Editing The Pen Addict 723/transcript (section)

== Pen Chalet Discount ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So don't forget, when you go there, go to PennChalet.com slash PennAddict. So you'll get the 10% code that you need to save on anything at Penn Chalet as well as checking out any special deals that they have for you because you listen to this show. A thanks to Penn Chalet for the support of this show and Relay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. I bought a pen not available at Penn Chalet. Otherwise, I would have bought it from Penn Chalet. But I've been looking at D Squared Arts pens for the past couple years because I've had a couple friends here in the community showing me these really unique pens made by Daryl at D Squared, who takes the acrylic pen material. And actually, mostly he pours the material himself. I think most of this is hand-poured by him. And then he hand-turns the pens, which is a normal thing for a lot of acrylic or other types of pen makers, wood pen makers. But then adds in different shape and subtle lines and notches and different finials. It's a very tactile pen. It's hard to – this is one of the hardest pens to explain or styles of pens because, one, he has like 20 different models. And, two, he just does them all by hand, adds in this – like the type of turning he does is – you know, couldn't be replicated by a machine necessarily. I'm sure it could. But you know what I mean. Yeah. It's definitely like a hand – With great difficult turned up. Yes. So what I bought, it's called the Tordray. And this is actually one of the more simple ones. But Tordray is twist in French. And he uses a lot of French names. In the product naming. So this one – Very French show today. So – yeah, very French show today. So this one, if you take – if you're looking – and I'm trying to describe this to people who can't see this. If you took a standard acrylic pen and held it in the center, that piece is cylindrical, okay? But then as you go to the right towards the end of the pen or you go to the left towards the cap of the pen, it has a slight rotation. And then it ends up being almost like a rectangle towards the end. But a very, like, rounded, smooth rectangle. So there is a twist. If you can imagine, if you took an acrylic pen and held it in your hand and then turned your left hand and right hand opposite of each other, just like a quarter turn, that's the twist, if that makes sense. And it just feels so cool to hold. And that's the thing with these pens. This is a tactile pen experience. So getting to shop there in person at Daryl's table, you go through all of these different shapes that he comes up with and see which one feels the best to you, right? Because, like, you might not like the shape that I got with the twist, the tordre. And you might prefer something with, like, he'll do some, like, grooves through the barrel, which is a very fun shape. And then, you know, a finial could have, like, a very more of a tactile finish. So, like, when you're holding the pen, you can feel, like, a roughness on there that's purposely built. So, again, it's a super, super hard pen to describe, but it's when you're there and checking out all these pens, you're going, oh, yeah, this is really cool. I'm going to come away with one of these, and how do I choose which one's mine? I literally, I don't know, out of the 20 or 30 different pens there, like, I handled them all trying to figure out which is the best, and you end up gravitating to, like, one or two, and then you figure it out. So, yeah, they're literally like sculpture in a pen. And, you know, I've gotten to test these out for a couple years, so I was finally excited to get to pick one out in person myself. So, I got that. Mine's a yellow and blue color, acrylic. It's very, very shiny and very bright. It looks really, really neat.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This was the glow-in-the-dark one?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This one is not. So, I put a link in the show notes. Mine looks like it could glow-in-the-dark. There's not a lot of inks to this shape pen. So, I found one that I could put. And if you look, if you scroll down, and I'm talking to you, Myke, you scroll down, you see kind of the capped version of the pen. It doesn't look like a cylinder, right? Okay. So, you can see kind of the twist to where there's, like, a block rectangle on each end, but they're kind of, like, counter to each other, right? So, it's super subtle that you don't really see in all the pens. And if you scroll to the bottom of that page, you can see some of the other shapes that he does.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That this shape, that kind of, like, this kind of, like, flowing shape reminds me of, like, a Newton pen. Yes. There were some Newton pens from back in the day that had this kind of profile to them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I'll be corrected if I'm wrong when I say this, but I think him, I think he worked with Sean a lot when he was starting out. They're both from the same area. Yeah. Sean Newton. That would make sense. So, that did not surprise me. But, yeah, it's really unique, really fun product that's, like, different than, you know, anything else I have. So, they're just a really, really cool shape. So, that was my pen. I also bought a nib holder from Derek, from Daryl at D Squared. It's called a Seahorse. I'll have to take a picture of that. I didn't find a link of that. But, as you can imagine, it's got, like, a Seahorse-esque shape. Just a very subtle nib holder shape that really just kind of locks into my hand, and it's a really beautiful pink. So, I still owe lots of pictures from this show if I was more prepared and less busy. I would have had pictures up to put in these links of my exact products. But, they're very cool. I'll have more coming soon.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Aside from all the other stationary accessories and notebooks and inks and stickers, I picked up a ton of stuff. You know, at the show. Or, like, review or just for fun. I ran into, like, one of the stupidest purchases I've ever made, Myke. Okay. And I'm pretty happy about it. I was just walking by a table, and it was just, like, an individual seller. Like, a personal collection type of vendor, right? Okay. Not a retailer or anything like that. And they just had, like, two tables worth of pens. And then they had, like, a table worth of notebooks. And I saw this notebook with this wild pattern on it. And I was like, oh, that pattern is sick. What is this? And I picked it up. And I was like, oh, this is a Gucci notebook. So, I am now the proud owner of a Gucci red and blue geometric notebook. What is the story of this? I don't know. I don't know. I would say incredible looking notebook. It's rad, right? Like, I couldn't, like, the best thing we could find is, like, it came out in 2018. Okay. And it's Gucci, and the logo art is insane. And you found a link on a resale website. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I might have overpaid a little bit. Okay. I thought in my head, the problem is when you see something like this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, there are a logo on every page?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Every page. Sick. Yes. That's what I was going to comment.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's what sealed it. For the Gucci logo, I want to see it all the time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Literally every page front and back has an alternating red G or blue G.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're going to be ready for next season when the Gucci Formula One team.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's right. Ooh, maybe it's my F1 notebook. Maybe it is. Maybe it is. So, I don't know what I'm going to do with this. I have no clue what I'm going to do with this. But I couldn't leave it on the table. And it was very expensive. But, like, as I do, I was like, oh, like, in my head, if they say it's this price, like, that's too much. If they say it's this price, it's probably okay. And it was, like, it was $150. Like, I'll tell you. Like, it was $150. And I was happy to pay it. I would do it. It looks like you can get them for, like, $130 or something like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would do it. I would pay $150.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's really insanely well made, obviously. I have no clue what the paper quality is going to be like once I use it. And I'm pretty stoked about this. This is definitely a highlight of the show for me. That is a good find. Yeah. Because that's the point that I'm at now, right? Like, I don't need another pilot or sailor or platinum. You know, I could add another one. You know, I don't need, you know, certain things. But, like, that leaves room for this. You definitely don't need another notebook, do you? I don't. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, if you're gonna, it needs to be a Gucci notebook. Yeah. I mean, have you seen this notebook? It's amazing, Brad. I'm very jealous of this, actually. That's a statement notebook right there. It's so ridiculous. I bet the paper's terrible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I bet it. It kind of feels like it's just gonna be, like, copy or paper. There's no way this is gonna be fountain pen. It's not what it's about. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, I don't know. It's good. Now, on to the coffee shop, Brad. That's a conversation. I've never done anything like that before, where it's just, like, something, like, really stupidly ridiculous. And I did. So, yeah. That was it. So, overall, just had a big W at the St. Louis pen show winning. I got some fun stuff. I have so much stuff to go through. But those were my main acquisitions. The D-squared art pen and the Gucci notebook was one and two in my heart there from the show. But I got so much other stuff. So, we'll go through that as the time goes on. I'll have some reviews. I'll have some giveaways. All kinds of stuff from the show. Only my second show of the year, which is a good lead-in to my third show of the year coming up at the end of this month. Right, Myke?