an engineering family, he’d always been around tools, so the idea of moving to fully handmade three piece pens was not intimidating.
All of these factors converged early in the pandemic. “It got me into making stuff. It took me two years of work to create my first good pen.” Choosing names for pen models was not as difficult, with the history of fruit trees and orchards in his family.
When pen shows resumed in 2022, Haskett and his wife Susan went to the DC show, one of the closest to their home in central Pennsylvania, as attendees. “I’d had a heads up from the podcast to expect it to be crazy!” That was when Susan got the idea that she would like to pour blanks. “There are so many good blank makers out there, and we’d been buying blanks, but the down side of that was that when we walked through the show we saw the same blanks everywhere.” Being a knitter and crocheter, she already had some ideas about what she liked in a color palette. “I love yarn that has multiple shades of the same color and I wanted to see that in blanks. Some of them are too busy for me. I have too much fun playing with color!” Jeff adds, “She would have blanks on her wall as art.”
Resistance to limitations led to the creation of perhaps the most distinctive feature of a Red Branch pen, the integrated roll stop on the cap. Jeff says, “We decided to make it our feature early on. If you don’t want to make your own clips, the options are limited, but you don’t want pens rolling away either.” Susan says their first thought was “stud earrings? But then how….” Jeff tried a few different ways to achieve what they were after. “I am a fan of art deco, and the shape of the roll stop calls to that a little. I use a milling style machine to make them now, but it’s still a little tricky.”
When you visit the Red Branch website or come across their table at a show, you quickly realize that there is some major Taylor action going on. Susan is a long-time Swiftie. “I’ve loved her since day 1, I’m an OG Swiftie. We went to the DC show not long after the Eras tour, there were people wearing t-shirts and things from the tour. I wanted to do something as homage to her work, with a cohesive concept.” There were just too many songs to consider relating pens to songs, but looking at the albums’ artwork showed that each recording had its own predominant color, which led to blanks designed to correspond to those colors. “We also made a slightly different body, because I liked some features of the Blossom and some of the Heartwood – could we do a hybrid?” There are currently only two more albums to cover, and they plan to use the special Taylor blanks in their other pen models starting next year. It’s rumored Swift is a pen person – do they want to send her a pen? “I’d like to give her a set, but we couldn’t handle the demand if she gave us a shoutout!”
Besides completing their Swift series, the Hasketts met the craze for pocket pens by bringing out a pocket Blossom model that did quite well at the DC show. Jeff also has an idea for lower cost items that would be more suited to attending local craft fairs. “A click pen would be an easier buy for that audience.”
Because Jeff has lots of work travel, the Hasketts have not planned to vend at too many shows. However, when they do decide to go on the road, they bring home with them. “We’ve lived full time for three years in an RV,” Jeff says. “We weren’t blessed with children, and I travel a lot, so a three bedroom house didn’t make a lot of sense.” He rents shop space in the basement of a former t shirt factory. “The work doesn’t come home with me.” Because they are originally from New England, they have gone to the Commonwealth show in Massachusetts. “We’ve done well there, we wish more makers would come to that show – we were the only maker there.” This past summer they had a table at DC, and are hoping to make it to Baltimore next year. San Francisco is more of a pipe dream because of the distance. Attending shows lets them connect with pen people at large. “It’s a really nice community. All the makers are nice to each other.”
What pens do they like enough to give house room in an RV? Susan’s favorite pen is a Waterman Carene in the L’Essence de bleu series. “I tried one at Pen Boutique and when I had some birthday money I ordered it right away.” She also has a Hello Kitty Waterman Metropolitan. Jeff has a LAMY Dialog, blue with rose gold fittings, that he prizes. “I love mechanical stuff so the twist retract appeals to me. It has a larger size nib than the Vanishing Point. I used to take work notes on an iPad with an Apple Pencil, I got rid of that and now use fountain pens and notebooks.” As to his own pens, “I can’t pick one. Blue would be my choice, but then I think other people will like it so I leave it.”
Making something both beautiful and useful is the heart of pen making’s appeal for Jeff. “It’s a functional object, I’ve always appreciated functional art. You’re making something someone holds, so touch is as important as appearance.” The name of their business, “crafts” rather than “pens,” leaves the door open for more functional art in their future. Leather work? Wood accessories? Time will tell.
Red Branch Crafts’ work can be seen on their website, Instagram, and at pen shows in Massachusetts and DC.
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