Dispatch from London: Paperchase

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The Paperchase flagship store on Tottenham Court.

Here I am holding one of a few issues left in stock—I actually had to use some of my samples for the photo. Thanks, London, for gobbling up each issue—I will endeavour to get more available.Issue #9 is still one of my favourites... and issue #10... and issue #....This multi-level store has everything from art supplies, cards, stationery to books and mags, furniture, haberdashery. I was there for an hour and a half browsing. A nice display area for the books. Hopefully someday soon you will be able to find UPPERCASE titles here as well.

A nice chair that I took a photo of and then forgot to go sit and relax on it. Typical.Gorgeous papers for crafting, bookbinding and wrapping.One of three typewriters I spotted on display.

Look! Actual Letraset available to purchase, brand new. We don't have this in any Calgary stores as far as I know. Wouldn't a sheet of Letraset be an amazing insert inside the magazine? hmmm... I'm going to investigate that!A nice cafe to refresh after some heavy-duty Paperchase shopping.

Dispatch from London: Anne Smith

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This morning I took the tube to Anne Smith's studio on the South side of the Thames. Anne did the perfect pigeon illustration on the cover of issue #12, so I couldn't come all this way and not meet her!

We had some tea and a nice chat about books, the realms of online and offline community, the creative drive and inspiration... so nice. Her studio had lots of books—I saw many that are common to my shelves at home. With nice light diffusing in from windows on two sides, it was a really fresh and inspiring studio.

See a few more images in the flickr set. Thanks, Anne!

Dispatch from London: Donna Wilson studio visit!

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I had the privilege of visiting Donna Wilson's studio Tuesday morning to interview her for the magazine. We did our interview on-camera, so I have lots of interesting footage to edit when I get home. More to come later! (Issue #15, fall)

Thank you to Siew, Grace, Erin, Eva and Donna for welcoming me (and my camera and tripod!) into the studio. Donna was soon off to the Milan Furniture Fair, so I appreciate her taking the time on a very busy day.

This guy will be taking a suitcase back to Canada:

Visit the Donna Wilson online shop.

Dispatch from London: Type Tuesday

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Here are some old enamel numbers in a shop on Portobello Road. I was really tempted to purchase one of the small numbers that were about an inch long—it would make a cool pendant! But I couldn't decide on a number: none of them had any special meaning to me and they were technically of French rather than English vintage. So I took lots of photos and walked away.

Dispatch from London: Pedlars in person

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I had the pleasure of finally setting foot in Pedlars on Saturday during my Portobello and Notting Hill stroll. They are currently all sold out of the magazine (more on the way) so Sarah found an older copy from their personal stash so that I could photograph the magazine in the shop. The items in the Pedlar's brick and mortar shop are all very nicely curated and displayed in vignettes. 

I bought these elastic bands to help corral all the magazines and samples that I'm lugging to the big book fair. You can't go wrong with something in yellow!

Dispatch from London: More Homespun Style pics

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Homespun Style Market and Book PartyThe cards that I collected from market sellers.Such an appealing mismatch of vintage and floral fabrics everywhere!I've made a Flickr set with all my photos and links to the sellers' websites.

It is just about noon, London time. After some restless hours in the middle of the night I needed to get some sleep and happily slept in this morning, something I never get to do at home!

Today I am off to explore some Saturday markets and perhaps a touristy bus tour for the grander sights.

Type Tuesday: Päivälehti Museo, Helsinki

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We didn't go to many museums on our Scandinavian adventure (Glen and I prefer to wander the streets rather than museum halls), but when we were exploring Helsinki's design district, we found the Päivälehti Museo—a museum of journalism and printing techniques with a focus on Helsingin Sannomat, Finland's largest newspaper. The museum had excellent displays, but the best part was the printing cellar which had a step-by-step presentation of newspaper production from typesetting and pasteup to printing. Judging by the number of photographs I took, I'd say it was one of the highlights of Helsinki.