Pen Addict at Stationery Fest 2024 Interview: Carolina Pen Company Jonathon Brooks

all right next up on the stage here at stationary Fest I have my good friend Jonathan Brooks from Carolina Pen Company I could do his introduction and could probably spend five minutes on that but I'm going to let you introduce yourself tell people what you do uh the name of your company and what you're doing here at stationary Fest thanks Brad so my name is Jonathan Brooks I'm of the Carolina pin company and what I make are custom Fountain pin using resins that are made by myself inhouse and uh I kind of have a bit of a name for myself because of that oh we're going to get into that for sure so I think let's start there with the resin making because if you look around this room you and I given the decade or so that we've known each other we're used to a lot of fountain pens a lot of makers a lot of different types of of um show floors well this floor acrylic makers are in a unique position where you might be it I think so I wanted to share with the stationary Fest audience what goes into making an acrylic what materials are you using just how you formulate and mix and create a rod of material which we'll eventually discuss turning that into a pen well let's talk about acrylic real quick okay imagine starting out with water clear liquid and from there you have a infinite choice of materials as far as pigments are concerned and it's my job to put those together in such a way that it really stands out once it's made into that pen where I kind of succeed the most is I kind of have a way of just creating depth and true uh tacl to the material so I think you know the question I want to ask what are the actual materials that go into these acrylic rods uh so I get to re uh repeat from 2017 I think it was so the majority of the pigments that are used in resin casting and in my field for the bespoke pin making it's all loose po makeup from the makeup industry and a little bit of it comes from uh the custom car world with paints and uh some of that sparkle of chameleon effects but yeah most of it's just loose powder makeup one of the questions I don't think I've asked related to makeup you Jonathan and I talk about makeup a lot but one of the questions I don't think I've ever asked is what is the volume of makeup that you're actually purchasing are you buying like makeup by the pound mostly by the pound sometimes by the 5 lb U sometimes in kilos depends on the company but yeah uh the smallest quantity I'll ever buy is a pound and that's just because with my resin making side of the business I work with so many outside companies and make rods for them in such huge volumes that I have to have enough materials on hand to fulfill an order at any given time so let's take our acrylic rods that we've made from resin you're also turning those into pens which is what you have here available at stationary Fest this week how does that process work because you're making all this inhouse like this is you're not sitting back ordering a product and then reselling it you're physically making the acrylic you're physically turning that acrylic into a pen tell us what the pin making process is like for you back at home absolutely it is a I have two full-time jobs if just with the resin and the pin making side of things so once the resin is cured it goes into a rod form and then from there I take those rods and I machine them into the pen bodies that I have on my table currently and there is a lot of uh forethought that has to go into it because depending on the model the shape of the pen and uh other factors some materials can do better when left at at a certain W what what we call a wall thickness and that allows for certain depths in the pins as well as that sparkle effect and sometimes the you just want to find the perfect pattern and when you're making everything by hand you have that that leniency to to chase that so that that brings up an interesting question if you have an idea so you've created an acrylic Rod you've worked on the formula the acrylics rods come out great you to work with it and you have a concept for a certain pin shape or model so you have how many different pin models you have say F say five pin models you're going in to make a certain size pin model and you get into this acrylic and you're like oh we need to stop right here do you ever stop in the middle and change it up into a different pin model because you've hit the sweet spot on the acrylic all the time all the time uh sometimes you see that pattern develop and the difference between Perfection and total disaster is a millimeter in diameter and sometimes you can you can see the way the the material is going to develop if you keep going and you sometimes don't know if it's actually going to make it there or not so sometimes you just stop and you uh you head your bets or you just make it into a a a new model speaking of new model mod you made not a new model but an interesting fun acrylic for the show and I'm going to get you in trouble right here are you sold out of the show pin already Jonathan Brooks as of right now I think I have one left but yes I used the teal from the uh this year's stationary Fest logo as well as a deep Coral from the tiger lily flower and combine the two to make the material and what other customizations did you do on that pen in house so on the cap final uh above the clip is a metal Medallion that I laser engrave in house and I use the stationary Fest logo as well as commemorated it with 2024 uh so it's Unique to this year and this show only so people can see your pins Carolina Pen Company pins at your table here at stationary Fest you're over here by the entrance but they can also see some other things at some other people's table so I want to talk a little bit or get you to talk a little bit about creating acrylics that other manufacturers use let's say Visconti U might they have some of your materials in a certain model of their pen over there for people to see that's absolutely correct for here at the show I do believe visanti has a a large selection of materials in uh various models outside of the vendors here uh Leonardo pretty much I've done a tour of Italy I think the only major Italian company I have yet to work with is orora so if you can hear that you know hit me up but in the grand scheme of things I do work with uh everybody from small makers like myself to the larger manufacturers and we work all year round on conceptualizing new materials for either based off of photographs or just general concepts and I work with you know just about every company out there so how do those Concepts come to be you you kind of generalized it there if one of these large manufacturers comes they have a theme that they want to present will they say just here's some colors what can you do with this will they give you like an exact type of layout because what makes your work so good is you can manipulate the acrylics as you make them into something special which we've all seen how does do that discussion work with like a large company like visanti so luckily the the representatives of visanti Kohl's of London their office is only about 2 hours away from me so they have the benefit of just driving to the house and they'll go through materials they'll pull pigments and we'll go through some ideas sometimes it's photographs sometimes it's hey I I need blue green and yellow and then I say okay well let's take it further what Shades give me some uh you know hex codes or Pantone colors and then I do my best to match those colors and the ratios that they like usually samples were made and from there that we'll either tweak the recipe or it's usually good to go every company's a little bit different but for the most part I generally nail it on the first try of course you do so um this is big release season we've seen a lot of uh products come out what is next what are you excited to release do I have to sign paperwork to discuss um anything you can tell us about what's coming soon uh specifically me what can you tell me that's coming soon uh let's see we just released well I say we uh Visconti just released the the last of the earth origin series that came out just a couple months ago there's always products in the works a lot of them I can't disclose but I can't say just expect more from visanti more from Leonardo narwhal and wa and I'm I'm leaving out so many more other companies but there's a lot a lot in the pipeline a lot in the works and I've got so much work to do when I get home it's not even funny I'll be making resin materials throughout the rest of the year and hopefully Landing early next season yeah you got to work ahead in all these things like long long long lead times all right we'll get you hat of here on this question do you think there is such a thing as good New York barbecue that's a very good question cuz I've yet to find it but that's because I haven't had any yet so I'll be nice for now and let's just say if it's anything like the all the other food I've had since I've been here it'll be amazing man what a good answer thank you Jonathan hey where can people find you here in the room and online if they want to check out your work so here in the room I am at table E4 which is as soon as you walk into the entrance hang it right and uh my my banner and uh lights will get all all your attention and then from there you can find me online uh Carolina pen company.com or Carolina pin company on Instagram all right thank you so much Jonathan thanks for joining me and we'll see you later right thanks