I’ve been back for a few days now and I know I’ll need a few more to fully recover from the 2026 Chicago Pen Show, which was both a lot of fun and a lot of work! I did a report card for this show last year and since it was held at the same hotel and much of the layout was the same, we’ll skip all the scores and get right to it!
Welcome to Chicago! A gorgeous sunrise along the shores of Lake Michigan to greet me - worth waking up for!
This is the Cloud Gate, AKA The Bean, which is worth a visit if you’ve never bean, I mean, been. (same joke from last year, but picture taken this year at the crack of dawn around 6am, aka 4am in my time zone).
Francisco Lopez of Hinze Pens welcomes you to the Chicago Pen Show!
(Note: In my ongoing effort to make “ChiPS” a thing, I will be using that instead of “CPS” throughout this article. 🙂)
There are 3 elevators at the Doubletree Hilton Oak Brook, for a hotel that has 400+ hotel rooms. Each with a whopping maximum capacity of 5.
Yes, elevator for 5 people, not including one’s luggage (in my case, that took up 1/3 of the space, lol). Also, ignore the eye bags, that took up a lot of room too, but such is the case with redeye flights that land 45 minutes early. I’m glad I was on the 3rd floor, and not the 6th floor like last year, because I took the stairs on several occasions.
As with many shows, I worked at the Franklin-Christoph table. It was just Audrey Matteson and me, and we were pretty swamped on Friday and Saturday so my picture time was more limited than at other shows. But more on that later.
Audrey is walking through what’s on the card for this lucky kid’s first Franklin-Christoph, a swirly blue Pocket 45 with a Nagahara Needlepoint - the NP is for his dad who was going to swap a different nib for his son. (His dad, a long time F-C customer, gave me permission to take and post this picture in the recap and on IG.)
Christine Wooten, wife of Roger Wooten (show owner/organizer), and some of the Wooten boys at the registration table selling tickets, answering questions, and selling show exclusive items.
Some of the vendors that were in the foyer:
Dan Keller of Good Made Better had his ebonite pens, as well as a variety of products to make your reading and writing experiences more enjoyable.
Managed a quick pic of Shawn Newton (center) of Newton Pens with fiancée Jamie (left)(congrats!!), and Darrell Davis of D Squared Arts before they got too busy.
Tori Woods of Stationery Universe showing off some gorgeous notebook covers from Alex Jay of Imperfect Concepts.
Sorry (not sorry) for showing off a pen that has apparently already sold out – the Hinze Pen x Stationery Universe exclusive First Blossom!
And look at the First Blossom ink (made by Papier Plume!) I’m kicking myself for forgetting to get that! Adding to my STL shopping list!
Jon Tello of Hello Tello was on the other side of the foyer (and next to Hiren from Magna Carta Pens).
John Phelan of Lemur Ink, upstairs in the foyer this year, was busy for most of the weekend. Wish I was able to spend more time looking at those inks!
Gavin Hardy (left) of Hardy Penwrights (pictured with brother Dan) continues the legacy of their father Greg Hardy (who sadly passed away in late 2024).
I love this experience where you could mix-and-match various pen parts (the most colorful and unique pieces were the grip sections) to get a truly custom pen at the very approachable price of $135.
Not me totally fangirling with Helen Wang of TheCoffeeMonsterzCo who went to the show as an attendee! I was so excited to finally meet her after missing her at other shows/events last year!
Look at this adorable sticker Helen gave me! And yes, I am hoarding it until I find the right spot for it!
Once again, Atlas Stationers had a huge presence in the right side of the ballroom, where they packed 7 tables with pens, papers, ink and other accessories. They were also surrounded by distributors including Luxury Brands of America, Coles of London, and had other distributors like Pilot USA and Esterbrook nearby as well.
Some of the amazing Atlas crew before show hours (hence the lack of mob in the picture and background), including Alex, Calie, Hollywood (aka, Atlas VP, Brendan Schmidt), Bella, Nicole, and Alvin.
Last year, it felt like all of the attendees went and stayed in the right side of the ballroom, but this year it felt like folks moved around a lot more. Many of the ballroom vendors were in the same (or similar) spots as last year. Similarly, last year there were some foyer aisles that were always crowded, while others were mostly empty. This year, it felt like there was more movement throughout the various aisles. I think some of the foyer vendors moved locations from last year, either from different parts of the foyer, or from the ballroom or downstairs.
From what I heard, the show sold a lot more weekend passes than prior years and there were also a lot more attendees overall. Despite the increase in attendance, the overall flow of traffic in the ballroom, foyer, and downstairs, was more evenly distributed compared to last year. More prominent signage about the downstairs space contributed to more folks making their way down there. Last year, a lot of folks didn’t even know there was a downstairs. This really improved the traffic flow upstairs and helped boost vendor sales downstairs too.
I liked that the show had a new banner for the downstairs, where there were more vendors, classes, as well as ink testing stations (there were always people down here playing with the various inks, including after hours).
Downstairs Essex ballroom with ~25 vendors.
KC of Dime Novel Raven and helper, Ash, with a full table of stuff at the beginning of the show, but trust me, there was a lot less stuff when I went back on Sunday!
I was so excited to see Miki of Pineberry Paper at her first ChiPS show! (She’s local to the Chicago area too!)
Ana Reinart of The Well-Appointed Desk had lots of cool stuff at her table, but I really had eyes for one thing in particular (you’ll have to check out the haul later to find out what).
Sven of Sven’s Ink Solutions filled up his custom ink mixing slots at the show and sold out of the show inks he had made (darn, I missed it!).
I’m lucky to be able to see Angela He’s InkyConverters goods at several shows every year, but man, if I didn’t get sucked in with more washi tape this time!
Some of the lovely folks from the Chicago Calligraphy Collective making bookmarks with people’s names (for free) in different styles!
#CalligraphyGoals
There were 4 nib workers at ChiPS this year:
- Gena Salorino of Custom Nib Studio
- Kirk Speer of Pen Realm
- Linda Kennedy of Indy-Pen-Dance
- Matt Chen of Matt’s Nibworks
Gena was happy to be back at ChiPS after getting sick at the beginning of last year’s show. We were happy to see them too!
Matt was booked up most of the weekend but did have a few spots available on Sunday, as he doesn’t take online appointments, just walk-ins.
Not included are Audrey Matteson, who tunes and does nib work for Franklin-Christoph, or Les Sheely of Stylosuite who makes flex and other nib modifications in his studio post-show. I think they could use one or two more nib workers since there were so many people this weekend, and one less than last year (sad face, no Anabelle Hiller this year).
Weekend pass holders got in bright and early at 9am on Friday (leaving vendors a mere hour Friday morning to set up if they weren’t able to do so on Thursday). We had folks at the Franklin-Christoph table, with pens in hand, and ready to pay within minutes of the show opening. I know Audrey and I were slammed for a good 2.5 hours before we got through our first round of customers! We were busy all of Friday, and to a lesser degree on Saturday. I haven’t been this busy at the F-C table in a few years, so this was crazy, in a good way! Neither one of us had any time to shop until Sunday, and even then, we had enough folks stop by that we didn’t leave the table for long. This is why there are relatively few photos of the show, and why I didn’t think to take more pictures after hours because my brain was fried. I spoke with a fair number of vendors who felt the same way, whether or not there were more people on Saturday, the buyers came out in force on Friday and folks were busier and more tired after a very productive Friday.
Sunday attendance was significantly lighter on Sunday and as a result, customer interactions and sales were pretty slow for just about everyone. As with prior years, the show ended at 4pm but a lot of vendors started packing up at 2pm (or earlier), which unfortunately is common for this show (and some others). I heard some complaints from Sunday attendees that they felt robbed of the pen show experience because there were so many folks who were packing up. I think show organizers either consider a shorter Sunday show day, and start enforcing consequences to early packers, like giving them lower table priority for next year or charging a penalty fee.
Shout out to the show for providing coffee in the morning and water service throughout the day. It is so important to stay hydrated, especially for vendors who are talking to people all day. Last year it was boiling in the ballroom, this year, it was anywhere from freezing (I’ll take that over boiling, any day) to fine to borderline hot and back to normal. But easily accessible (and free) water is a must-have for any show.
I don’t know if the show organizers read my recap or what, but it seemed like they worked on as many of last year’s shortfalls as they could and really improved the show. Traffic flow was better, ballroom temperature was better, downstairs signage and flow was better. Other than the elevators, which are out of their control, it seemed like it was a better experience for everyone.
Moving on to the non-show part of the show, the Thursday night pizza party for vendors and weekend pass holders had a late start, resulting in a very long line snaking through the entire downstairs hallway (I opted to wait at a nearby table), but everyone was happy to enjoy pizza and meet vendors and other pen enthusiasts. (I was too hungry to take pictures, lol). As is tradition at this show, Mario Campa of Toys in the Attic held a whisk(e)y tasting on Saturday night, which I heard was educational and tasty (I’m a wine and beer girl so it slipped my mind completely to stop by and take a picture🙂).
In addition to a wide variety of classes, there were also meetups and gatherings throughout the weekend such as one put on by Atlas Stationers on Saturday morning, as well as another with KC, aka Dimenovelraven on IG, on Saturday night. There was also a Sunday morning gathering for the North American Brown Pen Association, founded at last year’s ChiPS by Kat Palmisano and Sam Haub!
Kat Palmisano and Sam Haub of the North American Brown Pen Association. (PC:NABPA website)
Managed to snag a quick selfie at the NABPA meetup on Sunday (I had to dash back to the F-C table)!
Unrelated but related? (pun intended) Separated at birth? Nope! Gena (left) and Kat just happened to get similar hair styles around the same time and neither knew about the other’s hairdos until they saw each other at the show. And yes, people kept mistaking one for the other, or asking if they were siblings, lol.
After hours is where it’s at! I love all the various places that there are to hang out including some side “rooms” across from the bar/restaurant.
I swear Mark Dwight (center) of Rickshaw Bagworks isn’t giving me the stink eye, he just didn’t know I was about to take a picture (teehee). I also spy with my little eye, calligrapher and vintage dealer Nik Pang, Franciso Lopez, my pal Lexi, and possibly a Jon Tello too!
In the lobby, Jonathan Keane (left) and Matt Chen are geeking out about cameras, as one does during after hours.
Ana, (not to be mistaken for Ana Reinert), was one of the servers at the hotel bar. Here she is showing us her pen collection too. She said she loves to hunt for the good pens when other conventions are at the hotel. (Yes, she is absolutely joking with us, but she really does enjoy most retractable pens. She was a hoot, as was her counterpart, Jaime, who was also there the whole weekend.)
Overall, vendors were really happy with the show this year. I heard that they were better able to talk to customers (due to less overcrowding despite more customers) and had better sales, many eclipsing their last ChiPS performance, and some even surpassing other 2026 shows. I think the show had similar vendor numbers as last year, and more attendees this year to make it a really good show (instead of an ok one) for most vendors. I hope they don’t try to get much bigger vendor-wise, since the traffic flow was already really good this year (except for Sunday). Any larger and sales might get diluted across more vendors, aisles might be more crowded, and there might not be enough attendees to warrant the current Sunday hours. Rumor has it that the show will be in a different location next year, so who knows if/how that will impact attendance, traffic flow, and sales?
Regardless, Chicago remains up there as a favorite show for many reasons - lots of vendors with lots of variety - vintage, modern, paper, ink, stationery, accessories. I love visiting the city when I can, and there are so many pen friends who go to this show that I will always have a good time with them. It’s right up there with CA Pen Show for the same reasons, but neither will top SF (but we all knew that, right?).
As I said above, being so busy, I wasn’t able to spend much time shopping. My previous show strategy of shopping on the way to/from restroom breaks didn’t really happen this time because we were too busy to leave the table for too long. As such, the haul is a teeny bit smaller than usual, but my wallet is grateful for that.
I brought my Passport Traveler’s Company insert to the show and stamped it with the show stamps (I’m still trying to decide what to do with the show sticker - front? Back? Inside? Somewhere else?). I passed it around to friends during the show and after hours, so the real haul is inside. ♥️
Colorverse inks (Rose Festival, Peach, Very Cherry, Leaf Peeping, Donggang Pasqueflower, 2026 Red Horse Glistening Purple Blue); Papier Plume The Rusty Rainbow, Doubloon, Southern Nights, Colorverse Da’ Orange (official show ink), Anderillium Chicago Common Brick, and a 5-ink set from Papier Plume called “The Loop”. Oops, so much for swatching more inks before buying more, lol!
Added a Visconti Mythos Aphrodite as well as a second-hand TWSBI 580 Red Blue Taiwan that I couldn’t resist, lol.
Clockwise from top left - A variety of stationery items including a Year of the Pig Write Notepads pocket notebook, stickers from Pineberry Paper, a sticker sheet from Bela, sticker from Helen Wang of TheCoffeeMonsterzCo, blotter paper and stamp from Esterbrook, washi tapes from InkyConverters (the top one is work safe, the two below them, not so much, lol), and the Illinois Col-O-Ring from The Well-Appointed Desk which is so fricken cool!
Lot of stuff from Kaleidocraft including a Peni ink vial holder, retro cassette tape washi holder (I’m feeling attacked by the term “retro”, haha), counters for washi and stickers used (I promise, it won’t be zeros for long!), washi wallet, stickers, a 2026 show-exclusive pigeon pencil board/dip pen holder kit, and the Amarillo x Kaleidocraft dip pen holder. I knew all this would happen because Laura and Jaclyn have been so rudely teasing their new products leading up to the show, haha!
Some lovely gifts from friends - a handstitched sashiko cover on a Wearingeul notebook and a watercolor postcard of Chicago! Both are so beautiful!
As always, the best part of pen shows and the real haul are the pen friends!
I love cracking jokes with my penpal Chris C (though neither of us have sent each other any letters in years, oops), who is also a fellow Duolingo Italian learner!
Selfie with pals JD (who I met at last year’s ChiPS), Nancy, and Lucas - we all know each other from the Atlas Discord too!
Love these peeps - Gena, Audrey, Becky, Ian!
I met Bri and Micah at the CA Pen Show - Micah was the student who used the word flow and it has stuck with me ever since! I was so thrilled to see them both again, even if it was just for a quick pic!
These next two might no longer be our friends because we (Audrey, me, and a couple others) encouraged them to try the KFC jelly beans (buttered corn, gravy, and fried chicken) that Audrey brought to the show. Pretty sure they are blocking and unfriending us as we speak, lol. (Love you guys, thanks for being such good sports! Please don’t hate us!)
Bryce probably made the most faces and noises and he told me today how bad they were.
Brendan is questioning his life choices right now - like why he listened to us and tried the jelly beans. Probably because we said “Bryce tried it, you can’t not try them.”
Thank you to the Chicago Pen Show for a great time and thank you to Franklin-Christoph for the opportunity to represent the brand again, and yes, that is the button and membership card for the NABPA, as well as a Chicago deep dish pen sleeve from Rickshaw!
As I always say, the time spent with pen friends is what keeps me coming back for more. My wallet may be empty but my heart is full. Until the next show, Stationery Park (formerly Pen Paper Palooza) next weekend, and STL Pen Show in June (where I also get to see the Bossman!!), stay safe and stay inky!
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