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| Hand-lettered bookmarks made by members of the Friends of Calligraphy |
Pokemon? Pen Show? Unless you are a fountain pen collector or grew up in the 1990's and joined the game card collecting craze, you may not realize that thousands of people from all over the world are fans of Pokemon and collect fountain pens and all the paraphernalia that goes along with pens. They were all in the same city for a long weekend of interacting with other obessed fans.
Pokemon cards were first introduced in 1996 in Japan based on a Nintendo video game. The cards show characters such as Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Starfire along with about 1000 other characters. Our son collected them along with Magic: the Gathering cards. We moved to Japan at the time that Pokemon was becoming a "thing" for young people to do and found a ready supply of cards in Japan for him. Like collecting baseball cards for most people, collecting cards for our son was a passing interest and the cards disappeared eventually, Now, I've found that one Pokemon card has been purchased through an auction for $1M. Live and learn or let go. Pokemon followers continue to meet at championship and trading events 30 years later.
I was surprised when I went to the Pen Show for the first time last year to see hundreds of people lined up to browse through the rooms full of handmade fountain pens. Writing by hand is such a dying art that an instrument that encourages good handwriting seemed to be going the way of landlines, camera film, rolodex, and more. Not so to the collectors who crowded the show last weekend. Along with the beautiful handmade pens, the show included rooms full of stationery, journals, inks, stamps, and stickers. Some young people wandered the rooms with accordion books that they filled with vendors' stamps. Their collection of stamped pages reminded me of the accordion books that I carried from one shrine to another while we were in Japan, similar to the stamps that countries used to stamp into passports.
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| Courtesy of Inside Japan Tours https://www.insidejapantours.com/blog/2015/08/11/red-stamping-for-temple-tramping/ |
The members of Friends of Calligraphy have become well-known at the Pen Show with attendees lining up to receive a hand-lettered bookmark. Many people now collect them from year to year. We worked hard while each of us demonstrated a different calligraphic hand from Spencerian, Italic, Black Letter, Copperplate, and from me, Ben Shahn's lettering hand.
I had my latest art journal available for people to look through as they waited for bookmarks. I had opened the book to the pages of drawings of Harajuku-styled young women who come to the show. They fascinate me with their detailed attired, intricate hair styles, hats and the fobs they attach to their fluffy handbags. Hello Kitty, small stuffed animals, and little pins dangle from their bags. They are a contrast to other attendees who come in everyday clothing -- hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans for most.
Last weekend was an interesting window into a world of hobbies and passions that people seem to need as a way of connecting with other people. I think of crafting, racing miniature cars, boats or planes, creating art and nature journals, traveling and being a gamer as hobbies that take us away from the noise of our hurried lives and with people who have the same interests. Who knew, though, that pens and small game cards would still be flourishing.
When I got home on Sunday, I discovered that my almost-out-of-ink disposable fountain pen was missing from my art journal. A polite suggestion to find an elegant, handmade one with a reservoir to refill the ink next year?
Check out Pokemon here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon_Trading_Card_Game
Want to learn to do calligraphy? Use this QR code to access Friends of Calligraphy's website:
or click this link: https://www.friendsofcalligraphy.org/pages/classes.html
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| Window View - August 2026 |
Rest in peace, Gloria Steinem
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