Special Editions from The Superior Labor: Portfolios and Notebook Covers

So excited and a bit bewildered to announce these special edition items made for us by the talented people at The Superior Labor in Japan, Kawai-san and Yoshimi-san and their team, created and launched to celebrate our shop’s 10th anniversary. These are in the warehouse now, and we are launching them next week. Please stay tuned. More details to be announced in this week’s newsletter. Because we have them on hand, so they will ship immediately.

We have two versions of our Natural A5 Portfolio, one with yellow stitching and one with red stitching. We have 25 of each, and they’re individually hand-numbered between 1-50. Yellow is 1-25 and red is 26-50.

And then we have a red-stitched version of their Natural A5 Leather Notebook Cover. I’ve been using the standard version of the notebook cover on my Leuchtturm A5 Hardcover for a few years now, and it’s hard to believe how it’s warmed and caramelized and darkened with my handling and the sun and time. These are the same notebook covers! These are also individually hand-numbered between 1-50.

Both of these have Charles Dickens’ quote about stationery on them, a quote we have, maybe, some days, taken a bit too much to heart. Or have we? In the case of a pandemic, perhaps we all need an office closet in which to surround ourselves with piles of stationery. In any case, it’s how we got to where we are today.

We’ve been dreaming up these special editions since last year, in anticipation of celebrating our 10th anniversary this April, and now here we are. These items are a dream to have in hand! The details, the leather, the stitching, the weight of them. I joke(/cry) about what will happen if we have to close the shop, and what items I will keep and cherish and use as a memory for the years we ran a stationery shop, and these ones will certainly have a place there.

We are, as always, grateful for the TSL team and their friendship and support over the years, grateful for our community here in Toronto and Canada and even flinging out over the borders.

What is going on? I have no idea. How did we end up here, running a stationery shop for ten years? A decade! Wild. I have no coherent words. More to come, as always.