This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I just want to say blackwing, you cowards.
This one thing, it's called the Black Wing Mat.
Hello, and welcome to episode 133 of the Erasable Podcast. I'm Andy Welfle, and joining me tonight, as always, are Tim Wasem and Johnny Gamber. Hey, guys.
Hey.
How's it going?
Hey.
Less than a month.
Less than a month.
Oh, my God. I'm counting down.
Jumping right in.
Oh, yeah.
I'm cleaning my apartment like crazy.
More on that later. Also on this podcast, we have everybody's favorite pencil lady, Caroline Weaver, who you might recognize as the proprietor of the world's most famous pencil shop, CW Enterprise, in New York City. Hey, Caroline.
Hi, guys.
So excited to have you on. And we're going to be talking after freshpoints with her about her new book, Pencils, you Should Know, which is a really delightful book. So we'll get into that in a bit. But first, let's talk about tools of the trade. Carolyn, what are you consuming and writing with and writing on?
Well, if anybody works in the stationery biz or any retail business, you know that it is trade show week, which is a very busy week. There are multiple trade shows happening in New York. So I've been in my limited alone time binging a lot of bad TV while also including the new Taylor Swift documentary, which I watched at work yesterday when Alex banished me to my office to do the next pencil box insert, which is a project that I always dread. It's really stressful because I hand write them and they have to be spaced properly and they have to be straight. They have to fit everything in. It's horrible. So I watched that while I was doing it, and I'm not a huge T. Swift fan, but I shed a couple of tears towards the end. It was a really good documentary. The production value was super high,
and
it was really, really good. I highly recommend it to anybody, even if you don't like Taylor Swift. We also share a birthday. Taylor Swift and I. December 13th.
Nice.
I don't know if you guys know who Margo Price is, but she's in that Americana world, and she tours with Jason Isbel and Chris Stapleton and those guys. And she had a really funny tweet the other day. It was like, hey, I really enjoyed the Taylor Swift documentary, but it's only adding to the confusion about what Americana actually is. If Taylor Swift is considered Americana, then. But I'm dying to. Dying to watch that myself. And I'm not even a huge T. Swift fan.
That is very.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a very good documentary though.
Yeah. Yeah.
Nice.
So I guess I lazy about this this week. I've had a very short Scots pine pencil in my ponytail all day to the point where it kind of like exited the. Where the ponytail is and just kind of started living like underneath my hair. Which is a thing that's problematic because if it's in there for a couple hours without me using it, I'll take my hair out and forget that it's in there. And then it just falls on the floor and it's kind of embarrassing. There are people around. But
we need a. We need a name for something that's between a Steinbeck stage and a bullet pencil stage. And maybe that is ponytail.
That's like ponytail length. Yeah. It's good because it doesn't like stick out too far. It's not a safety hazard when it's short because it's like mostly in your hair.
Yeah.
But it's really easy to forget that it's in there. And I do this a lot. And there have been times when I've gone to bed and like left my hair as it is and I like fall asleep and wake up and they're just like graphite marks on my pillowcase. It's a legitimate problem. But I really like the caran d' ache, Scott's pine pencil. And so I'm happy that that was the one I had today.
Nice. How about you, Tim?
I just watched a movie yesterday, or I guess it was two days ago that I know Johnny is a fan of and I might have mentioned it before when I made my trip to the Hemingway house, but I finally finished watching it. Genius, which is the movie about Thomas Wolfe and Max Perkins as editor who's also the editor for the early Hemingway and Fitzgerald books. And man, was it a good movie. Really enjoyed it. It's about the relationship between this writer and like a famously prolific writer and his editor and a lot of pencil action in it. And I ended up looking into it afterwards. And so his writing method, Thomas Wolfe was this like big eccentric and he's. He lived in. He grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, which is close to here. So like the concert place that we like the concert hall that we go to is named after him. So he's a big, kind of a big deal around here. But his. His writing method, which is fascinating is that he. He preferred pencil. He only used pencil when he was writing. And he would typically write while standing and he would write on top of his refrigerator, which refrigerators were Smaller than. But he was 6, 7, so he was this big guy, and he would write.
He.
When asked, he said that he would write between five and six thousand words a day.
Jeez.
When he. When he turned in the. The manuscript for you can't go home, or Is that what's called or you can't go home again.
Yeah.
His. His final novel that came out after he died, the manuscript was over a million words.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Yeah. Incredible. And, like, so, like, when he brought his second novel into Max Perkins after Look Homeward angel, he's. He kind of sheepishly comes in. He's like, I finished my manuscript. He's like, all right, we'll bring it in. And then he, like, leans back and tells somebody to help him, and they come in with three crates full of paper, which ended up being a true story as well. Kind of amazing. All handwritten on, like, loose leaf paper that he. He'd showed up at his editor's house with. Also, I read that he. He used pencils so often and was in. Wrote so much that he had on his index finger a permanent, like, heavy callus that had an indention of a pencil, like a hex pencil on his finger.
Wow.
Which I thought was a great little detail.
Yeah.
Yeah. It was pretty amazing.
Oh, my God.
It's a. It's such a good movie. Colin Firth plays Max Perkins, his editor, and Jude Law plays Thomas Wolfe, and Nicole Kidman plays Thomas Wolf's, like, benefactress, I guess you'd call her or something like that.
But.
And Dominic west was a really good Hemingway for that one scene. I was surprised. Like, wow.
There's some really, like, intimate, kind of heartbreaking scenes with Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's, like, in Perkins's office, and he's out of money, and he's trying to pay for Zelda's expenses and being in the mental health facility. And then there's another one where they have dinner with Zelda, and Thomas Wolf shows up, like, hammered and just, like, gets Zelda all riled up. And it's. It's painful, but it's just. It's really well done. So I would. I highly recommend that movie. And yeah, I've been listening to, actually Henry and I. My son Henry and I have really gotten into. Okay, Akumi, who Andy, you exposed me to when we did write music episode that was like the 99 Invisible Music. And man, did it blow that kid's mind when he. When I told him this. This music was made with computers, he was just like, what? Like, computers, like what does that mean? I was like, I. I don't know.
Open GarageBand and let him try.
Yeah, like, let's do some. But he. And he loves it. And so tonight I was up before we were recording, we were reading and he gets a book that gets sent home to read every night. And this was the first one that the teacher sent home that was beyond just like a little kid's book. And so it was like, you know, like 70 pages or something and more words on the page than he's used to. And he was like really like working hard to get through this whole book and did a really great job. And we put on okay Akumi as we were. As we were reading it and he was, I feel like it gave him strength. So we got through that book and it was, it was a really proud moment for him. And I feel like he was just like happy to have that music on because we've been enjoying it this week. And lastly, reading Wise, I've been kind of jumping around between several things, but one thing on the. I got to it via recommendation from the fellows on Take Note, but they had recommended a stoic, like a daily stoic philosopher's reading book that I found, which led me to buying a copy of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations at Malaprops in Asheville, which I've really been enjoying and reading. And it made me want to watch a Gladiator again, which is totally like, not true.
That's not how he died.
Not even close. Which I knew that, but it's still. I just had fond memories of that movie.
But Richard Harris is a really good likeness for Marcus Aurelius.
Yeah, he was good. He does a good job, but really enjoying that. So Meditation is just like reading that a little bit every day. And it's helping me be a more patient teacher, I feel like. So, yeah. And I am writing with a Mitsubishi 9852EW. And I'm writing in the Nels Klein Wilco field notes. So how about you, Johnny?
Awesome. So I just read the Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I think that goes on Johnny's. Everybody's read it but me. Reading list or a book club. Have any of you read this book or all of you have read this book?
I've read it twice.
Yeah, I've read it a while ago.
But yeah, I feel so behind
you then.
Yeah, it makes you want to take like several levers, but that's impractical at this juncture of my life.
That is the. That is the episode Intro.
I mean, I just turned 40. I think that'd be a little cliche, but I haven't seen the film yet, but it has Daniel Day Lewis and, you know, pretty much watch anything he's in. So that could be fun when I have three hours to spare. And I also read a book called when in Doubt, Make Belief, which is sort of one of those, if you have ocd, this book will make a lot of sense to you. And if you don't, you're like, I'm staying away from everybody I know who has ocd, because that's weird. But yeah, it's by Jeff Bell, who's apparently a radio personality. So I heard him on a podcast, which is where I heard about this book. And he's got, like, the silkiest voice. He makes Tim sound like me. Like, he's pretty amazing. No offense, Tim.
No offense to you, I guess. I don't know.
Yeah. So we're trying to limit ourselves to three things, but I read his other book between last night and this morning because it was really, really good. And it was one of those books that has, like, a really nice bricky feel to it. You don't want to put it down with, like a matte cover, you know, just the right dimensions. And I just. Speaking of people I would watch anything with in a big fan of Tom Hardy. So we watched Legend the other night. It's on Netflix. I think they added it recently, but it's four or five years old. It's about some twin gangsters in the East End of London, and Tom Hardy plays both of them. And it's like, super violent and without a lot of guns. Super violent. And, man, like, I blushed the language in that movie at a few points. But yeah, if you. If you're. If you want to watch something that's kind of frantic, it was cool movie. Plus, Tom Hardy's pretty much amazing all the time. And that's it. I am writing with a Tennessee Red. Oh, wait, I'm a liar. I put it down. I'm writing with a Swisswood from the pencil store. I don't know what it's called. It's a light one.
That's the same one I'm writing with. This is Scott's fine.
How awesome. Pencil chairs. Yeah. And I'm actually writing with, like, what, all the various scraps of papers around my desk because I can't find a notebook that's not full. So. Yay. How about you, Andy?
Well, I just finished reading a book by a local sci fi author named Mike Chen. He wrote a book called the Beginning at the End. And it takes place. He wrote this way before the coronavirus, but his book takes place six years in the future after a virulent strain of the flu just, like, kills half of the world's population. And everybody's just sort of rebuilding their societies. So it's very timely. We won't get to that point, but he's a San Francisco local, and so the book takes place here, and it's just really interesting and well thought out. And the kind of, like, tagline of this book is, you know, what if it wasn't the end of the world? What if we just paused for a while and it's about how unlike Station 11, which is that book about, like, you know, if a virus wipes out, like, 95% of the population, this is just like, what if it wipes out, like, half the population? What do you do then? And it's. It's interesting because, like, you know, there's still infrastructure, there's still society. There's just like a few key, subtle things that change. And, you know, people. People six years down the line might, like, you know, may not come out in public a lot or really want to be around each other, or, you know, people might need counseling because every single family probably has some loved ones who died. And it's just kind of like, what do you do when, like, everybody has, like, trauma over that? And it's. It's a pretty. Despite all that, it's a pretty light read and it goes really fast. So it's a. It's like, not a feel good novel. Yeah. And there's a. There's a plot. There's some interesting characters in it. There's a. There's actually an interesting kind of like, Taylor Swifty type character, a pop star who kind of goes missing after. After all this happens. So, yeah, it's a pretty good book.
Was it because she supported a Democrat in Tennessee?
Yes, that's totally it.
Is that why she went missing?
Okay. I think so. No, this particular character has a kind of controlling father who has manipulated or kind of like, controlled her into being, you know, like a pop star. And the.
This.
This outbreak kind of like gave her an excuse to break free and go off and start a new life. So not super Taylor Swifty, but that's definitely who I was picturing in my head. There's. Have you. Have you all heard of or listened to the Flophouse podcast?
No.
No, it is every episode. They basically talk about, like, a bad movie, and it's Usually some like, like an old bad movie or you know, like Paul Blart, Mall Cop or something. I don't know, I'm just making that up. But they had a really, really great two hour episode about the Cats movie and they kind of like stepped through it scene by scene. And it's just really funny the that they talk about it. And they had a special guest who not only A, attended the premiere of Cats, but B, was like the plus one for Lin Manuel Miranda. So she was like his, she was his date to the premieres specifically because his wife didn't want to go. So not only do you get some color from the premiere. Excuse me, from Cats, but you also hear a little bit about how the premiere went, which is really interesting. And finally, I'm going to talk About Shrill Season 2, which we watched in its entirety this weekend.
Oh, geez. I didn't know there was season two already.
Yeah, season two's out. Super good. Super, super good. A.D. bryant system treasure. So definitely recommend checking that out if you haven't. Yeah. And finally, I am writing with like, Tim, the Mitsubishi 9852. Ew. Tim, I don't know where you got yours, but I got mine in a really delightful little pencil bouquet that came along with advanced copy that I'm reading.
And we, we sort of decided to make that the pencil of the month already. So it's like super fitting.
Spoilers.
Yay. Oh, sorry.
I've had this, I've used this pencil before, but I kind of forgot what I delighted is.
Yeah, this is like one of my favorites. So I've, I had like, we announced you guys were like talking about that as an option and I have like three dozen in my closet, so I was ready.
So thank you, Carolyn for sticking this in that, that pencil bouquet.
Yeah, thank you.
Cool. And I'm writing in my custom made pocket notebook by a co worker of mine, which I posted the group and on Instagram. Just a really cute little pocket notebook. And she was take. She took my recommendation for using the same Strathmore paper that is inside the dime novel. So it's like kind of delightfully toothy. And then she put this really cool sort of like fountain fade dot grid in it that kind of fades from one color to another in the middle. So it's really gorgeous. Pocket notebook.
That's awesome.
All right, should we hop into freshpoints and showa? Carolyn, would you like to get us started with that?
Okay. Well, as far as shop news goes, we're in our most boring time of year. So there's not really much going on except a lot of admin things and really, really boring things that you don't need to hear about. But our fifth birthday is coming up in March next month, which is weird. Five years feels like a lot, but it also kind of feels like there's never been a time when I wasn't doing this, so it's kind of wild.
Um, I'll admit, it seemed. I couldn't believe it's only been five years.
Yeah. Like, if some. It feels like it's been more, but in other respects it doesn't. I don't know. In New York City, it's a really big deal to make it to five years. Um, so at least in, like, retail landscape of New York City, it feels like a big deal and that we've made it that long because most businesses don't. Um. But yeah, we're trying to get out some really exciting, new exclusive product. There are some things that we're working on, not all of which will be available in March, just because I don't think it's going to happen in time, but that's really fun. I am planning my next trip to Japan and starting to think about maybe opening a shop there.
What?
Yeah, it's. I always thought I didn't want a second shop because I really didn't think there was another market that could, like, support it the way that New York does. And I also thought, like, I would never be able to open a shop in a place where there are enough of the right type of people to run it for me. But after my crazy year of Japan that I had last year, I have been reminded that there's very much a market for it and it would be very welcome. And I personally would love to have more reasons to go to Japan more often. So we'll see. On this upcoming trip, I'm, well, planning it as, like, a part vacation trip, part work trip for another book event. Because if you haven't heard this, my first book, the Pencil Perfect, was published in Japanese in December. So I'll be going for another book event and I. I'm going to start to, like, put out my feelers about. Yeah, well, if you want.
If you want to open a shop that's halfway to Tokyo, there's always San Francisco.
I know.
I mean, you could help out there. The horrible economy in Baltimore.
Nobody would. Nobody would buy enough pencils in Baltimore.
I mean, you could sell guns also.
Can guns.
Actually, you can. We have really stripped.
That'll just kind of give you a Skeptic suspicion that we're. Johnny would buy something, and I don't want to prove it. Right.
We have oddly tough gun laws here.
That's a good maybe dispensary. No, I think. We don't want to dilute the brand, guys.
No. Yeah. I don't want to jeopardize all of this. Just. Fine. We'll see. I don't know. I'm not trying to open a shop in every city. It would be a big stretch for me to even try to do a second one, but that's what I've been fantasizing about lately. I did this press conference in Tokyo in December, and somebody. During the Q and A portion of this very terrifying and very formal press conference, somebody asked me if I would open shop there. And I said yes. And they were very excited. So I don't know. We'll see.
Nice. Well, congratulations on five years and maybe a Tokyo. Awesome.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Happy birthday. January is our most boring month. It's our slowest month of the year. So we do really, really boring things. Like, we do, like, a website audit where we make a list of everything that needs to be updated on our website. And we, like, do things like relabel all the jars in the shop and clean them, which is a lot of glass to clean and a lot of things to write. So I end up just watching, like, a lot of garbage TV because I just need something on in the background while I'm writing labels that say pretty much the same thing over and over and over again. Yeah, we do inventory. We do all that delightful stuff that you have to deal with when you run a shop.
Maybe, Carolyn, we should make a font out of your handwriting.
I've thought about that before, actually.
That's a great idea.
My friend Adam Kurtz does all of his work, like, in his. Like, it's his handwriting. Literally everything he does. He's. He's done a couple books, and he's an artist, and he made a font out of his handwriting, and he knows a guy who could do it for me. So I don't know, maybe that's next.
That's something I've been wanting to do for my wife for, like, 10 years because she has really cool handwriting, and I didn't even know where to start to try to make that kind of thing happen. Cool idea.
Yeah.
Cool.
Tim, how about you? How about your fresh points? Yeah.
First off, in 25 days, 25 days, the three of us will be together in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. for the show. And so on Friday February 28th at 8pm we'll be having our live recording. And so if you are going to be at the show and are considering, you know, at the, the PEN show and are considering coming to our live recording there at the, at the Baltimore Washington International Pen show, please go to our website at Eraseable US Baltimore and you can reserve a seat at the show. So there's just a few questions you have to answer once you get there. Just, you know, first of all, tell us if you're coming to the PEN show itself and then tell us there's a little drop or a little multiple select, as we'd call it in the teaching profession where you a squire. Are you a patron? Patron of Race Bowl? Just because if we get an overflow, then we'll, we'll try to give sort of preferential seats to people who've been supporters of the show, just in a limited space that we've got. And then of course, telling us your name and your email address and how many tickets you need. One or two. Because we really want to see you and we just want to know who's there. The tickets don't cost anything. You just need to reserve a seat at the event.
By the way, several of you have reached out about, you know, ticket availability and everything. And just know this week I think we're going to like kind of walk through them and figure out how we're going to distribute tickets. Because, like, do we want paper tickets or do we just want to put names on a list or what? But we'll have some confirmations for those of you who've asked about this soon. So yeah, stay tuned.
Any, any extra tickets we will print off and like JLO style Shootout in the money, Gun in the middle of the pen show.
I hope so.
No, you should like hide them. Just like tape them on the wall around.
I'm gonna put them around scary parts of Baltimore.
Sure, I'll let you do that, Johnny.
Yeah, well, we could put. Well, never mind. Historic graves.
Yeah.
Yes, we'll. We'll decorate graves with them. So go to. Go to the grave of Ed Ground Poe and get a ticket to our show.
I think John Wilkes Booth is here too.
Limerick.
Yeah, Got lots of options.
So do we need a volunteer for someone to be like a bouncer?
Brad, I think, Caroline. Oh, you think Brad?
I mean, bouncer.
That sounds good.
I wonder if my fireman friend would do it. He's terrifying looking. As long as he doesn't talk to you. Because if he talks to you, you'll realize he's super nice.
Yeah.
And then the illusion is lost. All right.
So, yeah, just wanted to just get on there and reserve a seat. We are now discussing in the doc that it says 8pm on our website. We're not sure if it's 7 or 8, but we will confirm that. We'll confirm that on Twitter or elsewhere in the next episode. So we'll Just to make sure. But just if you did reserve a spot on our website, just. Just check back in the next couple weeks and make sure that time doesn't change because that would be an enormous bummer if that's what happens.
So we should mention where it is. Where is it? Oh, the BWI Airport Marriott.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's fun. That's not in Baltimore.
The only other thing I've got.
Yeah. Okay. So on the bright side, people who are coming down on the train, there's a rail station at BWI that Amtrak doesn't advertise very well.
Johnny, it looks like you are correct. I'm looking at the BWA website right now and they have us listed as a 7pm so make that 7pm Not 8pM I will update the website.
Oh, you just earned your. You just earned that PhD.
So I owe it all them Adderall. You think I'm kidding? You should read. I have an entire book of poetry that I write to Adderall. I'll show you guys when you're in town.
Love note, Aderall.
All right.
And the only other thing.
Therotic poetry, actually.
Good.
All right.
Obviously. Obviously.
Okay.
The only other thing I have is that Blackwing have come out with new packaging and some new Designs for the 602. Is it. Is it for the 602 and for the others? It's for all of them, right? Yeah, they're changing all of them. So just to kind of give a summary of what they've done. And then I want to. Definitely want to get you guys to chime in on your thoughts. They have, first of all, on the pencil, they have altered the font to be more of just like a straight up and down vertical block style font. And they've removed palomino from the body of the pencil, which my main beef with that, which I'll just go ahead and say, is that those awesome little trees are gone.
Oh, I didn't think of that.
This one kind of makes me sad when I see it. Um. Just gonna say it. Just gonna say that it makes me kind of sad. It looks like a knockoff of itself in some ways, but so. But they Also redone the packaging, which. This is great. They've read on the packaging, gotten away from the black boxes, and now it's kind of a sleeve with a cap on top of the sleeve, which I think these look pretty cool. It's kind of a square sleeve. It's really. I can already see them on the shelf and see how tidy and cool they could look. I'd love to see. Get a better shot of what it looks like on the top and the bottom of the box. You can kind of see the top on the box on the, the picture on the Blackwing 602 website. But I'd like to see. Yeah. Just what that would look like to see them all stacked, you know, laying down. But what do you guys think? What do you, what do you think of these changes?
Can we, can we talk about the matte black elephant in the room?
Yeah. So, you know, all of our hopes of them calling the, the Black one the MMX have been dashed because now it has a name and it's not mmx. And, like, my heart died a little bit.
I. I just want to say Black Wing, you cowards.
So it's called this one thing. It's called the Blackwing Mat. Is that what it's called? Yeah, yeah. Renaming a kind of Mac and cheese. Like Mac and cheese yellow or something.
Yeah.
It really bums me out too.
I mean, it's, it's been accurate.
Yeah. As a retailer, that's what we've always called it. And I am just, I don't, at this point, I don't even care what it's called. I'm just happy that it has a name because people get so confused.
No, this is just the Black Wing.
But Blackwing is a brand, not a pencil.
I totally get it. Yeah. I totally get why they did it, because as Carolyn said. Yeah. Like, this is something that is more descriptive and the MMX is like, requires extra. Extra explanation. So. Yeah, I understand the Blackwing Mat, but, man, we're just gonna have to, you know, try. Try for the next redesign, I guess.
Well, maybe they'll do an MMXX in October for the 10th anniversary. Or they could just do the black Blackwing X. And it's like, I don't know, a negative of itself somehow.
Yeah, I. Yeah. And I just, I can't get over, like, just. This is. This is a very, I don't know, over the top reaction. But when I look at the new design, like, especially on the 602, the one I'm looking at right now, it's Just there's not enough on it. I wanted it to go the other direction. Like, I wanted them to add wood clinched to it and I wanted them to like, just keep like. Because I love those old original black wings that are so wordy and they've got stuff all over them, you know, and all the little designs and all this stuff.
Yeah.
Now it's just too like hipster minimal and I just, it kind of makes me just kind of bums me out. So
I really like, I like the font they choose a lot. I don't know why they decided to mess with it. I mean, it looks cool. Like, I'm not like upset they changed it. Remember, it's confused about why they would. I imagine this cost a lot of money and a lot of trouble.
Yeah, I like the font as well. Like with you on that, there's a
lot of shade online today. A lot of folks are very upset. I mean, I'm not upset.
I just hope that this branding sticks. I feel like they change their branding all the time about what like the actual brand is called. I mean, I'm not surprised that they dropped the Palomino, but. Yeah, part of the branding. But like the, the type has changed several times. Like, I just, I just hope it sticks. I'm just tired of it changing.
Eventually it's going to be the Blackwing DCII or something like getting more like further off.
The thing that I don't quite understand is, you know, the like little logo that they've been putting on stickers and stuff with the B with all the kind of lines around it they call that. Carolyn, you probably know more about this than I do.
It's a.
They're calling it a capsule. It's like a brand capsule and it's a word that they've given to sort of, I think like a sub brand or sort of a particular flavor. Have you, have you heard that term before?
I have never heard that term before.
It seemed like it was like a retail brand thing, but I could be also conflating it, conflating it with that capsule trade show. But yeah, at some point they had a name for like the style that they're going for this and they were calling it a capsule, which to me made it seem like it was something they could sort of like more easily change an update. But I have no insight into the five year plan of Black Wing.
I thought capsule in this case meant like all of the products around volume 155. That was the 155 capsule.
Oh, maybe that was.
I mean, I could be completely off. I just assumed that's what it was. If not, that's what it should be. Because that's pretty awesome.
We have to get Alex back on the show to explain to us their brand architecture.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I just missed those little trees.
Okay. I wonder how far they're gonna take this. Are they gonna, like, redesign all of the notebooks and the pencil cases and everything?
Yeah, next time I wonder.
Yeah, I guess they'll go that far.
I wonder, are they gonna drop, like. Are they gonna drop like, the Forest Choice that's a Palomino branded pencil. Are they gonna not do that anymore? Because that is a really, really good, really inexpensive pencil. I would be devastated if they dropped that.
It used to just say Forest Choice. Used to keep it really separate. Maybe they'll do that again. I miss when Palomino was a pencil.
It's not like. Because I know that, like, on their website it's all Blackwing stuff and I. Yeah, it's not on their wholesale website anymore, though. I know it's still available. I just hope they don't drop that because I guess that's like their last product that's not branded Blackwing. That's like its own thing.
I'm going to legit try if they get rid of that.
All right.
That's all I got. So.
All right, Johnny, how about you?
So speaking of Baron Fig, they had a new release out called the Workplace 3, which is sort of a play on the first two where it's a black notebook that inside is dot grid on the left and blank on the white for work and play. But I think the first one was just black and had nothing on the COVID And the second one had this sort of symbol that was like a paper airplane and a pencil, which was like, really, really cool looking. So this one has dots that sort of fade from really thin to really big on the COVID which looks really cool. But the end pages, they fade from the bottom to the top and the top to the bottom, like one in the front, one in the back, which is a really nice detail. But, you know, this is like a standard Baron Fig notebook. The size is perfect. Paper is nice, the construction's good, it smells good.
So I wonder when they're going to bring those elastic straps to some of their other confidants, the ones that they've been putting on, like the structured content notebooks.
Yeah. I don't know. I'm just glad they're making more black notebooks because this. This particular form factor looks really Nice in black. And I have all three somewhere. I don't know where the other ones are. I used one of them or both of them. But be cool to line them up and see if they're all the same black. Although I guess mine could have faded with. With use. But yeah, this is a really cool book they sent. I. I guess we have to disclose that this was a review sample. But yeah, this is like. You know, Baron Faygo usually makes a really nice looking notebook. But the black ones are extra special, I think.
Yeah.
Do you have the other ones?
I still have the workplace two sitting in a drawer, but I had a workplay one that I gave to a friend because he was really into the idea of a blank page and a dot grid page. Gave that to somebody else. And then I still have two and three sitting around.
Cool. I've noticed there are a lot of companies that sort of do this format. Like Moleskine has one.
Oh God.
I don't know what it's called but they're like the medium sized notebook with a cloth cover and the paper is a little thicker than usual Moleskine paper. But the. This one, the. I feel like the dots are a little less dark than they usually are and I mean that in a good way because you could just ignore them more than you can usually ignore them.
Yeah.
So I keep looking at this and just seeing a blank book, which is totally fine with me. But yeah, I hope that. I hope they keep doing these. I like seeing how they can get them a little different. But they all still are definitely in the same vein, in the same design aesthetic even more than Baron Fig usually is with itself. Totally. My only other fresh point is I just stole this one. So we're announcing the pencil of the month for February, which I sort of blew also earlier then Mitsubishi 9852ew. The master writing pencil. Which is.
Where should somebody go on the Internet if they wanted to find one of these?
So if you want to get these, you can go on to CW Pencil Enterprise.
What?
And I would. So if someone were to buy a dozen, would you give them the. That cool box?
Oh yeah, yeah. I mean we in our fulfillment area, we un. We have. They're like these compartments that are long and skinny and the front, front half are unboxed so they're just easier to pull. And then we keep full dozens. But when you do that, if you do that with any of the pencils, just always leave a note on your order and we'll pay extra close attention to it because Sometimes we just don't have any boxes.
Yeah.
This one is a particularly cool box.
It's very good.
And I mean, we'll talk more about what we think about it next week. But, you know, it's a nice Japanese natural wood pencil with a really pretty feral and a black eraser and green print. It's lovely. Now I'm holding this and smell it. It smells good. It's a sniffing knife.
She likes this one particularly because she really loves that black eraser that they have on it. I think it's a great eraser. I just love that sort of like purpley, bronzy, feral. I think that just looks really lovely.
Yeah. And I think I drew my first tattoo with one of these, so they're special. That was, like, much ink ago. So actually, if I were to get a pencil tattoo, this would be a good one.
Yeah. Good to think about.
I can't wait to hear you talk about your first point, because mine came but I didn't get to play with it yet.
Yeah. So I'll jump into my fresh points. So speaking of Blackwing, which we were earlier, Blackwing just introduced a new long point single stage sharpener, and it is really, really good. Unlike their two stage sharpener, which is clearly a kum two stage sharpener long point sharpener, this one is. It's one stage. It is a slightly tapered point, much like the Pollux, but if I'm not mistaken, the point is actually shorter than a Pollux. I wouldn't call this a long point. I would say it's longer than usual, but not like super long. But it does have a noticeably tapered point, which I really, really like. And what's really cool about it is it comes. It's completely. It's matte black. It is custom machined aluminum, and the sharpener just like fits right into the cap of it. So it's really to kind of carry around and it seems indestructible. Like, I haven't stepped on it or thrown it at somebody or whatever yet, but I feel like I could. And it would barely, barely make a scratch. Um, so Johnny, you got yours today. Caroline, do you have one of these?
I do not. Um, I didn't order one. When they were first put online. I was kind of waiting to get them for the shop, which they're shipping to retailers in a couple of weeks. So hopefully we'll have them pretty soon.
Oh, nice. Very nice. They. They ran out of their first batch, like, man, pretty quickly, like within a couple days.
I think that was like the same day.
Yeah. Yeah.
But they're back in stock already.
I kind of hopped on the. Hopped on the ordering that for the. Oh, they're back in stock already. Nice.
Yeah, they got back in stock today.
That's cool.
They weren't kidding when they said they were coming.
Yeah. So one thing I noticed that they were. So if anybody's interested when they're much bigger than it seems like they're going to be. Yeah, I, I would say that they're probably like, you know, 4 inches long.
Ish.
And maybe like the, the radius of like my middle finger, my thumb making a circle. Tim, do you have. Did you order one of these. These single stage sharpeners?
I didn't. I've ordered one, but I haven't gotten it yet, so.
Okay.
I don't have it in hand.
Yeah, they are seven centimeters long. Exactly.
Okay. So I really like the, the point it makes on it. It's not super long, but it does have that noticeably kind of like curved shape and it's. I would, I would say it's not quite as finicky as the Pollux is for doing that.
So that's good to know.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
What, what's the replacement blade situation? Is it like their own blade?
That's a good question. I am not sure.
They.
They put their. They kind of like etched their. That Blackwing logo onto the blade so they make it seem like it's their blade. And I have just not yet been able to like pull that out and see how it sits and compares next to other ones. I was trying to figure out some friends, you know, if this is like white labeled KUM or MNR or something like that. And we can't figure it out specifically because it seems like the like, casing for it is like machined in with the like larger cap. The. The piece that fits into the cap. So if it is white labeled, the, like, they customize it out a lot.
So are they offering replacement blades on the.
They will. They say.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. Yeah. So it's. Yeah. So I can't identify if this is not complete. Completely, completely custom made for Blackwing. If it is, they did a really good job.
I'm pretty sure it is because I remember Alex showed me an early prototype like at least a year ago. They've been working on this for a really long time.
Nice. Yeah. And I just think it hits every point. The other thing that's amazing to me
is
maybe I've lost all sense of how much things should cost by being into fancy pencils. But it's 20 bucks, which seems like a really reasonable price for a very nice sharpener to me.
Yeah, I mean this could last forever.
Yeah. So, yeah, I'm. This is, I think, currently my favorite kind of like non pencil accessory that Blackwing sells. You know, I've never been like a huge fan of the caps. The notebooks are really nice, but like they, they're a lot more sort of like, you know, Aston Martin than I, than I need. They're really, really high end luxury notebooks. So, yeah, this, this, this sharpener is my, Yeah, I think my favorite accessory right now.
Yeah. And the finish on it seems way more durable than the, the cap. Like, the cap is that weird matte black where, you know, it leaves a lot of fingerprints and you can even scratch it with your fingernails. But this looks like, I don't know, the powder coating on some really nice eyeglasses or something.
Totally. Yeah, they did a really good job with that. And the. If I were to give one piece of criticism to it, and this is specifically because I'd be looking, I would say that it takes forever to unscrew and screw them.
Oh my God.
Yeah, you're just turning and turning and turning and turning and you don't know when it's going to end. And finally it pops off.
I wonder if that'll wear out the threads or if that'll make the threads more durable.
Yeah. Who knows? But all in all, really good job, Blackwing. I can recommend this for sure. And I do love that tapered point. I'll make sure we post a picture somewhere of like that really lovely tapered point.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing with mine tomorrow.
Yeah. Last thing I want to mention is a quick update on the erasable Squires. So finally, finally have a timeline for this. So I'm getting a. As we record, it is Monday the 3rd, and I should be getting all of the squires, more than 300 of them, to my house on Friday. So supposed to be getting that then. And then I'm going to do a bunch of labeling and a bunch of packaging and a bunch of mailing, and I'm hoping to get it out to everybody by Tuesday or Wednesday.
The.
What is that? The 11th and 12th. I don't have my calendar.
That is ambitious.
I think I can do it.
Oh, I know you can do it.
So, yes.
You're not gonna leave the country with all those and just like find a remote island in the South Pacific and just enjoy all 300 of those.
Just sit with $11,000 worth of.
Keep trying to sell them to the locals. Be like, I need food. Please buy these pens. And they're like, what?
No. Yeah, I promise I'm not running off with. With your pencils, everybody. I've sent a big email out to all the Squire buyers over the weekend. Squire buyers, and rumor has it that there are few retail stores that should be having a small stock of them in. So if you did not manage to. To snag one of them as they were for sale, I'm sure some will. Will make them their way to you. So, yeah, people will reveal themselves.
Yeah, it would have been cool if they came in a few weeks later. Like, while you guys were here. We could have had a packing party.
Yes, that would have been. Well, I also, I'm not. Yeah, I definitely don't want to, like, you know, haul 400 pins or what did I say 300 down to Baltimore. But yeah, I am super excited. I'm told they look really good. Jay from Baron Fig did not take a picture before you sent them off. I think that, you know, Baron Fig likes. Likes a little bit of theater in their unveiling, so, you know, they don't want to spoil anything. So, yeah, excited about that.
Awesome.
Nice. Should we. Should we jump into. Should we jump into the main topic?
Sure.
Yeah. Cool.
So, main topic, today we are here with our. Our good friend and semi regular podcast guest, Caroline Weaver, who is now a published author for the second time, this time with a book called Pencils, you should know a history of the ultimate writing utensil in 75 anecdotes. And this is published by the really fantastic San Francisco based publisher, Chronicle Books, which I'm super excited about. They. They have such beautiful, just like, gorgeous looking, compelling books. My favorite, of course, being the Cats of Star Trek. Well, my old favorite being that. So of course, Caroline's book came out. So. So, Caroline, I assume anybody who might be listening this podcast already knows who you are, but would you mind just maybe setting a little context about yourself and your shop as if you're never. As if you've never met us?
Sure. So I'm Caroline. I own a shop in New York City that specializes in woodcase pencils. Of course, I think we currently have pencils from 17 different countries. And my entire shop is built around a love of the pencil as an object and also. And also as, like, as an object with a lot of history. And we kind of also function as storytellers in our shop, as well as pencil experts. You can come in and we can recommend Anything for any use. Yeah, it's a very interactive shop. You can come in and test anything you want. You can hang out for the whole day. It's a fun little place. Yeah. That's been open for almost five years. So this is book number two for us.
That's amazing. So, Caroline, can you tell us a little bit more about this book and what it's about? Besides, of course, pencils. Right.
So this is more of a visual book. It is 75 photos of 75 different pencils that are photographed and printed to scale. And it's more of a visual history, I suppose. They're more or less in order and there are little anecdotes to go for each of them. It's more about their design history than like the history of their function or their development necessarily. Yeah, it's a very cute book. It's a more digestible version of my first book, which was pretty dense history.
Yeah. So that if you could. I mean, your first book, the Pets of Perfect, was. It was a great read and we had all those great hand drawn illustrations that were so amazing. And what was it that made you want to write something that was so different for this second one? What was kind of the. Could you kind of fill us in on the point A to point B thought process of here's what the first one was and here's where I ended up for my next idea.
Yeah. So I was actually approached about doing this, doing just a book with no idea of what that book would be with Chronicle by Bridget Watson Payne, who is an editor there. Though I just saw on Instagram today she is now an editorial director, which is a very fancy job title. But she has been a customer of my shop for a really long time. And she just kind of emailed me one day and was like, well, how do you feel about doing a book with us? And so we sat down together over dinner and kind of like hammered out what we thought that should be. And of course it needed to fit into like the Chronicle repertoire of books, which are all really delightful and visually appealing and kind of like giftable. And yeah, we obviously knew it had to be something that was primarily photos. It was just a matter of what that would be. And I mean, a lot of my interest in this is based on history. And I had for a long time I'd fantasized about having a book about packaging. Maybe not even just pencils, but like, like vintage stationary packaging. I have a really big collection of super old boxes, some of which are in display in a case in the shop. And I love collecting them. And so that was kind of the jumping off point. And then we kind of realized, like, well, that's like super specific pencil packaging. And so I got to incorporate some of the packaging into this book. It's not all, like, just the pencil, a lot of it. Like, you get some shots of some boxes. But yeah, that was kind of what that was based on my desire to do a book about packaging. This was sort of the compromise. Yeah.
Yeah, I love some of the boxes that you have in there, for sure. So the pencils. The pencils that you included, how. How did you choose the ones that went in there?
That's a good question. I. My personal collection is, I mean, probably very large by pretty much anyone else's standards, but it's a little bit more pared back than I think a lot of people would expect from me as a pencil shop owner, but because I like to use them. And so I kind of went through my own stash, figured out what I had. And then I reached out to Bob Truby, who we know from brand name pencils.com and he. He was so kind and so willing to work with me. And he. I basically, I went through his whole website and sent him a list of pencils that I wanted to borrow from him, which he sent to me. And I kind of just edited. Edit it, edited it from there. Like, it kind of needed to tell a story from. Like, I needed to tell a story chronologically. And there are a lot of, like, points that I needed to hit. Like, for example, like, I definitely had to have some World War II era plastic feral pencils. I needed to have a lot of those, like, weird early 1900s, like, giant elaborate ferals. I needed to have a certain number of, like, really niche novelty pencils. I kind of had a formula for, like, how many of each, like, genre of pencil and which or which decade of pencil I wanted. And so it was edited down from a lot of pencils. And yeah, and we photographed everything on colors too, which was complicated because we had to match them all up. I literally, like, this is the. The one of the most, like, analog things I've probably ever done. I like a set of pocket notebooks and took pictures of every single one and the different color background options for each pencil depending on what color it was. And I numbered the books, I numbered all the pages. And we just like glued them and unglued them and removed them and swapped them around and literally, like, glued these tiny pictures in with. With a glue st until it Made sense as a book. I still have them. I should find them and post them on Instagram. They were, like, really hilarious and really juvenile. But that was, like, the only way I could. I needed to visualize it. That was the only way we could do it. But, yeah, it was. It was a big. It was a big process, just selecting the pencils, paring it down to 75, which is really not that many if you think about all the cool pencils that have ever been made in the history of the pencil.
Yeah.
So with this many stories, I mean, it seems like the kind of thing where, you know, even though each individual story is just a page, that all together, this is like so much research. And you have been there, like the dates of production. So what was your research method like for gathering all the stories?
Well, to be honest, I did so much research for the first book. I honestly use my. My other book as reference for a lot of it. For the stuff I couldn't remember especially, which is a terrible thing to admit. A lot of information in that book and I. Especially dates. I have a terrible time remembering dates. It was a really. I had a really hard time tracking down dates for some of them, though. I got in touch with a few different companies or people who I thought might know. Bob helped me a lot with that, which kind of. With kind of like guessing the dates or like, rough estimate, like at least like a decade or something close for some of them. On a lot of the older ones, the boxes have the patent number printed on them, and so you can search the patent number and find a date that way. Yeah, but it's. The dates were hard and a lot of them are honestly just guesses based on, like. I mean, they were very informed guesses based on what I know about pencil manufacture over the past 100 years. But yeah, there was a lot of asking around. And honestly, like, at this point, I feel like I've. I've heard so many stories from other people or I've met so many. So many people who grew up in pencil manufacturing families or people who work for old companies. Yeah, it was. It was really fun to write all the tiny stories because they're. Yeah, I have a lot of resources now to find that information. But I will say that there are a couple that, like, I really wanted to include. I wish I could think of a good example, but I don't have the. The book in front of me. But there are a couple that I really wanted to include that I just didn't really have a story for. And so you'll notice that some of. Some of the little stories are much longer than the others.
Cool.
Visually, the book is really. It's really striking. I mean, as you go through all these stories and could you talk a little bit about the. You've said a little bit about this, but could you go into a little more detail about the format of the book, like the layout and the dimensions and how you worked with all this? I mean, the amazing photography mixed with your. Your great little, you know, your anecdotes and things like that. How did that come to be or how did you come to that decision as far as layout goes?
Well, it was. It was pretty immediate. Once Bridget and I kind of figured out what we wanted to do, I think it was her idea to make it like a long, skinny book and that everything be to scale and be photographed really simply. And I don't know if you guys remember this book. There's a book that's just called Pencils that has a white cover with a single yellow pencil on it that was published by an Italian publisher a couple decades ago. We sell it in our shop. And it's a really wonderful visual history of many, like, really super old pencils and the way that they shot it, it's like multiple ones on a page. And it's. It's a much more. It's a very, very beautiful, but much more complicated format. And so I knew I didn't want. I wanted. I wanted it to be like the opposite of that because that already exists. And they did a really good job with that book. But, yeah, it was always going to be a tall, skinny book. And I really wanted to do colored backgrounds, which, I mean, and hindsight was a really frustrating decision because photographing, since it's really hard, especially on color, and there are a couple that when I flip through it now, even I'm like, picked the wrong color. That was definitely not the right one. But for the most part, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. So we played with some color swatches and picked out the colors we wanted. We want it to be like a really bright and colorful and fun book. It was very much the vibe of our shop too. But when I was working on this, Olivia was working for me. She now lives in Florida. She was our shop manager and she is like an actual photographer. And so we decided that we were going to work on this together. And so she helped me figure out how to do it and we. Yeah, it was really nice to have somebody to work on it with. And we just made a Habit for I think it was like three months. We made ourselves a photography schedule and we both came to work like three hours early, like once or twice a week for like a few months just to like have the time to like go to the basement, set up our lights, set up our whole like photo situation and just do it all in the shop when we weren't working. It was a lot of work, but we, we had a really long deadline. Like we really had plenty of time to work on it. So it was, it was kind of fun.
I think you're, I think you're care and attention to the detail show because as, as you said. Yeah. Taking pictures of pencils is super hard and these look really phenomenal. So good job on that.
Well, we can thank Olivia for that. Thank you, Olivia. A very good photographer.
One thing I want to ask is how much did Johnny pay you or did he somehow blackmail you to get that Wolpex in there?
I was hoping you would notice that. You know, I really do not like wopexes, but that's even the right plural. I don't remember because I do not spend much time or energy talking about them or thinking about them crying over here. In all honesty, it was necessary to the narrative and I respect that.
Every story has a dark part of its history, so it's good to just kind of establish what that is. And they kind of like where the Frankenstein's monster comes out. It was the unnatural stuff.
Yeah, yeah. We had to get it all in there. All types of pencils that were worthy of being discussed, even if not well worthy by way of function.
Well, honestly, honestly, yikes. Pencils are pretty crappy in performance, but they're definitely like such an important part of like the 90s in like kids history. So I, I get it, I get it. And I definitely think, yeah, like a pressure like a stylus on the end of a Vulpex.
And they're not carcinogens too, so that helps.
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Well that, that's also the last. Did you know. So that's the last one in the book.
Yes.
Yeah. I felt like a little weird about making that the last one and I questioned it a lot, but I think it was the right one. If we're trying to think of like a, like a very much like a 21st century pencil, that's probably it put
a stylus on the end of it.
Uh huh.
I'm crying.
Yeah.
I will also say that I, I acquired a couple of like pristine unopened packs of Yikes pencils and this is the one situation where the format wasn't really helping me because I really wanted to include the whole package because they were like blister packed in these, like, really weird shaped like die cut packages. The packaging was amazing, but it, like, was just too big. It didn't fit in the frame that we needed to shoot. It would have thrown the whole scale off. Um, and that was kind of a bummer, but yeah, had to break the pack.
Yeah.
What was one of your favorite stories? Slash pencils that were in the book, besides the wopex, because you're sitting here writing in the document that was really your favorite.
I shouldn't have read that.
Sorry.
Yeah, nice try.
Well, I'm really happy that we got to include a bundle of Thoreau pencils, which I did not actually get to touch. And photograph. That is an image photoshopped from some photographs that the Morgan Library very kindly gave us permission to use. But personally, the one that I was really thrilled to include is one of my favorites. Well, for nostalgic reasons, which is the miniature rock collection pencil.
Oh, yeah, Yeah. I have a few of those.
Yeah. They're weird and they're so, like, so specifically American and specifically of a very short period of time, even though they are still manufactured. We had them in the shop for a while and we put it in one of the pencil boxes. But we had some insane quality control issues with those. I would love to get them again, but I'm a little bit scared. But I love that pencil. And it is. I feel like a lot of people who read this book or who flip through it aren't gonna know what that is already. And I'm really happy that, that I can tell them what that pencil is. For anyone who's listening who doesn't know what a miniature rock collection pencil is, it is a pencil that used to be very common at mostly at, like, museum shops, like natural history museums and stuff. And it's half pencil, half, like, clear plastic tube with an eraser in the end. And the tube is full of tiny, tiny, like, polished rocks. And you can take the eraser out and like, dump all the rocks out. It's super fun. And I spent a lot of time distracted by my miniature rock collection in class as a child. I used to get them at the Natural History Museum in Pittsburgh with my grandma.
I used to get them. My mom and I would go every year to the Northern Indiana Rock and Mineral show. Oh. And yeah, so that's where I have a few of them from. I wonder if I still have any of Those pencils, I need to check. But, yeah, they're. They're really great. I definitely used to dump them out and play with. Play with the rocks all the time.
Yeah. The batch that we bought, like, it's. It's like a. This is, like, a trademarked thing, too. There is, like, a company that makes it, and its official name actually, is Miniature Rock Collection Pencil. That's what it's even, like, branded as. And they now glue the erasers in, which I don't remember being glued before. Like, I think they came out easily. Like, now you can still get it out, but you have to, like, get past all of the crusty glue first. It's very disappointing. Next time I order them, I know to ask, please do not glue the erasers in.
Yeah, so we know that. I guess Chronicle is making a companion piece to this book. Is that right? Can you talk about a bit about the note cards that are related?
Yeah. So Chronicle doesn't just make books. They also make a lot of, like, stuff. Like, I don't know. I like the kind of stuff you find in, like, a cute gift shop. So they had us do a box of note cards that we decided to do to kind of be, like. If you follow us on Instagram, you probably know that every now and then, we do these, like, really complicated, like, really, like, organized, geometric, colorful flat lays. And so the note cards are a set of basically, like, 20 flat lays that we did for this book, which, honestly, that took way, way, way longer than photographing the pencils for. We spent so much time, like, straightening pencils with the ruler. It's not easy. Yeah, that was probably the hardest part of making this book, actually. The note cards. Yeah. But that's just, like, a fun little companion thing. They're really cute, tiny note cards too, and they come with pink envelopes, which I think are adorable.
Nice. Yeah. I pre ordered the book, but I. I think I might stop into the Chronicle bookstore, just right on Market street out here, and pick up some of these note cards, because they look really, really stunning. So, Caroline, you own a pencil shop. You do pencil collaborations. You've written two pencil books. What's next for you? When do you go to sleep?
Next week? I. To be honest, I don't really know. It's wild to me that all of these crazy things have happened in the past five years and that I've had so many wild opportunities. At this point, almost nothing that we've done has been as far as collaborations and stuff outside of just buying and selling pencils, none of it's been stuff that I've pursued. I've been so lucky that all these projects and all these collaborations and all this stuff that we've done for the most part has been stuff that, that I've been approached about and that's really awesome. And I also know it's not going to be like that forever. And I don't know, like, I'm just, I'm kind of happy to have a year of just like being a normal shop owner. That's what I'm looking forward to. I would like to have the time and the freedom to think about like what projects and what collaborations collaborations I want to do. Like what brands do I want to work with who I haven't worked with already. And I've checked off a lot of like shop bucket list things. But I mean, on a really boring, like, personal level, my real goal this year is to like, learn how to be a more business savvy and more financially savvy business owner. Because I haven't had time to even think about that in the past five years. It's just been a struggle to like, keep up. But yeah, I'm really just trying to have a year where I can just like go to work every day and enjoy my shop and not have to worry about like the next deadline. Because there have been a lot of deadlines in the past few years.
I hear that.
Yeah.
But.
Oh, and if anybody doesn't know, we currently have a little table at the Whitney Museum in their shop, which is a really fantastic museum shop in a really fantastic museum. So if you're in New York, we have this little table where they even let me glue one of those general pencil company How a Pencil is Made kits on the wall. And I got to write all this stuff on the wall and we have some sampler sets and some product that's just for the Whitney, which was a really fun collaboration that we worked on last year and that's continuing through most of this year. And on Saturdays, if you come between one and four, I am there with our Kingsley machine stamping pencils. So that's kind of an ongoing project that has been a lot of fun. But that's really the only like out of the shop thing we've got going on this year.
Nice.
Do you want to give us a hint about maybe an upcoming pencil collaboration or anything new coming along? Don't worry, nobody listened to this. Just us talking. And if you don't, that's fine too. Putting you on the spot.
Well, I mean, I, I want to do some accessories this year. We've done a lot of cool pencils in the past few years. And for now, like, I, I feel like I've done all the ones that I like, felt like I had to do, like the baseball scoring one and the editor and the camel pencil. Last year that was a really big triumph for me because that was something I've been trying to make happen for a really long time. Yeah, I want to try to do some accessories this year and I have a particular product for birthday that I really want to happen. It's probably not going to happen in time if it does happen, but we'll see.
Well, Carolyn, is there anything that we, about the book or about otherwise that we didn't ask that you'd like to talk about?
I don't think so. I think you guys covered it all. Lots of good questions. Thank you.
Absolutely. Well, thank you first so much for taking some time and being part of this. I know you have a busy week. Would you care to tell us where people can find you on the Internet and how people can get this book?
So you can get the book from my shop, cwpencies.com or 15 Orchard street in New York City starting this week or from your local bookstore. It should be pretty widely available or, well, from Amazon, but go support your local bookstore. But go try that first or have them special order it for you too. Bookstores love doing that. It's totally fine. And you can find my shop on Instagram @cwpencilenterprise online@cwpencils.com you can find me on Instagram if you're interested in lots of cat pictures at Lady Graphite, which I am.
And your cats are super adorable.
They're pretty cute. Yeah.
Yeah. I love me a black and white cat. Well, again, Caroline, thank you so much for coming on. This is pleasure to chat with you.
So good to talk to you.
Yeah. Hope we get to see you soon.
Yeah.
So before we, before we wrap this up, I do want to mention that, you know, Erasable does have a Patreon account. And we are, we are now supported by some very generous members who help keep us A, in pencils and B, on the Internet, which is sometimes a very expensive thing. So for those of you who are pledging at the producer level, I just want to thank you for doing so. And those people, of course, are Alex, Jonathan Brown, Anne Sipe, Bobby Letzinger, Chris Jones, Chris Metzkus, Chris Ulrich, lots of Chris's, Dave McDonald, Dave Tubman, Fourth Letter Gangster Hotline, Dr. Hans Noodleman, Jason Dill, Jay Newton, Joe Crace, John Banon, Johnny Baker, Kathy Rogers, Kaitlyn Wiens, Larry Grimaldi, Leslie Tuzou, Mary Collis, Measure Twice, Michael Hagan, Random Thinks, Sarah Hunter, Stuart Lennon, Tana Feliz, Think Travel, Eat. And Thomas Eckerberg Anderson. So thank you. Thank you so much for supporting this show. Jonny, where can people find you on the Internet?
You could find me@pencil revolution.com and on Instagram and Twitter occasionally. Ensolution.
And, Tim, how about you?
Before I get into that kind of stuff that nobody's gonna actually follow me on, I want to stop and say that there's another book that came out recently that we should mention at least once on this episode.
Yeah.
Which is Writing Is Designing Words and the user experience by Mr. Andy Welfle. We got our physical copies of that, and it is a beautiful book. So I just want to say that before I.
Thank you. Thank you. It's for sure not a book about pencils, but we do feature a very pencilly design on the COVID which is beautiful.
Yeah, the COVID is so good.
They did a good job. I'm trying to figure out how to get them to make prints out of that, and if I do, I'll make sure y' all get one.
Oh, in the acknowledgment section, the very, very nice writer thanked some co hosts, which was super nice,
for sure. Thank you.
Couldn't not mention that because it's too exciting. So just like a digital audio book release party. Dual book release party here. Yeah. So if you would like to follow me on the Internet, you can follow me on Twitter imwassum. I'm on Instagram timothywassom. And you can also follow my other podcast, membershippod on any of those services as well.
Perfect. And you can find me@andy WTF or writingisdesigning.com and then also wealthily on Twitter and Instagram. This is the Erasable podcast. We are coming to you from erasable us being episode 133. You can find show notes and the episode recording at erasable us133. Find us on our Facebook group. Find us at our Facebook group. Excuse me. @facebook.com group erasable and our Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram as erasablepodcast. Thank you so much. And we will talk to the you in a couple weeks. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David will turn it off.