Scribe

Hi, I'm Caroline.

Hi, Caroline. I'm Caitlin.

We're hanging on by a thread over here in the pencil hq. It's been a long day.

It's a little loopy.

We are in the pencil mines, yes.

We're covered in graphite.

Yeah, absolutely. So right now I'm consuming some of these recycled Tombow pencils, and I gotta say, I'm real disappointed in them because they have to be sharpened as often as you like. Look at them. We were writing Christmas cards to some friends and vendors today, and it was like every half card I had to sharpen it again. So a pencil will be done real quick. And I'm consuming a wine that Caroline has very specially selected, which I would like her to talk about. And then I Would like to preface this podcast with the language, please disclaimer on the bottle.

Should I cut in here? Okay, so I went to the wine shop today, the one about four doors down from our shop, Very nice wine shop. And I picked out two wines based on their titles specifically for you guys. And I think it's appropriate, especially because we're discussing this Gilmer girls thing later, that we preface this entire podcast with the language, please disclaimer at the bottom, which Caitlin will now read. Wish we could show you the label of this bottle.

We'll tweet a picture or something. Do you want to tell them what it's called? Oh, yeah.

The wine is called gentleman's collection, and it's a cabernet from 2014, batch number one.

And it has a really, really great mustache.

Yeah. And a lot of foil on the. On the label.

All right. It says, a gentleman makes perfectly emphatic point without the use of profane language. This is not to say he is not versed in profanity, but he frequently has something better to say. Johnny,

The discerning gentleman.

What do you mean? Caroline?

No, Caitlin, you're not done yet.

Oh, we're talking about what I'm consuming. We still talk about books, right?

Okay, so I'm consuming a couple things that could not be more different, one of which just because I feel like I need more feminism in my life post election, I am reading what's called the scum manifesto that was written in the 1970s by a very, very angry and oppressed lesbian. And it's super anti man, but also, like, written in a very sarcastic sense of humor. So it's a pretty interesting read. And I'm combining that with binge watching Gossip Girl so I can get all of my bases covered, I guess.

I am not sure yet because I'm not done reading it. But that's how it is. On the COVID it's called all capitals. I think it was published as a zine at first because it's got all the cutouts. Typewriter cutouts, as the titles for all the sections. It's pretty great.

Not that I think, like, all men secretly want to be females, which is claimed broadly in very menacing ways. It's just interesting to read something like that from the perspective of somebody who was really oppressed and abused and how they get to that line of thought where they actually consider, like, bombing buildings.

Take a, like, nice dark turn there.

Yeah, right.

I wanted to be Blair Waldorf in high school. I was the exact same age as them when that show was happening. So, yeah, a lot of memories. Should I take it from there?

You said quite the scene, Caitlyn.

Okay, thank you, Shane. So I've been reading a lot of very serious books lately. So the other day I went to the Strand and bought a copy of Talking As Fast as I Can, which is the Lauren Graham memoir that just came out just about a week before Gilmore Girls did on Netflix. And I'm about a third of the way through. It's a very, very easy read. I only started it, like, a day and a half ago, but I haven't gotten to any of the parts where she talks about Gilmore Girls. I'm just in the parts where she talks about her Broadway career, which is very boring. So hopefully I'll get there. But it's written like Lorelai is talking to you. And I don't know that much about Lauren Graham as a person, but it's kind of fun to read just because it's, first of all, very easy to read, and it just feels like this kind of psychotic person is talking at me. But, yeah, it's fun. It's a good contrast to the movie I saw this weekend, which is still haunting me. It's called Nocturnal Animals. Amy Adams is in it. It's written and directed by Tom Ford, the fashion designer, and it is seriously disturbing. I recommend seeing it if you're a fan of good movies. But just be forewarned, do it during a period of time in your life when you probably need to be awake anyway, because to be able to. And I'll skip what I'm drinking because I think we already covered that. I am writing currently. Well, really for the past two weeks, with any pencil shorter than 2 inches. And by that, I mean all of the random pencils we find around our office and around our shop. There are a lot of them. It's funny how often we ask each other where our pencils are, because they're everywhere, and we especially have a hard time finishing them. So Alex and I have taken it upon ourselves to organize all the used pencils, pick out the shortest ones and we've put really demanding post its everywhere so everyone knows which pencils they are and aren't allowed to allowed to use. So we're trying to kill them all.

You did that with me.

What?

We picked out all the pencils together

and wrote that post. It. I know it said use these pencils. It's stuck to a dudek block, actually. Hi, Mike, if you're listening, you're helping us organize our short pencils. Yeah, it's fun because I feel like I've rediscovered some pencils that I forgot about that way. Ones I normally wouldn't choose on my own.

Yeah, like ones that get that are too short or ones that we've stopped selling and we have the testers from. Or ones that we did use extensively once upon a time and somehow they ended up in the bottom of a drawer. But we have so many of them.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Yeah, I feel deprived right now. We haven't gotten our five 30s.

We're like the last ones to get them always.

Maybe they'll come tomorrow.

Yeah, all the emails about them end up in our spam folder. Seriously? Like all the emails about pre orders, we miss it always. Yeah, we shouldn't be telling our customers that. This is why we're always a little bit slow, guys. Sorry.

No, sorry.

Ooh. Okay. So I'll be honest with you guys. I had a little bit of a struggle coming up with some fresh points today simply because Caroline and I are in holiday overwhelm mode, which is good. It's a good problem to have. But I feel like we've done nothing but assembly for the past, like two weeks. Like putting things together into like, little poly bags or like putting orders in boxes or doing custom pencils until, like, Our brains are a little bit numb, you know? Yeah, it's all like, like it's satisfying in a way because you're like putting small things into like small packages and then like sealing them up all small and neat and tidy. But when you do like a few thousand, you're like, my finger just need a break. Or at least my brain does. But it's good, it's good. We're having tomorrow we're having this great pop up with the Gap and a few businesses that are around us, like the coffee shop next door to the store, the Football cafe, they're going to be there and coming soon, which is over on Orchard, also in our neighborhood. And I think there's a couple other that are still in our neighborhood. So it's like all these great New York City brands are all popping up at this thing sponsored by the Gap.

So we're pretty excited about that. And Caroline had this thing set up with Sleepy Jones and popping up at their store too.

Oh yeah, we're doing a custom pencils on the spot in their shop also in Soho. Tomorrow Alex will be there. Custom. It's basically like a fancy pajama shop. In a past life that was my job was designing fancy pajamas.

They have a shop on Howard street in Soho if anyone's around tomorrow.

And we sent product to the one

in la, they're doing a little like mini pop up through the holiday season at both of their stores in la. One in Hollywood, one in Santa Monica and also in their New York store on Howard Street.

So if you want to see if the Californians want to see the pencils in real life, go to Sleepy Jones.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah. Only the two Southern California locations though. So yeah, just lots and lots of that going on here. I guess I should talk about my other freshpoints.

You probably should.

So my family around the holidays and this ties into this whole episode that we're doing here. Every holiday my brother and sister and I exchange wish lists because we never know what to get each other. And at this point we've just all given up. And it was just like, send me your list. So. So my brother this year put on his list pencils, paper and notebooks and I am like, well, I guess that has to be for me to get for you. The trouble I'm having here is that last year I bought him pencils. Classroom friendly and I think like a calipeno portfolio and he came back and told me that he didn't like black wings because he. He works in. He does, like, a lot of carpentry work. He told me he would break the ferrules in the. In the shop. I'm like, how do you. How do you break the ferrules? What are you doing to them? So, I mean, basically, last year, I felt like I gave him these pencil gifts, and I basically unimpressed him. And I'm like, this year I have to, like, up the standards or rethink the game. So input from gentlemen who collect pencils, I guess, would be a little bit helpful.

The problem is like, a more, like, utilitarian kind of guy. Like, he likes pencils because he does woodworking, and you really use pencils and woodworking. But I also, like. I don't know. I'm basically gonna send him a bunch of cedar points because I think that's the best out there.

Yeah, I've definitely done carpenter pencils before.

Need those flat sketching pencils from Generals.

You like the softer ones?

it's a good one.

Oh, and my other. Other thing. So Caroline and I have both been fortunate through CW Pencils to gain some really great pen pals. I'm sorry, pencil pals. I'm sorry.

And my latest one sent me scratch and sniff stickers, which I haven't had since I was, like, nine years old and was, like, scratching, like, the pizza one. And it doesn't smell like pizza. It smells like oregano and, like. And I'm like, do you guys remember those? Like, which was your favorite?

I think you know those self. Hundreds of dollars on ebay. The vintage scratch and sniff stickers. If you're looking for an Internet hole to fall down, do they still smell? I don't know, but we.

We found a lot of them. 200 now was like, 800 for a lot of 90s, 1990s scratch and sniff stickers. And there are people watching it.

Comments on the live stream smelled like acid vomit to me.

Yeah, thanks, Steve. That's exactly right.

Like wet feathers.

Oh, no.

Guys, stop. They're gonna stop listening.

Well, they can't smell us, so

Are you done with your freshman?

I'm totally done.

I've made a weird mess. All right, yeah, let's. Well, I'll try to make this a little more normal. So we. I think, yeah, all three of us, Caitlin, Alex, and I. Except I went separately because one of us has to be here all the time. There was a Midori event happening this weekend at the Ace Hotel here in New York City. It was their. What do they call it? The Midori Travelers Caravan.

Yeah, They've done it in other cities. And basically, they go to a place and they set up a table with, like, stacks and stacks of just loose papers.

It's like a dream.

It's amazing. And all the stacks are so neat and so perfect because there's someone going around and straightening them all the time. It's so satisfying. But. But basically, you go there and you pay $17, and they give you this tray. Like a lunch tray.

Like a buffet.

Yeah, it's like this aluminum lunch tray, and it has instructions on it and a little, like, a little measuring tool to measure the thickness of your notebook. And you get to pick a cover for your notebook. They had a bunch of cute ones. They had an Ace Hotel one and a couple that are specific to their brand. And then you go around this table, and you select page pages for your custom notebook. And there are a lot of cool ones, like, a lot of colored papers, a lot of printed papers, a lot of, like, embossed ones, like, really different papers. And then they have to. I think it's about 80 pages in the end. And you have a thing that you can use to measure it so you know if you have enough. And then you can go to this other table where you can stamp them. You can kind of decorate Them. And then you have, like, they have fun stickers. And then there's a guy who sits there at the table and, like, spiral, like, binds it in front of you. And you get to pick if you want, like, a copper coil or a gold one or a silver one or a black one. It was so much fun.

And, like. And the spiral guy was literally the most satisfying thing I think I've ever seen in person. So he, like, stacks up all the pages of paper and sets them next to the notebook cover. And then he gets. He has the spiral set just so, like, you see them out, like, laid out on the table and they're all, like, tightly coiled. And he somehow, like, pulls them apart to the exact precise distance apart the spiral needs to be to thread through these notebooks. And, like, once he gets it started, he just kind of, like, rubs his hands together with the spiral between his hands and it just goes like. And the notebook is smiled and it's done the craziest looking thing.

It's amazing. Yeah, it was really cool. If this traveler's caravan comes to your city. Definitely got.

I went on Saturday and there were a ton of people there. I think when Caitlin and Alex went on Sunday, there were less people there.

Yeah, I mean, we were able to go. Alex and I each went around and did a notebook three times.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For a custom notebook. Like, and you get to pick the pictures and, like, all these different things. Like, that was amazing.

So fun. We went because Yuri, who works for Midori in Japan, she's wonderful. She emailed us to let us know that it was happening and asked us if we would come. And I thought, like, oh, like, this sounds fun, but, like, I don't really need another notebook. And when I got there, I was like, wow, this is the best thing ever.

You're like, I need 10.

Yeah. Like, I had such a hard time only doing one. I, like, stood there and looked at. Looked at the table for, like, 20 minutes, trying to decide whether or not I needed more than one. But it was a lot of fun. That was the most exciting thing that I did this weekend. But the. The other thing I've been spending all of my, well, very little free time on lately is my Christmas card. And this is something that, in my family at least, is a really serious thing. My mother hand, like, hand draws her Christmas cards and has them printed properly and mailed out. To like 200 people every single year. She's so great at making Christmas cards. She set a very high precedent for the rest of our family. But I picked out months ago I found a bunch of vintage cards on ebay. I was searching, like vintage couples Christmas cards because there are a lot of really weird pre made couples cards that existed anywhere between the 1940s and 1965 that are kind of creepy or just really, really strange. Of course, that was before people did photo cards. So the cards were a lot more elaborate. And I found a bunch and I took them home to Fed, who's my boyfriend, and asked him which one he wanted us to recreate for our Christmas card this year. And of course he picked the strangest one and also the most difficult one to execute. He picked this card that is black and in like, sort of like ribbon typeface. Like a ribbon is writing this word. It says hi. That's all it says on the COVID And like blue ribbon. And then it has two martini glasses and some holly and some holly berries scattered around. But inside the martini glasses are two, like what I would assume to be cherries. There's one in each glass.

They're not olives.

No, they're red. Like, they're red. And one has like a man's face on it and the other one has a woman's face on it. The man has a really creepy mustache. And so when you open the card, the cherries are die cut. And so when you open the card, on the inside of the card it's the same two red faces, but they're holly berries on a piece of holly. And one leaf says Merry Christmas and the other one says Happy New Year.

I'll make sure I post pictures of it online. But I tried to get these cards made and nobody does die cuts. I had such a hard time finding somebody who could do that. And when I did, I got a quote for it. And I was told that it was going to cost me $680 to have 100 cards made. So they are not die cut. But I think people will get the idea. They're so weird. I think this might become my thing. Like reprinting strange vintage cards. Yeah. Anyway, that's all I got.

I wish Alex was here.

Those are okay. So that's like so disappointed.

It's like a thing. It's not just like this notebook cover. It's like a whole line of products. Yeah. So basically you start with this outside portion that it's like a little leather bound portfolio with the elastics that closes it all up together. And it fits a few specific sizes of pocket notebooks. You can do long, thin ones or you can do short ones. And there's different accessories, like, what's it called? Brass page paper clips so you can mark your spot. And there's a bazillion stickers, and people use them a lot for bullet journaling and that kind of thing. Alex is our resident expert. She's the only one of us who has one. But I'm like, I want one for Christmas.

I don't. I think that's overwhelming. It's almost like too much. Yeah, it's too much.

Travelers Face Group is one of the more intense stationary.

It's like almost field nuts level.

Yeah.

We do, yeah.

Those are cute.

They had these, like, matte black ones branded for the Ace Hotel at that event.

Yeah.

And I thought about it briefly, but I think it had, like the little loop on the end.

The pens have the loop on the end? Yeah. It's not like the pencil. Instead of an eraser, there's a weird loop.

Yeah, I think so. I can go on the elastic or something.

But did it just come?

Yeah, so this was one of the things that we actually saw at Paper World back in was that viewer.

Yeah.

When we went to their booth and, you know, we're having chats with them, they showed us these prototypes that are directly recreated from their vintage lines. I think you might know more about that than I do, though.

I mean, there's not. There's not really. As far as I know, there's not really much more to the story than that. They are all pencils that they made between 1940 and 1960. And they. I mean, Biarco in general is. They're really into their heritage and their history and like that sort of old, like old fashioned Portuguese design aesthetic. And so, yeah, they brought. And they kind of introduced it with their copying pencil. If you notice, their regular copying pencil as part of their regular line has the same box as the original one. Not the same quality. It's like a modern style of box with the same printing on it. And I think that was kind of a thing they did to sort of dip their toes into the waters of full on vintage reproductions. But yeah, these are just six really popular pencils that they made during that period of time. Some of them they don't make anymore. In fact, besides the copying pencil, they don't make any of them in that form anymore. And they're. They're so perfectly replicated down to like the style of the box. Like there's even one random one of the six that is a totally different style of box. That opens differently just because that's what it actually was when it was made.

It has this little triangle flap. It's so cool. Yeah.

And even, like, the lacquer on the pencils seems like very, very much like of the time when it would have been made originally. They're really impressive. They're really, really beautiful. We're really proud to have them. We've been trying to get them for a really long time.

I love that contrast on those.

A hot yellow.

Yeah, those are my two favorites. Those are the two that I ordered the most of because I anticipated them being the most popular. Mostly because that. That, like, multicolored stripe is so cool and so vintage looking. And the even, like, those weird, like, kind of pastel metallics are really strange. But also there are so few round pencils these days that I thought that those were kind of amazing. And that same pencil comes in a hex version. The. I think that the round 1 is the 3000, the hex 1 is the 2000, but the round ones are just a little bit more special just because it's that unusual shape.

There are six.

Yeah, yeah. And they're all under the new tab on our website right now. Like, right front and center.

Above some really, really great vintage Dixon pencils.

I think they'll be available for a while. They were available many, many months ago, and then somebody bought all of them. Like, apparently someone in Korea bought every single one that they had made. So they were out of production for a few months. But, I mean, I don't think. I think this is something they're continuing to do for a while, so we should be able to have them for the foreseeable future. So no major hurry on that.

But is it the one that rotates the lead when you write with it?

It's a Kuratoga.

Did one too.

So Caroline and I, we both googled it before the show. And as much as we like Field notes, we both had a very ew reaction to this addition.

Yeah, I really hate the color orange. Yeah, I don't. I like Field Notes, but not this one.

Does it want to show like a ton of fingerprints?

It's too shiny.

So I think we just got royal blue, too.

There's a local shop in New York City that has a few royal blues.

Well, I heard if you Google pencil store, it's the only one.

Well, in New York at least.

We don't have them on our website though. But we do have a few left.

ever went to, ever in my whole life was a Purdue football game. My mom took me there.

We don't have ours. It's kind of magic.

stash, you know, We've discovered recently that by no fault of anyone's, our updates from Palomino have been getting filtered to the wrong folder. So I don't remember if they gave us the opportunity to pre order or not this time, but yeah, we just

didn't find it in time.

Yeah. So we basically put an order in the day that they came out. And they're normally pretty fast with fulfillment. Fulfillment even during, you know, the rush. Like this. Yeah, we'll have them probably tomorrow.

Yeah, we'll have them photographed and online by Monday for sure.

Yeah.

Do we have President Trump yet?

It's not like the eyeball. Pentagonal pencils that are like gold bar shiny.

It's just sort of like almost more bronze or brass than gold.

Yeah, it's like. It's like a lame sweater.

Oh, my God.

the same gold 5:30 does.

I just want that to be on the next edition. Just light up, press the eraser, and, like, stuff comes out.

Yeah, in your dreams.

It has 35 sounds and phrases. No, I'm actually really excited to get these because I really, really want to try them in our. In our hot foil stamper.

Like, with black foil or pink foil? Pink foil.

Oh, we do. Yeah.

Secret.

But we do have pink foil.

Yeah, we have other foils. We don't advertise that we have just because they are the worst.

Charlotte can do it. She's really good at the stamping machine.

Yeah, she can. She can do the pink foil.

So she's taller than Alex.

Yeah.

I think I would be so happy if they just continue to embrace California heritage.

You know, they kind of already did that with John Muir, and really, that's.

And that's the strongest brand and feels more like the sub brand.

the Golden State and on the flag is a bear.

California grizzly bears. And I always forget.

It's a majestic animal, Johnny.

I was gonna say I'd love to know how heavy they are.

Mm.

We sell the Katsuya Stad ones that work really great for long points.

No, those are the Iepo ones by Tombow.

I'm not all the time.

We have two different versions of those. We have really short ones that are made in Germany and they come in nickel or brass. And then we have the little four pack that's made in Japan. Those are the ones that have the little long points. And in their little four pack they have these little stickers so you can write your name on the cap or maybe name your pencil.

Yes.

This is my pencil.

They're going to look really good tied to the top of Christmas presents.

Ew.

No,

we do.

I would just. Before anybody else answers, I would like to tell you the story of what I did this morning when I was fulfilling online orders. I'm pulling one and I look up at Caroline. I'm like, God, this is a girly

order and it has Charlie's name on it.

Yeah.

Only when it's Johnny.

So you did get one?

Pink is Charlotte's favorite color, so of

Didn't we do pencils for Chloe last time you guys were here?

Yeah. When Charlotte came over here and did them with me. She's good at it.

Yeah, some specific stores don't really do novelty pencils.

So why don't you go there for your pencils?

We actually have a small struggle with that. Like during back to school season when people bring really little kids in, they're sometimes looking for like ninja turtles or like, you know, like the Avengers or hello Kitty. Pencil.

I did a set for my cousin's son who is in kindergarten that were green pencils and they had different colored foil on them. It said, like, cowabunga Bossanova Edicles. I thought they looked really cool.

Yeah, the ones are really nice.

You don't stock them anymore. We had a hard time with those simply because people frequently thought they were. They thought they were colored pencils.

So because they come in this, like, cute little box and they're like, rainbow colored and people always thought they were rainbow pencils. And you have, like, a lot of problems. I'd like to bring them back someday,

but we'll put a huge disclaimer at the top that says, these are not colored pencils.

But, like, we've got, like, the. The graphic ones, the zebra. Those are really popular with kids. Little eraser cap on the end if you, like, need the eraser.

And we do a lot of, like, the, like the grip ones. Kids love the grips. Yeah, the Faber Castell ones. Yeah.

Not yet. Actually, I have.

I think when the guys were in the shop once. I tried one of theirs.

Did you guys talk previously about the limited edition from Baron Fig?

Did you like it, though?

I love the Workplace.

Yeah.

Right.

Plus you've been like, oh, my God, we're trend forecast.

Oh, it's a big deal.

I can't say what's hot in staplers, but for sure, I think sets are a big thing because they kind of become like this all encompassing, like, kit that if you don't know what to get somebody. You get them a set and it has a notebook and a writing utensil and some kind of accessory. Like, you're done. It's really simple. Like, we did what we are calling our favorite things sampler, and that's six pencils, eraser, and a sharpener. And we put 200 online and sold out in like, God, like a week. Two weeks.

One week.

Yeah. And we noticed Baron Fig launched the same thing with a notebook. And you can pick a Squire or some pencils. I feel like I saw one somewhere else too, where it's just you go and you pick out a kit, basically, and that makes for an incredibly easy gift because then you don't even have to really think about what goes into it because somebody's already thought of it for you. Especially. You trust the brand, you trust that they've put together. You know, something fun. We did something eventually share on our Instagram, but we did a whole bunch of curated packs and we did them by theme, by color. By color theme. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, like, a themed kit is usually a really, really great place to art. What do you think, Caroline?

That's a good question. I hadn't really thought about that. I mean, our. Our methods for choosing things for our shop, honestly, if we're being very candid, are not at all scientific. We kind of just pick what we like and hope that other people like it too. Yeah. But during the holidays, we do think an extra lot about, like, what is going to make people's lives easier, what's going to be like, the. Basically the easiest way for them to wow somebody with a gift. And so we bring in a lot of, like, these fiarco vintage pencils could not have come at a better time because that's exactly what people want as gifts. Like something that for sure the recipient has never seen before, especially with this, like, vintage aesthetic. I feel like this, especially, like within analog tools in general and stationery, I think it's something that has been like, and I say this, like in quotation marks, like a hipster thing for long enough now that it's not enough to. To just be like a vintage inspired thing, that it has to be something more like these viarco sets that are, like, truly authentic and have some sort of historic value. And yeah, that sort of stuff, I think is becoming more and more popular as people become, like, less and less idiotic about their tastes.

Sorry, is that offensive?

See, And I tend to disagree with that for a couple reasons, and I think that I disagree with that. And I think it's what ended up turning a lot of people off of pencils is because you still see, like, not to knock them, because I think they're beautiful pencils. Like the Rifle Paper Company, like, the sets like that that are really beautiful to look at, but not necessarily made from the best pencil you've ever written with.

And then, like, the custom pencils, I mean, the ones we use are Musgrave number twos, which are good pencils. They're not the best pencils out there. So in that instance, it's definitely more about the novelty of having your name on a pencil than having that's true writing utensil. And I feel like I see that a lot more than I see people, like, actually reaching out to us because they want functional, good pencils. Yeah, that's okay. Because it's still an opportunity to like, to get people interested into pencils. And that's why, if you're looking for a gift, that's why we suggest looking at some. Maybe the more interesting ones, like the camel pencils, the craft design, technology, you know, even the black wings. There's a reason we call the Blackwing a gateway pencil. Because it's aesthetically beautiful, it has a reputation that it deserves, and it's a good pencil, like, that makes an excellent gift.

Get your typewriter ding ready for me, because one of my. Our very dear pencil friends, one of our customers who has a coffee roaster in Idaho and a pencil sharpener tattoo. Hi. Terry, he sent us these pencils the other day that are, you know, just like funky colored number two pencils. They're in the weirdest shade of silver.

Get ready to bleep this out.

Yeah, it's motherf ing pencil time on them.

Yeah, it's really funny. And they're not. Again, they're not great pencils, but they're like, novel and, like, there's a place for that. And that's why we do custom pencils.

But that's why they sell the deep cuts, too.

Exactly. We actually do have a gift guide on our website that Alex worked really hard on called gifts to get your friend hooked on pencils. And that talks about our sampler pack. It talks about some really, really good basics for really nice pencils that you immediately pick up and, you know you're writing with a nice pencil.

Caroline wrote the pencil, the gifts for pencil aficionados.

But basically I picked all like, the

pretty fancy, fancy stuff, the things that, you know, a pencil by themselves.

It's hard to buy gifts for people who have everything. So someone's got to make a gift guide for that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I have a problem with white elephant gift parties. I raised my hand in that. The definition of white elephant is so widely varied that you either end up with total crap, which is what I think of when I think of white elephant. Is it something you don't want or you end up with something quirky but kind of cool?

I guess, like a perfect gift pencil. I don't Know, the one thing that I often suggest to people who come to the shop and seem a little clueless, who are looking for an easy, inexpensive gift for somebody who likes pencils is always that craft design technology three pack, especially because it has a matching eraser. Like you can do. You can do the matching eraser with the three pack and maybe something else easily. You could even do the eraser. The three pack of pencils and a Kum magnesium long point, and you're under $10. That's a really great, really impressive, easy, cheap gift. And that's a. That's a pencil that so many people don't know about unless they know about this stuff already. That's. That's a pretty sure bet. Nobody hates that pencil.

If you're looking to spend a little more. But get one pencil. We're all really fond of the Mono 1- hundreds simply because those are gorgeously designed pencils and incredibly well made. And they come in different hardnesses. So somebody's like, I really like soft pencils or I really like firm pencils. There's room to play around there.

The rainbow paper pencils are another one that makes a really fun, really simple gift. Just, you know, straight because they're playful and, like, cute.

Or any of those, like, ridiculous multicolored magic rainbow pencils. Oh, yeah, yeah, those are good. Like if you're gonna give someone one pencil. But like, we also talk a lot maybe because we're all really, like, crazy about wrapping things and about anything involving paper products and pretty ribbons. We talk a lot about which pencils are the right ones to tie on top of a present. And I still. I've wrapped half my presents and I still haven't decided which pencil I'm using for mine this year. But the gold Koh I Noor magic pencils are really awesome for that. Or any of, like the Caran d' ache metallics, that sort of stuff. Like, I think that's, that's like a very subtle way of being like, hey, here's your Christmas present. But also use a pencil. Yeah.

Honestly, I think that the brass sharpeners like, gifts wise, especially if you're not looking to give a gift to somebody who knows a lot about pencils. Like, the masterpiece is not the first sharpener I would recommend.

Exactly.

Yeah. Like the. The one looks like it was made.

Yeah.

And there, I mean, there's tons of different options there that are all, like, all the brass sharpeners from Dux or Mobius and Reaper are all really aesthetically pleasing, really well made. They don't have some of the machining problems that, like, the $2 ones have.

So they tend to be pretty universally friendly. And then, like, if you even wanted to upgrade a little bit into the adjustable brass sharpener, that's like, a really impressive gift.

The keyring is just really great. That is one of the ones I'm going to get. A slightly difficult to shop for. Brother.

We have them in our store. We will send them to people on request. We just don't have them on our website. What's funny is there's this, like, little dollar store bodega, like, literally around the corner from our shop. And they have these $4. Like, do you know Miffy, the little bunny rabbit? It's like another hello Kitty brand.

No, nothing. Miffy Sanrio. It's similar aesthetic. Yeah.

But it's a little bunny rabbit. And they have these tiny, like, very compact desktop clamp sharpeners that cost, like, $4. And they do a really great point. And they have rubber clampy things so they don't put teeth marks in your pencils. And I'm like, how do we get these? And this isn't like the really bestie Dingy, like, sells cooking wares as well as plants and fish bodega. And they have these great $4 sharpeners. I don't know why I felt like bringing that up, but I'm just maybe to say that those exist in there.

Chinese dollar. O Rama.

Yeah.

Oh. I was thinking today, first of all, next year in the pencil shop we have. If anyone's been to our store, you know that it is super tiny. But I will be willing to make people more uncomfortable in there by putting a Christmas tree in the shop just so that we can.

Yes, in the middle. Like a real tree, too. So we can make ornaments out of erasers. Because I was thinking today, like, if you run a needle through a thermoplast eraser, like those thermoplastic erasers from Koh I Noor. The colored ones that are. Yeah, if you like. How cute of an ornament would that be? Or that would be really great on a gift, too.

Oh, my God. You can make a little garland out of eraser caps out of, like, tiny arrowhead caps.

We thought about, like, running. Running a needle through, like, the erasers on pencils and sharpening them at different lengths and spray painting them silver so they look like icicles. You could do any of those things and tie them to a present and it, like, automatically upgrades your present. Like, your gift doesn't have to be pencils. The pencil could be the pencil. Yeah. The gift decoration. And that could be your way of secretly hinting that somebody needs to use better pencils. Right.

As far as erasers go, like, when people come in looking for a gift, we usually do put them in the direction of an eraser to go with their set, but it usually depends on the set. Like, if they're looking for somebody who's buying colored pencils, we would typically do do like a magic eraser or even a sand eraser, because those are great with colored pencils. If they're looking for an everyday eraser, I mean, we have a pretty good selection of plastic ones that are really high quality that we can color match to a set or if they want something fun. Like we said, the thermoplasts come in all those funky colors, and they're flat and a weird shape.

Yeah.

There's a lot of different ways you can go with an eraser. And just kind of depends on if you want functionality or fun or both.

You could put a 24 with an orange eraser with the black eyes.

My high school colors. No,

those.

I never thought about that before though, but those black wing erasers, they're so flat. You could put those in an envelope and mail them like with a Christmas card or to a pen pal who uses black wings. Yeah.

And they're squishy so they won't get

messed up in the mail. Sorter. That's a really good idea.

Yeah. This is time for a pro tip.

No mini pencils and envelopes.

Do not ever put pencils and envelopes. In general, people like that is a very bad idea.

They are non machinable.

Yeah. And you'll have to. You either have to pay the surcharge or get them hand canceled so they don't go through that machine in the post office. But please do not put your pencils in an envelope. It won't make it. Yeah.

Broken pencils equals broken dreams. As I'm.

Katelyn said almost every single day that I've known her.

I'm not even kidding.

She's not. I would love to tell you that I came up with that on my own. But back when I was in college, I worked at Starbucks and we had a brand of biscotti that on the box that they came in from the distributor said broken cookies equals broken dreams. And I just thought that was applicable to pencils.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The way they design those. The right notepads really do make excellent gifts.

Oh, totally. I use the ledger as my grocery list and I always wear this. I sound like such an idiot. I take. I wear a bar. I wear my waxed canvas barber jacket to the grocery store every weekend, same day, same time, same jacket, same notepad. I put a pencil in my hair. I don't.

Same bad place.

Like the people who work at the grocery store know. Know who I am every day because there's a pencil in my hair. I have my ledger in my left hand. I'm pushing my cart with my right hand. And they are. They make a great gift for a person who likes to be organized too. Because at least in my household, I feel like probably in most households, like it's the exact right length for a grocery list. Like I. There's never a week when I don't fill it and there's never a week when I don't. When I like need more space. It's perfect.

Yeah. Not like those magnet refrigerator ones that are like really long.

Those are awful.

Only need like three lines.

And it like tries to tell you what you should buy. Like I don't. I don't need to buy olive oil every week. That's. Yeah, that's not fair. Anyway, so if you're. Yeah, I feel like right. Like the right notepads. Ledgers are a good. They're not. Yeah, they're like a. They're really generous gift because they're not frivolous at all because they just make the perfect list book.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Their pencils are good for lefties as well.

I haven't come across that.

Oh yeah, like you know about that. Eyelash curlers.

Whoa. That's a really different problem.

It's like the after after dark eyelashes

drawing Johnny's beauty routine.

Paper is almost more overwhelming than pencils at times because like there are so many really, really cute or luxurious notebooks that are just super aesthetically pleasing and they, you know, it's bad notebooks are like, I don't know there even a bad notebook you can still write in.

You know, like. And you don't necessarily hate it.

So notebooks are another one that's a little bit trickier. It just tends to depend on the person, like whether they want to have a blank or line.

I think a lot of people have too many notebooks too. I think notebooks are. I can think. I can kind of equate buying notebooks as a gift to buying perfume as a gift.

You have to really know what the other person likes and also what they need. Otherwise you're just giving them a notebook that is probably going to end up in a drawer pile which will not be touched for 20 years. Like that's. It's a different. It's a difficult gift to buy.

I always used to get the, like, like from the dollar store. The monogrammed, like, desk.

Like post it pads.

Oh, yeah.

Tear off ones.

Yeah.

And sometimes those are really, like, nice to have around. Sometimes they're in, like, the tackiest. I have these like hot pink zebra ones that have a letter C on.

Oh my God.

I kind of love them. But I also kind of like.

Yeah, that's bad. My birthday is next week and my best friend from home from Ohio, Molly, she just the other day mailed me a set like a. Like a. I guess I don't even know what people call it anymore. Like a jotter pad. Just like a notepad for random notes that has a pencil on it and has my initials.

And it's. It's. Yeah. That. It's some. That's a type of gift I haven't received in a really long time and never would think to buy myself. But I was like, oh, like it might be nice to have a random notepad around, especially if it has a pencil on it. I have to figure out where that came from. It was really cute.

Yeah.

Caitlin and I. Real quick, before I forget. Caitlin and I just thought of. Just because I have this thing in my hair right now, which is from

this company, this is getting off of the subject paper into like pencil themed.

And I promise it's worth looking up. We went to Renegade Craft Fair a few weeks ago. Caitlin's mom was in town. The three of us went to this craft fair that's like basically like a more sophisticated urban version of a craft fair. And a couple of our friends were there. So we went there and we found this stand that is this Spanish company. They came all the way from Spain to show at this craft fair. I'm gonna totally butcher this, but we'll put the website in the show notes. They're called Corazon de Galetta and they make Stuff out of pencils. And in my hair today, in my ponytail, I have a little hair tie that has a pink pencil on it, like a tiny 1 inch pencil. Stubborn. And they do like Morse code pencil necklaces.

Yeah, like they're chalks.

It's like the dot, dot, dash. So it's like little like chunks of pencil versus longer chunks of pencil.

So you can like spell something in morse code but with pieces of pencil.

They're really cool. And the woman who runs this business, Adriana, she came to our shop after we met her at the this craft fair, and she's lovely. And they do have a website with all of their products and they're all really reasonably priced and they're just really fun, fun gifts for people who are into really nerdy analog tools who might not need those actual things to use because the jewelry is actually really pretty. And especially these little hair ties. Like, I love this little one that I've been wearing. It's really, really subtle and really cute.

Yeah, those are very cool.

Exactly.

Ceramic.

I guess that might be a thing. Ceramic pins.

Yeah.

Yeah, Meredith's like Meredith, who was a pencil lady with us for quite a while. She is an excellent, excellent illustrator. I highly suggest following her on Instagram. She designed quite a few things for us this holiday season. If you're a Pencil of the Month subscriber, you got a sticker that she designed for us. If you're not, they're on our website there. We have this pins pack that she did with us that we were kind of like, we didn't want to do a pencil pen because a lot of businesses have already done really great pencil pens.

And we did one last year with our, which we still have a couple in stock. If you are interested in this, I would recommend you buy it soon because we're almost out of them and we're not doing them again. We did a really big. It's like almost 2 inches long. It has two posts on it. It was made with our friend Adam Kurtz.

Adam jk.

His Instagram handle is Adam jk. He's. He's kind of Instagram famous. He's done a couple of like, kind of like, I guess, best selling, best selling there. They've been like best sellers on the Internet. These like, kind of like visual journals. And he did one that's kind of like a visual self help book. And he has a line that just came out with Fish's Eddie, the homeware goods company. But anyway, he did a pen with us last year. That's a pencil. So we didn't want to do another pencil. So we thought this enamel pin thing is a really popular thing right now. And it's a really inexpensive hobby and a really easy thing to collect. What do we do? That's not a pencil.

Uh huh.

That was the one we struggled with the most.

Yeah. That was like all Meredith. Yeah, yeah, that was all her. She's very talented.

An arrowhead. Like an eraser cap?

Oh, did you already see that? There's the bullet sharpener, the shaving, and an eraser cap. Eraser cap is probably my favorite.

Frank, I don't know who could help you with that.

Yeah, come on. Who do you think your friends are?

That's not a good but. Yeah, I know. Like, pins are. Pins are so hot right now.

I know.

Yeah. Wit and Whistle does a great one that is like a little. Almost like a Musgrave Harvest yellow pencil. It says draw something on it. I got that one for a friend of mine. City of Industry does the one that says it's a little yellow. Oh, yeah.

They do cute envelopes too. I have a paper airplane from them also.

Oh, and Weekender Supply just did a tiny set that's like a tiny, tiny pencil nib and a tiny, tiny shaving. That's a really good one.

We need to.

What was that last brand Weekender Supply.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, we're going to do an Instagram of a picture of one of our pencil pusher Varsity pencil lady jackets with all of the pencil pins that we own collectively tagged so everybody knows where to find.

Weekender Supply also has a great ampersand pencil.

Yeah, that's a really cute one.

So you don't want to use pencils? You can at least wear them.

Yeah, like, seriously, we know all the pencil things that exist on the Internet. If you want to know what millennials like, email us.

What's the what? Pony people with the eraser cat.

Andy, you have that one, don't you?

I'll hail the Society of the Eraser Cat.

It came out in another color recently. Did you see that?

Yeah.

Eraser cats. It's green.

Yeah, it's a green pencil.

Now I only have the pink one. We all have the pink one, don't we?

I love the pink.

No, the cat is still pink cat.

What do you mean it's two hours?

Sorry, guys.

I love you, Brad.

It's okay. The number one thing on my Christmas wish list is a pen this year. Can I say that? Is that loud?

Caroline and I decided before we were doing this podcast, we wanted to tell, like, each of us to tell each other what our number one stationery gift is this year. And both of ours are pens.

Mine is one that I'm definitely not getting because it's a $900 pen. It's one that Greg, who is our rep for Caran d'. Ache, he's wonderful. He was with us when we were in Switzerland in February, and he's one of our favorite people we've ever known. But he came by to visit us a couple weeks ago and brought us this pen just to show us it's a new one. That is a fountain pen that is rose, gold, and ebony. It's beautiful. It's so pretty. And I've never owned a fountain pen ever. I think if that were to be my first fountain pen, that would be a very dangerous thing, because I think that's A very bad place to start.

I'm gonna be bankrupt in six months. If that happens, I'll be in a mental institution. We can't have that. So I will not be buying myself or receiving that pen anytime soon. But it is very pretty. I recommend you Google it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And mine was similarly expensive, though not as expensive, so. So hopefully mine will come my way.

It's just like $400.

I know.

$400 cross pens. R2D2 fountain pen.

There's a really great BB8.

One.

If I could have both BB8 and R2D2, I would be so happy.

Yeah, they're actually, like, really beautiful for. Because some Star wars ephemera is kind of cheesy. These are like, classy Star wars ephemera.

You guys don't have here. No, I'm just kidding,

You know, someday I'm going to really remember this before I do a podcast on Instagram. You can find me at Kate Elgin. I'm just going to go ahead and say, like, don't find me on Twitter. I don't use Twitter. On Facebook, I'm Kaitlyn Elgin. And Caroline and I collectively, with Alex, we have the Instagram account cwpencilenterprise. Twitter, wpencils, Facebook. Facebook actually is CW Pencil Enterprise as well. Right.

I am on Instagram arvelsonpaper. I post maybe once every two months, but I'll try to be better. That's my New Year's resolution. So please follow me. I need more friends

Yeah, all the children. We want them all.

This has happened before. All I said.