2026 Philly Pen Show

January 25th, 2026

This year I visited the first pen show of the year in the US—the Philly Pen Show. Since I have family in the area I combined this trip with a delayed holiday visit, and invited them to come check out the pen show.

Collage of snow on the skylights of the hotel, falling through the slatted roof over the driveway in front of the hotel, and in front of the church building across the street.

Despite the forecast for a dry weekend, there was snow on Saturday and Sunday that made travel difficult for my family (the snow wasn't too bad in the city but much heavier where they were traveling from) but I'm glad everyone was able to make it out and see at least a little bit of the show.

Franklin-Christoph

One of my first stops upon arriving at the show Friday afternoon was the Franklin-Christoph table to see the 2026 show inks and matching pens with purple and green material made by Nic Pasquale.

Another small Franklin-Christoph fountain pen in purple and green held up in front of the Franklin-Christoph table at the pen show with more matching pens and ink out of focus in the background.

While I'd already seen pictures online of the colorful material that looked great, I didn't expect to fall for the small pocket pen version of the new Model 45. I've not seen a Franklin-Christoph pen in this size before (at least not in person), plus it was a special edition for the show—I ended up comparing several while the available selection was still good. I picked one with a good amount of translucent purple in the cap and more green in the body.

Swirled swatches of the vibrant purple and green Philly Pen Show '26 inks from Franklin-Christoph next to the glass bottles of ink and a matching pocket size pen.

When posted, this pen is a comfortable size and the excellent fine SIG nib is great to use—it will be a great reminder of my first visit to the Philly Pen Show.

Vibrant purple and swirled green pocket size Franklin-Christoph fountain pen, uncapped with the cap posted on the back, in a clay pen rest on an olive green notebook cover.

Helen's Creations NJ

It was lovely to see Helen's handmade items in person at the Helen's Creations NJ table. I didn't end up picking out a pen case or tray this time, but enjoyed looking through all the different fabric patterns.

Helen's Creations table with a variety of glass pens, and handmade pen sleeves, trays, and other accessories with kimono fabrics.

What I did pick up was a full bottle of Troublemaker Hanging Rice, a lovely green ink I got a sample of from a friend last year, and a little yellow glass pen with a round ball at the end of the handle that should work well as an ink muddler that I look forward to playing around with for swatching and sketching.

A box of Troublemaker Hanging Rice ink and a short, yellow glass dip pen with a straight handle and ball at the end next to a business card for Helen's Creations NJ.

The Cloudy Desk

I met Claudia, The Cloudy Desk, in person at the DC show last year when I took her excellent class, Sketching with Fountain Pens. It was great to see her have a table with lots of art, including the originals for the cover of the Nibbage booklet this year and the northern lights and bears art for a custom Rickshaw collaboration with White Bear Pens, and lots of little paintings. One of the first ones that caught my eye was this bench and flowers—I love the colors and style of the outlines that suggest just enough detail in this piece.

A small watercolor piece of art of flowers and a bench and the Nibbage pen show booklet with art on the cover showing buildings in Philadelphia and the LOVE statue in the snow.

Bucks Bespokery

It's nice to see local/regional stationery shops at a pen show bring a variety of stationery items beyond pens and notebooks. Bucks Bespokery had a couple custom inks made by Monteverde representing Fairmont park and the Wooder of the Schuylkill River that runs through it. Each bottle came with a free postcard with vintage designs.

The Bucks Bespokery table with their custom inks, postcards, and stamps and a hot press people could use to stamp their paper or notebooks.

In addition to their custom inks, I picked out a couple stickers from their sizable selection.

A notebook with swatches of Bucks Bespokery inks Wooder and Fairmont along with postcards with vintage designs for the Liberty Bell and Fair Mount Park and vinyl stickers of the Philadelphia skyline and 'Be patient with me I'm from the 1900s' text.

Wooder is a slightly teal-leaning blue and Fairmont is an earthy yellow green with bright gold shimmer.

Closeup of a swirled swatch of Bucks Bespokery Fairmont ink in a medium yellow green shade with gold shimmer.

Share The Wealth

A "share the wealth" table where people can leave extra/unneeded items for others to use—particularly newer users and kids visiting the show—is a great addition to shows. On Saturday I was walking past the table and a large sketchbook with red pandas on the cover caught my eye as something my niece (who would be visiting the show on Sunday) would love.

I ended up chatting with Judy, who put together this incredibly organized table at short notice, about the setup and she kindly saved the red panda sketchbook for my niece to pick up the next day. This was a great, friendly place for the kids to visit at the show.

Sugar Turtle Studio

The always bright and colorful Sugar Turtle Studio table was the first thing you saw when walking into the show—filled with a wide variety of stationery items from Japan as well as notebooks, washi, Rickshaw storage, stickers and more designed/created by Tom.

The Sugar Turtle Studio table at the pen show filled with notebooks, stamps, washi, stickers, pencils, pen cups, Rickshaw Bags, and more.

I picked out a 2 layer stamp of a black cat in a tote bag, some washi of mugs and stationery items accented with foil, a stamp pad system to try out where you ink the pad with fountain pen ink, and a vinyl sticker that says "Creativity is a Habit" in holographic text over a painted background.

A double-layer stamp set with yellow and blue gray ink and black cat in a tote bag design, an empty ink pad and refills that can be inked with fountain pen ink, two rolls of washing including a mugs design and a red, black, and brown stationery items design, and vinyl sticker with the words 'Creativity is a habit' over a painted background.

I also grabbed a set of three Sailor Mizutama inks which include a warm gray-brown, orangy-brown, and slightly teal-leaning blue.

Ink swatches and glass ink bottles for three Sailor Mizutama inks including a gray brown called Yosooi, an orangy-brown called Kohiru, and a slightly green-leaning blue called Saezuri.

Schon Dsgn

Since this trip was also essentially my Christmas trip to visit family, when my parents visited on Saturday they wanted to get me a pen as a gift.

Rack of 8 colorful Schon Dsgn Pocket Six fountain pens in orange with lines design, blue and green splatter design, lime green, navy, and purple splat design, and purple and orange splat design.

As Philly is the home show for Schon Dsgn, that table was on the shortlist for this gift. I ended up picking out a monochrome dark orange Pocket Six pen with a great matte finish and the signature lines design left shiny.

A dark orange matte with shiny lines Schon Dsgn Pocket Six fountain pen, uncapped with a broad nib, next to an olive green Schon Dsgn sticker.

Piper Trading Co.

Piper Trading Co. is a sub-brand of Franklin-Christoph so one of their tables was filled with Piper goods. I'd been wanting to try the Nikitana paper they have started offering, and the green Fickle Pickle ink.

The Piper Trading Co table with colorful pen cases and pouches, four inks, paper, and standard pens and mechanical pencils.

The Kyoku Haku cases they brought looked really nice, but I wasn't in need of more pen cases. Instead, I picked out one of the small flat pouches made of teal X-Pac with a main zippered compartment, a smaller zippered compartment on the side, and a slip pouch on the other side as a better holder for the stickers and bookmarks I was sharing at the show.

A4 plain paper from Piper, swatch and bottle for the green Fickle Pickle fountain pen ink, a bright teal X-Pac zipper pouch, and business card for Piper Trading Company.

River City Pen Company

Another teaser I saw online before the show were swatches of new inks from River City Pen Company—I got one called "Coal Barge" to check out.

Swatch of Charlie's Private Label Coal Barge ink from River City Pen Company, a dark purple blue shade, next to the bottle of the ink.

Improve Your Handwriting Class

I wasn't sure if I would get a chance to take a class at this show, but I was able to squeeze in Kimberly's Elevate the Everyday - Improve Your Handwriting class. I've wanted to take this class for a while, but between busy schedules or not really being ready to work on my handwriting seriously this was the first good opportunity for me to take the class.

Worksheet and practice papers with different rulings and some practice writing from the Elevate the Everyday - Improve Your Handwriting class by Kimberly Lau.

I really appreciate that this class isn't about learning how to write in a particular style. It was helpful in framing how I should approach handwriting and handwriting practice in a meaningful way. I have takeaways and new ideas to put into practice.

Anderillium Inks

Anderillium Inks brings TWSBI tester pens with their inks—they had all eight inks in their four themed series for a total of 32 different inks you could try at the show. Even though I have most of their inks, I had some time on Sunday and did a quick writing sample with each ink in my notebook.

An open A6 notebook with writing tests of the Lepidoptera and Avian series of eight inks each at the Anderillium table with TWSBI Eco tester pens inked up with each ink and ink bottles available for sale.

The latest series is Ichthyoformes and I only had two of the eight so far, so I picked up individual small bottles (typically only available in sets) of four more.

A notebook with writing tests for all eight Anderillium Icthyformes inks and small bottles of Swordfish blue, Sockeye Salmon, Betta Fish Purple, and Lionfish Maroon.

Esterbrook

Esterbrook pens mostly aren't for me (I have one modern JR I like), but I do like the blotter sets. These have three full sheets, one of each design, and two perforated pages with all three designs that you can separate into smaller sheets as needed. I picked up a set of the kingfisher and dinosaur designs at the show.

Two packs of blotter paper from Esterbrook, one with a painted Kingfisher design and one with a painted dinosaur design.

Inkdependence Mike

It was great to see Inkdependence Mike at the show, and pick up this great dumbo octopus he drew on stream for me—look at 'em!

Orange dumbo octopus drawn by Inkdependence Mike with colored pencils on gray paper.

I also was able to look through the bins of pen rests and pick out a neutral dark gray that will be good for photos and a light green and white with an interesting pattern. I also grabbed a bottle of Wearingeul Don Quixote, a color that's been on my radar.

Swatch and ink bottle of Wearingeul Don Quixote, a raisin color ink, and two pen holders made of clay in black and light green with white.

Final Thoughts

This was a bit of a different show for me, where my priorities were showing some of my family around a pen show on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, meeting some people I've gotten to know online in person, and spending time with friends (who were mostly behind tables during the day) after hours.

Canvas Philly Pen Show 2026 tote bag next to large olive green Rickshaw tote bag.

I wasn't planning on getting a bunch of ink at this show, just a show ink or two and maybe a couple others, but after picking up a few I just figured I'd be mailing ink back and got several more... but it turns out I was just able to squeeze all the bottles into my requisite TSA-approved quart size toiletries bag. At this time of year I'm glad that the winter weather didn't affect my travel and I avoided getting sick, but am now hunkered down back home as a snow/icepocalypse hits the city.

Clear quart size toiletries bag packed with bottles of fountain pen ink.

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