From the very early days of CW Pencil Enterprise, we've packaged your pencils in bright yellow envelopes. It's become one of the more identifiable parts of the shop. I love walking back from lunch or an errand and seeing a little bit of twine-wrapped yellow sticking out of someone's bag or pocket.

While we were trying to reduce our waste around the shop during 2018, I started wondering what happens to all the thousands of yellow envelopes we send out into the world every year. I often hear that people love our envelopes (they come from envelopes.com, in case you were wondering--we like the open-end #10s, but they have envelopes in every shape and color, too), and I hope that means people are re-using them in creative ways.

Well, I asked you on Twitter and Instagram, and boy, was I ever impressed! Here's a quick summary of all the innovative ways you guys prolong the life of our yellow envelopes:

Letters

A LOT of you mentioned that you re-use the envelopes for sending letters, an answer we love because we love sending and receiving mail, too. One customer uses the envelopes to send love letters from Mexico City to Germany. Others of you use them as canvases to send decorated letters to friends.

Many, many of you use them in pencil swaps. We're happy to hear that you're spreading the pencil love, and I'm sure the envelopes love being re-gifted as well.

Storage

Another popular use for the envelopes is to store various things. Many of you keep your pencil collections in them, which makes perfect sense. I love the responses that described labeling and categorization schemes for your collections too: by color, by country of origin, by date purchased, by hardness, to name a few.

Sticker storage was another popular answer, and of course we love stickers almost as much as we love pencils. One of my personal goals for this year is to reduce my sticker collection so it can fit in just one envelope. Achievable? We'll see!

A very common answer that I had never thought of was using the envelopes to store receipts and/or coupons. What a great idea! Maybe I need to implement an envelope system for my personal finances as well.

Miscellaneous 

Some of my very favorite responses don't fall under mail or storage. One person uses them as material for collages and other art projects. The #80 paper is definitely a rich texture to add to a mixed media piece, and of course I love that sunflower yellow color. Another person turns the envelopes into pockets for her journal.

Someone else uses the envelopes as bookmarks. We love reading at CWPE, so of course we love this idea. I personally have been known to use whatever flat thing is lying around as a bookmark, and then I almost always lose it. Maybe a big, bright envelope would solve my problem!

Finally, the most unexpected use I've heard so far came from a woman in the shop who said she uses the envelopes to store her old violin strings! She told me that the paper is thick enough to contain the strings and all the rosin on them, and fits conveniently into a pocket of her violin case.

How do you use your envelopes? Let us know in the comments below!

Nicole Chung's memoir All You Can Ever Know was an easy choice for our next book club meeting. Esther mentioned it to me at the end of last summer, before it had even been published. I'd followed Chung on Twitter for a while, but had no idea she'd written a memoir. As a Korean-born adopted person, I was immediately intrigued. I purchased it the day it was published.

But then, of course, the book landed in my to-read stack, and somehow I never picked it up. I was so excited to read it, but then holiday season at the shop kicked into gear, and I got distracted by other books. Honestly, I was probably also afraid to read it: until recently, I hadn't really spent that much time thinking about my own adoption. Part of me is nervous that the pages of this book will expose things about me that I've never confronted before.

These revelations, though, are part of the reason why I read, and why I am excited to read it alongside all of you. This book has a lot of excellent fans already: Alexander Chee, Celeste Ng, Min Jin Lee, and Daniel Mallory Ortberg, to name a few. I hope you'll read it with us!    - Alyx

Like Alyx, I became familiar with Nicole Chung and her work through Twitter, when I was seeking out Asian American voices on current issues. It's not really an exaggeration to say I jumped on the pre-order button when she tweeted about her then-forthcoming memoir. 

For the past several years, I haven't been in the habit of reading a physical, tangible book, or really anything more time-consuming than a long-form essay on my phone. So, I'm hoping with All You Can Ever Know, that I'll rediscover an appreciation for reading in that form again. There are so many facets to the human experience, and I'm excited to learn about a Korean American story much different from mine. 

For Chung's memoir, I chose the Koh-I-Noor Sudoku pencil, considering a good third of the pencil is actually eraser– something I thought went well with the idea of unlearning parts of your life story, only to discover yourself anew.     - Esther

Happy New Year, friends! We're all relieved to have survived a busy holiday season and sad to take all the paper snowflakes down, but I've been spending some time reflecting on all the things we did/the things that happened in 2018, so I thought I'd compile a little recap of highlights (in no particular order). 

1. We made a LOT of new products! In case you missed them: Pencils of the World Map Kit, CWPE #2 Bridge Pencil, Ferrule-less Ferrule Pencil Set, CWPE x CdA Scots Pine Pencil, Iron Curtain Press x CWPE Yellow Notebook, CWPE Baseball Scoring Pencil. 

2. I caved and finally decided to stock mechanical pencils, which is something we've all learned a lot from. Turns out you guys really like the models we're now selling! We can hardly keep them in stock. 

3. A pencil collaboration happened with Baron Fig, the Elements pencil, which is beautiful and truly a delight to write with. 

4. We made wrote/photographed a new book! I can't share much about it yet, but it's coming out in spring 2020! Stay tuned for details. 

5. I got to do a TED video, which to be honest, I still can't believe actually happened. Does this mean that I'm officially an expert now? 

6. We started a book club! It's called Orchard Street Reading Society and it's been an awesome opportunity for us to make new friends and share our second passion. (email us at info@cwpencils.com if you want to be added to our mailing list!). 

7. Warby Parker opened a shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a pencil room, full of pencils that we made for then! All of the proceeds go to 826michigan, you can also find a similar one in their shop in Cambridge, MA.

8. We sold over a million dollars in pencils, which is an insane amount of pencils for our tiny shop. New York Magazine published an article in May about the state of the retail scene in NYC and called us The Million Dollar Pencil Shop on the cover, so I'm glad that we actually met our projected goal!

9. Now that we're in a bigger shop, we've had the opportunity to host really fun events and workshops with our friends, like Samantha Dion Baker, Mordechai Lightstone and the Sill. 

10. We sold a small selection of non-pencil pencil things this holiday season for the first time (Thanks for buying them all! It was a great success!) including a collaboration with knitwear brand Demylee, as seen in our holiday card image (above, thank you to our neighbor Tommy for taking it!). Full disclosure--my best friend Jackie is their designer, so this was especially fun for me. 

Thank you, everyone, for your support, loyalty and kindness this in 2018. It was our best year yet! We've got some fun stuff planned for this year already, and we can't wait to share it with you. 

Hi everyone! This is Jade here, CWPE's high school intern. I'm usually here on Sundays, when Caroline, Alyx and I wear our matching sweaters for Pencil Sweater Sundays in the shop. When I'm not partaking in pencil-related activities, I spend my time shopping for stickers, working as editor for my school newspaper's art department and teaching myself difficult physics concepts. Also, my favorite Goldfish flavor is parmesan.

The Inspiration

Back in August, Caroline entrusted me with the important task of illustrating a postcard for the December Pencil Box. Inspired by the cabin fever theme, I created a snowy village full of tiny trees and houses made of pencils, erasers, sharpeners and ferrules.

We also decided that it would be fun to turn my illustration into a real life diorama for the holidays! Now that it's holiday season here in the shop, I've finally gotten around to making it. Here is my process for creating the tiny pencil village.

The Trees

In my illustration, I drew all the pine trees to look like they were made of pencil shavings. To recreate them in the diorama, I used real pencil shavings and Kitaboshi air-dry clay. I sculpted cones of different heights out of clay, then produced tons of pencil shavings to glue around them in layers. This task actually proved to be quite tricky. Pencil shavings are very delicate, so it did take a bit of precision to make such tiny trees.

In the end, I found that certain pencils worked the best for producing clean, sturdy and continuous shavings: the Midori B, Tombow Dragonfly 8900 HB and Mitsubishi General Writing 9000 HB.

The Houses

For the pencil homes, I decided to make everything out of white polymer clay. After working with the Kitaboshi clay for a bit, I realized I needed a firmer clay in order to create pointed edges. Sculpting the houses required some experimentation. Ultimately, I determined that the best method was to make the pencil barrels and points separately, then join them together. To make hexagonal barrels, I used a blade to slice six pointed edges off the side of cylindrical shapes.

The best part of this project was definitely painting the tiny pencil homes!  I loved choosing different color schemes of acrylic paint for each house. With some very fine pointed brushes and a lot of patience, I was able to add windows and doors to each one. I also used some metallic gold and green paints for the sharpener and ferrule homes!

Finally, to protect all that paint, I coated each house with a layer of matte varnish.

Putting it All Together

Once all the trees and homes were finished, I began assembling the final diorama. Caroline and I decided that the pink table by the door would be the best place to display it.

I covered the entire surface of the table with white paper, then started piling a thin layer of fake snow over it. Since our Christmas tree is being displayed on the same table, it needed to be elevated to make room for the village (for full transparency, I am now telling you that the snowy "mountain" that the tree is currently resting on is actually built upon a round Tupperware container filled with soil).

The snow was fluffy, almost too fluffy, so I quickly realized that in order to prevent the pencil homes from sinking inwards, they needed a sturdier base. I fixed this problem by rolling up some short paper cylinders and attaching them to the bottom of each house with double-stick tape, then placing them back in the snow.

Finally, I placed all of the pencil shaving trees around the homes. Voilà! The pencil village was complete. It's now on display for holiday season!

Special thanks to Caroline for trusting me with holiday decorating for the shop. I promise to keep adding on to the pencil village every year, even after I leave for college.

I hope some of you are inspired to make your own pencil villages for the holidays!

For our last book selection for 2018 I've chosen one that is very dear to me, a book that is my personal all-time favorite work of contemporary fiction. It's called Remainder by Tom McCarthy, and it was first published in the UK in 2008. The story follows a man who is struck by a mysterious object in a mysterious accident and is consequently given a large cash settlement. He chooses to spend his money recreating a space from a vision he had--from the neighbor playing a piano to the smell of the food the woman is cooking downstairs, he recreates it all to re-live the imagined moment he's seeking. 

The current print-run of Remainder has a short blurb on the back by Jonathan Letham that I think best sums it up in a single sentance: "A stunningly strange book about the rarest of fictional subjects, happiness." It's an incredibly smart book, and indeed a strange, surprising story but it is one that I think back on often when I'm contemplating the idea of one's ability to create their own happiness. If I'm being completely honest, it's a book that helped me out of a really dark period of my life and got me first thinking about what my perfect imagined space would be if I could create it (And I did! Welcome to CW Pencil Enterprise). 

I've never talked to a person about books who has read Remainder before, which is always surprising to me because to me it's a masterpiece that has been largely overlooked. I will say, however, that I've never recommended it to someone who didn't end up loving it. 

As for our next NYC meeting--we're not sure when it'll be but I will say that it'll be sometime in early January once holiday madness has blown over. 

In the meantime, happy reading! 

Well, September happened. Actually, it happened so fast I can't even believe all of the things that we did in September. There were a few product launches, a lot of project deadlines (including one for another book!) and the shipment of our quarterly subscription box. And you'll probably notice that we wrote no blog posts this month because, to be honest, we just didn't have time. As a person very prone to severe anxiety, the month of September was a doozy. 

If you're an subscriber to our subscription box you already know that a it was really delayed this quarter. I'm not going to go into the details (though I could probably write a whole essay on them) but there were about 4 separate things that went wrong with this box. And one of them was taking much much too long to get resolved, so we decided to just ship anyway. Truly, it was a comical number of errors--all of which could have been prevented in a number of ways, mostly by the manufacturers who make the things but also by me, who could have been more vigilant. 

The question I've been asking myself a lot lately is, how early is too early? I ask this about buying for the Pencil Box (which happened generally 4-6 months before a box is set to ship) and especially for holiday season, because it's creeping up really fast and because every year I realize I should've taken care of everything earlier. 

I wish I could show you what our basement looks like right now but it would spoil a lot of surprises. Basically, I'm not taking any chances with holiday season this year or with our December Pencil Box. Christmas is coming early at CWPE, because I've realized that the best way to thoroughly enjoy holiday season as a shop owner and not feel stressed is to get ALL of the work that isn't wrapping presents done well before Thanksgiving. We're even have a few mini shop makeover projects planned before the big day--November 1st--when the majority of our holiday stuff will be online. 

What I've learned most this year, though all the collaborations and new exclusive products that we've been working on is that you can never plan too far in advance or be too careful. I've been really lucky so far this year to have gotten to work with many of my friends, in the stationery biz and otherwise, and all of the advance planning and work is totally worth it. Meredith and I have even already planned a most of our projects for next year already because we're just really excited.

I'm grateful that you all trust us so much to be understanding when we make mistakes because let's face it, even when things are executed to the best our ability, it happens sometimes. The only thing we can really do is to try our hardest to not make the same mistakes twice. 

Photo: My favorite moment in the shop, mornings in the shop. 

The theme of the month here at CWPE has been waste reduction. We've always been a pretty eco-conscious shop, but lately we've decided to step it up a notch,  especially with all the talk in the media about plastic straws and all the recent changes to how plastic is recycled. 

When you run a shop that receives and ships out LOTS of packages each day it's totally impossible to even dream of being a zero-waste place, but we've always had some policies in place that have helped us. For example, we always re-use the packing materials from the boxes we receive while we're packing customer orders, no matter how strange it might be. On a good month we hardly have to use any new materials for cushioning boxes. Even with a lot of little everyday things, we decided that we could do better.

For the past month we've been doing a challenge where we have been trying to eliminate food and beverage packaging waste. I made a chart for our office with a system of color coded stickers, one for beverages, one for food and a bonus sticker for a five day streak. We've been making an extra effort to pack our lunches and bring our own cups and jars to our local coffee shop. Even at home we've all been trying harder not to buy food products that come in packaging. The thing that I've learned from this month is that a little bit of effort goes a long way. It's amazing how many little lifestyle changes happen when you start looking at things through a waste reduction lens. In this past month we've all been eating healthier and saving a lot of money, all things that we feel good about and things that have made us think about how we'll continue once our challenge is officially over. I'll admit though--it's a lot harder to snack on a giant full sized carrot than it is a bag of baby carrots, but I think that's a change I'll stick with. 

But, let's be honest: no one's perfect and a lot of really delicious and fun things come in packaging. We all really miss the snacks that we would usually treat ourselves to from the bodega on the corner. I miss the sandwiches at Cheeky's down the street and I would really like to go back to my favorite fruit stand for a fresh watermelon slush. My personal conclusion is that everything is okay in moderation as long as we're making a valiant effort the majority of the time. I won't not buy something for the shop because it comes in wasteful packaging, I'll just try harder to re-purpose it. I'll buy package free when I can and pass on things that don't seem worth the waste. We'll always package our pencils to protect them but we're thinking about starting a zero packaging program in the shop. 

Next time your receive an order from us, think about what you can do to reuse the packaging that it came in. Write a letter with the envelope. Re-use the box for shipping or storage. Save the string to wrap a future gift. There's always more we can do and the more I adjust my lifestyle to be less wasteful the more I realize that I don't lose much, if anything, when I give up things that I don't feel ethically or environmentally okay with. 

Photo: cute toilet paper packaging from Who Gives a Crap, a company that makes toilet paper out of recycled paper products and uses no plastic packaging. We're saving all of the wrapping papers to write letters on/use for collages. 

August is coming to a close and you know what that means—our next meeting of the Orchard Street Reading Society and our next book selection! 

Since the fourth meeting will be in October (scientifically proven to be the spookiest time of the year) we thought a mystery was very much in order. So, our September/October book is The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin! Winner of the Newbery Medal in 1978, The Westing Game follows 16 potential heirs, paired into teams, as they try to solve the murder of wealthy Samuel W. Westing. They have to use the clues provided in his puzzle-like will to uncover the secret. Whoever figures it out first inherits Westing’s lucrative business empire.

At least three of us here at CWPE read this book as kids and thoroughly enjoyed it. Personally, I first read it as a fifth grader at Haigh Elementary. One of my all-time favorite teachers assigned it as one of the first readings of the school year. I devoured it before the rest of my class made it halfway through, and then ended up happily reading it a second time while they caught up. I’ve read it a few times since then, but it’s been a solid 13 years since I tackled it last.

 It also happens to be The Westing Game's 40th anniversary this year! So, Puffin rereleased it with the original cover design, which is beautiful both inside and out. We’ll have it available in store starting today (Wednesday August 29) with it’s pencil pairing (an Apsara Matt Magic, as it’s a pencil with a little secret of it’s own).

We hope to see you tonight to discuss The Elegance of the Hedgehog and again in October for The Westing Game!

Since we're a pencil shop, back-to-school season is always a big time of year for us. When I was a kid it was easy--the list was pretty much the same every year and was printed out and posted outside the school. We got to write our names on everything and keep it all for ourselves, in our own Spacemakers. These days it seems to be a little more complicated, as so many classrooms has really specific requests or pool all of the supplies for use by the whole class. It's been many many years since I had to shop for school supplies for myself and I don't have kids of my own so doing the buying for this time of year can be a bit tricky and requires a lot of product testing, research and talking to parents and teachers. This year I thought I'd consult my cousin Brett, who is a 3rd grade teacher in Indiana. He kindly answered a few questions for be to get to the bottom of what elementary school teachers actually need for their classrooms: 

What's your favorite part of the start of a new school year?

My favorite part of a new school year is probably just the excitement. Everybody comes back from summer break recharged and ready to get started. Students usually are wide-eyed and excited with everything being new for them. Each new school year also brings a unique classroom community. You never know what the vibe of a class is going to be until everyone is together and interacting. I love getting to know my new students and how their personalities will interact with one another and myself.

How does your school do school supply lists?

Our school lets each grade level come up with our own supply list. This is great because we get to tailor it to exactly what we know our students will need in our individual classrooms. The stressful part is putting together a list that will have everything we need at a price that all the parents will be able to afford.

Personally, what's your favorite school supply?

My favorite school supply has always been the different unique kinds of big erasers. When I was in 5th grade I got an eraser that looked like a $50 bill with president Ulysses Grant on it. I thought it was really cool because I was really into learning about the presidents at the time and he was a more obscure president that I read a lot about. Ever since then I have looked for unique or quality big erasers.

Is there something that you wish you could ask for to have in your classroom? 

If there was one specific thing I wish I could ask for it would probably be a Smartboard or Document camera that would allow me to project something from a paper onto the big screen. Many suburban schools have implemented these in classrooms but many rural and inner-city schools do not have the funds for them. I always wish I had more money to buy new books for my classroom library as well. I am always on the lookout for second hand books which are great, but there is just something about having a brand new book with a shiny cover that students gravitate towards.

What kind of issues do you have with pencils in your classroom?

3rd grade boys love to mess with the eraser on a new pencil until it falls off. Of course afterwards they immediately regret their decision and are asking everyone else for an eraser. Students also like to get the cheap pencils that are bright or have designs on them. This is fine, but these typically will gum up sharpeners because of the paper casing around them and they break a lot easier. We try to find as many of the classic Ticonderogas as possible for this reason. As a teacher I'm not a big fan of mechanical pencils because of the constant breaking and refilling of lead.

What's the one supply that you always need more of?

With our midwest winters flu season always hits us hard so we go through Kleenex and Clorox wipes really fast. We also always in need of quality Expo dry erase markers. They are a very basic but vital tool that we use in a variety of ways for formative assessment each day. Expo are really the only brand that last a long time without drying out but they tend to be more expensive.

If a parent wants to donate supplies to your classroom, what are the things on the top of your list?

Expo markers are definitely on the top of the list. Any used books are also greatly appreciated because you never know what may be the story that sparks a child's interest in reading.

What's your favorite memory of the first day of school?

My own favorite memory of the first day of school would probably be in my own third grade classroom. I had a teacher who gave us a chance to tell one another about ourselves personally and what we enjoyed about school. I shared about my favorite books to read and how I wanted to write my own series of stories that school year which I ended up doing every day during our writing time.