My trip to the Chicago Pen Show has come and gone so it is time for Myke to pick my brain. I even mixed in a trip to Field Notes HQ. As an added bonus, we posted a B-Side where Myke maybe buys a Nakaya.
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While I've been lucky to attend several pen shows across the country, I am still a rookie in the grand scheme of things. But with each new city and new show I travel to I'm able to add to the knowledge base, and this weekend I learned that the Chicago Pen Show is well on its way back to the upper echelon of pen shows.
I'll always be biased towards the Atlanta Pen Show - it's my home show after all - but with the change in venue and promoter, the Chicago show is without question on my radar for future trips.
The venue, and setup within, plays a big role in having a comfortable event and I'm not sure I could have drawn it up any better. There was one primary ballroom that was large, open, and well lit, and open floor atrium space on the way into that ballroom that was equally as nice, if not nicer. It was something on the order of a 75/25 split of tables in the ballroom and atrium, but having them each only steps away made it feel like one coherent space.
The non-show floor space was equally as nice, with a small Starbucks cafe, restaurant, bar, and plenty of extra tables and seating encircling the atrium. There was nothing that wasn't within eyeshot, including the seminar room. It was all right there and ready to be used.
I arrived early Thursday and was lucky to have Ana Reinert as my guide as we headed into Chicago and hit up Field Notes HQ. Bryan Bedell gave us the tour and we got to chat with Jim Coudal and see the new office space they are building out on the first floor of the same building. We also got all the details on the upcoming Summer release - NOT! They do a great job of keeping everything on lock and building the suspense every quarter, but we did get to see a ton of cool stuff and got some nice swag.
By late Thursday afternoon we were at the hotel to meet our boss for the weekend, Lisa Vanness, and scope out the show setup. We had three tables in the atrium, but since the vendor pizza party was also in the atrium that night we couldn't set up early. No worries though. That gave us plenty of time to mingle, chat with friends old and new, and browse through some of the vendors goods who were set up early.
Friday morning setup went smoothly. With the three of us, plus help from one of Lisa's Arkansas friends (thanks Grayling!), we were able to knock it out before the doors opened to the weekend pass holders. And that was a steady crowd on Friday. Sales were good, the conversation was excellent, and we got our legs under us for what would be a busy day to follow.
Saturday is always the busiest day at a pen show for obvious reasons. We were on our toes from start to finish and had a great time with everyone who stopped by to see everything that Vanness had to offer. I don't think any of us left the table unless we were on a mission to get something done and get back. And that's good. I want to be busy when working for Lisa.
That evening, I hosted a talk with Paul Erano on vintage pens for beginners. We set this up as a conversation-style seminar, but it would have benefitted greatly from structure and focus. We were all over the place and lost track early, which didn’t benefit those who could have used the information the most. We saved it at the end when we were able to set up a show and tell and have some one-on-one time with both Paul’s and David Isaacson’s collection. I got helpful feedback from many attendees and learned a lot on how I can do a better job for everyone in the future.
Sunday was standard Sunday pen show activity, meaning it was quiet for most of the day. There are always one or two bursts of action, but otherwise it was slow paced. That gave us all a chance to get away from the booth for a minute, and for me to buy this:
I had my eye on this Montblanc Noire et Noir Safety Pen since Friday, and when it was still there come Sunday my decision was essentially made for me. It is in excellent shape, and after a little cleaning it works wonderfully. The medium 14k nib has a slight baby’s bottom, but one that it taken care of it will be a regular fixture in the rotation.
I also picked up a Franklin-Christoph Model 45, which is their latest pocket pen model. I didn’t get the chance to grab one in Atlanta but I wasn’t leaving Chicago without this bright blue one. Outside of that, I grabbed a few dozen old wood pencils to play around with, and a few new colors of Bungbox Ink from Vanness Pens. It was a good haul considering it was only two weeks after Atlanta.
If I could sum up the 2016 Chicago Pen Show in one word it would be: Impressive. This was a new venue with new promoters and it went off without a hitch, at least from my point of view. The setup was ideal, the dealer tables were sold out, and the crowd was fantastic. What more can you ask for?
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(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
The Maruman Mnemosyne N195 Special Memo Notepad, like its other Mnemosyne siblings, is a notebook that easily makes the cut for replacing your standard Moleskine notebook. Sure, it's spiral-bound, but you'll probably be able to forgive that once you try the paper.
I've always enjoyed the N196, which is the same format as this notebook except that the spiral binding is on top. While that's a great format for some purposes, I also enjoy using a side bound notebook as well.
It's easy to compare this notebook to the top-bound brother because they're very similar. The sizes are a bit different, where the side-bound notebook is A5 and the top-bound is B6, and the former has 80 pages instead of 50 like the top-bound book. But, the same paper is used in both, which is the real star.
The N195 is an example of a "perfect notebook" for my use. I love the A5 size pages for most purposes, and it's one of the biggest things I consider when looking for a new general purpose notebook. This one fits the bill nicely with dimensions of 6 x 8.25 inches and 7mm ruling. The ruling spacing hits a sweet spot for me. It's not too small, but it still works well with my small-medium writing style.
The Mnemosyne N195 is built well for being a soft cover spiral-bound book. The wire binding is strong and resilient against bending in loaded bags. The fact that it's a twin spiral also keeps the pages more secure from tearing out, which is helpful with perforated pages. It always irritates me when a page tears out from the binding instead of tearing at the perforation. I've never had that problem with this notebook.
The covers are pliable, but still sturdy. They're the perfect weight for protecting the pages inside a bag, but probably can't defend it from more distressing situations. The cover features the black, minimalistic design as every other Mnemosyne notebook, save for the single gold "Mnemosyne" in the top-right corner of the front cover. Even this branding is small compared to the overall size of the cover. The back cover has a small SKU sticker that is easy to remove. The inside cover has a yellow sheet that features some more branding, including the Mnemosyne tagline, "The ancient Greek goddess of memory," which is a great name for a notebook.
The paper in the Mnemosyne notebooks is exceptional. It's not extremely thin like Tomoe River paper, but it is supple. Some papers have a certain amount of tooth, while others are made to be smooth like glass. Mnemosyne leans heavily toward the "smooth like glass" side of the scale. It's an absolute pleasure to write on.
It handles all types of pens and inks with ease, and dries fairly quickly. The pages aren't numbered, and each page has a section at the top for Date, number, and title. I don't normally use this section, but it's a nice thing to include.
The lines are spaced at 7mm in a light gray dotted pattern. They're very well done and seem to blend into the background when using vibrant inks. There are 80 sheets in the notebook, and each one is micro-perforated.
This notebook is one of my all-time favorites in this spiral-bound A5 category. There are a lot of contenders, but this one takes the cake every time. And, it even beats out a lot of glue- or cloth-bound notebooks as well. Sometimes you just want a good spiral notebook, and the Mnemosyne N195 Special Memo Notepad is an excellent choice.
The N195 is just under $10 at JetPens, which is a great value for this exceptional little notebook.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
