Mr. Eggplants — A New Brand from Taiwan

 

We got some new things in from Mr. Eggplants, a Taiwanese brand, including several PET tapes, and I’m so excited to have them in the shop (and on my desktop). Our first PET tapes in the shop were from Yohand, another Taiwanese artist, just by coincidence—and they remain some of my favourites to this day. See all the new things from Mr. Eggplants here.

 

The difference between PET and washi tapes is that washi tapes are made from washi rice paper and natural fibres, making it easily tearable by hand, and they peel right off the roll, whereas PET tapes are made from plastic, and the sticky part peels off a plastic backing. You cannot unpeel and re-stick PET tape very easily, unlike washi tape. PET tapes are also significantly more substantial in the hand, the roll itself is larger (wider) and heavier, so a roll is not as portable as washi tapes. I love that PET tapes seem to last forever.

 

One of the nice things about tapes that have a plastic backing is that it means you can unfurl it and then roll it back up easily, cut off loops to share, or tuck pieces of it into your pencil case or the back of your journal to be more portable for journalling or planning out in the world. You can also cut just the designs you’d like to use immediately out, and keep the rest for later.

 

Over the last couple of years, starting with the Yohand PET tapes, I’ve been slowly accumulating and using more and more PET tapes, both because I sometimes spend a meditative half hour at night sorting through my on-the-go cases and restocking them with stickers and gel pens and printed photos and strips of PET tape, and because the rolls last so long, so my collection only grows, even as I use them.

 

And my favourite thing about them: once you put it onto a page, the clear edges of plastic also have a nice way of disappearing into the page, so just the design pops out. It almost looks like the design wears printed right onto the page.

 

 

Fruit label stickers!

 

 

We also got a donut stamp.

 

 

And I had to share this washi tape. Beautiful for journaling or adding as part of gift wrapping.

 

 

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I'm back from Taipei, we spent a couple of days with the TSL family (more on that soon!), and now we’re gearing up to go camping. It has been hectic and wild these last few days, two weeks. But here at home, I’m hoping to take the time to soak up all the new stationery, all my old stationery, these favourite things of mine. And maybe also the cats.

 

We discovered so many new creative brands and artists in Taiwan, and I’m hoping to slowly bring them into the shop, even if there’s a bit of a lag between this summer and when we finally get them in. Is it because I’m worried I’m going to have brain freeze with so many new things at once? Yes/no. But also I hope to have time to savour it all, these precious stamps and tapes, to make choices slowly and to accumulate for everyone only the supplies that they love.

 

In any case, the real point of it all is that I hope you are using your supplies and that your supplies are helping you find inspiration and feel creative. Sometimes the right supplies in the right moment—a few pieces of something gifted to you from a pen pal, an ink bottle discovered from a reorganization of your desk drawers, a new package of stationery treats in the mail, some new rolls of tape—can help you feel refreshed and excited to get back to your notebooks or snail mail.