Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a fine family Thanksgiving this year, and hope that all of our pen friends who celebrate the holiday did so as well!
We will be catching up on orders and correspondence today; if you are awaiting an order acknowledgment or a response to an inquiry, all should be back to normal by the end of the day.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Washington DC pen show

We are back from Washington (Tysons Corner, to be precise) and will be working away to catch up over the next several days. Buying was good, as was overall turnout.

This is one of the few American metropolitan shows that has managed to find the sweet spot as far as location: for many big cities, holding the show right in the middle of town both drives up costs and makes access difficult for those driving in (and especially for exhibitors), yet putting the show too far from the center makes it less accessible for local urbanites and drastically reduces the appeal for those wanting to partake of the city's amenities, whether for dining or for tourism or shopping. All this is less critical in less densely built-up areas, but for venues such as Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, location is going to be key.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Memorial Day weekend

We've been working nonstop since before the Chicago show a couple of weeks back, so are particularly looking forward to this long holiday weekend and an opportunity to recharge.

Best wishes to all our pen friends -- we'll be back in the shop on Tuesday!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Back from Chicago

We bought quite a bit at the Chicago Pen Show this year, most notably dip pens and 19th-century pencils. It will be a while before it is all listed, but we should have a few goodies posted within the next few days.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Chicago Pen Show time!

We've closed up the shop for a few days to attend the Chicago Pen Show. We won't be exhibiting, but if you'll be around, do say hello.
We'll also be doing a bit of double duty, visiting the pipemakers' show the same weekend to show off our newly-made American Art Plastics ebonite and celluloid products.
Monday will be back to business as usual -- haven't decided yet what our next featured update theme will be. . . .

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Phone troubles

We've been having sporadic problems with our phone service for some time. The good news is that we found the problem. The bad news is that it may be several days until we have a permanent fix.

Until then, all incoming calls are going straight to voicemail -- so don't be afraid to leave a message and let us call you back (though email is still a faster and more reliable way of reaching us).