After my post last week about “pencil tourism,” I thought I’d share a few pencils I’ve collected over the years from various shops, tourist destinations, museums and hotels. The hotels in China always had pencils by the bedside table rather than lame ballpoint pens so I, of course, liberated those. I have a couple vintage pencils from a shop and school in Portland — the school pencil is charmingly chewed on so I wonder if some young student was stressed out during a test. I swiped a pencil from the local Geeks Who Drink quiz night as well.
Once my pencil collecting habits became known, friends and relatives started bringing me pencils from their travels like the Madeline Island pencils and the Gaudi Barcelona pencils. Unlike other tchotchkes that people have brought me over the years, I remember who gave me each pencil and the story behind them. Kind of cool, huh?
I saw a box of “philosophy pencils” at World Market the other day. I forget the exact name of the product, but each pencil in the box had a different quote on it, such as “I think, therefore I am.” Have you seen these yet? They would be right up your alley.
I’m always charmed by this type of pencil. There are some available online too. I think Paper Pastries carries some fun ones.
Just checked out Paper Pastries. What a great website (as is yours). I’m part of a weekly writing group called Coffee & Ink and one of my writing pals has a fetish for stationery and office supplies. So this week, I told her about The Well-Appointed Desk. I just discovered you myself recently and enjoy how you pair information with personal stories. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much for the kind words! Margaret at Paper Pastries is great and i’m glad I could introduce her to you and your friends. Happy writing!
Chuck here from The Craftboy Workshop…and I’m very pleased to see that I made it in the photo above…the very last pencil at the back, right next to the Bon Bon Atelier. (And I’m so sad that they aren’t around anymore since their Ric Rac Roundup craft fair was what caused our paths to cross).
and you’ve got a Boston Athenaeum pencil headed your way as soon as my lady doesn’t take the car away for the weekend. She makes it so hard to do errands! Mostly because I need to find a suitable mailer. Any suggestions?
When I mail a pencil, I usually sandwich it between two pieces of chipboard (like a cereal box) to give it added support and then send in a padded #0 envelope (about 5×8″). Does that help?
Never thought of collecting pencils together like this. What a great way to remember special places.