2025 Arkansas Pen Show

March 30th, 2025

My second pen show trip of the year was about a 5 hour drive down to Little Rock, Arkansas for the 2025 Arkansas Pen Show. This is a smaller show with about 30 vendors, put on by the local pen club.

Darail Penz

One of the first tables I stopped at was Darail Penz, and while a pen didn't catch my eye this time, I looked through their swatch book to pick out a set of three 5ml Colorverse inks.

A notebook with three ink swatches for Colorverse JFK's Dog Pushinka, a yellow-leaning gray brown, String, a dark golden yellow, and Matter, a chromashading gray with hints of pink and blue. Also the boxes and small 5ml glass comet-shaped bottles for all three inks, and a flattened paper bag with a Darail Penz sticker.

The golden yellow-brown String ink has been on my radar since I got Brane, a yellow-green shimmer ink, as those inks are also found paired as a set. I was tempted to get both Matter and Anti-Matter which can also be found as a set, but in the end decided I was more interested in the chromasading pink gray color for Matter, and rounded out the set with another "interesting neutral" called JFK's Dog Pushinka, a yellow-leaning gray brown.

Magnolia Pen Co.

Since Arkansas is a smaller show there was a lot of opportunity to talk to vendors at their table, so I took my time chatting and looking through the pens and pen blanks from multiple resin makers at the Magnolia Pen Co table. I was happy to recognize a few blanks from Pourly Controlled, who I've been a big fan of since getting to know Lisa Marie and getting a pen with one of her materials in Atlanta last year. There are a couple other colors I keep an eye out for, and I spotted one!

A fountain pen made of resin with bright orange shimmer streaking through swirled black, pearl white, and soft pink shimmer, with a slightly tapered cap, flatter ends, and thin bands of copper, then brass, then copper again about a half inch from each end of the pen. A sticker with a magnolia flower logo and Magnolia Pen Co. text.

The gorgeous Saturn's Storm material has been accented with thin bands of copper, then brass, then copper again at each end of the pen. Lightning ribbons of bright orange shoot through swirled pearl white, black, and soft pink shimmer as you turn the pen in the light.

A fountain pen made of resin in bright sunlight showing a lightning bolt of bright orange shimmer streaking through swirled black, pearl white, and soft pink shimmer, with a slightly tapered cap, flatter ends, and thin bands of copper, then brass, then copper again about a half inch from each end of the pen. A sticker with a magnolia flower logo and Magnolia Pen Co. text.

Pen Holders

Another thing I noticed pretty early on in the show, but didn't pick up until Saturday, were these 3D-printed octopus tentacle pen holders. Unsurprisingly I picked out a cool green that shifts color when rotated, and also grabbed an octopus sticker, a small yellow ceramic holder, and four small 3D-printed pen holders to use for pen photography. All of these were at the table of PenGuy Austin, Craig Bond.

A small bag with four small white pen holders, a bright yellow ceramic ring-shaped holder, a black and white sticker with an octopus holding several fountain pens, and a 3D-printed pen holder in the shape of a curving octopus tentacle.

D² Arts

I started following Darrell Davis of D² Arts on Instagram after learning that he made the resin I love in the Newton pen I got at the San Francisco Pen Show.

Turned acrylic fountain pen in a translucent peachy brown with green sparkles and swirl of white

Darrell brought resin pen blanks, ceramics, and a variety of unique fountain pens shaped by hand using files, rasps, and sandpaper. I knew I wanted to get one of his pens, but with each pen having a unique shape the feel was as big of a consideration (if not more) as the color and look of the pen.

Two trays of hand-carved fountain pens in a range of colors for sale at the pen show.

I spent quite a while chatting with Darrell about his work, art, ink, and the stories behind several of the pens I was considering until I finally decided on this blue pen with a spiral carved from end to end. It's like nothing else in my collection—a small piece of sculpture I can hold in my hand, that also happens to be a writing tool.

A swirled blue resin, hand-carved fountain pen with a long spiral carved from end to end, next to a pen sleeve with dark gray and cream batik fabric and a business for D² Arts, Darrell Davis.

Pen Friends

A lot of the weekend was spent finding little spots to hang out and chat with friends, trying out each other's pens, swapping ink samples, etc. It was really nice to meet a few people I knew online in person for the first time, spend more time with local friends who also were at the show, and meet several new people over the weekend.

These chairs were in the hallway behind the ballroom on the way back to the guest rooms on that floor, seen here with the various bags of swatches, pens, paper, and ink samples I was carrying around during the show.

An empty, brown upholstered chair next to a small round table with an orange ink sample tray and notebook on top in a hotel hallway, with a large green Rickshaw tote bag, a colorful Rickshaw Banzai bag, and a canvas tote bag with an ink sample vial rack nearby.

I came home with at least as many new samples as I traded or gave away at the show—I have so much swatching to do! The orange ink vial rack is what I have been taking to shows (or pen club) with ink samples to share, and the rest are all samples I was given.

A plastic case with several ink sample vials, a plastic quart bag with more than a dozen full ink sample vials with orange caps, two separate full ink sample vials with orange caps, and a nearly full orange ink sample tray that holds 50 samples.

Nib Grinds

Matthew of Matthew's Nibworks was kept pretty busy working on pens all weekend, but I didn't have to wait long for a turn to get Kodachi grinds on broad nibs in my new pen from Magnolia and a Newton pen I got online last year. I've gotten a Kodachi and an architect grind from Matthew before, and had an unpleasant nib tuned, and have always been very pleased with the quality (and speed!) of his work.

Two uncapped fountain pens showing nibs that have been ground and a business card for Matthew's Nibworks, Fountain Pen Nib Modifications and Adjustments, Arcadia, CA.

This Newton pen is made with a beautiful green resin from Chad of Eel and Anchor, and since both Shawn and Chad were at this show it was nice to be able to share how much I love this pen with them in person. With my favorite style of grind now added to the nib, this will continue to be one of my absolute favorite pens to look at and use.

A turned resin fountain pen with gold tone nib and clip and translucent white with streaks of bright green and yellow green material, held by a small purple crab pen holder.

Happiness Handmade

Stationery and journaling is becoming a bigger presence at fountain pen shows, and it's been really interesting to watch how these communities increasingly overlap. I ended up speaking with Danielle of Happiness Handmade for quite a while about the stationery presence at the various pen shows I've attended, or seen walkthroughs or reviews of, and about the rapid increase of stationery events happening around the country. Journaling is an area I have much less experience in, but I'm trying out different things and I really love the watercolor style of her sticker designs and how the translucent backing really blends the art into the page.

Five sticker sheets with watercolor style artwork of fountain pens, ink bottles, other writing and stationery tools, brown and cream moths, and purplish sepia flowers and leaves, a small brass colored leaf charm and a round sticker for Happiness Handmade.

Saturday Night Round Tables

The Round Tables event at this show, where attendees move from table to table every 10-15 minutes to meet with a variety of experienced people in the community serving as table hosts sharing about a specific topic, is one of the main reasons I wanted to visit this show. I've come to love the "pen show after dark" hangouts, but it can be intimidating to join in when you're new, and it's unlikely you'd experience such a wide variety of topics being discussed compared to a format like this.

To my surprise, on Thursday night before I'd left town, I got a message about co-hosting one of the tables to talk about ink swatching and streaming with my local pen club friend Derek, who shares pen-related videos and live streams on YouTube as dwrdnet. I was happy to jump in and experience the event from the other side of the table.

As Derek knew, I pack a lot of stuff to show or let people try on a regular basis so I didn't change my packing list too much—just threw in a couple of extra sets of various blank swatch cards, another pack of glass stir rods, and an extra silicone mat. I did not pause to take any photos at this event, but here's an example of what I had out on the table for people to see and try and a short video Vanness posted from the Round Tables event.

One thing I can't do while streaming on Twitch is put things into the hands of those watching to try things along with me, so I wanted that to be part of what I could bring to our table. Since I've really been enjoying swatching with these glass stir rods and making the swirled ink swatches over the more rectangular patches I used to do, I wanted to let people try that tool and explore different swatching patterns. I also brought swatch cards from Col-o-ring, Wearingeul, Colorverse, and Dominant Industry for people to try. While people were swatching we talked about our streaming and videos, and how different the color and character of inks can look on different papers.

Each session went by really fast, and at our table the number of people each round kept increasing to the point it was getting hard for everyone to fit—but I had a great time and I hope those who got to visit our table enjoyed it and maybe came away with some new ideas for swatching and using their inks.

Vanness Pens (and Inks!)

Another reason to drive to Little Rock for the Arkansas show was to finally visit the Vanness Pen Shop in person. As I followed the siren song of thousands of shades of ink into this community, seeing Lisa Vanness, who has done so much to make so many ink colors and brands available at pen shows or shipped from their shop in the US, and the rows and rows of ink bottles in person at the Vanness Pen Shop was incredible.

Col-o-ring ink swatch cards for three inks, Robert Oster Vanness Bless Your Heart, a rich mauve with shimmer, the Arkansas 2025 pen show ink from Vanness, Fresh as a Daisy, a vibrant spring green, and Nagasawa Onomatopoeia Kira Kira, a bright but readable yellow.

I picked up the ink Vanness made for the show, Fresh as a Daisy, which is a vibrant spring green inspired by it being the season I have come to know as "The Pollening" during the show. The number of inks at the shop was almost overwhelming, but I flipped through some swatch books while I was there and added some things to the "inks to consider" list, but only picked out one ink I've had my eye on to purchase, Kira Kira, which is a yellow ink from the Nagasawa Onomatopoeia line.

By Sunday I'd also remembered I wanted to pick up a bottle of another recent Vanness exclusive, Bless Your Heart, which is a rich mauve purple with shimmer, and Lisa Vanness kindly wouldn't let me pay for that one, as thanks for co-hosting a table at the Round Tables, which was very kind.

Seminars

I was excited to see so many seminars scheduled for this show, I think that's one of the best ways to support and grow this community. However, due to not arriving as early as I'd planned on Friday and talking with so many people in the main show room I only made it to one seminar all weekend! It was a good one though, and most relevant to an area I'm looking at getting into soon—ordering a custom pen from a maker.

Pen maker Shawn Newton brought several materials, pen parts, and tools and gathered us in close around the table to talk through the processes involved in designing and making a custom pen.

I think I'm going to take a little more time looking through models and examples on his site, Newton Pens: Ordering Your Custom Pen, and get my name on his list!

Final Thoughts

I'm really glad I drove down to check out this show, a good example of a smaller regional show put on with a lot of care. I heard from multiple people who traveled to the show how friendly and welcoming this show was, and how much the seminars and the roundtable event were appreciated. I wholeheartedly agree, and this might not be the last time I visit Little Rock!

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