An Enjoyable Jaunt: CPS 2025 Recap
There is just something about the drive across Wisconsin. It’s pretty much a diagonal road from the Zenith City of the Inland Seas to Chicago. The landscape goes from Northwoods mixed pine and birch forests to lakes surrounded by lake cabins and deciduous trees, and then gives way into seemingly endless farmland. It is a road trip staple to shout “Cows!” when the bovines are spotted, even when one is traveling on one’s own. And there is a lot of opportunity between the farmsteads of Wisconsin and outside the Chicago area once I cross over into Illinois.
Taking a pause in the hotel lobby to play with journals.
The Hotel
It’s about a 7.5 hour drive from my home to the new Chicago Pen Show location and by the time I got there on Thursday I just wanted to chill until the pizza party that evening. The show is now at the Doubletree in Oak Brook, IL, and it is certainly a much more posh place than the Marriot. It has a lot more space and the pen show breakfast is way better than the old one. The hotel was partially under construction, so I’m hoping that in the next year or two the rooms will get some updates as they were showing their age. Despite some crumbling paint, my room was clean and comfortable. I heard that there was an overbooking problem (I think there was more than one conference going on), but luckily my room was still there. One thing I hope they do in the remodel is add refrigerators to the rooms. I like stashing snacks in the room for when I get too busy and realize I’m starving, or as something to munch on during downtime. Not having a fridge really limits that.
The Show
The show floor itself was right off of the parking garage and there was a large ballroom, an atrium, and a room downstairs that were set up for vendors. Downstairs there were also several large meeting rooms that were used as gathering spaces and classrooms. I really like this feature and I think it can lead to even more workshops/classes in the future.
The show floor was more intense I felt than years past, which might have just been because of the larger scale or more people (especially on Saturday). I barely went in the main ballroom on Saturday because it was nearly impossible to walk through with the amount of people. Big crowds can get overwhelming for me fast so I spent a lot of time lurking at various tables with folks from the Atlas Stationers Discord (Mods Lucas and Tanya were very welcoming!), teaching my workshops, and fiddling with the ink testing stations when things were slow. I did make a few rounds to see how some of my pen show friends were faring, and it seemed like it was a great show for the makers.
Despite my intention to take more photos this year… I forgot so here is a pretty picture of White Bear Pens Table.
And Skogsy Pens… the baby saguaros are so cute!!!
I feel like the Chicago show is going through a culture shift, from being vintage pen heavy to slowly gaining traction with modern vendors, makers, and stationery goods at large. That being said, this is still a very pen heavy show, some vendors selling nothing but pens. While everyone is super friendly, I think it’s a tough show for newcomers to the hobby, especially if they aren’t ready to throw down some serious money on their collections. There were very few spots to grab entry-level pens. I get it, the big ticket items are what draw people to shows (and they are certainly fun to look at even when I know I can’t afford them), but I wish there was a little more opportunities for things to use with the pens. And pens under $50. Pilot Kakuno, Lamy Safari, Kaweco Sport, TWSBI Ecos were around, but you had to be looking out for them. This show might benefit from a fountain pen for beginners class of some sort, just so the show floor itself isn’t so overwhelming (and they don’t buy things out of FOMO that they’ll then have to try and resell - l’ve been that newbie).
I was thinking about newcomers to the hobby a lot because the majority of folks who attended the three sessions of my journaling habit workshop had joined the hobby in the past year. They wanted to engage with journaling because they wanted to use the pretty pens they spent so much money on. I had a section of my class that talked about finding paper and notebooks that are enjoyable to write on depending on taste. A lot of them were just on their first tomoe river notebook they picked up on Amazon because they heard it was good. I’m glad I included a “paper tasting” station at the Saturday Fountain Pen Social where I put out a bunch of paper samples for people to try out.
One of my favorite things about shows, getting to play with pens (and I’m really liking all of the stamps!)
Speaking of the Fountain Pen Social, I think it went really well and I appreciated the feedback I got both during and after the event. The Chicago show is a very social show and in the past most of the socializing took place in the bar after hours. Now that we had more space I wanted to set up an area for folks to come to that could one, let us spread out, and two, wasn’t dependent on needing to buy a drink or getting disrupted when the bar closed down for the evening. I set up several stations and @the.needlegrrl offered to bring some ink ponies to paint so we did that too! I have some notes on what was popular and what I need to improve, so I hope next year’s is going to be even better. If you came and are reading this, thank you so much! We were a small crowd (about 20 people), but we had fun. One of the big changes is that we need much better directional signage to get to the meetup, since it was in a big room on the opposite end of the lower floor from the stairs. There were also some competing meet-ups, especially after 8 pm (whisky tasting, Lemur Ink meetup, Atlas Stationers meetup, and there were probably more). I think I ended up missing a lot of friends because of the different events at the same time.
The Saturday Fountain Pen Social. It was really great to meet everyone! If you came and have suggestions for stations for next year, please don’t hesitate to send me an email.
One of the highlights of my visit was taking one of Tom Forsythe’s (Sugar Turtle Studio) journaling classes. They all sounded like so much fun, but I could only get to the Sunday one since our workshops were scheduled at the same times on Saturday. If you get a chance to check out Tom’s work, he is a very fun person to know (and makes epic fountain pen related stickers).
One of the journal activities was connecting with your inner child. We colored a coloring page and then adding it to a journal and surrounding it with other things that reminded you of your childhood. Lots of doodles around that I used to do as a kid.
The biggest highlight of all? Seeing old friends and making some new ones. There is just such a fun energy around pen shows, and it’s so much fun to geek out with people who get it.
The Haul
My haul was rather modest compared to previous shows. I picked up seven new inks: a used bottle of Papier Plume Rebirth, Amarillo Stationery Blue Suntan, Colorverse Windy City Blue (show exclusive ink), Papier Plume Lake Michigan Springtime (show exclusive ink), Anderillium Anglerfish Deep, Anderillium Piranha Red, and a bottle of Ferris Wheel Press Steeped Umber. I didn’t intend to buy any pens but I did end up with one anyway, a Kaweco Sport x Cult Pens Metallic Violet.
There were a lot of tempting pens in that pen case, but I couldn’t walk away and leave this one to “if it’s meant to be it’ll be there when I get back” logic. It was also going for $15 so it was an easy sell.
I picked up two Mnemosyne x Kleid notebooks from Atlas Stationers. Overall, my goal for this show wasn’t to acquire, but to meet people and share my love of the hobby. I also picked up a few washi tapes from Amarillo Stationery and got some Esterbrook x CoffeeMonsterzCo blotting paper, washi, and a little tote from Atlas’s coffee reception on Saturday morning. Lots of fun goodies to keep me busy.
For friends I snagged some of the little cat sample and dip pen holders from Kaleidocraft and a few stickers from Roses without Thorns. There were so many more things I saw and wanted, but I’m proud of myself for (mostly) sticking to my shopping plan and keeping the haul small.
Conclusion
This is a great show that is getting better each year. There were a few hiccups this year due to the new location, but that’ll smooth out over time. For me, I hope to do a few more workshops next year, free or low cost, to give folks a chance to enjoy some air conditioning and play with their pens, paper, and inks.
Currently Inked
Ferris Wheel Press Ribbiting Pond - Kaweco x Galen Leather Sport Carmine 14K BB ‘journaler’ - I chose this ink as the header ink for the month because I wanted a light blue and hadn’t used this one in a long time. This is a pretty ink, a light blue with a green and blue shimmer.
Papier Plume Lake Michigan Springtime (Chicago Pen Show 2025 Exclusive) - Kaweco Sport Metallic Violet B - This ink is really lovely, a green-leaning teal with shading. I’ve been having fun playing with it in my newest pen (the pen came with a fine nib, but I swapped it with a broad when I got home).
Ferris Wheel Press Wayfinder’s Slate - Kaweco liliput copper M - Still working through my fill on this guy and am debating on just re-inking it when I run out. I really like this color. It’s a very soothing shade.
Anderillium Anglerfish Deep - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M ‘journaler’ - I really wasn’t planning on picking up another brown ink at the show (got two), but I enjoy Anderillium Inks and they had their new Ichthyology (fish) series available at their table during the show. I really appreciate that they always have their inks in TWSBI Ecos so they can be written with and compared. I was really struck by this deep brown, but was worried it would be too similar to Anderillium Cuttlefish, which I also own. This one has a lot more depth and is warmer, where Cuttlefish is cooler and more matte on the page. This is a really excellent brown ink.
Ferris Wheel Press Gossiping Grapevine - Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye 14K BB CSI - One of the newest releases from FWP. I really like the box art on this one (FWP ink packages look great for display in my opinion), because it harkens back to fancy parties of the past. Upon first glance I thought this ink was going to be really close to FWP Aurorealis which was the “ink of the year” for 2024. They do appear to have the same shimmer, but the base purple is very different. Aurorealis is a warmer purple where Gossiping Grapevine is much cooler. “Grapevine” was a good name because it is the color of grape flavored candy (especially grape flavored Nerds).
Ferris Wheel Press Lantern Crossing - FWP Carousel Hearty Harvest M - This ink straddles red and orange, in some lights it’s red and in some lights it leans more orange. The red shimmer is a lot of fun as well. I want to try this one out in a broader nib because I bet it has some wicked shading to go along with the pretty colors.