Fountain Pen Day 2024 at Flax Pen-to-Paper

(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!.)

I was fortunate to spend Fountain Pen Day (and the day after) at Flax Pen-to-Paper last weekend and wanted to share some pictures from the trip!

Flax Pen-to-Paper celebrated Fountain Pen Day with a Kenro trunk show, as well as handwriting classes by yours truly!

The prize wheel and prize ball machine greeted you upon entering the store.

I love that the prizes included Flax merchandise (like the cute tote that you can’t quite see behind the wheel), personalized notebook, bottle of ink and more!

Ryan Sirignano from Kenro Industries and Jeremy Saumere from Flax starting the FPD celebration!

I love the packaging on the new King of the Night by Esterbrook, especially the pen wrap/cape, which has a magnetic closure!

Folks got a preview of the Kenro trunk show and had a nice time meeting fellow pen enthusiasts.

Flax customer James is checking out the various pen binders from Kenro.

Ryan Finnegan (left) of Saiko Stationery, Ryan Sirignano and customer Farina are all smiles about FPD! Managed to get Jean-Luc in the photo too!

Super excited to see that Schon Dsgn pens are now available at the Flax store!

Saiko Stationery’s pop up shop!

SO tempted by the washi, but I was good! These notepads are so fun!

OMG, these Duckhead umbrellas are so cute! I still haven’t been able to pick one out yet! Does anyone who lives in a drought-prone state need four umbrellas? Asking for a friend, lol.

This amazing, new Leuchtturm display wasn’t here when I last visited a couple months ago! Wow!

Also new is this Leuchtturm cart where they can personalize your new notebook! And the machinery is theirs, so this personalization service is available year-round!

I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do because I was busy preparing for and teaching my class (Elevate the Everyday: Improve Your Handwriting) on Friday and Saturday! Both Jeremy and I forgot to take pictures during the classes (you’d think one of us would remember after forgetting to do so after the first class, but nope), but I did take selfies with the class afterwards!

Friday afternoon’s class.

Saturday morning’s class (I almost forgot to ask for a selfie but managed to get them before they left, which is why they’re all standing, oops!)

Saturday afternoon’s class included a mom and her son (with the emoji face), as well as Laurie, who took the day off from Flax to take my class!

It was such an honor to learn a little about what bothered folks about their handwriting and to be able to share some things I’ve learned as part of my own handwriting journey. It was awesome to see people having their own a-ha moments when they started figuring out what things they wanted to focus on when they practiced. I was especially happy to see the boy (and his mom) in my Saturday afternoon class - he was writing along with everyone else and was picking out a notebook afterwards so he can practice some more! I’m hoping to do more of these classes next year including at pen shows, shops, and other events, so stay tuned!

Just because I was busy teaching and not taking enough photos doesn’t mean my wallet left Flax unscathed.

My Next Read acrylic stamps from Everyday Explorers, Dog note cards from Crane, Sheaffer VFM, Otto Hutt 03 Lila Orange (I couldn’t ignore it after seeing the Bossman get this last year), sticker sheet from Saiko Stationery, Tono & Lims Pumpkin and Cinderella inks, two inserts for my Traveler’s Notebook, and a personalized Leuchtturm notebook in Dusty Rose (one of four new 2025 colors.)

Happy 13th Fountain Pen Day! (Ink used was actually Diamine Thunderbolt because I didn’t get the FPD ink until after I made this.)

I hope everyone had a great Fountain Pen Day and to Cary Yeager who thought of this 13 years ago! A huge thank you to Jeremy Saumere and the Flax Pen-to-Paper team for having me, to Ryan Sirignano for penabling me (again), to the folks who came and took my class, and to everyone I’ve had a chance to interact with, in person or online, about this crazy little rabbit hole called fountain pens! Until next time, stay safe and stay inky!

Thank You Chicago!

The first people I met at Atlas Stationers on Fountain Pen Day had taken the train in from Iowa the night before just to be here. That was a sign of things to come on a day that is forever etched into my memory.

Thank you to everyone who came out for the event, and huge thanks to the Atlas Stationers team and Cary Yeager of Kenro Industries - and the founder of Fountain Pen Day - for having me.

I’ve shared my initial write up and photos with Pen Addict Members, and I’ll be breaking it all down on Twitch and The Pen Addict Podcast this week. If you want a taste of the action, I have several live videos of the event, and Atlas has shared our live stream of the podcast.

Thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated!

Fountain Pen Day 2023 - An Interview with Mr. FPD

(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!.)

Many of you know Cary Yeager as one of the friendly faces from Kenro Industries but did you know that he is also the man behind Fountain Pen Day? That’s right, we fountain pen nerds have our own holiday! FPD is a celebration held the first Friday of every November since the very first one on November 2, 2012! And if you haven’t heard of Fountain Pen Day before, take a quick skim of this FPD post from 2021 or better yet, just read on to hear what Mr. FPD has to say!

Kimberly: What was the inspiration behind FPD? Where were you in your FP journey and how did the idea come about?

Cary: It was National Ballpoint Day and I was maybe a year or two into my fountain pen collection journey and couldn’t believe that there was a thing called National Ballpoint Day. So I Googled “fountain pen day” and literally nothing came up except for some weird Korean rock band. So I had to do something about that and brought it up on the Fountain Pen Network forum and everyone said yes!

K: How did you get people involved?

C: A few folks got together and discussed the idea in a FPN thread for a few months. I reached out to some of the retailers, opened a Twitter account and created a simple website. We decided that early November would be good because it was right after Halloween but before Thanksgiving. As soon as September came around, and it was back-to-school time, everyone got buy and I was the only one left promoting and pushing for it. So vendors started reaching out to me, so I decided to go for it. It was the retailers and FPN folks and FP Geeks that really spread the word.

One of the biggest Fountain Pen fans out there, Cary Yeager continues to keep the Fountain Pen Day tradition alive!

K: Why the first Friday of November?

C: It was picked as it would be the day that you could bring your pens to work and reveal yourself to the world as a FP addict and still have the weekend to celebrate with your pen friends, etc.

K: When you started FPD, did you have any idea that it would turn out to be what it is today?

C: Absolutely not. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to be what it is today. I thought maybe it would be a day celebrated throughout the few forums that existed, but I would’ve been shocked if it went beyond that.

K: What's new this year?

C: Viva Magenta (the 2023 Pantone color) is new this year! And we did the hats again for FPD but everything else, stickers, bookmarks and pins, that all remains the same. Hats can be sold on fountainpendays.com. I’m also spending the day at Atlas Stationers with the Bossman, and we will be going live at 3 p.m. Central with Brendan Schmidt of Atlas on their Instagram feed and on TikTok. Stay tuned!

Some of the FPD goodies you can get by placing orders with participating vendors (while supplies last), or from the FPD website.

K: Any ideas or plans for FPD moving forward that you can spill the beans on?

C: At this moment, no. But never say never.

K: Anything else you want to share about FPD for sponsors or enthusiasts?

C: Sponsors - Please reach out ahead of time (aka, like more than a week ahead of time, lol.) If you want to be a sponsor, all I ask is that you embrace and celebrate the day with the community, no need to pay anything, just tell me that you want in and how. you will support FPD (event, special pens, discounts, etc.) and you will be listed on the site for free. For Enthusiasts - please let me know if your local club is doing anything fun or special to celebrate and engage with retailers that you think should be a part of FPD.

K: And last but not least, here’s where we get to have a little fun and ask some rapid fire questions:

Last item you had to buy for yourself from the Kenro inventory? Aurora Internationazionale in Blue.

Last non-Kenro stationery/pen item you bought? Pilot 743 Verdigris with an Extra Fine nib..

What are you eyeing for yourself for FPD? Pelikan M600 Art Collection Glauco Cambon

Favorite size of paper/journal and what is it? Hobonichi Weeks.

Favorite color (in general) and is it the same as your favorite pen color? Purple, no favorite pen color.

Stickers or Washi? Oooh this one is really hard but if I had to pick it would be washi.

Fountain Pen or Ballpoint/Rollerball? Fountain Pen, duh. My favorite is the Pilot 823 with a Fine nib.

Favorite Food? Fruity Pebbles.

Coffee or Tea - and how do you take it? Coffee. One sugar, little cream.

Favorite place to visit (whether a shop, city, country)? Iceland

Favorite pen show? “Really you have to ask me this? It’s San Fran” (I swear I didn’t make this up!)

Thank you so much, Cary, for sharing a little bit about Fountain Pen Day and for creating a day for all of us to celebrate our favorite writing instrument!