The 2024 Dallas Pen Show was held Friday and Saturday, September 27th and 28th. This show is hosted by the Dallas Dallas Pen Collectors Collectors pen club and is held at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel near the Galleria Hilton Hotel near the Galleria.
This is my third year attending the show and it has been growing. The number of vendors listed on the website grew from 58 last year to 66 this year. I attend as a vendor, selling the pens I make. This show is a little different from most of the shows. It is only two days, Friday and Saturday. The hours are 10 am to 8 pm on Friday and 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday. This works pretty well although Friday is a long day. The show is split into two adjacent ballrooms. The show was well attended. Friday was busy all day and stayed busy until the end as people who work on Friday showed up at the end of the day after work. Saturday was even busier, but things got quieter at the end of the day.
As with all pen shows, the highlight for me is the people at the show. I spent a lot of time talking about pens. They range from folks who are discovering fountain pens to seasoned writers and collectors. There were several pen makers like me, vintage pen collectors, retailers like Dromgoole’s from Houston, nibmeisters, and representative for brands like Pilot along with more than you can imagine relating to pens and stationery. I had vintage pen collectors next to me and they were very busy buying and selling pens. There are seminars as well. This year they had Fountain Pen Basics, Pens for Kids, Get Artsy with Your Fountain Pens, and Simple Repairs for Vinatage Fountain Pens. They also had a silent auction and a scavenger hunt for kids.
Since I have a table, I don’t get to spend a lot of time shopping for myself. I did manage to get a couple of new inks, Dromgoole’s Bleu Horse and Papier Plume’s Water Gardens. There are always limited edition show specials and newly-released pens and inks to look at. I can usually find a pen that I have to have, but didn’t at this show. I did look at several, though. Maybe next time…
I did find get some new blanks from Elyce at Starry Night Resins. I’ve made pens from her blanks before, but she had some new materials to try.
I also discovered Darrell at D² Arts and bought a few of his blanks as well. Like I said, you never know what you might find at a pen show.
I did acquire a Ryan Krusac Dragon Slayer pen at the Pacific Northwest Show in July. The pen body is made from naturally shed moose antler and is engraved with the scene of Siegried battling the dragon Fafnir. The cap is made from blackened Mango wood carved with dragon scales. I had been looking at that pen for quite a while and pen shows are the only way to look at pens like his firsthand.
I started attending the Dallas show to include visiting friends nearby in Fort Worth. Now, a cousin has moved to Dallas. I will be returning to the Dallas show. My wife and I drove to this show. On the return trip, we stopped to visit friends in Houston. I resisted the urge to revisit the Dromgoole’s store there. We continued east and spent a day in the French Quarter in New Orleans. On one of our walks, we went right past the Papier Plume shop, so I had to go in, and ended buying another of their inks, Cafe Diabolique. Then we visted some family in Tennessee. My pen show trips often include a bit of wandering.
I guess I should mention that I did sell a few pens at the show. Wasn’t that why I went there? Now I need to make some more pens.