Editing The Pen Addict 576/transcript (section)

== Shout Out to DC Pen Show Attendees ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Myke. Let's do our shout out of the week related to the DC Pen Show. My friend Candice, a.k.a. Inks and Anchors on Instagram. I had put them in the show notes to give them a shout out because I got to see them at the DC Pen Show this weekend. Spent a lot of time with them. Had dinner with them and some other people on Saturday night of the show. And then, lo and behold, I'm looking, getting my links for Inks and Anchors this morning. And they dropped this wonderful selfie picture in the Inks and Anchors Instagram feed of us staring down at the phone on the floor with myself, Aziza, Drew from Goulet Pens. It was just a really silly picture that I love so very much. And I thought that was cool. And I wanted to shout them out because they are one half of the Gourmet Pens podcast, which I have shouted out on this show before. And I wanted to give Candice her flowers. And because Aziza has enough, right? So like Aziza, settle down. This one's about Candice. And I don't want to, I don't want to need DMs from you on this. So shout out Candice. Inks and Anchors. Great seeing you this weekend. Should we talk about stuff, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, baby.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't have like a stuff record, right? Like I don't keep track of what comes home with me at pen shows because I am in the enviable position of saying, hey, I can buy this for me. And then I also have this other separate bucket of, hey, I can buy this for work. So on the me list, we talked about the Monarch, right? From Shown Design. I put in a picture on my Instagram of the pen barrel that I ended up with. And I linked to Ian's website with the Monarch nib variant. Like each one is kind of a different anodization pattern. So one of the links, I don't know, I'll have to find it. So it's just like mine's kind of a gradient pattern, pink at the tip and then into like gold, blue, and then back to gold and purple. It's really, really pretty. So I got one of the gradient Monarch nibs. And then the pen barrel is not directly on the site right now. I don't know if it's a newer model. But it's a kind of a, it's a black base with just like this swirly, bright anodization. I put a link in my Instagram to the barrel and the anodization has a gradient from pink to orange to yellow. And it's just kind of like if I was going to go get the flashy nib, like the Monarch, I was going to get a flashy barrel like that. It doesn't, it doesn't take much for me to get into the flashy stuff. The one thing I did want to do with the Monarch nib is get a grind on it. So I did on Friday afternoon, Gina was really close to Ian's table. So I asked them Friday afternoon, hey, do you have anything for a nib grind on Saturday? And the earliest appointment was 430. And I said, yes, please. So that was good. I got a journaler nib grind on my Monarch nib. So I've written pages and pages of notes with this nib so far. It is fantastic. I'm really, really enjoying it. I'm glad I finally broke down and bought one. So that was my list. Now, the rest of this stuff is stuff that was either given to me or that I bought that I'm going to use for reviews, giveaways, you know, comparisons, all kinds of stuff. So our good friend, Jonathan Brooks gave me two of his Charleston model pins because he is working on a smaller diameter barrel for this pin model. So that is something he showed me in Chicago. He just had a couple of them and he's had the time to make a few more. So he gave me one of those to review because he knows that's my preference, where my preference lies. And it's still like by no means a small pin, but it's a little bit narrower diameter diameter. So I got one in Brooks materials and I got one in Fountain Telling materials, which is his daughter, Kristen, who also has their products listed under the Carolina Pin Company website. So look for those soon. I'm going to give some feedback on those and do a review and maybe even a giveaway. Hint, hint, wink, wink. I also got the Penquisition Touchstone in purple and teal, which is, this is my friend Evan's collaboration with Ben from Gravitas. I think it came out great. I really like the bright anodized colors. And yes, I did choose purple over the orange, but there are no wrong choices. There was orange and blue and red and each with a different color section. And I really, really like the feel and size of this pen. They did a great job. So look for that soon. I did pick up on my, referring back to last week's episode, Studio Agakon, Agakakon from Turkey. I wanted to check out their pens. They had two or three, they might've had three tables full of...

'''Myke Hurley:''' There are so many accents in the name. Like, you know, you're saying it wrong, right? Oh, no chance. You know what I mean? Like, like, you know, it's wrong when you just see the letters, but when like there are multiple accents, there's like, well, there's 100% I've pronounced that incorrectly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Without question. So like I talked to, talked to Eunice at Galen Leather, who is from Turkey in this studio. Agakakon is also from Turkey. And I said, oh, you know, I'll tell Eunice, oh, I bought a pen from, from, from them and he'll pronounce the name. And I was like, yeah, I've got no chance of like duplicating what you just said, but yes, that's exactly right. So I think I ended up with the model called WP2, which is just a shape, right? It's just standard tapered in shape, but I got this really neat yellow and green ebonite and it's really polished exceptionally well. And they did, they had pre-ground nib options for you to choose. So I look forward to, this is, this is the part of the show where I don't have some of the images of the exact product that I bought just because I've been sick for two days and haven't even gotten out any of this stuff from, from the trip to photograph yet. So you'll see some pictures coming up later and y'all are going to really like this one that I picked up from them. It's really, really beautiful. And I got a fine stub grind on one of their nibs. So they have, they use Yovo nibs and they had some pre-ground nib options there. So that was really good. Mayfair pins. So I'd never met Ben from Mayfair before and I'd seen his pins all over Instagram and I wanted to check them out knowing that, Hey, maybe this grip section isn't for me, right? We've talked about this a lot in the past on how I choose to review products. And a lot of times I will choose a product to discover, you know, do I like what their design features are? And I picked up the Vanyar model from Mayfair pins. And I think in this image, I'll link in the show notes in the Instagram, my exact pin is the furthest on the left model. I can kind of match up the swirl on my cap. I think I'm going to end up really liking this pin. So it's a very tapered pin towards the grip section and it's a little bit wide and it's a short cap and it's just so cool looking.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It is so funny shape, right? Like it's a very peculiar shape, like almost where, when the cap's on kind of can't tell which side's got the nib on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have tried to unscrew the wrong side.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It doesn't completely like track, which is not a criticism. It's just different. Exactly. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's exactly right. So that's why I like going to the show because I've, no matter if I've seen these online or not, like it's great to be able to feel this in person. Right. Will this work for me? So I decided there, it's like, yeah, I think I will at least, uh, I'll, this will work. So I bought one of these to review. So this will probably be like a review and giveaway type of situation later on down the line.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like hard work to make this pen. I was thinking the same thing. There's, there's two different materials, but the middle section is, is the odd one out. So you've got like three sections, right? The, the, like the cap and the back of the pen, I wouldn't even call it a finial because it's like quite a large part of the pen is one material and you've got something in the middle. And like to, if you get it to get all lined up, it feels like, like to get the seams all lined up feels like it'd be very hard.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And like, I can just tell like the finish and like the craftsmanship is really, really good. It's a good looking.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I really liked the look of these pens. These are really interesting. I'm fascinated. I'll be fascinated to hear what you think of it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So, um, this one's very cool. Oh, so apparently, so now that I'm actually reading the model about the model that I got. So this is two materials, one from turn pin co and then that's the swirly part. And then the center section is from storm winds who made the, the sparkle pin that I got at the Baltimore pin show. So very cool. Nice collaboration there. So I will have a lot to say about that pin once I get around to reviewing it, which could be a while. Um, one of the, again, another new person I met literally right next to Mayfair pin. was Alex from motor city pins. So he is a young pin maker, uh, literally and figuratively. So he's been doing this for about two years. I think he's 17 is what he told me. Um, and he just started making pins last year. So I was over there just kind of looking at what he had and he had this group of just like standard flat looking material, uh, pins, just like green and blue and purple and red. And they just like these standard torpedo shaped pins. And he's like, Hey, check this out. And he breaks out like a little hair, like a little mini hairdryer and turns up the heat on the hairdryer and puts it on the purple pin and it turns green. So he made, he made a thermal shift material that he can make pin from.