I’m not a collector or user of nice pens, but I had a pretty neat experience today meeting an artisan penmaker, Eric Sands of Atelier Lusso.
Randomly enough he lives on the same small street in Lake Arrowhead where my good buddy recently got a vacation spot, so he connected with Eric at some point on social media and we stopped by his house and workshop this morning. It was really cool to chat with him and learn a little about his craft, he had an impressive collection of blanks and metals that he works with. Interestingly enough he said he started getting into penmaking as a result of looking for a razor handle, at which point he bought one from someone on Etsy that also sold pen assembly kits. He tried that out as well and fell in love with it, and here some years later he’s moved to doing bespoke fountain pens full-time.
I didn’t ask to take any photos in his shop as I wasn’t sure that would be appropriate, but it really was a fun experience and I can definitely see the overlap with the amazing shaving artisan we interact with here in terms of pride in their craft and creative ability. I could easily see it being a hobby that one could go down a very deep (and expensive) rabbit hole with!
Randomly enough he lives on the same small street in Lake Arrowhead where my good buddy recently got a vacation spot, so he connected with Eric at some point on social media and we stopped by his house and workshop this morning. It was really cool to chat with him and learn a little about his craft, he had an impressive collection of blanks and metals that he works with. Interestingly enough he said he started getting into penmaking as a result of looking for a razor handle, at which point he bought one from someone on Etsy that also sold pen assembly kits. He tried that out as well and fell in love with it, and here some years later he’s moved to doing bespoke fountain pens full-time.
I didn’t ask to take any photos in his shop as I wasn’t sure that would be appropriate, but it really was a fun experience and I can definitely see the overlap with the amazing shaving artisan we interact with here in terms of pride in their craft and creative ability. I could easily see it being a hobby that one could go down a very deep (and expensive) rabbit hole with!