The Arkansas Pen Show was this weekend and I had a blast. We had great traffic through the door. I was so busy meeting new friends and talked with so many people that I didn’t even think about using the bathroom. I had such a great time.
Things started nice and easy Friday morning at 10. I started setting up at around 9:30am, nervous of course. For some reason I always am at the beginning of things like this. That all went away as soon as I started talking and visiting with everybody. Sam and Frank from Pendemonium were there. Kathy and her husband from Oklahoma. Franklin Christoph was there! Henry Simpole! Danny Fudge was there working on pens. Lisa Vanness and her crew were there! Joel Hamilton, Sam Highsmith, so many others. I wish I had a chance to visit with everybody a bit more, but it really was that busy. I had such a great weekend.
Saturday was incredibly busy as well. I had such a great time, I just can’t say it enough. If you didn’t get to come this year, you’ve got to come next year. At around 2pm we had a live string band play for us. It warmed the room up and was just so wonderful to listen to.
There were door prizes given out every hour or two, and I won a Sheaffer Prelude Snow Pen! So cool! I can’t believe I keep winning things at the shows. You have to be there to win though.
This month we had 47 entries for the scholarship pen drawing, and so far have raised in total $4813.51.
I just clicked the Random.org number picker, and number 25 won it! Congrats to Ray! 🙂
And thanks SO MUCH to everybody for participating, donating, and helping this to be a success. I appreciate you all so much, but I know the kids appreciate you even more. I was so proud talking about the kids and the artwork on the postcards, and how one of the artists won a scholarship last year and bought herself a used car with it! All of that because of your generosity. Thanks. March’s fundraising and post card sale starts tomorrow and ends the last night of March. There’s plenty of time to get in and participate, raise some money for kids going to college, and maybe even win a pen for yourself.
The February fund raiser ends the 28th! That’s this Saturday. If you want to participate in this month’s drawing don’t delay. You could win your own custom pen!
Like this one perhaps…
So far you’ve all helped to raise $4547.06. Every penny will go to high school students to help them with their college expenses. Scholarship applications have started to roll in and I’ve extended the deadline to hopefully allow more kids to enter. Deadline is now April 4th.
Just a recap: February Scholarship Fund Raiser
Starting now, I’m going to change the way I raise money for the scholarships a little bit. Instead of a two week period post card sale, the cards will be on sale continuously, and the numbering for the pen give away will be for the duration of each month. So from the 1st until the last day, whatever that may be. Post cards will always be for sale from now on – all you have to do is send $10 with paypal to @gmail.com and a postal address, and I’ll send some cards your way. This means there will be one custom pen give away each month, the winner being announced the last day of the month. If you have any questions, please ask. Yes it’s still free to enter as long as you send a note or postcard in the mail to me at PO Box 6084, Hot Springs, Ar. 71902
I have a lot of art I want to sell. All of the profits – that is, everything except shipping costs – will go into the scholarship fund. First though – I want to mention that the deadline for the scholarship applications is being extended to April 4th. Please spread the word.
Next – don’t forget the current month’s post card sale is currently under way, and ends the last night of February, when I’ll do a random drawing and pick somebody to win a custom pen. 🙂 There are only 13 entries so far.
Now for the sale. This is something I’ve been thinking over for a while, but I just haven’t gotten around to sorting through it all and putting it up. So tonight, here it is.
Captions show title, quantity, and price. All prices include shipping.
If you have any questions please shoot a note over to @gmail.com. To order, send requests to the same email address. I’ll try to keep quantity updated here for you to check.
I’ve been teaching for almost 7 years now, and while the job has had its ups and downs, I love teaching. I don’t think I’m the best art teacher there is, I’m sure I leave a LOT of information out of my classes, and I probably skip over a lot that I shouldn’t, but hopefully some of the kids have picked something up from me. I know I’ve learned a lot from them.
I’ve just turned in my letter of resignation, effective the end of this school year, so I can begin making pens full time. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. My wife and I have talked about it for hours on end over the last year. It’s risky going out on my own, but with the amount that my business has grown in just three years, I’m confident that we’ll be okay financially. Having one job will allow me to spend more time with my family, too. I don’t want to miss my kids growing up.
I’m excited to see where this takes us.
February Scholarship Fund Raiser
Starting now, I’m going to change the way I raise money for the scholarships a little bit. Instead of a two week period post card sale, the cards will be on sale continuously, and the numbering for the pen give away will be for the duration of each month. So from the 1st until the last day, whatever that may be. Post cards will always be for sale from now on – all you have to do is send $10 with paypal to @gmail.com and a postal address, and I’ll send some cards your way. This means there will be one custom pen give away each month, the winner being announced the last day of the month. If you have any questions, please ask. Yes it’s still free to enter as long as you send a note or postcard in the mail to me at PO Box 6084, Hot Springs, Ar. 71902
Well Newton, if you’re not teaching anymore, how are you going to get new art for the post cards? I’ve already thought of that, and this is easy. I’m going to pop into my old class every now and then and talk with the new teacher about getting some photos of work from the kiddos. I’m also going to expand this to the other local schools and make it into an art contest with a cash prize. I want to get lots of kids involved in making these post cards and in turn get the word out about the scholarship to more students.
So starting now – you can buy a pack of postcards to help some lucky deserving students with their college expenses.
Postcards are NOW for sale again to raise money for the Newton Pen’s Scholarship.
So far we’ve raised $4396! Thank you all so much!
There’s only a few more months to raise money, let’s see if we can match or beat last years total of $6000.
A winner will be picked from all the entries February 28, around 9pm US Central time.
And get those scholarship applications in!
Deadline for scholarship applications is March 1st. I won’t take anything that comes in after that date. Be sure the forms are filled out completely and correctly! Nothing bothers me more than discarding incomplete applications.
Visit http://newtonpens.wordpress.com/scholarship-application/ for the form. Tell your friends! Tell your friends’ kids! If you’re a teacher, tell your students! Applications and essays are starting to trickle in. Don’t delay!
And finally…
Thanks for your support over the last few years. When I started making pens I never thought it would have grown so much like it has. I hope that being able to dedicate more time to it will help the scholarship to grow even more.
Using Random.org to pick a number from 1-52, #31 got it!
Congrats to Keith M!
And thanks so much to everybody who participated. We raised $510 this month! $4396 total! We’re only about $1600 away from meeting last years total of $6000. The more we raise the more kids we can help.
When I first started making pens, I organized them by shape, size, and how the cap fit against the body when it was closed.
After a while I decided to come up with some proper names to make it easier to browse through all the pens I’ve made. Where to draw inspiration from though? I asked around and was offered all sorts of ideas. With a name like Newton it would be easy to draw inspiration from Isaac Newton and give all the pens science related names. I felt like that was pushing it though. While I love science, naming my pens after famous scientists didn’t feel right.
The first year I gave out scholarships, I asked the two students to pick a style of pen from my site and name them. This is how we have the Gibby and Elizabethan.
After those two were named, inspiration for the others just sort of presented itself. I live in an old part of Hot Springs. Lots of Victorian styled houses and amazing old architecture all around me. I’m always awed by the old homes and businesses when we go out for walks downtown. One afternoon on one of these walks I was staring at the windows of the now burned downMajestic hotel, and talking about the details of the architecture with my wife, and thought what a perfect way to get names: historic hotels and buildings from Hot Springs. Some of the buildings are less historic than others, but the names were too good to pass up.
This pen has lines inspired by vintage pens, late 1800s-early 1900s, with two wide bands on the barrel. When I started making these the Thompsonbuilding downtown, with its columns, was the perfect match for this pen. (Tripadvisor)
You can see some old photos here before it was restored and turned into The Waters hotel. It’s gorgeous!
Photos from inside the abandoned Majestic with updates detailing the fire and demolition.
If you look at the middle of the sign on the roof of the red building, you can see where I nearly fell to my death while working on that sign. I touched a part of it that wasn’t supposed to be hot only to be shocked when it was. The old transformer thankfully wasn’t putting out it’s full 14,000 volts or I might not have made it.
The Eastman is one of the hotels that has been gone for a very long time. It was torn down shortly after World War II, after it had been used as a hospital for injured soldiers. The Army/Navy hospital that is still standing didn’t have enough beds, so the Eastman, which was right across the street, was turned into a makeshift hospital. Many of the old apartments built up downtown were built to house soldiers after they were discharged from these places.
In August 1944 the Army took over most of the hotels in Hot Springs. The soldiers from the west-central states received a 21-day furlough before reporting to the redistribution station. They spent 14 days updating their military records and obtaining physical and dental treatment. The soldiers had time to enjoy the baths at a reduced rate and other recreational activities. The redistribution center closed down in December 1945 after processing more than 32,000 members of the military. In 1946, after the war, the Eastman was demolished when the federal government no longer needed it.
This pen’s name, like most of my models, is inspired by historical places here in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Maxine’s is a bar and venue today, but has a pretty colorful history. Maxine Temple Jones was the owner of it for many years, running it as a hotel, and according to many of the locals, as a brothel.
This little pen gets its name from The Vapors night club here in Hot Springs. It hasn’t been a night club in decades, most recently a church called The Tower of Strength, but the history is still there and quite interesting. It’s been empty the last few years.
Named after a Jewish hotel just down the road from me on Prospect near downtown Hot Springs. I love walking by this one and checking out the tile work on the front stoop. It’s in terrible shape these days but I think it’s slowly being restored.
Named after a really cool, Art Moderne style hotel on Park Avenue in Hot Springs. One of the coolest buildings off the main drag. I’ve admired this one for years and am happy to have a pen named after it.
Orville Vanness, the man who started Vanness Pen in about 1938, inspired the name for this model.
The Vannesses have been very good to me, and have been great partners to work with over the last couple of years, so my most traditionally styled pen got this name.
The Breaker was another one of those customer requests to make a pen that looks a certain way. The name comes from the wavy shape, and the breaking waves on a beach.
Questions?
1. “I’m confused how do I buy? I see no buy button for the postcards.”
–There is no buy button. You just send $10 via paypal to @gmail.com
along with a postal address and I send you a pack of cards and a pen number.
2. “Interesting idea. Is it open to non-USA residents? I couldn’t find information one way or the other, but postage costs must surely be an issue.”
–Open to everybody worldwide. Yeah – postage is high but I’m covering it. I’m also covering the cost of the post cards out of my own pocket. And I’m proud to do so.
3. “What kind of pen do I get if I win?”
–You get any model, any size, any nib grind, any material I have on hand. If you want a gold nib, extra customizations, or special filling system (button, bulb, or piston) I ask that you pay for that. I cover shipping.
4. “How do I enter for free?”
–Send a note or postcard in the mail to me at
Newton Pens Fund Raiser
PO Box 6084
Hot Springs, Ar. 71902
Include contact info, name and email, or I won’t accept it. Nicknames don’t count. This is the same thing I tell my students at school: put your name on it or I can’t grade it! 🙂
5. “Who can get a scholarship? Art students only? Kids in Arkansas only? Kids at the school where you work only?”
–Right now the scholarship is open to any high school students going in to college, anywhere in the USA. Kids at any school can apply and receive a scholarship. Current college students are not eligible. Adults going back to school are not eligible.
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Entry period starts today, Tuesday, January 20th and ends Sunday, February 1st, ppm Central US time. If you have ANY questions at all, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m always more than happy to answer.
Here are some of the pens made for past pen winners.
I’ve got a ton of cool materials for the winner to choose from. If you want a closer look at some of the materials, let me know and I can get some better photos.
It’s that time of year again to start getting applications filled out, essays written, and everything turned in to me so I can have my awesome volunteers start reading and grading essays to pick recipients.
So visit this page to read about requirements and to download the form.
If you know any high school seniors who could use some extra cash their first semester, please send them this way. Last year I had 23 applications and gave away 6 $1000 scholarships, all from money raised with your help. So I have all of you to thank for that.
If you’ve already got a set of these post cards you could always have them sent to friends or family as a gift. I’d be happy to do that. And remember I ship anywhere in the world. 🙂
