Rhode Island flooding

Things are a mess in our poor state, but we've been lucky: no damage either at work or at home -- though we did have to set up a portable pump in a low point in the basement to keep things under control. When the water started coming up from the floor in an area where we'd never had problems before, my first thought was to check the downspouts and to consider putting in a second French drain on that side of the house. Then I took a closer look, and realized that underground drains were immaterial, once the soil became saturated all the way to the surface! Wet enough to drown a worm.

Our kids' schools have remained open, too, though some after-school activities were cancelled. Just as well, considering all the additional traffic as people try to find their way around road closures. We drove up to Boston for a lunch date yesterday, and the traffic delays were all manageable. Ended up giving a friend a ride back to Providence, however, after he found himself unable to get a train from Boston -- though we later found out that service was restored in time for the end-of-day commute.

LA show report

Another very successful Los Angeles pen show. Despite a handful of cancellations due to the snowstorm back East, turnout among dealers and full-show registrants was strong, and there were some truly outstanding pens on offer, with notable strength in early Watermans. Sunday's "public" attendance seemed to be down a bit, though this is often quite variable at this particular show. In fact, this is not so relevant for those of us on the vintage side, as most of the Sunday shoppers are more consumers than collectors, and are looking almost entirely for new pens. This year, however, we were wearing two hats, and the table display was devoted entirely to the American Art Plastics line of celluloid and ebonite stock -- so we were hoping for as many penturners and custom pen fans as possible on Sunday. As is, quite a few ended up with samples of our new materials; and when you have something good, all you really need is for word to spread.

Philadelphia, here we come!

First pen show of the year is coming up this weekend; we'll be heading down there Thursday, closing up shop until Monday. It's been quite a few years since the last time we were there; used to spend a lot of time in Philadelphia, before moving from Manhattan to Providence.

Site updates

Finally got around to fixing some display issues, where fonts were being displayed in miniature on browsers other than Internet Explorer. If any pages look a little funny, a click on your browser's reload button should fix things. Let us know if something looks broken even after reloading, though.

Next up: updating filling instructions, pen anatomy pages, and photos on Pen Profiles.

Happy New Year!

2010 is here, and we'll be back in the shop Monday, catching up. It's been a pretty hectic holiday season here, enlivened by a fair amount of snow and minor colds brought home by the kids.

For the first time in many years, we're planning on attending the Philadelphia pen show, which runs from January 22-24. We'll be bringing some pens, but are not planning on a full setup -- so if you want to see anything in particular, please let us know ahead of time so we'll be sure to bring it. The main focus will be our other venture, American Art Plastics, and we'll have a large batch of newly-made hard rubber stock available by then, which we will be selling at the show. Getting this classic material re-made has taken much time and effort, and I can't begin to tell you how satisfying and gratifying it is when the results come through. The stuff is just beautiful: rich colors, great feel, vivid patterning, plus it machines like a dream and polishes up like glass -- easily the equal of the best of the vintage hard rubbers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that all our American friends had a great Thanksgiving holiday. We didn't do any traveling this Thanksgiving, and played host instead. So if we've been a bit slow in getting back to you, whether by phone or by email, our apologies -- we'll be catching up this week.

Waterman rarities

We stayed pretty close to home this summer, and we're now back from our one week end-of-summer break. Much to catch up on (as usual!) -- not least, one of our most notable catalog updates, featuring some incredible Waterman rarities. Most have been sitting for years in a private collection; there are some models which we have never seen before, and many which we have not seen examples of in years.

Washington DC pen show

We'll be closing up shop this week to attend the pen show. As usual, we'll be taking only a small selection of our inventory, so if you'd like to see a particular item, let us know right away so we can be sure to bring it along.

Our main focus will be displaying and selling newly-made celluloid and hard rubber stock. You can read more about it at the American Art Plastics website.

Parker Newhaven closure

This has been expected for a good long time, with great fear and trepidation. The property has become very valuable, and Parker's current corporate masters don't care a whit about tradition.

Plans to close the Parker Pen factory in East Sussex, resulting in the loss of up to 180 jobs, have been revealed. Newell Rubbermaid said it had started a consultation on the closure of the site in Newhaven following a review of its fine writing business. Local Norman Baker MP said it would be a "bitter blow" for the town and urged the firm to reconsider its decision.
If the proposal goes ahead the factory, which has been open since the 1940s, will shut by the autumn of 2010.Newell Rubbermaid said work that was carried out in Newhaven would be shifted to its site in Nantes, France.

From the BBC.

Summer plans

In years past, summer has been a slow time.  This year has been different -- partly because of kids getting older, and ever more time devoted to their activities, but also because of our new/old plastics venture, American Art Plastics.  We aren't fully up and running yet; we have managed to get some fantastic celluloid rod and slab stock made to our specs, however, and are looking forward to being able to make it available to penmakers and other artisans very soon indeed.  It's been a long, hard road with more delays, pitfalls, and setbacks than you can imagine.  Yet what a thrill it is, to see such wonderful materials re-created at last, after so much time, money, and work!