(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
If you love stationery (and if you're here, I'm assuming you do), then you've probably swooned over a Galen Leather product or three. Or all of them. I've had the pleasure of trying a few, and they've all been absolutely elite in quality and construction.
The Galen Leather Slip-N-Zip Case is a piece of simple brilliance. It's made of sturdy-but-soft vegetable-tanned leather, with a solid, smooth zipper. It's firm enough to hold its shape well, but is still very flexible. The insert is made from felt-backed reinforced leather, so it provides internal structure to help guard your pens. The 4 pen loops are thick elastic, tight enough to fit small pens, but stretchy enough to accommodate large pens.
The zipper goes across the long edge, around a rounded corner and down one side, so it's easy to get items in and out and you can easily see everything in the case. With the insert inside, you can still fit a small pocket notebook or two inside, or a few additional pens. The case is too soft to be truly protective, so a thin pocket notebook between the pens and the case wall might provide a little extra shield. I wouldn't put four delicate, expensive pens in this case and then toss it in a bag. The leather is thin enough that you can feel the outlines of the clips and pen bodies through it. There is no lining or padding inside the leather--it's just the single layer.
While it's definitely designed more for transport than protection, this is some classy transport. The crazy horse brown leather shown here has a wealth of character. Each piece will be different. There's a wonderful variety of shades, patterns, and textures in the leather, and it picks up scratches and oils as its handled, taking on the character of its user. It also comes in crazy horse green and crazy horse tan.
Galen Leather's goods are pretty high-end, by my assessment, but the price on this piece is only $37. That's an extremely good value. It's going to arrive in a thick board box that will also contain a few goodies from Turkey. You'll feel like you've been sent a gift, because you have.
(Galen Leather provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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