(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
Hey y’all!! Due to an upcoming spring break trip (to see the eclipse!!!), I knew I wouldn’t be able to attend this year’s Atlanta Pen Show, so I decided to go to the Arkansas Pen Show instead! Anyhoo, without further ado…
Welcome to Little Rock!
Welcome to the Arkansas Pen Show!
Size - Heading into the show, I knew that the Arkansas Pen Show was one of the smaller shows on the circuit and that was fine by me. According to the show website, there were 35 vendors, spanning 53 tables. Last year’s PNW Show had around 25 vendors with a similar number of tables. It’s hard to compare just by numbers because some vendors occupy just one table, while others may take up 3-4. Shawn Newton of Newton Pens, one of the show organizers, said they had about 400 attendees
It is a small show, so the score will be lower, which as I’ve said many times before, doesn’t make it a bad show, it’s just the only way to compare this sizewise to other shows. Score - 5/10
I love seeing this amazing display case that John Hoffman and Jonna Pierce of Southern Fountain Pens brought to the show. This was how pen stores stocked and displayed pens. And yes, the cases were for sale but I couldn’t fit them in my suitcase. 😃
Chad Caza from Eel and Anchor made a ton of resin blanks and dice for his debut as a vendor. And in true Chad fashion, there is a pen in that cup of coffee!
Francisco Lopez of Hinze Pens was manning the tables on Friday until Jim arrived later that day.
Chris from Grifos Pens always has some beautifully crafted artisanal pens from Italy.
And next to his table is Jeanne Florini of Jeanne’s Ohana Designs who has a variety of stationery goods, including stunning popup cards from Roses without Thorns.
Location - The Arkansas Pen Show was located in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was a 15 minute drive west from the Little Rock airport. Little Rock doesn’t have as big an airport as some of the bigger cities (like DC, SF, Chicago, etc.) and may not offer as many flights, which can mean pricier flights and/or more layovers. That said, the LR airport was nice and clean and it was easy to get in/out of, and the restaurant we had lunch in was tasty.
Sorry but truth be told, I can’t say that Little Rock (or Arkansas, in general) was on my list of places to go, until I fell into this rabbit hole and discovered that Vanness Pens was also in Little Rock (more on that in a future post). I hear that there are nice places in the area for hiking but I’m not much of a hiker. Anyway, the green pollen was in full force, so take your allergy meds before and during your visit. The weather was nice and sunny when I got in on Wednesday, and it was overcast or slightly rainy a couple days after and then another storm was coming in when I left on Monday - so definitely check your forecast before you pack. Score - 6/10 (Sorry! No disrespect to Arkansas!)
Hotel - This year the show hotel was held at the Four Points by Sheraton Little Rock Midtown. (It was at a different hotel in past years). The rooms were a bit dated but they were fine. The walls were a little thin so it was easy to hear hallway noise. But I liked having a tub (yes, I had a lovely evening soak). There is an onsite restaurant but I did not have any of the food. I heard that the vendor lunches were hit-and-miss. There was plenty of free parking, so that wasn’t an issue. The hotel staff was generally very nice (Miles, the shuttle driver, was super friendly and such a gentleman), though service at the bar on Saturday and Sunday was pretty slow. The hotel offers a shuttle to/from the airport, but you have to call them to send the van and they aren’t the best at answering the phones, especially if it’s after 9pm.
Folks lining up to pay for admission into the show.
The show was upstairs from the lobby and in a single ballroom. There were also two small rooms for classes and another room for Vendors to have coffee, donuts and take a break.
View of the ballroom from corner behind the Vanness tables.
A view from another corner of the ballroom, this time on Saturday mid-morning.
Be still my beating heart - these Auroras get me every time!
Helpers Shandra and Dan with Lisa Vanness who had a modest table set up because it was much easier to drive 10 minutes to their store and warehouse!
There were colorful pens and lovely artwork postcards at the Dave Dollar Custom Pens table.
I love these pocket notebooks from The Unemployed Philosophers Guild, which were at the Art Outfitters’ table. The one on the top right is a “Passport to Hell”, lol. They had other destination passports but that made me chuckle.
More on this below, but there was a decent amount of room in the bar area for pen play and socializing and the restaurant was spacious enough to accommodate post-show round tables on Saturday night.
The show hotel was $104/night before taxes, which is one of the cheapest rates on the US pen show circuit, especially since hotel prices seem to be going up since the pandemic. It also happens to be located across the street (on the back side) from a cemetery, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Overall, the hotel was fine as lodging goes and for the show as well, the airport shuttle was convenient too. Show attendees, vendors and overnight guests seemed to be satisfied with their experience with the hotel. Score - 7/10
Tickets - $10 for the whole weekend, making this one of, if not, the cheapest show tickets. Kids under 12 were free. Last year the show tickets were $5/day. I think $10 is a very good price, especially since it’s for the whole weekend. You could pay by cash or card at the registration desk. Advanced ticket sales was not an option. Score - 10/10.
Classes - For a small show like this one, I was happily surprised to see that there were free and paid seminars/classes on all 3 of the show days, including up to 7 (!!) topics on Saturday! I liked the variety of the offerings, which included Resin Casting by Elyce Longazelle of Starry Night Resins, a handmade cards class taught by Jeanne Florini of Ohana Designs, and Bullet Journaling by Rachelle Logan. I also crashed the following sessions: Stationery for Everyday Writing by Joe Crace of The Gentleman Stationer and Fountain Pens 101 taught by Chad Caza, local AR Pen Club member and also of Eel and Anchor. I was especially happy to take Michael Sull’s class on Advanced and Novelty Forms of Cursive - that man is so skilled and so dang sweet that I just want to squish him!
Nice to see so many seminars offered!
Chad Caza teaching a Fountain Pens 101 seminar for the first time - I thought it was great!
With a smaller show, there is often more down time, so having such a wide variety of class options for attendees is great. Not to mention, many larger shows have fewer classes, so this really stands out as a positive. Score - 10/10
Master Penman Michael Sull with Michael Sull and his new book, Sull’s Manual on Advanced Penmanship.
Only a master can flourish upside down!
I learned how to do Cross Writing (left), playing with a multi-color colored pencil and Baseline Writing.
Nib Worker - Matthew Chen was the only nib grinder at the show. Danny Fudge was also here but he isn’t a nib worker, as much as he is a pen restorer. Matthew didn’t seem too busy nor too bored, so I think one nib worker is right for a show this size. Since it was a chill and small show, I was able to spend some time at his table with the tester pens before deciding on what to have him work on for one of my pens. This one is hard to score because I typically score higher for more nib workers, but I think more at this show wouldn’t make sense. So I am giving it a score of 7, which feels about right to me. Score - 7/10
Take the time to try out the different nib options. It’s especially important if you write differently from “standard”, like me and my stupid high angle.
Matthew Chen working on my pen, making it into a cursive italic that had a super fine horizontal stroke but was still smooth like a stub. So good!
Danny Fudge of The Write Pen was doing on-site repairs and restorations.
Overall Sense/Vibe - Heading into the show, both Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens and Shawn Newton kept telling me that it is a small show and not like the ones I usually attend. But I already knew that, so I expected it to be friendly and chill, and it was. It was nice to have wide aisles and not have crowds packing the tables and have plenty of time to look at everything I wanted to, several times over, during the course of the weekend. The show is doable in a couple hours but I always like going back to tables because I never seem to truly “see” everything during a first pass. Everyone seemed happy and relaxed - both the vendors and attendees. The show was generally well-organized and well-run.
Not surprisingly, most of the attendees were from the area, but there were a few crazies like me who traveled from California, Arizona and New York. I think there were a fair number of folks from not-too-far Tennessee, Texas and Missouri who also made the trip. I firmly believe that pen shows need the “locals” (I think anything within a 6-hour driving radius is “local”, or short flight) to attend and spread the word in order for it to be successful, so it was good to see folks from the AR and surrounding areas. Score - 7/10
Happy Birthday to Jim Hinze of Hinze Pens who celebrated his birthday at the show on Sunday!
Food - As mentioned previously, there was a restaurant in the hotel but I can’t really speak to the quality of its offerings. While walking outside the hotel at night wasn’t recommended, there were some food offerings within a short driving distance from the hotel. I relied on the guidance of locals so I didn’t have to worry about finding places to eat. I was told there weren’t too many really good restaurants in the area but I enjoyed my first meal at a Cracker Barrel! Score - 7/10
I wasn’t expecting FOUR pieces of fried chicken with my mac and cheese and grits. Everything was so tasty!
After Hours/Socializing - On Saturday night, the show hosted a Round Tables event, where people gathered at, ironically, not-round tables, to hear from table leaders on a variety of topics like vintage, fountain pens 101, pen making 101, using pens/nibs/inks with brushes and water, and more. Since there were so many tables, yours truly got voluntold, I mean, I volunteered to lead a table. I couldn’t think of anything to talk about on short notice (I know, shocking), so I opted for a Q&A, where people Q’d and I A’d on a bunch of topics from “are all those really inked?”, flying with fountain pens, currently inked, nib grinds, flex nibs and more. I really enjoyed hearing what folks were curious about. After 10-15 minutes at a table, moderators like Shawn and Mr. Fountain Pen Day, Cary Yeager from Kenro Industries, told people to get up and move to another table for another round of discussions. The table rotations happened probably 5-6 times. In between the sessions, there were also prize drawings. It was a lot of fun and I hope to see this type of event at other shows again (cough cough, SF, please).
Folks were gathered at a bunch of not-round-tables for the Round Table event on Saturday night. There were some more tables to the left of the picture in the other part of the restaurant.
Joe Crace (center) talked about pens and stationery that work well in office settings. (PC for this and the other round table pictures: Matthew Chen - thank you!)
Dan Hoizner led an ink-slinging table, where folks learned how to draw, doodle, and fling ink around with their pens, brushes and other tools.
Here I am (right) writing with my flexible steel nib from Les Sheely of Stylosuite.
Cary hosted the drawings with his co-host, Vanna White, I mean, Shawn Newton.
Since this is a primarily locals show, there weren’t as many of them who hung out after show hours on any of the nights. Those of us who traveled to the show could be found having a beverage or two and lounging at the bar area every night. This one is hard to score because the Saturday Round Tables was definitely a big social scene, but it quickly died down afterwards, and the other nights were chill. If you’re looking for an “off-the-hook” pen shows after dark scene every night, this show isn’t it, but it does have a friendly, relaxed vibe, which fits the overall feel of the show. Score - 7/10
Other stuff - The show had door prizes, as well as prizes during the Round tables event, which is always a nice touch. There weren’t any auctions, but I wouldn’t expect one for a smaller show (many shows don’t have auctions, so it’s not a ding against them).
Shawn Newton (right) asked a younger pen user to pick the winner for one of the many door prizes.
There were signs everywhere - maps at the front desk and on the ballroom door, security signs, class schedules - it was great! And yes, there was a sign that there would be security cameras and boy, were there cameras - capturing footage down every row of tables in different directions and one of the volunteers kept an eye on the live footage too. I don’t know how doable or cost-effective this would be for bigger shows to adopt but it would definitely be a deterrent!
Here’s a map and smile, you’re on camera!
Taking care of the vendors is always a nice touch!
Just a couple of the security cameras that were set up around the room, aimed at all of the tables. Dan Hoizner photobombs from behind the Vanness Pens table, while Shandra (front) is setting up the stationery.
Behind the table, you can see footage from the various cameras.
The website was clean and simple. It had the information I needed including classes/seminars, hotels, schedule and vendors. The show’s Instagram feed had a good number of posts about the vendors, though I didn’t really follow it much since I already knew I was going to the show. Score - 7/10
Report Card:
0-50 Oof, do not attend
51-70 Show is alright
70-80 Show is solid
80-90 Show is pretty darned good!
91-100 REALLY good show and not to be missed
The 2024 Arkansas Pen Show scored 73/100, which is about right. It is a small but solid show. The organizers and the pen club volunteers do a good job supporting the show. It is a great show for someone who is looking for a more low-key vibe and has time to take advantage of the variety of classes.
AR Pen Show Haul: Parker Duofold International and Sailor Tea Time ink from Jimmy Dolive (just because I’m not going to Atlanta doesn’t mean I didn’t get “Jimmy’d), this beautiful pocket pen from Craig Bond (Penguy Austin), an awesome cursive italic grind by Matthew Chen for my birthday Waldmann, and some dice, stickers and blanks from Eel and Anchor.
I had a great time at the show, partly because I wasn’t working, so I was able to spend more time with friends than I usually do at the busier shows, and partly because it was a chill show, which I needed after a lot of travel the past two months. I’m glad I went but I don’t know that I will be going back next year, primarily because I will likely be going to Atlanta again and I just can’t swing both shows. I highly recommend it if it works for your schedule!
I’m off the grid next week and a half (don’t look directly at the sun without proper glasses!), but I am looking forward to seeing folks at the upcoming Chicago pen show. Until then, stay safe and stay inky!
