Just when I think I’ve finally caught up on sleep from the 2026 San Francisco Pen Show, it’s time for another show - this time, it was the 2026 Dallas Pen Show. Dallas has traditionally been a reliable show from year-to-year with few things changing, see last year’s recap as an example. This year though, the Dallas Show decided to REALLY change things up. Other than being at the same hotel on the last weekend of September, the show had a couple of very big changes - (1) going from 2 day to 4 day show, and (2) changing to the large ballroom. It’s difficult to talk about them completely independently, so I’ll start with a quick overview of the layout changes before talking about the schedule change, and then we’ll check out the vendors in the different areas and all that fun stuff.
Side note: As usual, I was working at the show, but not at the Franklin-Christoph tables. This time, I was behind the (many) Dromgoole’s tables, so my picture-taking and shopping opportunities were even more limited to pre-show hours and occasional bathroom breaks. 🙂
Welcome to THE Dallas Pen Show! (pic taken Thursday afternoon)
As in the past, the Dallas Pen Show was held at the DoubleTree Hotel Dallas, Galleria, but this year, the show really changed up their floor plan - the biggest change being the addition of the Grand Ballroom (I’m just gonna say “ballroom”). In the past, folks walked down the hallway to enter the show via the smaller Cypress room before making their way to the weird L-shaped larger room in the back. This year, the main entrance got you into the gallery and then the ballroom. Of the approximately 110 vendors at the show, 17 were in the gallery, 30 in the Cypress room, with the remainder in the ballroom.
Map of the show from the website
Enter here to get to the Grand Ballroom, which is actually in the second set of doors next to the Blick sign.
Just inside the ballroom doors, but not yet IN the ballroom, is the gallery area where some of the vendors and the silent auction were set up.
The silent auction was on the right as you entered the gallery. I always like to see what treasures can be found here.
This is the gallery (the silent auction is behind me) where there were vendors on both sides and a wide aisle in between. There was an entrance to the ballroom at the far end of this hallway, but you could only enter the gallery from the entrance above.
Since the Cypress room was the entrance to the show in past years, some folks used the side doors and went straight there, not realizing until later that the registration desk was in the lobby and that there was another ballroom. The Cypress room had a mix of vendors including makers like D2Arts, Zodiac Pen Co, and Good Made Better, ink makers like Penultimate Inks and Aardwolf Inks, notebook maker Blackwater Craftworks, knife sharpening, vintage sales and pen restorations (Danny Fudge), and nib work by Matt Chen, and more.
Ok, enough about layout, let’s talk about the biggest change - the show going from 2 days to 4 days. For many years, Dallas was one of the few 2-day shows on the US pen show circuit (Friday and Saturday); while most shows are Fri-Sun. Last year, the Friday show hours were 10am-7pm and Saturday hours were 9am - 5pm. Friday was brutal and Saturday was normal, albeit tiring, but everyone also knew they were done at the end of the day.
This year, the show officially started on Thursday, with vendor setup starting at 7am, and weekend pass holders able to shop starting 9am. There was no General Admission for Thursday. Many vendors felt that past years’ attendance didn’t warrant adding extra days, especially on Thursday, because they didn’t want to lose an extra business day and add another day’s expenses. Dromgoole’s (and many other vendors) opted not to vend on Thursday, and instead, worked on setting up their tables on Thursday (which is what vendors do for most shows that start on Friday). As such, I did not arrive until 3:30pm and couldn't report on how many attendees were around earlier in the day. There weren’t many shoppers when I got to the show floor.
My view of the main ballroom at 4pm on Thursday. Not a lot going on, and still a lot of empty or partially set-up tables.
Friday and Saturday were normal show hours (9-5 for weekend passholders, 10-5 for general admission) (thank goodness) and Sunday hours were 9-4 for weekend passholders, 10-4 for general admission. Many folks wondered if there would be any traffic on Sunday, as there are a lot of folks in the area who attend church on Sundays, not to mention Sundays are also typically the lightest traffic days across all the shows.
8:30 AM Friday and there were about 25 weekend pass holders waiting for the show to start at 9am. There was a similar line on Saturday morning as well.
This was my 10am Friday view from the Dromgoole’s table on one end of the ballroom looking the other way. Most of these folks are weekend pass holders.
Essentially the same view at 10:30 am on Saturday. Quite a difference in attendance.
10am Friday view of the gallery. (I didn’t have time to take pictures on Saturday as you can see from the crowds in the above picture.)
10am Friday view of the Cypress Room.
Same view but at noon on Saturday
The other half of the Cypress Room.
Same view but at noon on Saturday.
Traffic was quite a bit lighter on Sunday but there were a decent amount of people in the ballroom, but not as many in the Cypress room.
Ana sitting atop her “throne”, while we waited for the Sunday morning crowd.
We rearranged some of the Dromgoole’s tables on Sunday morning, so I ended up behind the table in the foreground with all the Pilot pens, since Pilot USA was in front of me (to the right of the picture). This was taken around noon on Sunday - still plenty of people doing some leisurely shopping.
View from the back of the Cypress room looking towards the entrance on Sunday around noon.
Even at 2pm, the ballroom had quite a good number of attendees. I don’t know if the Cypress room or the gallery had similar traffic in the afternoon.
We didn’t even start packing up until almost 3pm, which was only an hour before the show closed. We were getting enough traffic that it made sense to hold off on packing.
Ok, enough of the show layout, schedule changes, and traffic. Let’s check out the show, starting with the gallery!
Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens had several tables in the gallery.
Ink bottles and samples for sale at the Vanness table, including their exclusive Kobe ink (to the left of the rack).
Not far from the Vanness tables was Adolphus of Darail Penz who had his pens as well as lots of ink.
Josh and Savannah Elswich of Stationer’s Emporium (also in the gallery) brought paper, pens, and inks, including their exclusive inks by Dominant Industry.
You can also make your own ink sample bundle!
Look at all of the stuff that Blick Art Materials brought with them!
Just inside the ballroom was Kristen Brooks of Fountain Telling who liked their spot and had a good show.
It was finally quiet enough on Sunday that I could catch a picture of Michael (left) and Larry Dromgoole. They had just gotten in an incredible collection of pens (all of those binders in the foreground) and as you can imagine, were mobbed most of the weekend.
This Montegrappa Dracula pen most definitely is not my jam, but I love being able to see stuff like this at shows!
And here’s a totally different Montegrappa for ya - the PAC-MAN Ghostwriter fountain pen! If only it didn’t have a Montegrappa price tag!
In addition to their own tables, Dromgoole’s had most of their distributors around them, so I didn’t have to go far to see a lot of cool pens.
Not sure these will ever be in my budget, but I do love looking at these gorgeous Namiki maki-e pens at the Pilot USA table.
Jeff Velker (one of the Retro 51 owners) with his wife Deana - it was relatively calm at 4:30pm on Saturday.
Dromgoole’s & Retro 51 always launch exclusives at the Dallas Show and this year, there were two pens called Over the Moon, which was also designed by Marty Henderson!
Hard to believe that one year ago, Coles of London took over US distribution of Pelikan. Note - they are not involved in the Pelikan Hub so this year’s kerfuffle has nothing to do with them, so direct any Hub-related comments to Pelikan’s owners, Hamelin.
This is the newly announced/released Pelikan M815 Metal Green Stripes. Like the Black and Blue Metal Stripes, this Green M815 is stunning and is already on my wishlist.
Also released is the Pelikan M200 Pen of the Year, Pyrite, and matching ink. It is a very yellow pen - I can’t wait to ink it up!
I got a chance to see these stunning ConCoPens, which are Vietnamese-lacquered pens using traditional lacquering techniques and materials, including raden.
Speaking of raden, look at this stunning urushi/raden Montblanc 146 from SeyPen!
Central Texas’ own Amanda Willis of Grit Mercantile had a beautiful array of leather products
Look at all of those leather notebook covers and pen cases!
Leather pen sleeves too! You can customize your notebook cover with different colored elastics too.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Matthew Martin at a pen show, so I was pleasantly surprised to be able to look at his pens in person again.
Just a few of the pens that Matthew makes - that one on the right with the colors and floral design…oof, that’s pretty!
Only in Dallas would you find Stephen Howell from The Sharpest Edge sharpening knives and tools.
Check out these whimsical creations from Timothy Wyitt Carlile who was also in the Cypress Room!
As far as nib work goes, the show went from 2 nib workers (Matt Chen and Kirk Speer) to four, with the addition of Houston-local Josh John of Precision Writing Works, and Singapore-based Sunny Koh of Straits Pen. I think four might be one too many nib grinders as they didn’t seem as busy on Sunday. Kirk and Josh were in the ballroom, Sunny was in the gallery, and Matt was in the Cypress Room.
I may have caught Matt Chen by surprise when I took this pic, lol. PactaMom/Momma Chen (aka Nina) was also at the show but she wasn’t there when I took the pic.
It’s not a Dallas Pen Show if Kirk Speer isn’t wearing his cowboy hat! Psst, look carefully to see what shenanigans Kirk is up to 🙂
Sunny did tunes/grinds and also taught nib tuning classes.
Josh working on pens in the ballroom. He also taught a class on nib grinds.
Josh and Ana chatting about what her first pen grind from him should be.
These lovely ladies from Pen World magazine had free issues with a subscription!
The Austin Pen Collectors sponsored the Pen Collectors of America (PCA) Scavenger Hunt program, “Pens For Kids”.
The PCA had friendly volunteers working this table all throughout the show.
Last year, there were four classes/workshops and it was so nice to see more this year, with a variety of different topics from Fountain Pen Basics to Handwriting to Calligraphy to Nib Grinding and more.
Love the variety of classes throughout the weekend!
Members of Kaligrafos, a calligraphy guild, spent the weekend writing out people’s names on a bookmark (for free).
The Dallas Pelikan Hub was happening on Friday night, but I was still out to dinner so I wasn’t able to capture any pictures of the event.
Folks were hanging out at the bar (and behind the bar) and various spots in the lobby in the evenings.
Saturday night gathering in the far side of the lobby with lots of tables and seating.
Overall, I think that the big ballroom was a good change, though I’m not sure about the gallery and Cypress Room traffic. I think some vendors didn’t like their table locations (even in the ballroom) and that’s always a challenge with any show - where to put vendors so they are visible and get good foot traffic. I don’t think that the show should have Thursday as a selling day though. As I said, most vendors weren’t set up, and I think that the weekend passholders didn’t get a great Thursday experience as a result. However, the vendors who were around on Thursday might have gotten better sales since their competitors weren’t set up yet. Sunday traffic was still a surprise for all of us. Folks expected a slow Sunday and it honestly wasn’t bad for many vendors, not just Dromgoole’s. Make it a 3-day Friday-Sunday show, do some tweaks to traffic and vendor placement and I think everyone would be happy.
I didn’t get a chance to do a ton of shopping, but I still managed to spend money, shocking, I know. I had only planned one pen purchase, until I took a closer look at the collection that the Dromgoole’s picked up - my bad, lol.
Inks from Papier Plume - Frozen Margarita (their Dallas show ink), Cypress Knees, Girasole, Halcyon Days, Pelikan Edelstein Pyrite and matching M200 (this was a planned purchase), Pilot Silvern Tsumugi and Delta Dolce Vita Slim (“vintage” Delta) - these last two were not planned, but zero regrets!
Of course, I always say that the real haul are the friends we get to spend time with, whether it’s a few minutes at a table, or hours at a meal or the bar.
So glad to see some PA Slackers at the show!
A pre-midnight selfie with folks on Saturday night! Believe it or not, it’s empty in the background because everyone else left already!
Thank you to Dromgoole’s for the opportunity to work at your tables this past weekend! It was hard work but loads of fun!
Thank you, Dallas Pen Show, for a great time! No more pen shows for me for the rest of the year, but I am planning to go to BunguLA as an attendee. Until next time, stay safe and stay inky!
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