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Transcript
We stink and we cuddle. Andy loves us in droves. Tim likes us in between. And Johnny openly loathes. Who are we?
Hello and welcome to episode 121 of the erasable Podcast. I'm Andy Welfully and tonight I am joined by Johnny Gamber. Tim is out at a conference. Hey, Johnny, how are you?
Fantastic. How are you?
Very good. And I guess not as a replacement for Tim because he is, of course, irreplaceable. We do have a very fantastic guest on who you probably know her from her world famous pencil store in New York and also from this very podcast, it's Caroline Weaver. Hey, Caroline.
Hi.
Thanks for having me for coming on. It's been. It's been a minute. You've been on the podcast in April, but I think it's been a while since you've been on, like, with us.
Yeah, I can't remember the last time.
Yeah, that's kind of depressing. I know.
I missed you guys. Yay.
Here we are. Cool. So there's still a lot of summer left. If you have been to Target or Walmart or many other stores, you might notice that Back to School is starting to occupy the seasonal section. One item on everybody's list is a pencil case to hold all of your back to school goodies. So tonight we're going to be talking about pencil cases. Caroline has some really interesting ones in the shop and also, I'm sure, some opinions about pencil cases to chat about. So, yeah, before we do that, let's chat about our tools of the trade. So, Caroline, what are you. What media are you consuming and what are you writing with? And on.
So I am currently reading a book of essays called Baseball Life Advice, which was written by a female Toronto Blue Jays fan. Like, super fan. And it's all these really great stories about her, about experiences she's had as a baseball fan and how. And how baseball has really affected every form of her life. And yeah, it's really, really interesting and really funny. And as a female baseball fan, I can relate to a lot of it. Yeah, it was loan. I didn't know about this book and it was loaned to me by a customer, actually. Yeah, it's a really good book. It's.
So are you. Are you a new baseball fan or have you been a baseball fan for a while?
No, I have been a baseball fan my whole life. I grew up in a Pittsburgh Pirates family because my dad was from Pittsburgh and played college baseball and it just was just always really into baseball. So we. I had season tickets when I was a kid and he used to, like, take us out of school and, like, drive us, like, late at night, three hours to Pittsburgh to catch as many games as we could squeeze in. So I am from a baseball family and happy that I live in a city that has not one, but two baseball teams.
Yeah. And you just spent like all of last week doing baseball stuff, right?
Yeah, I went to Cleveland for the Home Run Derby and the All Star Game. My mom lives in Cleveland and she lives just across the bridge from the stadium, which is awesome because we just can walk there.
Oh, wow.
And yeah, my brother asked us if we wanted to go, and it just seemed like a really fun family activity, so we all went together.
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, man, too bad Tim's not here to talk about baseball with.
I know. Well, no, because we would probably jeopardize the whole podcast and only talk about baseball.
Welcome to the Erasable Baseball Podcast. Nice. And what are you writing with and on. Or if you're not finished also with your media?
Oh, no, I'm writing with a pencil that I stole from a dim sum restaurant when I was in Malaysia. And it's really nice. I have a problem where I. If I've sharpened a pencil or if it is already sharpened when I acquire it, I can't. Like, those are the ones I use first. So this was just. I like, I use them up until they're finished. I'm not like a pencil swapper kind of person, but I. Yeah, this was just the one that was lying around and I've been using it and really enjoying it. It's a very nice free restaurant pencil. It's like the. You use them to, like, fill out the form, but.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's not like a. It's not like a golf pencil.
Like, no, it's like a full size pencil and it's red with gold foil and it's even dipped on the end. Like it's a super nice. Yeah. So I definitely had to steal it. Yeah. And I am, well, writing on a thousand different things. I mean, currently at my desk at work, I am writing on one of our yellow iron curtain press notebooks, which is covered in stickers. And I'm almost finished with it and I will start a new one next week. But it will be the exact same notebook because that's just my favorite work.
Not notebook.
The best one.
I forgot to tell you, when I was in la, maybe like a month and a half ago, I went to the Iron Curtain Press shop. It is like the shoot. What Is the shop called Shorthand? Shorthand, Yeah. I went to Shorthand and got a peek in the back in the Iron Curtain press, like back room. It was really cool. And yeah, that store is very cool.
Yeah, it's wonderful. I need to go visit sometime this year.
One of the. One of the owners just passed away, didn't he?
Yeah, he had brain cancer. Yeah, just a little over a month ago. He was the nicest guy too. I really, really liked him a lot. Yeah. Sad.
Sad. Cool. Johnny, how about you?
No, I'm sad. So we just podcasted three days ago, so not much. I finished that book on American philosophy I was reading and I did watch a film called Emperor that was about whether or not to bring the Emperor of Japan up on war crimes after World War II. It came out five or six years ago, maybe a little more. Tommy Lee Jones played Patton and the guy from Party of Five was the lead actor. So I don't know if he could carry a movie. But the writing was pretty good.
Yeah.
And a good ending. No good. You know, I was like, ooh, maybe there'll be some Japanese stationary sightings. But no luck. So that was disappointing. But it's on. Which one was Amazon prime or something? If you're like, want to kill two hours and watch a movie with pretty good music too. But yeah, that's it. And I'm using a Blackwing Volume 16.2. I put a picture on the dock that for some reason I decided to put like a 3 inch point on with a knife. And I've been using it all day and it hasn't snapped, which is pretty cool. I even did a crossword.
Is it comfortable to hold? Like, do you feel like. Do you have to like grip it further up the pencil? Like, does it. I can't. I just can't picture that this is a real thing.
Yeah, I'm holding the wood and it's like, it's perfect. I might be creeping down into the graphite a little bit. Yeah, like, oh, I really, I don't. It was one of those things where I got carried away. I'm like, well, I'm not going to waste like a third of a really cool pencil, so let's see what happens. And even doing a crossword on some really, really crappy paper, it didn't break on me, so that's cool. And I'm using it in a Write Notepads fourth of July book because the black and white cover is perfect match. And I was talking to Chris since we podcast it last because I was Asking about this paper because it's sort of leathery. It's butcher off white. So that's why it looks so cool.
Oh, the French paper butcher.
Yeah, it's. If you look in the inside cover, it looks a little leathery, but you can't feel it. That makes any sense. Yeah, that is, that's mushtick.
Should have jumped on those when they were, when they were out. He. He ran out in like a day, didn't he?
Yeah, I think he said that was. This was the record for the quickest they produced a book. I don't know if it sold that quicker than the Walden books, But there were 500 of those.
Wow.
I guess it's not. That's not fair.
He should do a Walden Books edition. Like the old store.
I have my name tag from when I worked there. It's got like Johnny and a bunch of stickers on it.
You should do it like a Walden Books one and a Borders one.
And what was the other one? Brentano's. Brentano's was our other one. Sister company. They were green. Yeah, same stock. But they were higher up in the mall.
Yeah. Cool. Well, yeah, as Johnny mentioned, we're recording the Monday after the Friday that we recorded last and July 15, and we, we won't be releasing this episode until the 22nd. So it's a little bit of a weird time difference, but we basically just talk to each other on Friday. So I have no new media that I'm consuming since then. Katie and I jumped back into the new Tales of the City show on Netflix. That's very good. And then also I'm still like in the middle of. What is it called? The Neal Stephenson novel that I'm reading the Dodge or Fallen Hell or whatever. Still in the middle of that because it's a really long ass book. But it's very good and I am writing. Okay, so on Friday we were talking about the Baron Fig editor, the new Squire that they have. Friday night after we recorded I got it and I was using it and it feels great. Like it's a really like those squires are really fantastic pension. And I pulled out all of my various squires and I picked up my experiment, the green one, and I kind of fell in love with it again. So irony of irony is I'm writing today with a pen with my green experiment into my Baron fig confidant. Carolyn, do you have any of the Squires pens?
I am embarrassed to admit that I don't.
Well, I mean, you're a pencil store person, so why Would you?
I mean, I still have pens, right? I'm not a crazy person.
Yeah, they're. Yeah, they're really nice. They feel. They feel really good in your hand and they're really well balanced. And this green one just has such a really nice, like, forest, like evergreen green ink. I like it a lot. Yeah. So that is, that is what I'm writing with today. I did have my Dixon Reach pen at my desk, which is a really unfortunately named Dixon Reach. But I really like a skinny, really like dark pen with a really good point retention. Excuse me, Pencil, not pen. It's a really fantastic pencil. Also, if you run it through a classroom friendly sharpener, it looks hilarious because it puts a really long, absurdly long point on a really skinny pencil. That's what I was using earlier today. So it's hard to like actually hold it in place, but it's a good one. Cool. Let's talk about freshpoints. Caroline, you have a few. Would you like to start us off?
Yeah, I have a few. I had a really fun weekend and went on a long journey to Queens. I did lots of things in Queens by bike on a very hot day on Saturday. It was very fun. But one of the things, really, the main reason go to Queens was for a stationary store that's been open for about a year. And I, for whatever reason, have just not made it over there, there yet. It's in a really residential neighborhood in Queens called Sunnyside and it's called Yoseca or Yoseka. It's. I don't know how to say it properly. It's owned by a really lovely couple from Taiwan and it is tiny and adorable and so well organized. And they have tons of beautiful fountain pens that I've never seen before and like, just lots of like obscure stuff from Japan and just so many things to test out. It was really, really wonderful. I bought a letter writing set from Gcoso that is my all time favorite letter writing set. It's this really cottony, like kind of peachy, light pink paper with matching envelopes. And I was completely shocked to see that they sold it. I love that letter writing set. And I bought a pack of these like glittery highlighter markers that are like so juicy. I don't remember who makes them, but they're like so juicy and glittery. They're so cool. Yeah.
Glittery.
Yeah, they're like they. But they have like that clear, that like really fine, like clear glitter in them, so.
Oh, I see what you mean.
Yeah, they're just so, so rich. And sparkly. They're really weird. I love them. But I had a really great time. I can't believe that I haven't gone over there. Yeah. I would even go as far as to say that it is the best general stationery shop in New York City right now.
Oh, wow.
So wants to make the journey to Queens. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Didn't Chris Jones just move to Queens?
He did, yeah.
Go over there. Chris Giveaway.
He's been there. No, I think he's definitely been there. I'm like the last person on the planet to go to this. To this shop. Yeah. We, like, sent them a Christmas card and we interact with them online, but I just had never been there. But, yeah, I love it. It was a fun journey. And in my shop, we have some fun new things. We just did some new packaging that Meredith did for us. Of course, she made boxes like how our baseball pencils come in a box of six. We did boxes for the Futura and for the editor pencils, which are beautiful. Aren't they nice? She did such a good job. And we did like a.
That's Charlotte's favorite pencil. So I showed her this for Back to School. She's, like, kind of losing it.
Yeah.
She loves future art.
It's such a pretty box. And she did a sleeve for the bridge pencils. And we are going to start selling all of these items that are like our own branded items that we designed. We've packaged them all because we're going to start wholesaling them to other shops, which is a thing that we've had a lot of requests for in the past couple years and a thing that I just didn't feel prepared or, like, equipped for. And now that we have more of our own branded items, we're going to start doing that, including our pencil logbook. So hopefully in other parts of the country, people will be able to go and buy these things in person.
Do you have any San Francisco customers yet?
Maybe.
I don't know.
I have quite a few people in, like, the email list I'm kind of compiling probably.
Nice.
Yeah, we have. We're working on a new pencil that'll come out, that'll be introduced in the next pencil box and come out in our shop and for wholesale in September that we're really excited about. So we're going to keep making new stuff. But the other thing that I don't think anyone knows about unless you've been in the shop in the past, like, three weeks, is that we have. We rearranged our furniture because we got this custom piece of furniture that is so unbelievably beautiful. And it's made to house all 120 colors of the Karen Dash super color colored pencils. And it has this like, long table that we're still waiting for custom test pads for, which is why I haven't Instagramed about this or shared it properly yet. And we have like, little shelves of. Of like blank, empty tins so that you can come and like, assemble your own tin. And Jade are very talented. Intern is working on a sticker sheet specifically to co to go with these tins that just is like a couple of super color stubs and like weird like, smudges and like pencil blobs. It's so cute. Um, but it is. Yeah. It's our new favorite corner of the shop. It's very, very fun.
It reminds me of, like, when you go to World Market and you can get like a. You can make your own custom, like, six pack of beer from like all the beers around the world.
Wow, that's fun. Yeah, it's like that, but for colored pencils.
That's for pencils.
Yeah. It's real. It's so beautiful. We're so happy with it. We're so happy. Caran d' Ache let us do this. But yeah, I mean, besides that, like, I just. Yeah, I have just been working and traveling and getting very far behind on all of my written correspondence. I know. Johnny, you've been writing a lot of letters. Do you ever feel like when you don't reply to them within a certain amount of time, do you ever feel, like, stressed about. It's like, I know it's a hobby and you're not supposed to feel stressed about hobbies. It's not supposed to feel like a chore. But I find myself sometimes getting like, so behind that. Like, the idea of replying to all of them is just so overwhelming that I just don't do it.
I totally do that. Plus, like, I'm like, if it were me, I'd be like, whoa, why aren't they writing back? They don't like me anymore. So I assume everyone else thinks that and like, no, I still like you.
Yeah, it's like, it's. It's overwhelming. I have like, I haven't replied to. I just did a batch the other day and I'm working my way on my dining table right now, which is like stacks of letters in order of the postmarks so that I make sure that I get them. And then I have like, Pre addressed thank you cards. So I remember to write thank you notes, but I don't write them. I just address them and decorate them and then they sit there for two weeks. But yeah, I'm slowly working my way through and it's. And it's not. I mean, I'm trying not to let it get to me. I just tell myself, like, I'll do like one a day until they're all done and then I still enjoy it because there's no pressure. I'm doing one a day. But, man, I have one for. From you, Johnny, that's in there. You'll get a reply maybe like in two weeks.
Just move his to the end.
I think you are, like, towards the end, though, because I literally have letters postmarked, like, June 1, like so long ago.
Well, you were also out of the country For a few weeks.
I was out of the country. And then I've had. Yeah, my personal life has been a little bit tumultuous lately, so I just. Yeah, life happens.
Yeah. Yeah, I definitely want to go to this, like, tea farm where you stayed. That looked amazing.
It was the coolest place I've ever been. I had the best time. Even though my. If anyone follows me on Instagram, they saw my whole, like, heavily documented saga of my sister not showing up. So I spent a whole week in Sri Lanka alone, and there were, like, no tourists there at all because people, I think, are still afraid to go there because of that terrorist attack that happened over Easter weekend. And so all of the hotels. Hotels were just empty. It was just like me and one other person in, like, every place I stayed, including in this remote tea lodge in the highlands. It was very strange. I felt like there was like, there's like a staff of like, 20 people just taking care of me and, like, two other people. If I didn't show up for dinner at the. Around the time that I did the previous nights, they would, like, call me and be like, are you okay? You haven't come to dinner yet.
It was sitting all right.
Yeah. But it was really amazing. If anyone ever needs Sri Lanka travel advice, let me know because I think it may. It may. It maybe is my favorite place I've ever been.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Cool. Any other fresh?
No, I think that's all I got today.
Johnny, how about you?
So aside from Rosie turning three, the only interesting thing that's happened since the last time we podcasted is that I have blue hair. And yes, I haven't dyed my hair in, like 20 something years, which is Dating me. But. Yeah. And people still knew. People knew who Angela Chase was. The last time I dyed my hair, because I dyed it that color. But, yeah, it's.
It's dyed your hair blue, but you didn't bleach your hair first, so it's kind of like a blue black.
Yeah, my. My hair gets a little.
You look at comic Book Superman with your, like, you know, black hair with blue streaks in it.
I've gotten Neil Gaiman character several times. I'm like, okay, I'll take that as a compliment. Yeah, I guess. I mean, most of my wardrobes like gray.
Yeah.
So I guess that makes sense. But. So we got our Baron Fig editor pens, which is a legit freshpoint. And they're so pretty, but, like, you know, all their packaging is cool. And I've only had two Squires, the key, and this one in my hands. But I've seen, like, all the packaging, and this one has by far the coolest packaging. It's sort of like a white with a typescript and the editing marks in the middle of it, which is so cool. And the red is really perfect. The ink is nice. Everything Andy said about Squires, that's wonderful is, of course, wonderful. I think Henry wants it because his favorite color is red. So I have hidden it, but I forgot where I put it. I forgot where it is, so I have to go look for it. All I know is it's up higher than 4ft, so you can't find it. But, yeah, it's really pretty. Thanks to Baron Fig for the review samples.
Yeah, lovely.
It looks really, really good. Next to a certain podcast custom yellow with red stamp that came out last year.
That it does. I didn't even.
And I better find that pen so I can take a picture. But putting a pen next to that pencil logo feels wrong.
That's true.
That's okay.
Wrong. You can't do that.
I have blue hair. I'm a rebel. I'll do it, but good.
Watch Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Johnny.
Oh, yeah. Not in a long time where it's
like, I'm a lunar Dottie. A rebel. Sorry, nothing to do with anything.
Yeah. So now my kids want to dye their hair, but I think they're allowed to dye their hair at their school, so that could be fun.
I think Charlotte should go for, like, a deep Purple.
That's what we were looking at, purple for her. And Henry wants red.
Oh, yeah.
And Henry's hair is getting a little long, and I like to brush it out into a little fro.
So he's gonna look like the. He's gonna look like the Heat Miser. If he has.
I should fade him down for that. That would be cool. So Charlotte wants to be Edgar Allan Poe for Halloween. She's already thinking, wow. So I'm trying to talk Henry into being a black cat and Rosie into being a raven.
Oh, yeah.
And then I will be a coffin. I don't know.
You can be Lenore.
True. So we have a. There's a worldwide Edgar Allen Poe festival that's. I think the second one is this year in Baltimore. It's unrelated to anything, but if you like literary stuff, get yourself a reservation for October here. It's pretty cool.
Go hang out with Johnny.
Yeah, so they have a beer garden where all of the beers are Egg Island Po themed, which is pretty cool if you want to, like drink beer during the day in the sun and, you know, give yourself a headache at 1pm but they had other food. Now I'm rambling, so I'm going to stop and ask Andrew what your fresh points are.
Well, mine are mostly podcast business related. I guess one of them is that just. So this comes out the 22nd, but we're recording Monday the 15th, and just today we open pre orders for Plumbago 6. It's going to be really good. It is about travel and nature and we have several essays about road trips and urban sketching and retreats. Have a bunch of comics, which is really cool. People kind of emptying out, like the kind of stuff they travel with. Gary Varner, our friend of the show. Gary Varner has lived for the last year, year and a half in a van, doing that hashtag vanlife. He's gonna write a lot about
the
kind of supplies, like art supplies and, you know, pencils that you want to take with you if you have a very, very limited space. Yeah, it's going to be a really great issue. And Diane Wright, who's a really fantastic graphite artist, has done the COVID She let us use one of her illustrations of a rock outcropping from Yosemite. So that is on the COVID So, yeah, go to Plumbago XYZ and click on the big link on the front page that will let you pre order an issue. And I would love it if you would, if you're listening and you would pre order just because it helps us raise some capital to do printing up front and to fulfill. Just kind of gives us a better idea of like how many copies we need to make and, you know, gives us some capital to get them out. So Plumbago six. Yay. And also when, because Plumbago six has come out, that means that Plumbago five, which was cover illustrated by the fantastic Meredith Miyatki we talked about, that is now available as a PDF download. So if you didn't want to pay shipping or full price for the paper copy, you can still get a digital copy for very cheap. So head over there and you can do that too. And that should be shipping probably mid August. Second thing I wanted to mention is kind of quietly, without us really realizing it, our group passed 3,000 members, which is huge. This group was. And just like, of course, every group started at zero, but like, for a long time there were just maybe a couple hundred people in this group, but we are up to 3,000 members.
Wow.
Yeah, it's kind of a long time coming. It did this maybe two weeks ago, but we realized we should have a giveaway. Um, so we are going to have a giveaway and you can win one of every single Black Wings volume in a Blackwing pouch, which is probably worth a couple hundred bucks at this point if you were to buy them on the black market in the group.
The gray market, the gray market, pencils,
pencil group, it's the yellow market. So if you want to win one of every volumes, you need to a be a group member. So I totally respect the choice of anybody who doesn't want to be on Facebook, but unfortunately you have to be on Facebook for this because it is a giveaway for the group. And we're going to have a riddle that I will post in the group and also read you here, written by Johnny, which is pretty amazing. So out of all the correct answers, we're going to pick a winner. So the riddle. This is the riddle, Johnny. Do you want to read it or should I?
I'll read it.
Okay, go ahead.
I'll take credit for this piece of crap. Excuse me. We stink and we cuddle. Andy loves us in droves, Tim likes us in between. And Johnny openly loathes. Who are we?
All right, so I'll let you ponder that. If you've listened to enough episodes. We've talked about this. Pretty sure Caroline also loves them in droves. Just to add that in there as well. So by the time this comes out, we will have a post in the group that will be pinned to the top go comment with what you think is the correct answer. And if it's right, we will pick you randomly and you'll win one of every Blackwing, which. How many editions is that now there's been 16.
That's four years of pencils, plus one, plus 205. Two pencils.
Okay. Yeah, so that includes the 211. That includes the 725, the ones that are really hard to come by. So, yeah, we'll see you. We'll see you over there. So lucky duck, Whoever wins, happy 3000 members to our Facebook group.
Yay.
Cool. So that is all my fresh points and kind of the main topic du jour that we'll get into this week is pencil cases. So, yeah, we have, we have a kind of a list of questions that Johnny came up with and we kind of went through and answered. So I would love to go through that and then really just have an interesting kind of open discussion about, you know, pencil cases that are out there and like, what serves what purposes before we even do that. Caroline, you have some really interesting new pencil cases, at least one that I'm thinking of in your shop. Can you talk about that a little bit?
So we have a pencil case that is pencil shaped and it looks like a pencil and it has a face. It's made by a New York based bag company called Min and Mon. And it's. They make the funniest bags. They make really quirky bags that are very colorful and have these like funny characters that come in the form of charms that you can attach to them. And they, all the bags have like interchangeable straps. It's. Yeah, they're really fun. And they, they emailed me kind of out of the blue a couple months ago asking if we wanted to collaborate. And I just kind of was like, well, I don't really know what you would want to do. And they emailed me a very intense presentation with these like, I guess prototypes of these pencil cases that are just ridiculous. They're, I mean, in the best possible way. Like, they're so cool. And they're really well made too. The couple who run this company are from Columbia and so they make everything, they have everything handmade in Colombia by people who they actually know. It's all done very sustainably. But they, um, yeah, they made them for us. They're lined. They stand up. So they stand upright. And the, the poll tab has like really funny like pencil branding numbers on it. So it looks very serious, but it literally has like a smiling face on it. They're insane.
It's like a pencil candy corn.
Yeah, yeah, exactly what it is. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. But they're, they're really cute and they've Been really popular. People have been buying them, so I'm glad that everyone else is liking them.
Cool. Yeah, that's. I just, I just saw that the other day and I was. As soon as Johnny suggested we talk about pencil cases, I was like, yeah, that we have to, we have to mention that thing. It's really fun. So what do you all look for in a pencil case, Caroline? What's kind of your characteristics when you want to find something that you're gonna, you're gonna either carry or use?
I really prefer for them to be washable. I do use pencil caps, but I also put a lot of other random stuff in there. So I, I prefer for it to be something that I can, that's like fabric that I can machine wash or at least that it be lined with something that I can just like spot clean. Yeah, I mean a lot. I have a lot of pencil cases that are like really nice, like raw leather. But. And those are nice. And I often end up using them for things that are not pencils. But yeah, I just prefer that it's washable and just easy and. Yeah. And simple. They have to, I mean I, they have to look nice. I don't really want to carry an ugly pencil case, but I mean, that's secondary to its function, of course. But I do a lot of, I do a lot of like pencil activities in public. And so I like for it to be something that like, I don't feel like I have to like dump out everything to find what I'm looking for. And. Yeah, I don't know. I don't. If I'm being honest, I don't. Like more days than not, I don't use a pencil case at all. I really just stick like one pencil in my bag with a cap on it, maybe two. I like to have a colored one, but I don't. Yeah, I don't. I just don't use a ton of pencil pieces. And if I do, I'm putting other stuff in there. Like I'm putting a pocket notebook in there. I'm putting stickers or postage stamps or like other things that I need for whatever activity that is probably letter writing or writing my planner. But yeah.
Yeah. Johnny, how about you?
I like it to be big enough to hold unsharpened pencils. Yeah, they have a few I've had. I have had a few that didn't. Or even like. What's that company called? Art Alternatives. They make a really cool pencil box that has one of those spring loaded ball bearing closures and it's very satisfying. But it won't hold an unsharpened pencil with an eraser, so it's basically useless. Yeah, I like my pencil cases to look like a pencil case and not like something I could be, you know, packing heat in. Because this is Baltimore.
And you don't want a tactical pencil case.
Yeah, I don't want a tactical pencil case with any Alice clips or anything like that. Just a pencil case. And I really like a zipper because I think it was a catholic school thing we had to have zippers, so it sort of carried over. And the idea of not having a zipper doesn't make any sense because everything would fall out.
Yeah.
But after that, then I guess it gets really specific.
Yeah. What do you usually. What do you typically, besides pencils, carry in your pencil case, Johnny?
Oh, pencil sharpener. Usually might put a pen in there. Maybe two.
Yeah, I have a bunch of sign pens in mine.
Oh, that's a good one. Usually I put some sort of knife in there for when I'm like, nah, I'm gonna, you know, rough it. Get that long point. Yeah, that's it. I don't stuff a lot of stuff in there. How about you? What do you put in yours?
I typically. I have a bunch of. I usually. I usually put a pencil in there that I like. Like a new one that I'm going to try out, and I just sort of forget about it in there. So I have, like four different styles of blackwing volumes that are just sitting in there after I kind of, like, use it as my primary, like, tryout tester pencil. I have three or four different colors of sign pens in there because I really love sign pens. Have a sharpie in there. I have a masterpiece ku Masterpiece in there. And what else do I have? Oh, I have a bunch of extra pencil caps in there, like the. The aluminum ones.
That's a good idea.
I actually have not been putting my various squires in there because this anodized aluminum scratches pretty easily and I don't want to scratch it up, so I don't actually stick that in there. But I think I have, like a couple of ball points in there, too. I have a bit crystal that I carry around in there. Yeah, Like, Johnny, I think that when I look for a pencil case, I really like something that will hold an unsharpened pencil, particularly an unsharpened blackwing, because I know that it's going to be big enough. I feel like the first pencil case I ever used that held an unsharpened black wing was one of the CW pencil pencil cases from like two or three years ago that you had like the iron on patch on, on the
front of the general ones.
Yeah, those are really nice.
Yeah, I still have that. I have a bunch of pencils sticking in that one. And what I like about that is it's not too big. So it kind of like limits what I can shove in there because I will put whatever in there until it fills up. I'm like a goldfish expand to the size of my environment. I also I'm not really a huge fan of like really expensive ones. So I don't really have any leather ones. That black wing one with the like kind of oily, I don't even know what that is. Like that waxed canvas is starting to get like a little too fancy and expensive for me. So I prefer just a cloth one like something really washable like Caroline said. So that kind of leads into the next one. We'll talk a little bit about some of our favorite ones that we own. So yeah, that CW pencil generals case is really great. I also really like. Does anybody have any of those like vinyl bankers bags? Draplin sells a bunch of those bags. Like he has one that just says zipper pouch. Really big
truth in advertising.
Yeah, they're just vinyl. He says that it's creepy vinyl. I don't know quite what he means by creepy but it's very soft vinyl.
Yeah, no, I have a like a banker pouch that I actually use for bank purposes every week and it like it. Yeah, it's like feels kind of like porous and spongy. Like it's not, it's not nice.
Yeah. But man they sure are durable. So I have, I have a couple of those that I've gotten over the years at various like drop on pop ups. But I know you can, I'm sure you can go into Amazon and like buy a blank one for super cheap. My coworker likes products that are like self aware. So she. We were going to a draplin pop up in town and so like the, the zipper pouch that says zipper pouch real big that that draplin sells. She bought one of those. So she like self labeled things. Right? Like something that has a sense of itself. Yeah. So I like those a lot. I. Caroline, I think you're going to talk about it. But those, the Nocco pencil pouch, do you carry those?
Yeah, we do.
Yeah. I love that thing. That's sold out on the NotCo site right now. So if you're in New York, go buy it from Caroline.
Oh, yeah, they're in stock.
Oh, are they? Yep. In. On the knock. Oh, no.
In CW. I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah, we have. We have some.
Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah, go buy it. Go buy it from Caroline. You can support both Brad and Caroline if you buy.
Yeah.
Double hitter.
So, yeah, those are. Those are the ones I kind of have in. In Motion. I carry the Notco one around in my bag with me, and the other ones I have, like, stashed in various places. Yeah. Carolyn, what are you carrying? What do you have pencil cases that you're using?
Well, the Notco one is one of my favorites, and I like it because it's, like, just big enough to also hold a pocket notebook and a. And like a standard size sheet of stickers.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Which for me is good. Is important too, because if I'm. That's the one that I always take if I'm traveling, because I always keep a pocket notebook with, like, my travel plan, like, day by day in it. And I always bring whatever trip I'm on. I bring, like, appropriate stickers for use on postcards. And even if it's postcards, like normal, like 4 by 6 postcards fit in it. So it's like, it's just the right size to fit all the things I would need. So I love it. And it's washable and the colors are cute. I love it for all those reasons. But I also have one that I bought at a shop called Choosing Keeping, which is in London years ago when it first opened and I was in college. And it's like, so tiny. I will have to take a picture of it when I get home. But it's like navy blue leather and it's barrel shaped and has a, like, a metal zipper that looks comically large for it because this thing is so small. And it's definitely made for pens because it's like the length of like, a ballpoint pen. It's short, so the pencils have to be quite short, but it is just big enough to hold, like, two pencils and a bullet sharpener and that's it. And I really love that one. If I do want to take a pencil case somewhere. Like, if I have a bag that is just like a tote bag or where, like, I know I'll just lose these things at the bottom, I use that tiny one. And I have another one that I love that my nana gave me. She did not make it herself, but she saw it online or something and had the one. One of the. I think one of the women who Owns like the quilting shop in her town. Like quite quilt this, this pencil case for me. But it's, it's probably like, I don't know, like 8 inches by 3 inches. And it's flat and it's really nicely quilted. But at the bottom, along the bottom of it are just like pencil tips that are quilted, but they're in rainbow order. It's really, really cute. I'll take a picture of that one also. It's adorable. And also machine washable. And it's like properly quilted though, so it's like very cushiony. So if I'm using anything that's like slightly fragile, I like to use that one because it's very projected. Yeah, I think those are my favorites. I have probably like six pencil cases, but those are the ones that are used in my heavy rotation.
Nice. Yeah. Johnny, how about you?
So my favorite pencil case is a box. Is that cheating? It's one of those little tins.
No, that's not cheating at all.
No, it's not cheating.
It's a very, very battered two tier Harry Potter job that my two kids, two oldest kids actually fight over who gets it when I die, but Charlotte gets it. So I'm like, guys, stop fighting. Charlotte gets it when I die. But it's, it'll hold exactly one unsharpened pencil. Like, like you can just fit that in there. So it's, you know, obviously the perfect size for pencils. They didn't make it for pens. And you can't really fit pens because
an unsharpened blackwing and unsharpened.
No, like an unsharpened Ticonderoga. Yeah, but the, the layers are so thin you can't fit pens. So I like it because it keeps you honest, but it also makes a lot of noise, so I don't really carry it around. But so I have this old case from the company called Blue Q. Have you guys seen that? They make like everything. Big cases, little cases. I think they make tote bags now, but they sort of look like a recycled feed bag. But they're printed. Yeah.
Yes, I totally have something in this design. Like this. Not this design, but I have something like this.
Yeah, you can. They're really, really easy to clean, which is good. But he has a little coin, has
a little coin purse that's made by them that has like cat butts on it.
That's what I use for a wallet.
Yeah.
Using them for a long time. They last like a year on my butt.
Yeah, I have one that I Think one of the girls who works here gave me years ago that says, I'm not bossy. I'm the boss. And it has a cat on it.
Mine says big bucks, and it's got a picture of a deer. And in the year I've been using it, only one person has ever. So I think it might be, like, an accidental dirty joke or something. Like, oh, I'm like. I'm like that creepy guy pulling out the dirty joke on his wallet with kids on his back. But. So my two other favorite cases are the right notepads and company pencil case. Because, like, you could almost take that thing on an overnight trip because it's kind of big, but also you could stuff anything in it and it wouldn't break because it's, like, beefy. It's made by. I forgot what they're called. They make, like, bankers bags, so, you know, you could fill it with quarters and, you know, beat up the fours if you were in mall rats instead of a sock. And, yeah, that's the only thing is they only come in blue. So if you don't like blue, you know, you're sol. But I like blue.
You can have any color you want as long as it's blue.
Yeah. But my favorite pencil case in the world is from that company out of print, who make, like, all kinds of cool stuff that are related to books. And it's called the polka dot. It's like a polka dot pattern of egg garland poe heads. And it's, like, really heavy canvas. I've had it for years. And unless you look in it and notice all the graphite stains, it looks half new. But they're really, really well sized for stuff that you can stuff a pocket moleskin or a field notes in there and just take that on like, a day trip under your arm, which I've done a bunch of times and luckily never lost it. But, yeah, those are my favorites. Right now I really want the black wing pencil roll, but, yeah, I already have the case and it's 60 bucks. So. Yeah, hasn't happened yet. But my birthday is coming up next month, so I've been dropping some hints.
Yeah. Caroline, do you have one of those black wing pencil cases?
I don't, actually.
I was going to ask, as a cat owner, if. If you did it that kind of, like, slightly tacky material that it's made out of, like, it's maybe impregnated with wax or something.
Yeah, it's waxed canvas.
It picks up cat hair like a magnet.
Yes, it does. I have a Couple of barber jackets that are made out of, like, the same material. And I like them because they're very durable. But I can't leave those jackets on a chair because the cats will just like, sit like, right on top of them. Yeah, yeah. It's really frustrating.
Yeah. Yeah. Anyhow, I was. I just noticed this at 1. I was like, holy cow, this looks terrible. Yeah, I should keep a lint brush in it specifically to de. Lint my pencil case.
Yeah.
Cool. So if. Okay. So I feel like out of all of us, Caroline is actually in a position to do this. But if you were designing and creating your ideal pencil case, Caroline, no hints about what might be coming in the future? What. What might that look like?
Personally, I would. For me, it would be the same size and the same size and shape as the notco one, because I love that one. And. Well, but I would like it in, like, a stiffer fabric, like something not so like floppy, something stiffer. And I would really like for it to have, like a flat pocket across the back because for, like, like. Well, I keep talking about postage stamps and stickers. Those are two of my other favorite things. But I would really like a place to put that kind of stuff so that it just doesn't get dirty and stays, like, flat and clean. Yeah, that's. That's probably what. What it would be. I don't know what kind of fabric it would be. Probably like a. Just a super heavy canvas or even like a waxed canvas. Yeah, like the black wing ones, though. I esthetically, I don't love waxed canvas. I don't like the kind of like, aged, like, crackling ness of it. I don't know. It's not my favorite material. But I mean, that would probably like a double layer waxed canvas would probably be the best thing. I don't know. But yeah, something like that, I think would be my ideal pencil case.
Yeah. What do you think, Jenny?
So all of the really cool, like, minimalist pencil cases tend to be made of leather. And, you know, I don't use leather. A small case like that works best with leather because it's stiff, but, you know, really heavy canvas like that with a nice snap. Although I know I said I like zippers. That would be like the most amazing pencil case that would last forever and smell good and look good. Yeah. So, yeah, that would be like that with like, the equivalent of, I guess, like Vietnam era heavy army canvas, which has a certain smell too.
It seems like they make, like, really good, convincing, like, vegetable leather. Now that you can get stuff made out of.
Yeah, I have one of those that doctor gave me.
There's also. What is that material that. It's the same thing they make, like, labels on jeans out of. It's like a paper. Very leathery.
How do you say it?
Tyvek.
Something like that. They make, like, house wraps for it out of it.
Yeah, yeah. Something like that would. Seems like that would be really durable and work really well. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure I was. I was thinking about this when you asked that question, Johnny, and I. I think that, like, something a. That kind of like, constrained me to, like, a certain number of writing utensils. So maybe something that had, like, like, you know, six compartments or something like that would be really useful. But then also something that I could kind of stand up at Target and. Well, I'm sure other places too, you can buy pencil cases that kind of zip open from the top and you can kind of sit it up on your desk too, almost like a pencil cup. So something like that lets me just sort of, like, pick up the pencils. Almost like those straw dispensers at old diners would be really cool. A, it would give me a constraint to, like, kind of limit the number of, like, crap that I put in my pencil case. And B, it would make it really easy to just kind of, like, access. So I would be super into something like that. There's something that I've seen at the San Francisco Pen show, and I bet you can find it elsewhere. Maybe like a Japanese stationery shop like that one in Queens. But it's a little, like, plastic box that you can open and then just kind of, like, sit it on its side so it actually looks like you can set it up on your desk as well. I'll try to find a link and put in the show notes. I'm not describing it very well, but something like that, just that for pencils would be really great because, of course, they're not long enough to put a. An unsharpened pencil in. Yeah, well, that's kind of all we had for discussion on pencil cases. Is there anything, Anything anybody wants to add to that?
I think maybe, Andy, your next career is as a container designer. Those are some pretty innovative ideas there.
Yeah, I. I could at least come up with the ideas and have somebody who actually knows what they're doing, you know, design it.
Yeah. Or maybe you could just really go for it and, like, go back to school for industrial design or something.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, so I don't know if we're going to have like I would like to have you back on Caroline before back to school really like hits but I imagine you're already thinking about what you're stocking if you don't have stuff in stock. Now. Any, any thoughts back to school trends hot takes that you want to like put forth?
I, you know, I don't really know. I'm. I'm bringing in some new things. I have learned over the past few back to school seasons that no matter how much like cool stuff I bring in that is geared towards kids more and more, at least our kid customers want the really grown up stuff. So I just like every year I try a little bit less hard and I just if I'm being honest I get a little easier and just bring in the things that like I know people want during back to school. Some a few like more like fun like novelty things more like kid friendly sharpeners, more like sets of 12 colored pencils that aren't expensive, that kind of stuff. But yeah, I don't know. There are some cases and boxes that I am ordering because High Tide, you know, High Tide from Japan, they make lots of cool containers and those Nahi flat like plastic cases and I'm getting some different sizes of those soon hopefully because they, they now have. Because they have a shop in LA now. High Tide does.
That's right.
They have a shop in LA and they have like a US team now. So it is so much easier to, to get that stuff which is awesome. It used to be really hard to. Hard to get.
I love my melamine pencil tray that was in my pencil box.
Aren't those so cool? I love those. Yeah, those are awesome. But they. Yeah. So I'm getting more storage solutions from them and they make these cool sets of boxes that I've purchased for myself several times. But they're like, they're kind of like vintage looking plastic like snap shut hinged boxes. Kind of like space makers. But they come in when you buy the set they come in three different sizes and they just kind of like pack into each other and one of them is the medium size is like the same size as like a normal size spacemaker and those are really, really great and really inexpensive. They like, I think they retail for like less than $20 for the whole set. So it's a little off brand for us. But I think I'm going to get those because it's just useful especially for like younger children who just need like a large container for their parents to like throw all their colored Pencils in.
But did I tell you I met the High Tide guy?
Oh, did you?
Yeah, he was, you know, you know Bruce Eman.
Yes.
So Bruce and the High Tide. So they did a High Tide did a pop up at this Japanese, like, goods store in San Francisco and I just like randomly ran into the both of them at the Renegade craft fair a few months ago. And yeah, that was, that was really cool. Just like, oh, hey. And Bruce was super excited. He was like, this is the guy with the pencil podcast. So High Tide, if you're listening, we do sponsorships.
Yeah, yeah. Everyone who works for them are super nice. I'm really happy to like be able to have a relationship with them directly now because I was getting some of that stuff from the distributor in the US who was selling it before. Also owns a shop in my neighborhood called Top Hat, which I think probably several of you have been to New York. We tell everyone to go there. It's an awesome shop and she distributes that stuff but never brought in all of it. So, yeah, I'm happy to have access to all the colors now because so much of that stuff comes in so many colors. Yeah. So that's, that's exciting stuff. But yeah, I don't know. It's back to school season like every year. Really every year. Like, I just worry less about it. I just make sure we're like, really? I do a huge, like store wide restock towards the end of the July because July, June and July are always our slowest months. So I do like a. I just kind of get a little lazy. Take some time off those months and do a big store wide restock at the end of the month. And yeah, we do well and we do like some of the popular school pencils, like by the dozen, a little bit cheaper than they normally are. That's always a popular thing. But yeah, I'm kind of taking it easy. It's a lot because then we ship a subscription box September 1st and. Which is a lot of work. And then we have like October to kind of chill for a sec and then we dive right into holiday season. So. Yeah, and that's a whole different story.
Yeah.
Cool.
Like I haven't noticed. You know, I just went to Target and saw their big super mass consumer back to school. They were really pushing those terrible Bic extra fun pencils.
Really. I wonder if could they have reformulated
them or maybe I'll buy a pack just to see. But they. That did not seem like it to me. Like I, I wanted to like them so bad. Because that plastic feral is so cool looking.
Yeah, it is.
They're just so bad.
Ticonderoga is pushing those neons.
Oh, yeah.
And they have the neon. Those erasers that look like pencils. They have the neon version.
Oh, super cute. Yeah, they're really adorable. Has dates in them.
I don't know. They're at Staples now for like two bucks, I think, for the pack.
Well, I think it's totally acceptable to buy. To buy that kind of stuff, like, purely for decorative purposes. I do that all the time. Like, I've pencil cups scattered, like, carefully around my apartment. Like really special pencil cups or just like design objects that I use as pencil cups. And each one has, like a different theme of pencils in it. Yeah, so that's those big and like the striped Ticonderogas. I loved those. I bought a lot of those just to have because they're pretty. But I think that's okay. That's acceptable as long as you're not, like, really hoarding.
We should do like a video podcast. Like an MTV crib style podcast where we just, you know, tour, like people's pencil displays. That sounds. That sounds like. It'd be amazing.
My walk in closet.
That'd be fun. I let you into my apartment.
This is erasable cribs.
Erasable cribs. My problem now is that, well, my apartment, I look like a crazy person. I keep a doodeck on my dining table. I have one of those fish's Eddie, like ceramic sheets of like loose leaf paper. Have you seen those? They like. It looks like just a single sheet of loosely paper, but it's ceramic. And I have one of those that I keep flowers and salt and pepper shakers and a Dudek cube for the pencils that I'm using like every day. And my cats really like to like, they like just kind of stick their head over there and pluck one of them out of the holes and they just like paw it on the floor and they just paw it around until they lose it. Really annoying.
Yeah. Oh, man, that's funny. Cool. Anything else we want to discuss before we button it up?
I don't think so.
Yeah. Cool. Well, Caroline, thank you so much for taking some time and joining us today. It's been a lot of fun.
Of course. This was so fun. As usual. You guys are the best.
Yeah. You're one of our. Don't tell our other guests. You're our favorite guest.
Yay.
Where can people find you on the Internet?
You can find me on Instagram at cwpencilenterprise. And also at Lady Graphite. On Twitter, I am cwpencils. We're also on Facebook and our website is cwpencils.com Nice.
And Jenny, how about you? Where can people find you on the Internet?
I'm on the Internet@pencilrevolution.com and I'm on social media Pensolution. How about you? Ando.
Ando.
Ando.
What did you call me last episode? And the Drew.
Andy.
The Drew.
Your name is fun. And I haven't called you Candy yet.
Well, just wait.
So in the neighborhood I grew up with, there were people actually named that.
So nice.
Ando. No, Andy. I mean Candy. Hey, Candy Hein.
Hey. My website, my pencil blog that I Never update is woodclinch.com and I also can find me on various other things@andy.wtf and I am on Facebook and excuse me, Instagram and Twitter as at Awelfley. And this is the Erasable podcast. We are on the Internet as raceable.us. excuse me, www.erasable.us. i'm getting my prefixes confused. This episode is episode 121 and that is at erasable us121. For show notes and a recording, come join our Facebook group, 3000 members strong. If you're not in it already, come and join the giveaway that is facebook.comgroups erasable. And then we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as Erasable Podcast. Thank you very much and we will talk to you soon. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, maybe we'll turn it off.