San Francisco Pen Show 2024 Recap

I survived my second year of attending the San Francisco Pen Show! I was looking forward to this trip since the 2023 show, and it did not disappoint.

This year there were more vendors than ever. But the real highlight of SF for me is getting to see people whose work I admire, chat with them and swap stickers, and sometimes even sit down and journal together.

It’s a wild experience to walk around the vendor area and recognize folks from streams I watch or Instagrams I follow—let alone to be recognized myself. Journal keeping can feel like such an isolated hobby, and it’s so refreshing and inspiring to be in a place where a bunch of us are, all at once.

Thursday

I flew in to SF on the Thursday afternoon before the show. The travel woes that plague the airline industry mostly passed me by, and I only had one slightly delayed flight.

I dropped my backpack (yes, one backpack) off at the hotel, and then got a Lyft down to the Embarcadero with a few minutes to spare before Mariposa Baking Co. closed. I may have spent more money on gluten-free goodies than I spent at the pen show. Whoops!

I successfully navigated MUNI to get to the Golden Gate Bridge, and got soooo many stamps at the visitors’ center. It was an absolutely gorgeous day—much cooler than this time last year—and incredibly blustery out at the bridge. Fortunately, Karl the fog stayed at bay (see what I did there?) until after I got lots of photos.

Then it was time to settle in for a long public transit ride back to the hotel, and order some dinner and groceries to see me through the weekend.

Friday

Day 1 of the pen show dawned, but I woke up much earlier due to still being on Central time. Fortunately, the Westin has a hot tub and I got a very relaxing soak in while I waited for the breakfast buffet.

At long last it was Early Access time for folks with the full weekend pass. I had big plans to go to the Travelers Company/Plotter tables first, and give Job (@jobsjournal) and April (@penguinscreative) some custom Jinhao 82 pens I made for them, before the crowds descended. Alas, the crowds were already there and the line stretched out the ballroom door.

Fortunately, I spotted another familiar face: Jasmine (@jasminemarieplans)! I gave her the Jinhao I made for her, and we chatted in line along with Grace Zelda (@gzblessings) and Jackie (@brokenhalo81). 

I wanted to scope the pen show exclusive Plotter Mini 3, to see if it would fit the card holder I made out of cork. Unfortunately, it did not, and I left the Plotter table empty-handed.

Dromgoole’s was next on my list; they had posted the week before about bringing Tom’s Studio products to SF. I have a Tom’s Studio Lumos pen and I love it, and I wanted to try the Pocket fountain pen from the same brand, and its impressive variety of specialty nibs. It turned out that Dromgoole’s only brought the Lumos pens. I was a little disappointed, but my wallet was certainly happy. 

I got in line again for the Travelers Company table, hoping to check out the To & Fro backpack. (I discovered on Thursday how uncomfortable my packable tote bag can be for hauling baked goods across the city.) Jessica (@telkana806) and her husband were in line ahead of me, and we chatted while we waited.

A pretty modest haul by pen show standards

Travelers did not have any of the backpacks in stock for the show. I had struck out! Ah, well. I bought a Travelers Company water bottle so I could keep a perpetual spot of tea going all weekend, which turned out to be an absolute lifesaver.

Then I wandered the show floor a bit more and picked up some trinkets. Everyday Explorers Co. had a long line as well, and while I was in it and standing in front of their neighbor’s booth, I got one little brass and wood unbranded mystery pen for $5. It was the only pen I bought all weekend.

Several lovely people complimented the “Sailors” I was carrying with my notebook. I got a lot of style and pen show street cred out of those Jinhao 82s! 

I was starting to feel run down, and I went back to my room to rest and eat lunch before it was time for Abbey Sy’s workshop. 

This year at SF, the workshops all took place in spaces outside of the main show floor, which I think is a good move. Last year it was quite a struggle to get through the crowds and into the side room near the ballroom in time for class.

I got to hold Abbey's. actual. journal.

Abbey’s workshop was great, and I had a moment of overwhelm while holding one of her actual journals in my hands. I gave her one of the custom pens in her customary color scheme of orange and olive.

I chilled out for a while after class, then went to the SF Pen Posse destash event. There were so many goodies to choose from! I left a stack of my own stickers as well as a leather pen zip case, and I took a cool pad of paper with a white-on-white grid. 

My spread from Abbey's workshop!

I returned to the show floor to find the Travelers and Plotter tables line-free at last. The team were sitting down to eat a late lunch, and I hovered until Job and April had their hands free and could socialize a bit.

Everyone seemed to like the pens I gave them, but Job in particular was very chuffed about his pen. The yellow matches the color scheme of his website, and the orange finial matches Abbey’s pen. Mission accomplished!

By then, I was crashing hard. I wanted to meet up with Lela (@needtojournal) and Bridget (@idlesnacks) to journal in the evening, but I gave them my apologies and retired to my room instead.

Saturday

I paced myself very diligently on Saturday, and spent a lot of time lizard-sprawling in my room.

Little did I know that when I got home, I would test positive for COVID. (Just like SF ‘23! Not a part of the trip that I was interested in repeating, but oh well.) I was probably experiencing the early symptoms over the weekend, especially fatigue. Fortunately, I stayed masked and so did most of the folks I interacted with, and I informed everyone I spent time with so they could test as well.

My first order of business when I did hit the show again was to meet Judy (@tokubetsumemori). We were both at SF last year, but didn’t get a chance to connect. She is such a wonderful warm person, and encouraged me to go get selfies with more stationery peeps. Her table was the only one where I spent money on Saturday—I simply could not find anything else I wanted.

In the afternoon, Lela messaged me saying that RoRo (@eatmypixiedust) was looking for me. I booked it down from my room, navigated the Saturday afternoon crowds like a salmon swimming upstream, and found Lela and RoRo in the same side room where Judy’s table was. It was so good to finally meet RoRo in person and exchange goodies, however briefly.

I attempted to do one more turn around the ballroom before the end of the day, but the sheer volume of the crowds made it impossible to do any browsing. When two people wearing enormous commuter backpacks managed to completely block the aisle in front of me, I could feel myself becoming a Karen, and knew I had to get outta there.

As incredible as the selection of vendors is at SF, the show has outgrown its space (and most definitely outgrown its available parking, which wasn’t a problem for me but made it difficult for SF locals to attend). On my way back to my room I reflected that it’s a very good thing I didn’t go to Stationery Fest. It would not have gone well for my blood pressure!

The best part of the weekend was still to come. After scarfing some dinner, I crossed the parking lot to the Aloft, where Geetika (@geetikasinha7), Ketty (@kittymailsnny), and Jessica were already hanging out at the big table for some journal time. We were later joined by Kim (sorry I didn’t catch your socials, Kim!), Lela, Bridget, Jennifer (who does not have Instagram), and Jacqueline (@morethanlettering).

It was a super fun, and maybe a little rowdy, group journaling session. Stamps were shared, supplies were compared, selfies were taken, notebooks were autographed, and memories were made. I stayed until 9 o’clock, when I could no longer put off going to bed because I had to catch the 4 a.m. airport shuttle.

Two full days of the SF Pen Show were so overwhelming, I don’t think I should ever attempt three. The weekend was chock full of great memories, though, and I’m so grateful to all the folks I got to spend time with. I went home sleep-deprived and feeling physically pretty lousy, but extremely happy.

Massive thanks to everyone who made this year’s SF Pen Show so awesome!