Got to meet a penmaking artisan today

[jesseix]

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.

Atelier Lusso Fountain Pens

Luxury Handmade Fountain Pens

lussopens.com

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!

 

[tankerjohn]

Really cool! I’m jealous. I also have a great admiration for craftsmen. There is definitely a whole side of the fountain pen hobby that is about appreciating pens that are usable works of art.

Soooo, I think the logical follow up question is...which pen did you buy?

 

[jesseix]

Soooo, I think the logical follow up question is...which pen did you buy?

Ha, fortunately I made it out of there with my wallet intact. Even as a non-pen enthusiast, it would have been very easy to pick something up. I don’t believe he actually had any stock on hand though, he said that he has been doing only custom orders since late last year and had to cut them off sometime in April because he had enough volume to work through for months. And one thing he said that I thought was interesting, is that he wants to step back from custom orders to be able to focus on progressing his own designs and styles (vs with custom orders where he’s doing them to the client’s specs).

 

[Jut]

He probably didn't have anything on hand... I just looked at his website and everything is sold out (except for a pen wrap).

His stuff looks super nice! I'm jealous, but thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

[tankerjohn]

Ha, fortunately I made it out of there with my wallet intact. Even as a non-pen enthusiast, it would have been very easy to pick something up. I don’t believe he actually had any stock on hand though, he said that he has been doing only custom orders since late last year and had to cut them off sometime in April because he had enough volume to work through for months. And one thing he said that I thought was interesting, is that he wants to step back from custom orders to be able to focus on progressing his own designs and styles (vs with custom orders where he’s doing them to the client’s specs).

LOL! Well, too bad he was out of stock. I’d have probably pushed him for munched one in a drawer somewhere.

So there’s a lot to unpack in your second statement there. Do you think he’s switching over to his own designs for economy of scale? I’m sure there’s a much bigger profit margin in crafting a batch than one at a time. Or is it more of an artistic/creative decision? I’ve seen other artisans try to bend the market to their own vision. I tell you what, Atelier Lusso had a lot of beautiful pens on the website, but they looked very similar to other small makers’ pens with pretty, colorful acrylic and Jowo nibs. So maybe that’s what he’s trying to get away from. It would be a good move. I really liked his clip designs, so there’s a road to go down to differentiate his pens. I’d personally love to see a maker get more innovative with nibs rather than always defaulting to a Jowo #6. That might be too tall of an order for a small artisan. Anyway, best of luck to AL as he revamps his product.

 

[jesseix]

LOL! Well, too bad he was out of stock. I’d have probably pushed him for munched one in a drawer somewhere.

So there’s a lot to unpack in your second statement there. Do you think he’s switching over to his own designs for economy of scale? I’m sure there’s a much bigger profit margin in crafting a batch than one at a time. Or is it more of an artistic/creative decision? I’ve seen other artisans try to bend the market to their own vision. I tell you what, Atelier Lusso had a lot of beautiful pens on the website, but they looked very similar to other small makers’ pens with pretty, colorful acrylic and Jowo nibs. So maybe that’s what he’s trying to get away from. It would be a good move. I really liked his clip designs, so there’s a road to go down to differentiate his pens. I’d personally love to see a maker get more innovative with nibs rather than always defaulting to a Jowo #6. That might be too tall of an order for a small artisan. Anyway, best of luck to AL as he revamps his product.

From what I gathered it's definitely for artistic/creative purposes. He showed us a couple pens that he had done as a collaboration with another artisan in New York, sounded like he wanted to do another one of those. And he showed us a sheet of specific damascus steel he had recently gotten that he sounded really excited to work with... so I think he has some ideas in mind that he wants to pursue, once time allows.
Talking with people like that and seeing how they work makes me realize how truly uncreative I am ;-)