This week, I was able to travel to South Carolina to visit one of my best friends Matthew Morse, who lives in Sumter, SC. We were then able to travel together to visit Jonathon Brooks at his home and workshop in Aiken, SC, about 2hr from Sumter. Jonathon is well known for his exquisite artistry in his pen making, pen blanks, and urushi work. The last few months have been challenging for him due to health issues, leaving his lathe dusty from disuse. He has continued to create blanks and do urushi work during this time, however, and turned a pen for us (his first in many months) on this visit out of a prototype material he’d created during the pandemic quarantine. Thank you Jonathon and Shea for opening your home to us and to Jonathon for putting up with us. I am so glad and thankful he had a good day enough to hang out, talk pens, and show us the lay of the land. I am sorry for any days of exhaustion that follow.

CLick to see more photos from this trip.

Yesterday, I had the immense pleasure of visiting the home of Franklin-Christoph in Wake Forest, NC. They are a fine accessory brand that has existed in the Franklin family since 1901 and as a fountain pen brand since 2001. You may know them from their table of bright prototype fountain pens at Pen Shows with testers of all of their nibs! All of their pens are manufactured in North Carolina and designed by CEO Scott Franklin. I was able to visit their offices with my friends Sandra (thanks for letting us crash your house!) and Matthew (of HeyMatthew.com).

TWSBI just launched a new ink set, their first foray into inks. The set contains six inks in 18ml frosted glass bottles for $34.99. I purchased mine from Lemur Ink. The inks are all more “classic” inks, with not much shading or sheen. I actually prefer my inks to be this way and to just have nice color payoff. Here are some photos of the inks and some comparisons for your information and enjoyment!

I’m a big fan of my Kasama pen and I blame it all on my friend @HeyMatthew! When we were in Dallas, we got a chance to sit down together and talk about these unique pens for his YouTube channel. Enjoy!

The Dallas Pen Show this year took place on September 27th and 28th - this show is unique in that it is a two day show and Friday is a long 10a-8p, allowing locals to still attend the show later in the evening. I’ve only been to shows that also had a Sunday so this was interesting, but worked for me as I needed to travel back to Indy on Sunday!

Indianapolis is home to a burgeoning pen club, aptly named the Hoosier Pen Club, spearheaded by my good friend Davy Chinn (@davychinn). We meet every two to three months in grand fashion, usually at our local Greek’s Pizzeria for pizza, beer and pens! This August, we had our first club meeting with invaders from other states!