Filtering by Author: Kimberly Lau

LAMY Petrol 2025 vs the OG 2017, and LAMY Sepia too!

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Last year, LAMY “re-released” the beloved and highly sought-after LAMY Dark Lilac ink, except folks were quick to discover that it wasn’t the same as the original. I reviewed both inks and came to the same conclusion. With this latest release of LAMY Petrol 2025, people are wondering if it will be the same as (or at least closer to) the original Petrol from 2016, or will it be different or super sheeny like LDL 24 was compared to LD OG. As with LDL 24, some of the original ink components of Petrol 2016 are no longer allowed/available.

Unlike the original LAMY Dark Lilac, where I am a hoarder, I mean, owner of several bottles, I only have one bottle and several cartridge packs of the original LAMY Petrol (which I will refer to as OG or 2017). Still, I was really curious to see how the two inks compared, so let’s dive right in!

One of the ways you can tell if you have the 2017 (top left) vs 2025 versions of LAMY Petrol is from the box. Limited Edition inks always have solid colored side (and bottom) panels. The 2017 Petrol’s box is rotated so you can also see the colored dot at the top of the box. The bottom box is the new LAMY Sepia.

*I’m surprised that the price tag on the bottom of OG (left) is still there! If you still can’t tell if you have Petrol OG or 2025, 2025’s barcode ends in 789383.*

2017 Petrol on the left and 2025 on the right. The caps are different colors with 2025 looking a touch greener. Petrol 2025 is part of the regular line, and as such, has the grey/silver sides instead of the LE colored side. They were similar enough in color so I kept them apart at all times and boxed each one immediately after use because I definitely didn’t want to get those mixed up.

Original LAMY Petrol swatch that I made in 2017 (left), same bottle swatched again this week (middle) and the new 2025 Petrol (right). The left and middle swatches of OG Petrol show a dark forest green, while 2025 Petrol has a hint of blue which you can see peeking out in some of the lighter parts of the swatch.

*Same as above but zoomed in a bit and at a different angle. There is a hint of red sheen on OG that isn’t present on 2025’s Col-O-Ring swatch.*

As usual, all swatches were done on Col-O-Ring cards using a Kakimori steel dip nib, while writing samples were done with a TWSBI Go with a Medium nib and a LAMY Vista with a steel Medium nib. The TWSBI Go is a slightly wetter writer and the LAMY is a drier writer, so these two give me a good idea of how an ink will look from different pens. The notebook used for writing samples is the Endless Recorder with 68 gsm Tomoe River paper. Dry times for the Vista are shown with “(V)” and the Go will be below that and shown with “(T)”. Dry times may be a bit slower on 52gsm TR or faster on more absorbent paper like Cosmo Air Light, Rhodia, copy paper, or with drier or finer nibs, etc.

*LAMY Petrol 2017 writing sample and dry times on TR 68.*

The color difference in the 2017 writing sample isn’t very obvious between the drier Safari nib vs the wetter Go nib. The dry times were pretty fast with both pens at under 30 seconds.

*The 2025 writing sample page looked very similar to the OG. It had a slightly longer drying time around 30-25 seconds.*

*It’s a good thing that I labeled the chromatography strips because they look almost identical! The color distribution/order/spread is very similar.*

A closer look at the base of the chromatography where there is a little more spread of the slightly darker blue in the middle of the OG chroma (left) and also less spread of the purple right above it. The bottom portion of both chroma strips have an almost peachy section above the line and first blue separation. I can’t explain what the color distribution means, just showing you how similar they are.

Writing sample on 80gsm Rhodia DotPad: this photo is as uninteresting as the real life writing sample, where the ink just looks like a very dark green-black, and zero sheen (which I didn’t expect to see anyway.)

Writing samples on 75 gsm Cosmo Air Light (top) and 52 gsm TR. CAL eats a bit of OG’s reddish sheen, but you can see it on the small swatch on 52 gsm TR. I wasn’t able to get any sheen from 2025 on either paper.

Writing samples on 52 gsm Tomoe River from a 2022 Hobonichi Weeks (old TR); the paper is a bit more cream than white. You can see a wee touch of red sheen on the bottom right of both swatches; surprisingly, there was a bit more in the 2025 swatch than 2017, but that can also be due to the amount of ink being laid down by the Kakimori dip nib.

*Writing samples on 68 gsm TR: Top line swatch is 2017, bottom line is 2025. I alternated lines in the writing sample, with 2017 as the first line.*

Slightly zoomed in and at a different angle to show the lack of sheen from both, but also how similar the colors are. The slightly thicker line is from the TWSBI Go which had 2025 and you can see it is also a slightly lighter green than OG.

Some inks that are similar to both LAMY Petrol include: Franklin-Christoph Ink ‘16, Robert Oster Shake-n-Shimmy Blue Velvet Storm (I believe there is also a non-shimmer version of this which is supposed to be a good match but alas, I don’t own it. Shocking, I know.), and Anderillium Colossal Squid Dark. Most of the other dark greens or teals are either too green or too blue.

After all is said and done, I think LAMY Petrol 2025 vs OG 2017 isn’t the same NY Times-worthy drama that LAMY Dark Lilac 2024 vs OG 2016 was. The new Petrol is very similar to the OG, not identical, but close enough that one doesn’t need to chase after the OG (unless they want to, I won’t judge). Both inks behaved similarly with average flow and nice dark green-leaning teal. The 2025 version is just a wee bit wetter, but only enough to take 5-10 seconds more to dry. Last year, I felt that LAMY shouldn’t have called their re-release Dark Lilac, especially since it was quite a bit different from the OG. While this year’s Petrol is very similar to the OG, I still think that they should have called it something else to avoid confusion. Maybe something Petrol-esque, like Benzine, or at least Petrol 2.0.

Alright, enough of Petrol, let’s get on with the bonus ink review of LAMY Sepia!

LAMY Sepia was announced and released together with LAMY Petrol 2025. If you ignore the questions about Petrol OG vs 2025, the rest of the chatter was around how cool the Sepia looked. And I want to say that it does not disappoint.

*LAMY Sepia is a new addition to the regular lineup and has the same grey/silver box as Petrol 2025. The cap matches the circle on the box top. (Sorry, I don’t have LAMY Red to compare it to.)*

*Sepia swatches show that it is brickish red/brown in color (the IRL swatch and picture on my phone doesn’t want to match my monitor, so hopefully the right color shows up for you.)*

*LAMY Sepia writing sample and dry times on TR 68.*

If I had to pick whether LAMY Sepia is brown or red, I would say brown, and then add “but a reddish brown”. After I did the swatches, I had to ink up the LAMY Studio Terracotta because it was such a good match. I would have guessed that, based on its shading with cursive, that it would dry faster than the other two Petrols, but it took about 10 seconds longer to dry. It didn’t feel dry at all when writing with either the LAMY or the TWSBI.

Chromatography on Sepia reminds me of melting Neopolitan ice cream with light milk chocolate on the bottom and strawberry on the top. Cosmetics fans might say it looks like a cool pink blush on foundation. Or I could just say it’s bright pink on a light clay brown.

Inks similar to LAMY Sepia include: Papier Plume Red Beans & Rice, Robert Oster x Vanness Pens Charred Hickory, Sailor x Tinterias Spicy Chipotle, Sheaffer Latte, Taccia Cha Brown. (The bottom 3 are a touch too dark and brown.)

Here are some inks that have “Sepia” in the name. As you can see, no one seems to agree on what color it should be. (Leonardo Sepia Brown, Diamine Sepia, LAMY Sepia, Scribo Classico Seppia, Papier Plume Sepia, Platinum Sepia Black, Kobe Ginza Gold Sepia, Maruzen Sepia.)

The new Petrol and Sepia both performed well and cleaned out easily. You can’t go wrong with either one. LAMY’s inks are a bargain at $9.60 retail for a 50ml bottle, so you can get both. And if I had to pick between these two, well, I already did, because I inked up the Terracotta Studio with Sepia right away. (Don’t worry, I’ll give Petrol 2025 some love too.)

(Disclaimer: The original bottle of LAMY Petrol from 2017, as well as the pens, notebooks, etc., were all purchased by me. The 2025 Petrol and Sepia were purchased from Pen Chalet.)

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Posted on March 28, 2025 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Lamy, Ink Reviews.

Behind the Scenes at Kenro Industries

While at the Baltimore Pen Show, I reached out to the folks at Kenro Industries to see if I could visit them since I was spending a few days in NYC afterwards. They aren’t open to the public but thankfully, they said yes to my request for a behind-the-scenes peek. You may already know that Kenro Industries is the distributor for brands such as Aurora, Otto Hutt, Sheaffer, Y-Studio, and more recently, Ferris Wheel Press. (As of last month, Montegrappa is no longer using distributors in North America.) Kenro is also the company behind the acquisition of the Esterbrook brand in 2018. I got a chance to chat with Bryan Hulser, Partner and Director of Marketing at Kenro Industries, who gave me a tour of their space and some insights into Kenro’s history and what they’re working on.

When I first asked Bryan about visiting Kenro, he told me “we’re just in an office space, you know that, right?” And yes, I did know that, but I wanted a real life look at what goes on in a typical day at Kenro, and I figured you did too, so here we go!

Justin, Kenro’s Sales & Marketing Manager, is showing us how real it is at the office! These boxes were the first thing I saw when we walked in! They are the new Cubes that are waiting to be unpacked and shipped out to retailers!

*The shipping department is one of the larger rooms in the office.*

*Before shipping, sometimes you also need to assemble the product boxes first, like the ones the Cubes are packaged in. Ask Justin how easy they are to assemble, lol.*

*Just another day for Byran Hulser, in his office with the artwork for the Esterbrook Nature blotter paper set behind him.*

Ryan Sirignano, Partner and Director of Sales, is working on upcoming product launches and making sure vendors are stocked up (thank you, Justin, for snapping a pic of Ryan cuz I forgot to do so during my visit.)

I spent most of my time talking with Bryan, but was fortunate to get a chance to chat briefly with Joel Blumberg, the founder and President of Kenro Industries. I hadn’t planned to speak with Joel so I didn’t come prepared with any questions, but it was nice to hear him talk about how he got started with pens. Prior to pens, Joel had a business wholesaling/importing manufactured leather that other companies would make products from (like for shoes, purses, etc.). A business partner asked for his help to bring Aurora Pens to the US, and the rest they say is history!

We talked a bit about how the pen market is changing, shifting from predominantly male to a more diverse audience, not just in gender but in age as well. How technology has made it so people are writing less, but despite that, people are learning about fountain pens and discovering (or re-discovering) the joys of writing by hand. We had such a lovely conversation; I bet we could have talked all day if we had the time.

*Thank you, Joel Blumberg, for allowing me to crash the office today and spend a few minutes chatting with you!*

*Just a fraction of the Ferris Wheel Press inventory (they can’t keep their products stocked fast enough!)*

*The minimalist boxes can only mean ystudio (and not the Aurora, which are known to come in massive boxes!)*

Kenro Industries has been known for many years as a distributor – which means that they get products from the partner brands, like Aurora, for example, and arrange for delivery to retailers/vendors. They also handle any warranty issues and special orders. With the revival of the Esterbrook brand in 2018, they also had to learn what it was like to be a manufacturer. Their first model was the Esterbrook Estie, paying homage to the Esterbrook nickname. They also designed and released a nib adaptor, which allows folks to use their vintage Esterbook nibs in their modern day Estie! This was a nod to the past, while still looking forward.

*I love the “box of parts” that have labels and stickers all over them. Love the Esterbrooke Estie wall art too!*

Along with being a manufacturer, Kenro is changing how they have traditionally marketed and distributed products. With Esterbrook they are engaging more with the community at large, not just the fountain pen users. For example, they have worked with local brand ambassadors to hold meetups prior to international pen shows where they haven’t had a presence before. This allows them to connect with the local community and get them excited for their products and the pen shows.

Bryan told me the story about how the collaboration between Esterbrook and The Coffee Monsterz Co happened - basically, he was introduced to Helen Wang at Yoseka’s Stationery Fest last fall and they’ve been working on this ever since! For those who are following this release, the pens and inks will be launched on April 5th at 9am PT.

*The Esterbrook Estie collab with Helen Wang of* *The Coffee Monsterz Co*!

*Look how cute everything is!! So glad I got to see this in person!*

Kenro is also doing more collaborations with pen-adjacent communities, such as watches. In addition to the collab they did with Accutron, a well-known watch brand, they’ve partnered with Frederique Constant (another watch brand) for an exclusive rollerball. They are always keeping an eye out for the next collaboration or partnership that are good fits.

*The Esterbrook x Frederique Constant Estie is a black rollerball that has a cool texture that’s based on the Frederique Constant logo. (Ignore my crappy photo which makes the pen look purple.)*

Now that we got the tour and pen chats done, let’s do some Rapid Fire Questions! (I did not ask Joel because I was nervous enough already and I didn’t want to take up more of his time 🙂):

Last item from the Kenro inventory that you just had to get for yourself:

Bryan: Ferris Wheel Press (super excited for all of it)

Ryan: Aurora Conte

Justin: Esterbrook King of Night

Planner or Journaler:

B: Planner

R: Planner “I love to-do lists” (Traveler’s)

J: Not really either…yet!

Favorite paper size?

B: A5

R: A5

J: Any

Favorite paper?

B: Any, not too picky

R: Bank paper

J: Any

Stickers or washi?

B: Stickers

R: Washi

J: Stickers, I think

Fountain Pen (FP), Rollerball (RB), Ballpoint (BP), or Pencil?

B: Rollerball - Retro 51 in particular

R: FP, followed by pencil and BP. No need for a roller.

J: FP to have, but Otto Hutt RB for regular use

Fave NY Food?

B: Pizza

R: Pizza

J: Pizza (I sense a theme here.)

*Is anyone surprised that this is what Bryan and I had for lunch? Luigi’s was SO GOOD!*

Fave pen show food?

B: Sushi

R: BBQ with Hinze Pen Co in Dallas

J: Any food that’s local to the show

Coffee or Tea?

B: Black, or with a splash of soy

R: Black

J: Tea, Black or touch of French Vanilla

Fave place to visit/travel to?

B: Montreal, but any place that’s easily walkable

R: Recently traveled to London for the first time. Loved it!

J: Haven’t traveled that much, but really enjoying traveling to pen shows!

*Thank you, Bryan, for taking the time to show me around the office and chat about Kenro Industries and Esterbrook!*

Thank you all so much for the time and hospitality! I had a great time!

(Disclaimer: Kenro Industries is not open to the public, so please don’t just pop on in!)

Posted on March 21, 2025 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Kenro Industries.

2025 Baltimore Pen Show Recap

This is my 4th recap of the Baltimore Pen Show (BWI) since writing for The Pen Addict and it is going to sound a lot like the other three before. Here’s last year’s recap so you can compare. I have said that this is my second favorite show (after SF, of course), but there were some differences this year that has me questioning if that’s still the case.

Two of the friendly volunteers that greeted you at the registration desk.

This was also my fourth time working at the Franklin-Christoph table at BWI, at the same location we’ve been, but this year we had a special guest! A A Vacharat, the artist behind several of Franklin-Christoph’s hand-painted pens, was promoting her upcoming book.

A A Vacharat with her F-C creations as well as her book!

This Moth Saw Brightness releases at the end of May 2025, so pre-order now! It is pictured with a Franklin-Christoph Model 66 which she has painted with artwork from the cover.

I enjoyed watching her paint some converters during the show.

View from behind the Franklin-Christoph table at 11:20 am (20 minutes after public entry and an hour 20 after VIP entry). Thankfully it picked up around noon - the main entrance is diagonally at the complete opposite side of the ballroom from us, so it took a while for folks to make their way over.

This is a great show for both newer and veteran pen fanatics alike. Like with other recent shows, there are more folks coming to shows who are newer to the hobby and were attending their first show. Aside from the wide variety of pens, both modern and vintage, there’s also a lot of inks, paper, cards, ephemeral, even ceramics and 3-D printed items and my favorite, chocolate!

Baltimore locals Evan and Julian Rosenberg of Penquisition have so many fun and colorful pen accessories, pen cases from Rickshaw and more!

Super digging these fun 3D-printed fidget spinners that were at their table too!

It isn’t a Baltimore Pen Show if Jinji isn’t there with their chocolates!

In addition to pens, our table neighbors, The Write Stuff LLC, also had fun accessories at their tables, like these cute pins!

...and these stickers too!

I love all these pen trays and accessories from Seypen! He brought his urushi pens too but was still setting up when I snapped this picture.

It’s been a couple years since Tyler from Organics Studiohas been to the show and from the looks of it, he’s getting ready to get back into the ink game again.

Zach (right) and Amy Skogsberg of Skogsy Pens were in the side ballroom. It was good to spend a little quality time chatting with them this weekend! True story, Zach is Amy’s worst client - she is a bookkeeper and she’s always after Zach to turn in his paperwork, but he’s too busy making awesome pens!

*The Friday view of the side room from the Skogsy table looking “back” towards the other side. *

Allie Ozga of alliinthealley is a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art and makes these incredible pieces out of wild clay that she dug from her backyard!

Allie (right) shared a table with Samantha Fouche who had all of these AMAZING 3D-printed dragons, wyverns, squids, etc.! I rushed to this table after an F-C customer showed me theirs!

Congrats to Lauren Elliott on the 5th anniversary of Lucky Star Pens!!

Special editions of engraved and painted Franklin-Christophs for Lucky Star’s anniversary!

Tom Forsythe of Sugar Turtle Studio brought his parents to the show. (Turtle Mom and Turtle Dad were busy helping customers so they weren’t in this picture.)

Last year, there were 7 nib workers at the show and this year, it was back down to 5 (6, if you include F-C’s in-house nib specialist, Audrey Matteson). Damien and Josh were in the front hallway, while Gena, Linda and Kirk were in the main ballroom:

Damien Alomar of All in the Nib
Linda Kennedy of Indy-Pen-Dance
Joshua Lax of JJ Lax Pen Co
Gena Salorino of Custom Nib Studio
Kirk Speer of Pen Realm

Josh Lax working that nib grinder magic.

Linda (left) and Mike Kennedy of Indy-Pen-Dance. Linda is working on nibs while Mike focuses on repairs and restorations.

It’s been a while that the weather wasn’t an issue for any of the days, but as in years past, it was difficult for folks to find parking. I had heard that the hotel rents out spaces for airport parking, which is an issue especially for Friday and Saturday.

An overcast and slightly chilly Saturday morning combined with an already full parking lot made it difficult for some attendees to get an early start.

Francisco Lopez of Hinze Pens is talking through the different models with a customer.

Not gonna lie, this was one of the things I absolutely had to see at the show - the new Benu Pixie! Had to ask for Instagram’s help to pick one cuz they were all so cute!

I don’t think it gets any cooler (or hotter) than this Benu Euphoria Glasog Dragon pen atop this awesome dragon by adopt_a_pals!

It is always interesting to talk with other vendors to see what they thought of at day’s end. Most of the vendors did “alright” on Friday, and some had slightly better Saturday than others, and some had worse Saturdays. This show is usually a “Saturday show”, in that most vendors do really well on Saturdays as opposed to Friday or Sunday, but I’m not sure that was the case this time around. The attendance on all three days, but especially on Saturday, was noticeably lower than in years past. Sunday was a bit of a surprise for most everyone, as it felt a little busier than the typical Sunday slowness. I didn’t speak to a single customer, other than to say “hi, how are you?” until almost 2 hours into Sunday. We ended up having a decent sales day on Sunday, but that was due to some strong sales from a few regulars.

There are tables set up at the end of the hallway (after the ballroom entrance) for folks to take a break, or play with some new purchases, or hang out with friends.

Here’s the view of the hallway from the tables’ point of view. On the right are Cary Yeager and Chris Henline from Truphae.

You can see more people in the ballroom on Saturday, but still not as many on our end of the room.

I got a selfie with the President! The President of Fahrney’s, Drew Brown, that is! Wish I could have attended the Sunday Q&A session with him and Jeff Velker (CEO of Writeside Holdings, which owns Retro 51 and now Fahrney’s).

10 a.m. Sunday morning in the side room and no one was rushing to get to their tables (as vendors or attendees).

The slower Sunday pace gave me extra time to spend at vendor tables.

Larry Dromgoole and Bill Pearcy (from Pilot USA) getting ready for Sunday. It was good to see Larry doing well after an accident last month. Keep up the healing, Larry!

I love the sense of humor at Lincoln’s Leather, but it’s true, they absolutely will give you cool things if you give them money!

Like these awesome water bottles! They also had their collection of leather goods as well as pens, but this is my kryptonite!

*I mean, who can resist water bottles with engraved fountain pen designs?!? *

Ben Stewart of Mayfair Pen Company was enjoying himself as a first time vendor at BWI.

Random thoughts:

Free Airport/Hotel Shuttle - Runs for a bulk of the day and night. Super convenient, fast and free. And you can keep tabs on the shuttle in the Marriott app.
Book hotel early - The hotel sells out fast, so book your room early next year. The hotel was booked months in advance!
Economic/political uncertainty/instability - I heard that online ticket sales were higher than past years, but it was less of a crowd and in general, they spent less. Several attendees mentioned to me that they were newly unemployed, or worried that they would lose their jobs, while others mentioned the stock market/economic volatility. I think that this uncertainty is definitely affecting this hobby. Customers were doing a lot more laps before making their purchases, and I definitely heard more comments about being responsible and buying fewer pens or buying lower priced items (like inks or accessories) instead. I absolutely think we should be spending responsibly whether at a pen show or not, but this might have been the first show in a while where this overall feeling of uncertainty was hanging over everyone like a cloud.
Parking lot filled up - Despite the lower attendance, people still had a hard time finding parking. If you can, carpool. If you can’t, come early and prepare to park at other hotel lots nearby. If you’re staying at the hotel, it might be worth getting a Lyft/Uber to dinner so you can keep your parking spot.
Lots of classes/seminars/events - I love that this show has classes and seminars though it seemed a little lighter than last year. For example, Lisa Vanness did not attend and therefore didn’t teach her classes/seminars, and Nik Pang didn’t teach either of his calligraphy classes, even though he did attend the show. There were still seminars and classes including Creative Journaling (by Tom Forsythe of Sugar Turtle Studio), Fountain Pens 101 (Pen Boutique), and Basics of Vintage Pen Collecting (David Silber). I also taught my handwriting improvement class on Friday and Saturday. Josh Lax continues to host a “Pen Shows After Dark: Vintage edition” to spread the love of vintage pens, and on Saturday night, Cary Yeager hosted the Pen Shows After Dark raffle and giveaway.
Too little, too late:
- Emails - Last year, I commented on the deluge of emails in the weeks and days leading up to and throughout the show weekend. This year, it was the complete opposite. From August 2024 to March 5, I got a total of 4 emails, compared to at least 12 emails for BWIPS 2024. People aren’t going to the show if they don’t know that it’s coming up.
- Website updates need to be done earlier and more often - This is something that plagues many pen shows, so it’s not specific to this show. Aside from the list of vendors not being updated early/often enough, vendors are listed randomly, making it hard to find out if your favorite vendors are attending. It also doesn’t include any contact information or links. Last year, I said that they listed brands separately from vendors, and this year, they have noted the distributors as well as the brands they represent, so yay, that’s an improvement. That said, they still listed vendors who had said they weren’t attending the show. There’s more about the website, which I’ll get to shortly…
- What Social Media? - The first Instagram post for BWIPS 2025 was on March 4, two days before the show. There were a total of 7 posts from March 4 to 7; 5 of them were about classes/seminars, 1 about Pen Shows After Dark, and 1 showing the hallway and side ballroom. I don’t know if they posted stories in the months/weeks prior to the show (I kind of doubt it), but there were zero posts highlighting any of the vendors/distributors who were coming to the show. I didn’t see anything on Facebook either. It’s hard to say how much impact this had on attendance, but social media helps get everyone excited for the show, and makes vendors feel appreciated and that they are getting publicity from the show. Posts can also get shared by vendors and attendees, which greatly extends their 1,600+ follower reach. Can’t share what isn’t posted though (sad trombone).
- Classes/Seminars finalized too late - I won’t go into the details but TLDR: as of the CA Pen Show, I didn’t know if I was teaching a class because the show website didn’t have the schedule of (any) classes. While at the airport headed to CAPS, I called Bert to find out, but he didn’t know the status since he delegated that task. It wasn’t until Monday Feb 24, less than 2 weeks before the show, that the class schedule was posted. Leading up to this, people asked me if I was teaching, and if so, when, and until Feb 24, my answer was “I think/hope so” and “I have no idea”.
Where/How to sign up? - The website had multiple links to classes/seminars, but only one of them had a way for you to sign up. If you clicked on Schedule of Seminars, Workshops, Events BWIPS 2025, you’d see a list of the classes, etc., but no way to actually register for any of them. Clicking on the list only shows you the graphic of the class listing. There were two of these links in the navigation, but nothing in the class listing page directing you to read more about the classes or to signing up. You would have had to go to Schedule of Events BWIPS 2025 (not to be confused with the similar sounding link) to see a partial overview of the classes. I should also add that this link isn’t in the top menu, but on the second menu below the BWI banner, and is practically impossible to see on a mobile browser. Several folks told me they didn’t register because they couldn’t find any way to do so. Even if you somehow managed to find the course description and registration link, the workflow is pretty kludgey (I got this feedback from quite a few folks, as well as from other instructors who heard the same).

On a mobile device, there are two menus, which aren’t super obvious.

This is the top drop down menu, and you’ll see the Schedule of Seminars link.

If you clicked on the above link, you get this page that has an image of the classes, but no links to take you to those classes.

This is the bottom drop down menu - notice that there are two listings for the schedule.

If you click on the Schedule of Events, then you’ll see the listing of the classes by day and also individually.

Short notice + navigation/signup challenges + no social media until 3 days prior = low registrations - There was room for 30 students per class and as of Wednesday morning, only 13 and 10 people sign up for Friday/Saturday, respectively. Now, I’m not so full of myself that I expected to sell out, but given the short notice coupled with the challenging navigation, there was no way it could have. Thankfully, more people ended up registering, not just for my class but for others.

Despite the challenges, I had an amazing time teaching classes on Friday and Saturday! (Smiley faces to cover the kids that were in my classes!)

Still deciding if I like round tables vs lecture style layout as they both have their pros/cons. We had fun either way!

Pen show flow - I do not envy show organizers who have to figure out where to put vendors, especially for a show that has continued to grow, like BWIPS and CAPS. Both shows had a similar layout, where there are vendors in the hallways outside of the ballroom, and the ballroom doors are locked (on the outside) until you go all the way down 2 hallways. This “forces” attendees to walk by all of the vendors in the hallways, instead of immediately bypassing them at the start. At CAPS, the restricted access also meant limited airflow, while boiled those of us inside. And at BWIPS, those of us on the “far side” of the ballroom saw fewer people, unless they passed us to exit the ballroom. I don’t have an answer to this dilemma, other than to mention that it’s in your best interest, as an attendee, to check out all the rooms, aisles, and hallways as you may be missing some cool stuff.
Unrelated drama - Last but not least, several folks (including me) got to witness an unpleasant interaction between a non-pen show person and the bartender on Thursday night. He was yelling, swearing, and making racist and inappropriate comments to the bartender, who was calm and respectful throughout the entire interaction. TLDR, the man caused a lot of ruckus, security was called and eventually, so was the police who came and arrested him. Why am I bringing this up? Because crazy stuff happens at pen shows sometimes, so be careful. But also because there were pen friends who came over to me and others to encourage us to get out of there or head to our rooms because the guy was getting louder and being obnoxious and belligerent. It warmed my heart to know that we’re keeping an eye out for one another. Alright, enough of that.

One of the reasons this is one of my favorite shows is because of the opportunities for hanging out, penabling and socializing. There are lots of tables and chairs in the bar area, as well as couches in the lobby and more couches and tables in the “side area” around the corner/behind the bar.

People were crammed in the side area for Saturday’s Pen Show After Dark with host, Cary Yeager, aka Mr. Fountain Pen Day (right), along with Adam Lolatchy (left).

Adam helped Cary, who picked out the raffle numbers (which were nowhere near my numbers, lol.)

Lots of folks gathered at the tall table to play with pens and check out each others stuff.

Hanging out at the bar, sitting on the floor, we don’t care, we just wanna chat with friends!

Scott Hammer (black hat, looking at the camera) has an amazing pen collection and brought a few of his beauties. He’s not the only pen person in the lobby on a Saturday night!

Fitz, the bartender, is always professional, but also silly and full of personality. Such a pleasure to see him at this show!

So, despite the lower attendance and lower sales from many of the vendors I spoke with, the uncertainty around the economy, especially locally, which affected the overall mood of the show, along with my less-than-smooth experience on the teaching end at this show, I still had a great time at this show. I got to see friends I hadn’t seen in months, or years in some cases, I got to make new friends, and the slower pace allowed me to have more in-depth conversations with both customers and vendors. And the attendees I spoke with also had a great time and from the looks of it, great hauls too! Given some of the hiccups with this show, as well as how well the CA Pen Show went this year, I think that CAPS may now be my second favorite show with BWIPS on its heels. Considering there are still more shows ahead this year, who knows what lies ahead - I can’t wait to find out!

Clockwise from top left: Montegrappa Armonia, Schon Dsgn Monoc (in the vial), 3D-printed dragon-like creature from adopt-a-pals, engraved water bottle from Lincoln Leathers (they engraved @AllTheHobbies at the bottom too), Benu Pixie in Aurora Gold, Esterbrook Coffee Cup, Retro 51 Sprinkle Ops fountain pen, 4 Organics Studio inks, Colorverse 2025 Blue Green Snake and Stellaris (Lucky Star Pens collab). Not pictured are the pens I had tuned by Gena Salorino and the already-eaten chocolates from Jinji Chocolate.

What a great weekend! It’s no wonder that this is still one of my favorite shows. I can’t wait to come back next year! Until the next shows (which will be in May at the Chicago Pen Show and Pen Paper Palooza in Southern California), stay safe and stay inky!

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Posted on March 14, 2025 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Pen Shows.