San Francisco Pen Show 2026 Diary

Pre-Show 8/27: I left a drizzly and cool Oregon coast this morning and made my way to Portland to catch a plane to San Francisco and arrived to a cool but not drizzly San Francisco this evening. If you have never traveled to or from the north coast of Oregon, it takes forever to get anywhere!

When I checked in to the hotel several of the vendors were also arriving to set up...so exciting! I have preplanned my "strategy" for tomorrow morning but I know that will likely go out the window depending on what the crowds look like in each area. Devon and Marlies, the ladies who fly up to Portland to help me at the PNW Pen Show, are on their way here and then hopefully we can pick up our entry badges tonight when they arrive.  Post Script...they arrived and we then got in line to pick up our badges. That took about an hour so that is a lot of time saved in the morning!

8/28 Show Day 1: We queued up in line at 8am for a 9am entry today. We all had things at the top of our list in the Bayshore room but so did everyone else! Wow, it got crowded in there fast. (The photo on this blog was the NOT busy day) I was number 17 for Toyooka Craft so I looked around the room at the other vendors and of course purchased some stickers. By the time I made it around the corner the next row was already so crowded you could not go down it. That was a bummer because there were a couple vendors I wanted to see there. Instead I waited for my turn for a lovely pen display box. I think it took about an hour to get to 17...My main objective accomplished I went to the ballroom and it was so much less crowded, what a relief! I spent the next few hours browsing and talking to vendors. I picked up my first stock order from Hinze Pen and I am looking forward to sharing some photos of those soon. 

Even with a plan I find this show can be overwhelming but its worth it to me because of the opportunity to see so many of the out of country vendors. I went back to the hotel room once and went to a late lunch and both times just touched base with my notes and vendor plan.

Late this afternoon I met with Frank from Elbwood. What a treat that was! I love the opportunity to talk to craftsman and artisans about their work and what Frank is doing in Germany is so impressive!

 End of day 1 and I have visited all the vendors that I had on my must visit list!

8/29 Day 2: I think everyone must have bought the all day/all access passes because I think  it was far busier yesterday morning than this morning. I started the day with a nib appointment with Josh Lax. He fixed up a couple of pre owned pens so they are now ready to go. Next I met with the folks at Nahvalur/Wahl/Omas to take a look at some pens to bring into stock. I have had several Narwhal(Nahvalur) pens over the past few years and been very happy with them so I plan to bring those into stock.

After that it was just browsing around for a few a hours. I added some journals to my personal stash from Curnow Bookbinding and more ink from Nagasawa and Amarillo stationers. It's a good thing I brought an empty suitcase with me! By late this afternoon when I walked around the show floor again some vendors were sold out. This is wonderful for them as so many travel from far away but I also feel bad for the folks whose only experience at the show might be tomorrow. 

Late this afternoon into the evening I really enjoyed a Brush Lettering class with Bechori that Devon and I took and I am looking forward to taking another of his classes in the future. 

There are after hours events at this show but I have not done them in the past. I am socially tapped out by the time the show is over most days! Tonight I pack up my treasures and tomorrow morning I am heading home!

It was another enjoyable San Francisco Pen Show!