Shopplr » paper goods

Paperless Post: send elegant online invitations and holiday cards

Esme Vos — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:55:39 +0000

Just in time for the holidays, here’s Paperless Post, an online stationer that allows you to design your own invitations and holiday cards, send them via email, track responses and more. Unlike invitation sites like Evite, Paperless Post does charge for sending cards via what they call Paperless Stamps. The cost is pretty minimal, starting at $5 for $40 stamps. I got the first 25 stamps for free.

You ask, “why pay for this when Evite is free?” Well, because Paperless Post looks better. It is more stylish and classy. Go to: www.paperlesspost.com.

Rifle Paper Company’s whimsical holiday cards

Esme Vos — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:15:21 +0000

The Christmas holidays are just around the corner. If you are looking for real holiday cards, the ones you actually have to write on and send via post, check out Rifle Paper Company. I like their collection because the cards are so different from what you would find at Hallmark or other mass greeting card retailers. Rifle Paper also carries stationery, invitations, wrapping paper, prints, recipe cards and more. You can buy gifts AND greeting cards all in one location.

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Felt and Wire: curated paper goods

Esme Vos — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:21:28 +0000

I have a weakness for paper goods: blank notebooks bound in leather or cloth, quirky greeting cards, unusual notecards, and even old-fashioned school notebooks. I look for paper that feels good which means different things for different occasions. For example, if I am writing with a fountain pen in a blank notebook, I want the paper to be smooth so that my pen does not skip or accumulate fibers.

If I am sending a greeting card or a note card, I want the paper to feel substantial, heavy, and to have texture like tiny grooves. Ideally there should be a good paper store in every city which sells notebooks, paper for writing and printing cards and stationery, and envelopes so you can go in and feel the paper. Since this is not going to happen anytime soon, our best option is the online paper goods store.

I found one called Felt & Wire Shop. They sell beautiful note cards, greeting cards, blank notebooks, invitations, posters, gift wrapping paper, memo pads and more, from different designers.

Felt & Wire also has a blog, which I read regularly: http://www.feltandwire.com/.

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Check out our sister site, Mapplr.com, for travel news and reviews of the coolest boutique hotels and restaurants around the world.

Millimeter Milligram: stylish stationery, pens, notebooks from Seoul

Esme Vos — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:15:18 +0000

I am obsessed by beautiful blank notebooks, note cards, pens and pencils. Millimeter/Milligram from Seoul, Korea is one of those online boutiques I wish I could order from (they don’t deliver except within Korea). You may want to contact them to see if they have a wholesale distributor in your city. Here in San Francisco, you can find similar items carried by the Kinokuniya store in Japantown and in Maido at the Westfield Mall in downtown San Francisco.

Shopping delights of San Francisco Japantown

Esme Vos — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:12:14 +0000

I can spend hours wandering around San Francisco’s Japantown, marveling at the curiosities in its boutiques. My first stop is always the Kinokuniya Bookstore in the Japan Center. Kinokuniya boasts the largest selection of Japanese books and magazines in the city. I am fascinated by Japanese women’s fashion magazines, which are so different from ours. They show many ways of putting together outfits and profile a seemingly endless supply of beauty creams, many of which are whitening lotions (in contrast to the obsession with tanning in the West). There are even stranger Lolita magazines which show teenage girls in top-to-toe pink outfits surrounded by pink teddy bears.

Then, I pop over to the Kinokuniya Stationery and Gift store which is a perfect place to find good writing paper (in A4 format!), gel writing pens, slick pencils, beautiful blank notebooks and more bizarre paraphernalia I have not yet even figured out (the instructions are, sadly, in Japanese).

I also make sure I stop by Asakichi Incense to replenish my incense supply. The selection at Asakichi is immense and the sales staff are more than happy to find the incense of your dreams or to help you pick incense for a friend. Don’t forget to buy the gorgeous incense holders. These make lovely gifts. There is another incense boutique called Japan Incense, which is also wonderful. Finally, if you are looking for a super-funky T-shirt, stop by Super 7 which sells unusual, trendy designs. The vibe is skater-hacker-snowboarder chic.

Kinokuniya, Asakichi and Japan Incense are all in the Japan Center, a giant shopping mall between Geary and Post. Super 7 is on Post Street. If you get hungry and crave sushi, go to the “sushi boat” restaurant, Isobune, in the Japan Center. The sushi is inexpensive and fresh.

Kinokuniya Bookstore
Japan Center
1581 Webster Street # 165
San Francisco, CA 94115
+1 415 567 7625

Kinokuniya Stationery and Gift store
Japan Center
1581 Webster Street # 218
San Francisco, CA 94115
+1 415 567 8901

Asakichi Incense
1730 Geary Boulevard # 209
San Francisco, CA 94115
+1 415 921 8292
www.asakichi.com

Japan Incense
1737 Post Street # 335
San Francisco, CA 94115
+1 415 931 2002
www.japanincense.com

Super7
1628 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
+1 415 409 4703
www.super7store.com

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Gmund: exquisite notebooks, cards and notes for the paper lover

Esme Vos — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:00:29 +0000

After posting a short piece on a London paper goods shop (Present and Correct), I suddenly remembered the Gmund Papier und Druck shop I visited early this year in Munich. The Gmund store is located on the Prannerstrasse next to the Bayerischer Hof hotel. Gmund is a Bavarian paper making firm that dates back to 1829. It is named after Gmund am Tegernsee, the town where the firm was born. They make paper for invitations, cards, letters, envelopes and blank notebooks. When you visit the store, you can feel the varieties of paper — the luxurious textures and colors that make their paper an absolute joy to write on.

It’s very unfashionable in my industry (tech) to write on paper using a fountain pen, which I still do, out of habit. When I was at school (run by Belgian nuns), we had to write with fountain pens. The thing I realized over the years is that unless the paper I’m writing on high quality paper, the ink does not dry immediately and all of my words end up in a bleeding mess. If the paper is too thin, the ink ends up on the back page. If it’s too fibrous, little bits clog up the fountain pen. I know, very eccentric. Maybe that’s why I love paper goods: little note cards, blank notebooks, envelopes and letter pages.

I am amazed at how popular Moleskine notebooks have become. I have used them over the years but I find the paper to be of inferior quality to that used by Gmund and other notebook makers such as Richard Painter, another German brand. It’s not just the paper, but the binding and the cover of the notebook itself. Gmund is superior to anything I’ve every had.

I am certain that my tech friends are laughing right now, making fun of my fetish for dead tree products, but for me, there is something meditative about writing on paper, especially on beautiful blank notebooks. I write about anything: my ideas for new web applications, short stories, poetry. It seems to me that something so creative deserves an aesthetic home and the act of writing itself becomes fulfilling. It’s part of the “slow” movement, like Slow Food, where people take the time to enjoy the everyday things in life.

If you are ever in Munich, visit the Gmund shop for all your paper needs, and stop by a good pen store, too. For fountain pens, I use a Pelikan Souveraen M800. For ball pens, I find the quality and elegance of Faber-Castell ball pens to be unbeatable (as are their fountain pens).

Gmund
Prannerstrasse 5
80333 Munich
Germany
+49 89 2102 0984
www.gmund.com

Stationery store for vintage and quirky notebooks and cards

Esme Vos — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:06:40 +0000

I love stationery: blank and lined notebooks, note cards, letter sets, calendars, agendas, pencils. Present and Correct is an online store in London started by graphic designers who love quiry design. They source many of their products from Japan, South Korea and Germany. Here are my favorites.

Present and Correct
42 Melbourne Grove
London, SE22 8QZ
United Kingdom
Call: +44 (0)20 8299 5823

Blurb Books make unique, memorable holiday gifts

Esme Vos — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:03:19 +0000

Looking for a truly special gift? Why not give someone a Blurb Book? Better yet, you can make your own beautiful personal book on Blurb and give it to someone for Christmas. Go to the Blurb website, download the Blurb software, create your book and have Blurb ship it. You can also sell your book on Blurb. It’s great for photographers who want to showcase their work. If you prefer to buy someone else’s Blurb book, the site makes it easy for you to preview books and select the ones you want to send.

www.blurb.com

See Jane Work: online shop for stylish office accessories

Esme Vos — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:44:51 +0000

Tired of generic office supplies stores that sell the same ugly, gray office accessories — you know the ones I’m talking about: cheap and ordered by the bulk and totally depressing to look at, perfect however for a cubicle office in Hell.

Fortunately, there are alternatives. Check out See Jane Work, an online shop where you can find gorgeous desk calendars, binders, pens, organizers, and whatever you need to create an office environment that inspires creativity. Better still, right now (November 24, 2008), they have a sale: 25% off everything in the store. Just enter this code when you shop: TURKEY.

I have ordered storage boxes and binders, as well as blank notebooks and paper. Now my desk looks much more inviting.