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It’s that time of year again! Spring has finally sprung, and the Seoul Pen Show is afoot. Well, actually, it has already happened. This past weekend, the Penhood Seoul Pen Show 2017 was held in the Gangnam area, setting it apart from previous years where the venue was closer to Dongguk University. That wasn’t the only departure from previous years, however. This year’s pen show had a set schedule of classes and lectures on topics of interest to the pen community. Here is a translation of the schedule they posted on their website of the days events:

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend all of the events throughout the day, but I was able to arrive for many of the programs after lunch. This year, the room the pen show was held in was a bit larger to accommodate new tables including a paper-making station and a calligraphy station. When I arrived, it seemed like there were fewer patrons than previous years I attended, but it may be the timing of my arrival as people were finishing their lunch break. There were fewer pens on display, but I saw a lot of familiar faces and everyone seemed to be having a good time. The fact that the venue was quite a bit further out than the previous years may have also contributed to the final attendance numbers.

That being said, the lectures seemed to draw a lot of interest and there were a lot of young faces in the crowd. The paper-making booth seemed to be drawing a lot of attention as well. I arrived just in time to acquire one of the final bottles of this year’s Penhood fountain pen ink, “Freesia.” It’s a sort of greenish, yellow color and I look forward to making a full review of it. Patrons even received a handful of freesia flowers in keeping with the theme.

There is a lot going on in my life at the moment, but I am happy that I was able to make it out to the Seoul Pen Show 2017. I’ll be coming back to making pen and ink reviews in the near future, so stay tuned!

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I almost missed the pen show this year. Thankfully, I received an email from a reader who was inquiring about the details of this years show which prompted me to discover that it would be much held much earlier than last year.

This is, of course, the Seoul Pen Show organized and hosted by the Korean pen community known as Penhood. So, on a beautiful and bright Saturday (April 9th), I headed on over to the Dongguk University area to attend. Unlike last year, there was no massive line outside. Perhaps it is because I went around lunchtime, but I’m just glad I didn’t have to wait too long to get inside. The show was held in the same room as the previous two years, but it seemed a little less packed than in 2015. That being said, there was still plenty to see.

As you can see, there was tons of fountain pen inks, rare pens, and enthusiasts with their collections adoring the various booths. It’s always great to see other fountain pen and ink aficionados sharing the love.

When you enter the pen show, you are assigned a number (as long as you registered on their website before attending [Addendum: It may have been possible to get a raffle number by showing up without registering as well.]) that will be used for a raffle during the course of the day. Through a series of fortunate events, I managed to be in the show room during the final call of the raffle. They were giving out just 50 bottles of a special 2016 Penhood Pen Show Ink made specially for this event. Out of almost 300 attendants, I figured the best chance I had to try out the ink would be to see if someone would be willing to decant a sample for me.

Finally, the announcer called out to say the final round of winning numbers and, believe it or not, my number was called. I couldn’t believe it. So here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the 2016 Penhood Pen Show Ink bottle.

Of course, a full review will be available soon, so keep an eye out! It is a lovely shade of blue.

Well, that will do it for this year’s spring pen show. Hopefully I will find some time to get back to writing reviews. Thanks for stopping by!

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It’s that time of year again~ Spring is in the air and pen shows are popping up all around the world. Of course, Seoul is no exception and the Penhood community in Seoul organized their annual Spring pen show on Saturday, April 25th. The weather was unseasonably warm having been quite cold just a week before. While the warm weather was certainly a welcome change, it did make waiting in line outside in the hot sun less of an appealing aspect. Luckily, the wait wasn’t incredibly long, and soon I was amidst the pulsing throngs of patrons seeking to satiate their lust for beautiful writing utensils.

Though the space was confined to the usual mid-sized conference room, there was plenty to see and plenty to do for the waves of people swimming through the cramped aisles. Fountain pens of all sizes and ages, many different bottles of inks, and plenty of Penhood exclusives that have been put on sale by the community over the years (not to mention the occasional rare Korean fountain pen). It was another successful show, and my only regret is that I could not stay longer to make a few purchases. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

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