A Tale of Two Pens: Pilot Custom 823 (via A Fleeting Ripple). A great story about why you shouldn’t give in to the hype, and only pick pens that are right for you!
Penversary Pen, Wazzat? (via Pen Addict). Great idea! But I don’t need another excuse for me to buy a pen. LOL.
Kilk Novo Baroque (via Dapprman). I believe Kilk was present at the D.C. Pen Show at one point, and I had a chance to peruse their pens? Anyway, this pen has beautiful material and I love to see metalwork like this.
Graf von Faber-Castell Stone Grey (via Fountain Pen Pharmacist). I’m a fan of grey inks, but I prefer darker shades, and this one looks like a winner!
My Favorite Inks of 2021 (via Ink Sharks). Over the past couple of years, more muted colors have dramatically grown in popularity, which of course I love. There are some great inks here.
My Personal Pens Magna Carta Earth (via SBRE Brown). Magna Carta has some beautiful materials, especially if you enjoy larger pens at reasonable prices. The company is doing more U.S. pen shows, and they were in Baltimore.
A New Journey Begins with UKFountainPens.com (via UK Fountain Pens). So with Anthony stepping back from blogging full time, Onoto will be sponsoring UK Fountain Pens going forward. It’s a good thing for the community that we won’t be losing access to back content.
State of the Art: Creating a Place to Work (via Comfortable Shoes Studio). I’ve always used headphones to tune out the world - probably to the detriment of my hearing - but for some reason I can’t work and listen to music with lyrics because it disrupts my concentration.
Laban Zeus Purple (via Mountain of Ink). I absolutely love these Laban Inks, and once I get my “review studio” set back up, I hope to get them all into rotation and photographed for the blog.
Colorverse First Horizon Set (via Well-Appointed Desk). This is a nice set containing some of the first Colorverse Inks to catch my eye in quite some time. Again, these more muted colors make me happy!
In Case You Missed It….
This week I escaped my under-construction living quarters to attend the Chicago Pen Show, and you can check out my post full of photographs from Friday. I also talked a bit about my ongoing archival project, in which I am trying to organize nearly eight years worth of content into something that’s easily navigable.
This Week In the Curated Shop
The big news from the shop this week was the arrival of a small shipment of Midori 70th Anniversary Products, including the XS Stationery Kit (now sold out), as well as the Midori MD Notebook Light 7 Notebook Set. We also received a full restock on Traveler’s Notebook Starter Kits and most refills and accessories, including the TRC Brass products like the brass ruler that’s insanely popular.
UPDATE: There are a VERY small number of Sunderland Pens now available for sale in the shop. Brad had enough remaining stock to make a few more pens, but this will be it for a some time, as the main Sunderland store is out of stock at this time and he will need to get caught up on pens.
T.G.S. “From the Archives” - My First Pen Show Review from the 2014 D.C. Pen Show!
Since I’ve been reflecting on eight years of T.G.S., and celebrating at a pen show, I figured it would be appropriate to go all the way back to 2014 and take a look at my first-ever D.C. Pen Show Writeup, back when I wasn’t even staying at the show hotel or socializing after-hours. (To be fair, this was still when pen shows tended to be a “clubbier” affair and hadn’t yet seen their recent rise in popularity among fans of modern pens, though the beginnings were there.) What’s especially interesting is the fact that I don’t have a single one of these pens or inks in my collection today!
For some additional fun, and to help support the blog consider joining the Patreon program. Patreon supporters receive special pricing and early access to product releases and collaborations such as the T.G.S. x Sunderland pen, in addition to other benefits. You can read more about T.G.S. Patreon here.