New Wax Seals from J. Herbin

If you know me, you know I love snail mail, and I love wax seals.

I have a growing collection of letters and mostly symbols of the seals, although I think I'm mostly a gold wax person. I did not used to be a gold person, and then I spent a long time denying that I was a gold person, but I think now there's no going back for me.

The big news is that we now have a few symbols listed online (and available in the shop). My favourites, and now in my collection, are the dove and the fleur de lys, along with the anchor which I've had for a while, but we also have a rose, edelweiss, pentacle (star) and the sun.

I love the whole ritual of snail mail after writing the letter - addressing the envelope, selecting and applying postage, sealing the letter, and then of course the wax seal.

A lot of wedding invitations or really formal affairs use wax seals, but it's really something that shows some time and care in the everyday. Just imagine a G. Lalo envelope arriving at your doorstep, with a thick and beautiful wax seal on it.

All the sealing wax we have is supple sealing wax, which is designed to be safe going through most postal sorting machines. It's a bit flexible, so it bends a bit, rather than cracking apart.

Personally, I find the dark blue and the burgundy to be the easiest waxes to melt smoothly. The gold maybe doesn't look as smooth because its colour is not a perfect consistency, but the ivory does tend to get a bit clumpy, so you have to move fast with it so when you press on your brass seal, the lumps haven't cooled down too much.

However, the ivory and gold look great with darker colour envelopes. We have a few colours of Clairefontaine envelopes, like the one in the photos, in the shop (black, gold, dark blue, grey, silver), and we're going to be getting those online soon.

The real problem is that I have to choose between sealing my letters with wax seals and washi tape. My washi tape collection is growing at a seemingly exponential pace, but there is nothing as romantic on a letter in the mail as a wax seal.

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In other news, I just got an update about our upcoming Midori 10th anniversary Camel Notebooks + Mini Notebooks with Tins - they're on track to arrive mid May. My best guess would be around the second or third week of May, but there may be delays. We've got lots of the tins, which are special edition releases in very limited quantities. We got a pretty good shipment, but it will be our only one.

The Camel notebooks in Passport & Regular size will be added to the standard line-up, so we'll have those ongoing.

Our next shipment from Superior Labor is also coming in soon, which means more pen rolls along with a few new things! Stay tuned!

We have a new Japanese brand coming in soon, too, which I'm just pathetically pining for over here.