Happy Fourth of July, for those in the U.S.! Enjoy the long weekend!
2022 St. Louis Pen Show Recap (via Pen Addict - Kimberly). It’s hard to compete with Kimberly’s incredibly comprehensive pen show reviews! This is a great write-up of St. Louis, and it highlights a concerning trend - the lower attendance at the smaller/medium-sized pen shows due to the current expense and difficulty of travel, lingering COVID concerns, and general economic unease.
What Happens When the Desk Goes to a Pen Show (via Well-Appointed Desk). Ana has another St. Louis Pen Show report, plus an announcement regarding an XXL Col-o-ring, the Folio!
A Play in 3 Acts: Leonardo Momento Zero Prisma (via A Fleeting Ripple). Rainbow-anodized trim certain is having its moment right now, as this post points out, and the frosted material is certainly a different take.
Caran d’Ache 849 Gold Bar (via KraftyKats). Many thanks to Chloe for reviewing the Caran d’Ache 849 “Gold Bar” ballpoint pen. We still have a few in stock, and they’re eligible for the 4th of July Sale (see details below).
Vinta Limited Edition Inks (via Mountain of Ink). Be sure to check out that Vanness Pens “Sodalite”! It’s a great ink.
Birmingham Pen Co. Antique Sepia (via Macchiato Man). These dual-tone, multichromatic, double-shading, whatever-you-want-to-call-them inks are becoming increasingly popular. Though I haven’t spent much time reviewing Birmingham Inks (and I know I should), the ones I’ve tried have been mostly excellent.
Write Notepads Pocket Notebook - Ledger (via KraftyKats). Chloe also reviews some Write Notepads paper, which we also stock and as she discovers, it’s incredibly fountain-pen friendly!
Enameled Sakura (via Rachel’s Reflections). An Ironfeather Creative pen is definitely on my list of things to look for at my remaining pen shows this year. This carved pen with a sakura theme is gorgeous.
BENU Euphoria Scent of Irises (via Dapprman). If you’re a fan of extremely interesting materials, BENU pens should be on your radar. I have irises in my front yard so this particular design caught my eye.
Leonardo Momento Zero Grande Limited Pens Korea (via SBRE Brown). Wow, that pen features a beautiful material. Stephen was definitely luck to get one of these!
In Case You Missed It…
Last week on the blog I reviewed the Nebula Note “Casual Note” notebook, which not only features excellent paper but has PERFORATED PAGES, something that I want to see more often in high-end notebooks. I also wrote a piece on my evolving thoughts on eyedropper fountain pens, and why I’ve decided to narrow the scope of pens that I convert to eyedroppers.
T.G.S. Curated Shop Announcement and Site Updates
As I posted on Thursday, we are generally reducing our inventory and streamlining our shop. This includes clearance pricing on many items and a “SUMMER” Coupon code to take an additional 10% off through tomorrow, July 5. We haven’t decided to what extent we want to keep a stand-alone shop going - everyone in our house is pretty overwhelmed right now with work/family/life obligations, and given that the original goal was to enable us to design our own exclusive and special editions of well-loved products, there might be a way to do this (i.e., via retail partnerships or third-party fulfillment) that gives us more flexibility. For now, continue to shop T.G.S. Curated, enjoy our Fourth of July Sale, and look for more announcements during the second-half of 2022.
Meanwhile, we are fully stocked on Lochby, including some new colors of favorites! See the link below and be sure to check out the new colors of the Tool Roll and the recently arrived Venture Pouch!
Patreon Announcement!
I would love for the T.G.S. Patreon to become the primary method of support for T.G.S., and have tried to streamline it. I’ll also need to be a bit more vocal about its availability and what it offers. As of yesterday, I’ve streamlined the Patreon to two tiers: $3 and $5, and plan on making monthly meetups, pen show events, and periodic exclusive content the primary benefits. Of course, Patreon members will continue to get first access to periodic sample sales, with right of first refusal on gently used pens. I just uploaded a huge batch of pens, inks, paper, cases, and accessories yesterday and there is stuff remaining!