Meet Your Maker – Jon Tello, Hello Tello Studio/Tesori/Scripting New Stories

(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.)

Teenage pen snobs, take heart! You have an exciting future ahead of you!

Jon Tello, the artisan behind Hello Tello Studio, Tesori Italy, and the new Scripting New Stories Collective, says he was a “pen snob” even in high school. “I had loaner pens and wouldn’t let anyone touch my own pens.”

An artist who paints, draws, and does graphic design, Tello’s “day job” is working with nonprofits that help artists do community work via the arts around the world. He and his family lived in Italy for almost ten years working with different communities via a Christian nonprofit, and they found that there was a great need for assistance to victims of sex trafficking. Italy is one of the primary destinations for victims of trafficking to Europe, especially for those coming from Africa, and very few resources are available in Italy to help them.

In 2015, when the family was home from Italy for a visit, his wife’s uncle gave him a handmade wooden kit pen for his birthday, and invited him to the workshop to show him how it was made. His interest was immediately piqued – “I didn’t have to settle for ugly pens!” His first kit pens were not fountain pens. “As I grew in making kit pens, I decided I wanted to know why people would spend so much on a fountain pen, what was so great about the writing experience.” A couple of secondhand Italian fountain pens made it all clear. “I was determined to make pens that wrote just as well and were more aesthetically pleasing than the ones I had bought.”

Back in Italy, he began building a shop and making kit pens, selling them via Hello Tello Studio, but quickly felt limited and moved to kitless pens. At the same time, the ongoing need for funds for work with trafficking victims inspired him to raise additional money by selling pens.

When the family prepared to return to Ohio in 2021, they left the shop setup behind, and established Tesori Italy as the legal business entity in Italy for the support of the Alba Safe House that they helped open for victims of trafficking. Tesori (which means “treasures” in honor of the precious value of each survivor,) employs one person, as well as commissioning a survivor to make their handmade pouches. They make kit pens and pens for businesses. Training is ongoing in hopes that the Venice pen can be made there in the future. Tello built a new shop in the US to continue making pens to be sold both through Hello Tello and Tesori.

Tello is clear that he is “an artist at heart,” and sees his pens as functional pieces of art. The Venetian glass work in the cap finials of his pens, along with the body shape and flush cap, are his artistic signatures. This artist’s way of looking at the world means inspiration is everywhere – “Everything inspires me, my brain never stops. I have notebooks full of designs I want to do!” While the artistic possibilities of material making are tempting, he feels there are other places he’d prefer to spend his attention in the development of pens as works of art.

He has two favorite pens that he did not make himself. He won a pen from Tim Cullen of Hooligan Pens with engraved snowflakes that is a favorite. A Legend model by Ryan Krusac, with a scrimshaw design of a dragon on the barrel and dragon scales on the cap, is another pen that is always in use. Both appeal to him as art, beyond their utility as pens.

Like many other makers, Tello has kids who want to get into the act. His six year old daughter decided this year that she wants to make pens for her teachers and friends for Christmas, so he is teaching her the basics of making kit pens, and helping her create printed sleeves so that her work will be nicely packaged.

As if all of the foregoing is not enough to keep him busy, earlier this fall Tello formed the Scripting New Stories Collective to raise funds in an ongoing way for the Alba Safe House. “It really began with Ukraine – makers were stepping up with pen raffles to raise funds for relief, and it was a light bulb moment – the community is interested in doing good so let’s find a way to rally more people.” SNS has a separate identity from Hello Tello because “I don’t want it to be about me.” The response was immediate as makers offered pens for SNS to sell or auction. More donations are always coming. In 2023 the retail aspect of the site will expand with limited editions featuring different makers, with the first one expected from Jim Hinze. Tello says he has received many notes from participating makers thanking him for involving them. “Pen makers are one of the most caring of communities – like a mini extended family. This is a way for people to do what they already do, and have an impact, come together to do good, and be part of something bigger.”

Those notebooks of pen designs will bear fruit in some plans for 2023, involving more metal and glass work and enameling, and at least one new model. “There is no stopping point – you are always growing, there is always more you can do, no end to the creativity.”

Jon Tello’s work can be seen at pen shows in Chicago, DC, Ohio, and Atlanta, as well as at Hello Tello Studio, Tesori Italy, and Scripting New Stories Collective.

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Meet Your Maker – Meg Blackburn, Black Robin Pens

(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.)

“All the world’s a page/ And all the men and women merely writers…”

OK, maybe that isn’t what Shakespeare said. But you can do some journaling with Prospero, or write a letter with Juliet (or with Titus if you’re feeling angry,) if you’re using a pen made by Meg Blackburn of Black Robin Pens.

Blackburn wanted an identifiable theme for her pens, and “Den (of @denscustompens) had already taken gods and goddesses.” As a resident of Yorkshire in the UK, she found Shakespeare names to be a natural and evocative choice.

Blackburn’s making journey started with the gift of a hand-me-down wood lathe, and she made bowls and other decorative wood items at first. At a wood turning show she visited with her mother they saw some kit pens, and her mother asked her to make one.

Without the videos made by Bob Blanford, showing how to turn each component of a kit pen, she might not have gotten off the ground. However, the first lathe was quickly upgraded to a better wood lathe, and kit pens quickly began to feel too restrictive in terms of shape and design.

Just as the pandemic began in 2019, she began to make kitless pens, turning to Ashley Lawrence of Rockster Pens and Jason Miller of Jason Neil Penworks for advice on getting started. Her first pens, shared on Instagram, were well received, and soon she realized she could forego returning to the corporate world following her maternity leave and work part time as a pen maker and 'part time' as a mom to her now three year old daughter instead.

Blackburn gives some credit to the pandemic for allowing so many pen makers to get off the ground. “More people were writing letters, and since they couldn’t take holidays or go out, they had more money to spend.” She quickly distinguished herself for her innovative pen shapes. “I wanted to bring something new to the community, to come up with something other people aren’t doing.” Her most popular model, the Ophelia, resulted from working with a customer who asked for “something curvy,” and this led to further inspiration for models with curves. She now has ten or twelve different shapes available.

As more makers take the leap to making their own blanks, Blackburn is attracted by the idea and is looking into it. “It would let me offer a complete custom experience from the material to the pen.” However, upgrading her shop to a metal lathe is higher on the list of things to do.

Perhaps her most surprising pens are those made from recycled skateboards. She spotted a Canadian company making various kinds of things from skateboards, and thought here was something no one was doing with pens. Her first skateboard pens were built around kit components. The first year, she made two pens, ten the second year, sixteen this year, and she has twenty reservations for next year. Because the process is so labor-intensive, she limits the number she will make, and demand exceeds supply. She’s produced a series of Instagram reels showing all the steps. Broken skateboards are much easier to find in the US than the UK but a university skateboard club has helped keep her supplied.

When asked about her favorite pen she didn’t make, Blackburn first refers to pens by Eric Sands of Atelier Lusso – whenever she sees one of his pens she thinks, “I wish I’d made that!” The pen sent to her by Terry Tourngeau of Hogtown Pens in the As The Pen Turns podcast Secret Santa exchange of 2021, made with rosewood and diamondcast material, is a current favorite. A demonstrator version of her Iago model is one of her own that she can’t let go of, partly because of all the polishing work involved in making a clear pen.

While Blackburn would like to be a vendor at a pen show sometime, partly to support the community including the collectors who are not on Instagram, she says she can’t keep enough stock to actually do a show. With sixty percent of her work being commissions, she can make at most three or four stock pens a week, and her pens sell almost the minute they are posted on Instagram. This demand has also led her to decide not to support a website, as there is usually nothing to list as available.

She finds much to like about being a pen maker. “I find it very meditative and stress-relieving. It’s a methodical step by step process that is calming. And my work doesn’t rely on anybody else as it used to in the corporate world.”

In common with other makers, she cites the community spirit that prevails among pen makers, and how much she gains from them. “If I was in the shop and had a problem, there are about ten makers I could ask for help, and I try to pay that forward as well. If everybody is making a better product, that is good for all the makers.”

More than half of Black Robin’s sales are to repeat customers, and owning more than one Black Robin is the rule rather than the exception. “When someone comes back for another pen, I know I must be doing something right!”

Black Robin Pens can be found on Instagram, at Black Robin Pens.

Meet Your Maker – Tim Crowe, Turnt Pen Company

(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 a group of pen models are named Huxley, Grisham, Pynchon, Gaddis, and DeLillo, you might think there was something literary going on. You’d be right. Turnt Pen Company is the enterprise of Tim Crowe, whose day job is teaching English to eighth and twelfth graders in the Finger Lakes region of New York, south of Rochester.

Crowe started making handmade pens in late 2019. Prior to that, he’d been making electric guitar pedals and working on guitars, and making a few kit pens, as well as enjoying collecting and writing with fountain pens. Then he saw a kitless pen made by Greg Hardy of Hardy Penwrights, found that he lived about thirty minutes from Hardy, and called him up. During a long day in the Hardy shop, Crowe learned to make his first kitless pen, and also discovered that his father had student-taught in Hardy’s classroom years earlier. He sold some of his first “prototype” pens on Reddit before feeling confident enough to put his work out more seriously.

It wasn’t long before he decided he’d also like to try making his own materials, and got in touch with maker Bob Dupras, who gave him pointers and talked him through many iterations in the shop. Making materials is famously addicting, and he now has over 270 recipes in his books. Inspiration can come from anywhere – photos sent to him by customers, for example, or random things he sees around him. He also has help choosing colors from his sons Carson and Mikey – Carson’s blank choices are up to 25 and Mikey’s stand at 8.

“It’s like Christmas morning when you shoot that blank out of the mold and see what it looks like.” He hasn’t made pens out of a lot of those recipes, but “the coolest thing is making a pen out of material I also made, or making material to turn someone’s vision into a pen.” The entire process continues to inspire him, “working with my hands, turning a plastic rod into something useful.”

Vintage materials, though difficult to obtain, are on Crowe’s radar, as one of his favorite pens he didn’t make is a Mythic Pen Company pen made from a snakeskin blue cellulose acetate. An Eowyn model from Mayfair Pens is another favorite recent acquisition.

Pen companies are beginning to embrace the appeal of handmade alumilite resins, and some have taken note of Crowe’s materials. He has provided blanks to Leonardo Officina Italiana and Nahvalur, in batches of fifty to a hundred, for exclusive pens sold through the retailer Limited Pens Korea – several have already been released and there are more in the pipeline.

Crowe chooses words similar to Shawn Newton’s in describing his feelings about what he does. “I’m so lucky. I love my day job, and it gives me time to do this.” He wonders about the reasons there seem to be many educators in pen making. Is it because they write a lot? Because they have time in the summer to work more on their pens? He uses July to prepare for his one pen show, in DC – “three years ago, I didn’t know pen shows were a thing!”

Spare time is at a premium, with a demanding day job, service as a class advisor, and family life. When there is a little extra time, Crowe dabbles in music, not having entirely left guitars behind.

Choosing a name for his company let Crowe have a little fun with words. Not wanting to use his own name, he settled on the word “turnt” for a number of reasons. First, it’s an obsolete past tense form of “turn,” which speaks to the process of hand making a pen. Then, the word passed out of use and came back again with a different meaning, just as fountain pens were superseded by ballpoints and then came back with new appeal. According to the Urban Dictionary, “turnt” or “turnt up” means excessively excited or wound up, which seems appropriate for the amount of excitement fountain pens can generate today.

Crowe’s story sounds a theme mentioned by almost any pen maker you might talk to: the time and support given by other makers. “This is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of.”

In addition to his website, Tim Crowe’s work can be seen at the DC Pen Show every August, and on Instagram @turntpenco. He plans to do a new blank and pen drop on Instagram at 1pm Sundays, letting followers vote the day before on which blank it will be. And this weekend's pen was kind of breathtaking so here it is:

Thank you Tim for sharing your story!