In mid-October the inaugural On the Paper Trail Live—a small-scale, community-focused event hosted by Joe Crace (The Gentleman Stationer) and Lisa Vanness (Vanness Pens) of the On the Paper Trail podcast—was held in Nashville. Well, technically just south of Nashville at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cool Springs.
I was busy wearing a few different hats over the weekend and was only an "attendee" part of the time—I didn't experience the event like a weekend passholder but I still want to capture and share some thoughts and memories.
The Gentleman Stationer
Since this event was hosted in the Nashville area about 10 miles away from The Gentleman Stationer physical shop, my time was split between the event and helping to keep the shop open normal hours on Friday and Saturday. In addition to a growing number of regular local and visiting customers there were several event attendees in from out-of-town who stopped by the shop.
On Thursday we had the Kaweco DIY event where you could assemble the exclusive DIY glow-in-the-dark Kaweco Sport at the shop. On Friday the DIY setup moved to the event for the rest of the weekend and was very popular.
Matthew Chen was also in town a bit early and set up to do nib tuning and grinds at the shop Thursday before moving to the event for the rest of the weekend, so things were pretty busy before the event even started!
I also worked on some new sticker designs for TGS that were available for the first time at the show. I particularly like how the pencils one turned out, but one design might be the runaway favorite thus far—guess which one?
Vendors
The number of vendors was purposefully limited to fit the scale of this event, yet still a remarkably good range of what you'd find at a pen show was represented. As someone who traveled to six different pen shows in 2026 alone, I was really excited for those in our local community who have never been to a pen show to have access to these vendors in a local and less overwhelming setting. When staffing the TGS tables I appreciated the relaxed pace allowing me time to have extended conversations with people about products on the table and what stationery needs they were looking to meet.
Vanness Pens and The Gentleman Stationer anchored each end of the room with several tables featuring signature offerings and some show exclusives (plus the full Gentleman Stationer shop was only 10 miles away). Jonathan, who runs local shop Butler Stationery in Columbia TN, brought a range of items representative of his store and there was very little overlap among the three stationery stores represented.
Ana and Bob of The Well-Appointed Desk and Skylab Letterpress brought a range of stickers, stamps, washi, notepads, cards, etc. plus Col-o-ring of course. Jaclyn and Laura of Kaleidocraft have not slowed down in their 3D creations that are great to be able to see and interact with in person—especially the variety of very satisfying fidgets and clickers, but also accessories for storing washi and ink samples, pens and nib holders, charms, and more. Scott of Tri Star Studio is a local pen maker who brought wood and resin custom fountain pens, including some he made during the weekend in response to what people were looking for!
The vendor line up was rounded out with Matthew Chen expertly grinding and tuning nibs, with several tester pens available with different grinds—a valuable opportunity especially for those just beginning to learn about custom nib grinds. Bill from Pilot also had multiple binders of essentially the entire Pilot fountain pen lineup available to try, from steel nib Explorers and Metropolitans to high-end gold nib Urushi pens.
As busy as the weekend was, it was really nice to actually get a chance to talk with these vendors who have all become friends over the last few years. I shopped in advance at the Well-Appointed Desk for a hand-delivered order and picked out a few more things at the show, most of which is pictured above, but one of the coolest things about this event was that shopping was just one facet of the whole experience.
Events
Events were as big of a focus as vendors this weekend. I really value the opportunity to learn something new, and while you can find videos and tutorials for just about anything online there's something special about learning and doing something new with other people.
One event that I was able to attend and was really looking forward to was "Roll With It: A Washi Swap & Swatch Social" sponsored by Kaleidocraft, hosted by Jaclyn, on Saturday evening. This event was well attended and well run. Everyone was simply asked to bring a roll of washi to share, and received a washi wallet insert and cutter which are part of the innovative washi wallet system they created.
After swapping piles of washi around the room and grabbing samples of a lot of different designs, we got to try a new way of using washi creatively that I really got into and will absolutely do again.
I heard lots of positive things about the classes and events hosted by Lisa V., Joe, Ana, Jaclyn, and Derek over the weekend—if time and space allowed I would have gladly joined every one of them. Oh, and they let an inky octopus host some too.
Olive Octopus
My main role at the event was as TGS staff, but I hosted a few events as Olive Octopus including a swatching seminar on Friday afternoon and "Ink Pony Club" painting with fountain pen inks.
Ink Pony Club is a silly name for something that has become one of the most personally meaningful things in my life. Holding time and space for being creative in a low friction, non-taxing way has made a huge difference for me personally, and I'm kind of proud of putting together a toolkit and simple, approachable designs that let me share this experience with lots of people because everyone can color. Regardless of anyone's past experience or relationship with "art"—I'll believe in you, hand you the tools, and we'll both see what happens.
Even though I got delayed by a situation at the shop and was rolling into the hotel just a couple minutes before the event was due to start, several people jumped in to help me get everyone set up to paint without too much delay, which I am very grateful for. It turned out we were able to hold this event in the restaurant space of the hotel surrounded by bright windows, with groups of mostly 2 to 4 people spread out among the tables. After giving everyone a few random colors to start with I was able to roam the room with more ink to refill palettes and chat with everyone as they painted.
I actually remembered to take a few pictures for my own memories but don't generally like to post photos with people so here's one Joe captured of the extra supplies and painting setup at the large table.
A busy schedule (and a few curveballs from my laser printer) meant I didn't get everything finished *before* the weekend started, but I really wanted a coloring book specifically for On The Paper Trail Live featuring stationery and autumn theme stained glass designs (printed on Midori Cotton paper) to exist, and as the weekend progressed that was achieved.
These make me happy, I hope they make a few other people happy too. I started painting some designs in my coloring book on a Sunday stream last weekend. (If you were at the event and didn't get a coloring book, I'll have some at the shop or message me.)
Final Thoughts
This was a uniquely special event where people I am used to seeing on the pen show circuit were in my town alongside local pen club friends and familiar faces from the TGS shop. One sentiment I heard a variety of people trying to put into words was the good vibes of the people and experiences at the event, how special the pen community can be when we get together. Good conversations, new friends, inspiration, generosity, sharing of tools and strategies, conversations with vendors, new ideas and skills from classes, and more filled the weekend. The location and scale of this event made that experience and those connections accessible to more people.
I was touched to realize as I've been unpacking how many things I brought home were thoughtful gifts, things to try out, items from a group buy that I wouldn't have had the bandwidth to manage on my own, etc.
A lot of work went into planning a new type of event for the first time—I think these two are on to something.
