It’s that time of year again! Spring has finally sprung, and the Seoul Pen Show is afoot. Well, actually, it has already happened. This past weekend, the Penhood Seoul Pen Show 2017 was held in the Gangnam area, setting it apart from previous years where the venue was closer to Dongguk University. That wasn’t the only departure from previous years, however. This year’s pen show had a set schedule of classes and lectures on topics of interest to the pen community. Here is a translation of the schedule they posted on their website of the days events:

10:30 “Freesia” Penhood fountain pen ink sale (first come first serve) 11:00 – 12:40 Pen Show Lectures (11:00) Notes on vintage pens (11:30) Methods for proper writing (12:00) Domestic (Korean) fountain pens (12:30) Pencil hand-sharpening techniques 1:00 – 3:00 Auction 3:00 Final sales of “Freesia” Penhood fountain pen ink (first come first serve) 3:30 – 5:10 Pen Show Lectures (3:30) How to use eBay (4:00) One point handwriting fix (4:30) “Is this normal?” (5:00) Q&A 5:15 Pen Show Bingo!

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend all of the events throughout the day, but I was able to arrive for many of the programs after lunch. This year, the room the pen show was held in was a bit larger to accommodate new tables including a paper-making station and a calligraphy station. When I arrived, it seemed like there were fewer patrons than previous years I attended, but it may be the timing of my arrival as people were finishing their lunch break. There were fewer pens on display, but I saw a lot of familiar faces and everyone seemed to be having a good time. The fact that the venue was quite a bit further out than the previous years may have also contributed to the final attendance numbers.

That being said, the lectures seemed to draw a lot of interest and there were a lot of young faces in the crowd. The paper-making booth seemed to be drawing a lot of attention as well. I arrived just in time to acquire one of the final bottles of this year’s Penhood fountain pen ink, “Freesia.” It’s a sort of greenish, yellow color and I look forward to making a full review of it. Patrons even received a handful of freesia flowers in keeping with the theme.

There is a lot going on in my life at the moment, but I am happy that I was able to make it out to the Seoul Pen Show 2017. I’ll be coming back to making pen and ink reviews in the near future, so stay tuned!

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