2025 San Francisco International Fun Pen Show at Westin Airport Hotel Millbrae

San Francisco International Pen Show is from August 29-31, 2025 at The Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel 1 Bayshore Hwy, Millbrae, CA 94030.

It seems nowadays our settings are high tech, digital, AI generated. Remember the good old days where you write letters and snail mail to the Post Office? It’s time to attend a fun Pen Show and it’s happening this week in San Mateo County. Aside from the hundreds of pen exhibitors, there are scheduled classes for kids & adults , stationery papers, planners, free bookmarks, auctions, “Vintage Pen tasting” for pen fans.

President John F. Kennedy used different pens: the Parker “45,” an Esterbrook fountain pen, and a Montblanc Meisterstück No 149, according to historical records. President Trump uses Sharpie markers to sign documents.

Albert Einstein used a Pelikan 100N Fountain Pen. According to NY Times Bill Gates bought novelist Leo Tolstoy pen, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina , for a whopping $135,000, a world record for a writing tool. Bill Gates himself uses a Uni-Ball Deluxe ball pen, though sources say he owns a $8k fountain pen.

The Pen organization invited the two Bay Area guilds : Friends of Calligraphy and Pacific Scribes to make bookmarks for attendees names near the entrance of the Pen Show.

I’m partnered with San Francisco calligrapher Martha Slavin on Friday who is coordinating the calligraphy group. She said ”It's really a lot of fun—you don’t need to be a master calligrapher; people really like to see their names written in nice calligraphy.” Friends of Calligraphy members who will be there are Kathie Leavens, Kelvin Sevilla, Surbhi Aggrawal, Steve Johnson, Meredith Klein, Sara Cortes, Cassandra Wilson. I don’t know the names of the Pacific Scribes for they belong to another guild.

My bookmark creations started when Judy Detrick taught a calligraphy Rustic fundraiser workshop at Joseph Fernekes Bldg, SSF ; Mayor Mark Addiego dropped in to say ‘Hello’ to the 20 calligraphy students(20 is the maximum number of students in a workshop). After the workshop she told me , “Do something for the mayor.” I thought what design piece should I do? Of course a bookmark! It was appropriate for a Mayor named Mark.

Also, when President Obama made history as the first black 44th President, I sent him a bookmark; I received a thank you back. Now? I make bookmarks as an outreach for evangelization “God is Love” and to make people happy. Happiness seems to be in short supply nowadays.

My Blackletter teacher Ward Dunham said a wealthy client of his hired him to write the client’s million dollar checks with his pen to impress the recipient of the client’s check. French Master calligrapher Claude Dietrich writes his checks with his elegant Copperplate pen , the recipients of his check told him that they almost didn’t want to cash his checks because of his beautiful calligraphy.

Don’t leave your precious pen unattended . At a Kalligraphia event years ago I was assigned to write name tags for visitors; I left my Parker pen on the table to talk to friends but when I returned the pen was gone.

Please check out the links for below for exhibitors, classes, schedules.

https://sanfranciscopenshow.com/exhibitors/

https://sanfranciscopenshow.com/main-show-schedule/

https://sanfranciscopenshow.com/classes/

Update: The calligraphers tables were at the entrance of the ballroom where the exhibitors or vendors displayed. I expected from 200 to 300 attendees and only to make from 10 to 20 bookmarks since these times are high tech AI environment and only a few would request a low tech bookmark made manually. Was I wrong, the attendees were from 1200 to 1500*(a vendor acknowledged , these numbers were enrolled attendees, but with public it was actually 5000 plus). The SF Chronicle article said , the pen show was “overwhelming”. The ballroom were full to capacity, bloggers reported being squished; Late afternoon I could hardly walk around with luggage of calligraphy materials, without bumping to another attendee.

The lines were long, lots of request for bookmarks. Martha and I were assigned on Friday. Aside from requesting their own names, some requested names for spouses, friends, sisters, pet dogs, their email addresses or website. I was flattered when some folks wanted to pick up my God is Love, Love never fails bookmarks but I said they’re just samples and I made them for Martha. I lunched at Westin Grill and Vine restaurant , ordered cold lemon juice drink, appetizer Grilled & Spiced Chicken Wings for $18.00 from Pen Show Menu. The serving was served on a big plate and the wings were finger licking good, waitress had to give me a warm towel to get off the sauce from my hands. I might go to the restaurant again just to eat the spiced wings.

Late afternoon I went to buy pen and inks. The place was full to capacity. I was eyeing to buy a Mont Blanc fountain like Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen’s God Wife, etc. I met her in a Kidney Foundation fundraiser. She used a Mont Blanc fountain to sign her books. Alas, the Mont Blanc fountain pen I specifically wanted was already sold out. The vendor showed me the empty slots. I went around Esterbrooks, Parker, Waterman areas. I finally bought an emerald dip glass pen from a Honkong pen inventor and a fountain pen from Itoya; also picked up two bottles of ink.

Thanks to Kelvin Sevilla from SSF who bought an All Access pass for three days gave me a ride back home. I didn’t drive since I read if you’re not staying at Westin Hotel, it’s $12 per hour and the parking lot fills up fast, hence I took Uber because of promo code.

I only attended Friday on my assigned day, so I didn’t know the happenings of other days. Martha sent a thank you that the attendees gave a rave reviews for the calligraphic bookmarks. I heard a report that a total of around 2k bookmarks were made manually on the Pen Show. Hurray, there’s still a chance that the old traditional analog way still happens without needing a wifi, plugins to a socket to make you happy. A pen is mightier than a sword.

If you want to read what happened at a pen show event, click on link below.
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/san-francisco-international-rare-pen-show-21026874.php

I’m upbeat on air ‘As high as the flag in the Fourth of July “ (Roger’s and Hammerstein , A Wonderful Guy) since I found out that I made the 700 cut out of 11k artists at De Young Museum and was chosen out of 34k art pieces in the San Mateo County Fair” in the Press and Media release for the past 4 years. Still willing to create art even if it’s exhausting. Still creating, participating, sharing art just for fun.