Posts filed under Travel

Flax Pen to Paper - Road Trip!

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

First of all, Happy First Friday of November AKA Fountain Pen Day! There’s a lot of stuff going on today/this weekend to celebrate FPD, but if you’re in the Los Angeles area on Saturday, November 5th, you can stop by the Flax Pen to Paper shop from 11am - 5pm to celebrate Fountain Pen Day with Kenro Industries and Gena Salorino of Custom Nib Studio. In any case, keep reading!

I recently drove down to Los Angeles, CA to check out Joey Feldman’s latest art show Of An Infinite Solitude - I highly recommend checking it out in person, showing now through November 9, 2022, more info on his website. Also true story, Joey loves the Montblanc 149 and he has several in different nib sizes, but I digress. While I was down there, I made sure to set aside time to visit Flax Pen to Paper, in the Westwood Village area of LA, not far from the UCLA campus.

I met Jeremy Saumure, Jaime Perez and Ryan Finnegan at the SF Pen Show a few months ago and had a great time chatting after-hours, so when I planned my trip to LA, I knew I had to check out their store. In 2020, previous owners Joan (granddaughter of Meyer Flax, who started Flax Art in 1931) and her husband, Phil, passed the Flax torch to Jeremy (right around his “5th year Flaxiversary” as he likes to say), who, along with Jeremy Schuster, Gabriela Acevides-Medes and Ryan Finnegan, have been running both the online site and physical store. True story, Jeremy Saumure is “Jeremy” and Jeremy Schuster goes by “other Jeremy” – if you say “hey, Jeremy”, you get Saumure and if you say “hey, other Jeremy”, Schuster will respond, lol!

Flax Pen to Paper — *Flax business partners ”Other Jeremy” Schuster and Jeremy Saumure.*

*Lamy pens in one of several well-lit glass displays.*

*There are multiple displays like this along on both sides of the store.*

*Ryan proudly showing off the swatch book in front of their ink station.*

*Let’s be real, I saw these gigantic pens before I noticed the inks. Jeremy/Other Jeremy, are these for sale?!?*

*S. T. Dupont - best snap cap in the business!*

*Diplomat Pens - their snap caps are pretty good too!*

*Kaweco BP, Pencils and FPs and yes, even pocket knives from Laguiole in the right.*

*The latest Sailor Manyo Pro Gear Slims.*

*More stationery products like pencils, ballpoints, gel pens as well as stickers and other fun items.*

On the other side of the store, there are more paper goods like cards, notebooks/paper, bags and more.

*Individual greeting cards for birthdays, thank you’s, and whatever last-minute reason you need a card!*

While Leuchtturm and Rhodia continue to be big sellers, Flax continues to expand their paper offerings. They have a nice selection of Traveler’s Company items as well as paper products from Maruman and Midori.

*Lots of Maruman (left) and Midori (right) in different sizes.*

In addition to fine writing instruments, inks, stationery and paper, Flax has a variety of gifts and products for the home, including candles, the aforementioned Laguiole knives and even stuff for the pets! I really like that they carry stuff not typically found in your average stationery store.

*Books, crafts and toys for the little ones.*

*I had to get one of the Paddywax candles because they smelled great and were beautifully made.*

*Flax sells a variety of items from Fritz Glass on Cape Cod - these glass salt and pepper shakers are so cute!*

I’ve been looking into tote bags lately but wasn’t familiar with Bellroy bags until I came here. Maybe it was the variety of bags in various shapes and sizes, or maybe it was the somewhat creepy mannequins that were showcasing them, but now I want one. I was eyeing the Tokyo Tote - I just need to decide on size and color!

*Fred and George (or is that George and Fred) Weasley often spook visitors browsing bags and accessories. I’ve heard that their costumes change throughout the year too!*

While no longer a cornerstone of their business, Flax still has a custom stationery department where you can have personalized cards, invitations, etc. custom-designed and created just for you. You can also buy individual sheets of specialty papers.

This is the kind of neighborhood store that I could easily spend hours in (as it was, I spent almost two hours here), browsing the latest products to arrive, flipping through the ink swatch book and chatting it up with whomever is working that day. As with most brick and mortar stores, you may be paying retail prices but being able to try out products coupled with the friendly service makes it worth it to me.

*A tired Jean-Luc (yes, as in Picard) chilling out - he’s usually in the back with his dog brother Wesley Crusher who was being camera-shy during my visit.*

*I love this dog sign on their door - their sense of humor shows through.*

*I couldn’t resist the beautiful hardbound Flora sticker book, Sailor Manyo Fuji and Troublemaker inks that they just got in. They threw in some samples as well as some fun Flax stickers!*

You can find Flax Pen to Paper at 1078 Gayley Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024, 310-208-3529 or online at FlaxPenToPaper.com. The store is open Tuesday - Friday from 11 am - 6:30 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5:30pm; they are closed on Sunday and Monday.

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Travel.

Lamy NYC - A Quick Visit

I was recently in New York City and wanted to check out some pen stores that I hadn’t visited before. One such store was the Lamy NYC Flagship Store in the SoHo district. I went to the flagship store in San Francisco when it opened 5 years ago so I had an idea of what to expect but considering this was in New York City, I thought maybe it would be different, but as we all know, Lamy’s gonna Lamy, lol. Located at 452 W Broadway, Lamy NYC is pretty easy to miss because it does not have a large storefront like one might imagine from a flagship location. If you missed the banner above the store, and depending on which direction you were coming from, you could easily walk by and not see the 5 foot tall Lamy LX Rose Gold in the doorway. (I know it’s an LX, Bossman, but this counts as #alstaralways, lol).

Inside, the shop had sleek, clean (as in uncluttered) displays of their writing instruments as well as a station in the middle for you to try out their pens.

Lamy Urushi — *Lamy Dialog Urushi Bright Leaves FP.*

Since I’m pretty familiar with their fountain pens as well as some of their rollerballs, I decided to check out something different. I tried their “Safari ncode”, which is a Safari-shaped ballpoint pen that allows you to write on the LAMY digital paper notebook and have it show up on a computer or tablet via their Neo Studio app.

Lamy ncode — *The Safari ncode is pretty neat - stuff showed up on the tablet in real time as I’m writing on the paper!*

Not pictured is their ink display, which was occupied by shoppers when I visited. They have their usual lineup of inks and refills (sorry, no Lamy Dark Lilac here!).

As of this writing the store is open Monday - Saturday from 11 AM - 6PM and Sunday from 12:00 PM - 5PM. They can also be reached by phone at +1 646-998-4244 or via email at sohostore@lamyinc.com. While I wouldn’t necessarily make a special trip to visit, if you’re going to be in the area, the Lamy NYC Flagship Store is a neat place to check out their offerings.

Posted on August 19, 2022 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Lamy, Travel.

Meininger Art Material (Denver, Colorado) - A Quick Walkthrough

I was recently on vacation in Colorado at my in-laws up in the mountains (you really should visit Summit County if you get the chance) and whenever I’m in Colorado, I try to finagle a pen meetup while I’m there. Huge thanks to the Colorado Pen Posse for organizing a great meetup! It was so much fun that I barely had time to check out the Meininger Art Material store in Denver on my way to the airport! I’m not positive if the shop is “Meininger Art Material” or “Meininger Art Supply” as their website makes reference to both, so I’m just going to call it “Meininger”.

Meininger has been a family-owned business since 1881 (wow!) and have two locations in Colorado: Denver and Colorado Springs. I visited the Denver location at 499 Broadway; their store hours are Monday-Saturday from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM and closed on Sunday. I believe they recently moved their other location to 814 S Tejon Street in Colorado Springs and may be opening up soon if they haven’t already - please call or check their website for more information if you plan to visit their other location.

First and foremost, Meininger is an art supply store. And a huge one at that! As soon as I walked in, I could see that this would be a fun place to spend lots of time (and money). There are two floors of art supply goodness here - which I didn’t have time to explore - from paper, to canvas, to paints, brushes and more, they have pretty much anything you need to unleash your inner artist.

I didn’t have much time to explore, but let’s be real, I came here for the fountain pens and inks and things! So as soon as I snapped up some pictures, I headed straight for the stationery section.

Meininger has really started developing their stationery section in the last few years with the help and input from the Colorado Pen Posse. They are open to adding new brands or products and it’s pretty common for folks to make their way to the shop after a pen meetup (we ran into several others while we were there even though the meetup was 20 minutes away). They have a variety of pen brands including Esterbook, Kaweco, Pilot, Retro 51, Sailor and TWSBI . They have a lot of different paper and accessories brands too, including Endless Recorder, Rhodia, Fabriano, Midori, Nebula, Lochby and Rickshaw Bagworks.

Due to my limited time as well as the impending spending at upcoming shows, I showed some restraint and left empty-handed, but not before experiencing the friendly customer service from one of the folks behind the counter (for the locals reading this, it wasn’t Patty because she had already left for the day). They checked in with you, answered any questions and let you look around without stalking you for a sale. Their online section is somewhat limited (at least for fountain pen-related items), so don’t judge the store based on what you see (or don’t see) online. For example, they only list the Colorverse 50 States ink on their website and only 10 colors, but they actually had 15 in the store along with some from the Project series, Joy in the Ordinary series, etc.

So, if you’re in the Denver area and want to shop for pens, inks, paper and more, definitely go check out the Meininger store in Denver or check out their Colorado Springs location and let us know what you think!

(Neither this article nor my brief visit was paid for nor sponsored by Meininger. I’m just a shopaholic with a stationery affliction and LOVE pen stores!)

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Travel, Pen Store Visits.

Flax Pen to Paper - Road Trip!

Lamy NYC - A Quick Visit

Meininger Art Material (Denver, Colorado) - A Quick Walkthrough

Sponsors