Not only does Retro 51 make great pens, they support great causes as well. One of their recent releases, the Retro 1951 "Rescue" Owl Ballpoint looks amazing, and a portion of the proceeds goes to support the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center, whose focus is conservation, rehabilitation, and education around these amazing birds of prey. How cool is that?
I have one pen to give away this week, and the winner is:
Congrats Greg! I’ve sent you an email to collect your shipping address.
(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
A few months back, I knew that I would be in New York when Yoseka Stationery would be open, which meant I would definitely make a trip to the shop. I had the idea of interviewing Daisy, who, with her husband Neil are owners of Yoseka Stationery, and asked if she would be interested and available for a casual chat and thankfully, she said yes!
(Disclaimer: I did not record the interview, but took rapid notes with pen and paper, so this is paraphrased and based on 3+ months’ old memory. I ran this by Daisy so make sure I accurately captured our conversation. Also, this was my first interview so I was VERY nervous!)
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Yoseka Stationery started in 2017 and has both an online shop and a brick & mortar store in Brooklyn, NY. They are also active on Instagram and YouTube. You can find the store at 63 West Street,Brooklyn, NY 11222 or online at Yoseka Stationery.
The Yoseka Stationery store in Brooklyn.
Kimberly: Let’s start with something easy - What are your favorite pen/ink/paper/other products?
Daisy: My favorite pen is probably the TWSBI Mini - I reach for this pen a lot! I don’t own many inks but I have a bottle of Lennon Tool Bar Sun Moon Lake Ruby Black Tea. I mainly use Hobonichi planners, but I also love the LIFE Kleid paper (2mm grid). The OURS sticker sheets are really fun too.
Daisy empties out her purse and shows me her Hobonichi 5 Year Diary in the Mina Perhonen Ohayo 5 year cover (A6), Esterbrook Estie Petrified Forest, Hobonichi Techo Planner, Hobonichi TS Leather Cover A6, TWSBI ECO Jade, Life x Kleid Noble Note A5, Uni Jetstream Multi Pen, Kaweco Sport Iridescent Pearl, TWSBI Diamond Mini White Rose Gold and a roll of washi tape on her finger. 🙂
K: Do you have any “must have” items for journaling? Are they the same or different items for planning?
D: I like to keep it pretty simple most of the time in my journal. Mostly a fountain pen, some pretty ink and cute stickers or washi tape. And of course a favorite notebook.
K: Yoseka has such a wide variety of items from stickers and washi to pens, inks and notebooks - how do you decide what to stock?
D: Originally it was mainly me and Neil figuring out what we wanted to stock but now a lot of the time, it’s a no-brainer, like when we get new products from brands we already carry. We also have a list of brands that we want to stock like Taiwanese artists, which was our focus last year. We also get input from our staff and of course, our customers give us suggestions too, but sometimes we just have a gut feeling about something we like and go for it.
Inside the Yoseka Stationery store where visitors are encouraged to try out different products.
K: What is most exciting to you right now?
D: We are really excited about the Yoseka Two Month Weekly Planner that was designed by team members Bethany and Amy, who thought it would helpful for folks who are trying to figure out the perfect planner for them. I love that they had an idea and just ran with it - it was really exciting to watch it come about.
The Yoseka Lab Two Month Weekly Planner (review coming soon, I promise!)
K: What is your biggest challenge running Yoseka, aside from work & life balance?
D: It is really important to me that our customers AND our team finds Yoseka to be a happy place. Many of the team members have goals outside of working at Yoseka and we want to make Yoseka a meaningful place for them. Figure out what it is that they want to do while they’re here and how they can make it their own experience. We feel that if you’re happy to be here, you’ll be happy to contribute.
K: Speaking of work/life balance, you have a little boy, Jacob, who is now a toddler. Does he know what stationery is? And does he have any favorite products?
D: Aside from mama/papa, Jacob’s first words were “pen” and “tape” and he says “Yoseka”. He knows what a pen store is and often says “I want to see the pen” whenever Neil and I are looking at Instagram or other pen content on our phones, but he doesn’t have any favorites.
K: Where do you think stationery is headed?
D: One of our goals at Yoseka is to help people realize that they can (and should) have an opinion on the stationery they use. Most people growing up in Asia are pretty opinionated on the types of stationery they like because so much variety is available to everyone – even at a place like a convenience store in Japan. We try to make all stationery more approachable in our shop, even items like fountain pens, which might seem intimidating to some.
K: What is your favorite project/collaboration/product, etc.?
D: Aside from the planner project that I mentioned above, there are two others that come to mind: (1) Kakimori sent 3 of their team members here last year. It was so nice to meet people from the actual brand and to spend quality time with them. They enjoyed seeing an American stationery store, which is different from the stores in Japan. (2) We have Abbey Sy coming from Berlin, Germany, who will be having a travel journaling workshop. I love that she is able to bring people together to introduce them to the global world of stationery and journaling.
K: What is the inspiration behind your postcards and stickers that are included in customer orders?
D: When we were first figuring out how to package our online orders, one thing that was super important to me and Neil was being able to make a connection with our customers, even if they were only ordering online and hadn’t ever been to our shop. When we first started getting most of our online orders at the beginning of the pandemic, we had really only mainly had experience with in-store customers so online customer service and shipping orders was pretty new to us. The notes gave us an opportunity to share a little bit more with an online customer, maybe ask a question and get to know people better, which is what we always did with customers in our shop. The story behind the postcards that we now print is simply that I wanted to be able to share with customers, in a quick snapshot, all the exciting updates and news at Yoseka. I write a monthly newsletter and enjoy the process so I wanted to be able to share it with more people.
The first Yoseka sticker was designed by former team member Soraya for the first anniversary of our Sunnyside shop. Since then, many more have been designed by her, as well as Ashley, and I’m sure other team members will be creating them in the future too.
I always look forward to finding the Yoseka postcard and sticker in my order, and yes, I may have placed an order or two over the years ;-)
K: What do you wish customers knew about Yoseka (or yourself) that they might not know?
D: We get lots of comments and replies on our Instagram and YouTube and we definitely read it all and we value and appreciate people taking the time to comment or give us feedback/suggestions, but it’s really just me, so unfortunately, we can’t respond to every comment.
Along those lines, if you need to reach us for product support, please reach out to us at support@yosekabox.com or you can fill out the Contact Us form. We aren’t able to check all the IG messages or comments so social media really isn’t the best way to get a hold of us.
Oh, and please check our store hours before planning a visit. We sometimes have to close the shop for special events or other reasons.
K: What are you most looking forward to with the holidays coming up?
D: Maybe it’s that I grew up as a first generation Asian American, but I didn’t have a lot of holiday traditions growing up with my family so personally, our Yoseka holiday traditions and the new holiday traditions that we’re starting with Jacob are so important to me. At Yoseka, every year we put the tree up together as a team and decorate our shop together and this year, I was so excited to bring Jacob. It brought me a lot of joy to see him sharing moments with our team members, and seeing these two major parts of our lives come together. I spend so much time with our team members and see our team as friends and family, and it makes me so happy that Jacob can grow up with all these aunts and uncles.
Our whole team does take a week off between Christmas and New Years too and that break is much-needed and I’m really looking forward to that as well.
Rapid Fire Questions:
Last item from your inventory that you had to “buy” from, aka, you just HAD to get it?
-- Hobonichi photo insert.
Favorite size paper/journal?
-- B6 Life.
Thick or thin notebooks?
-- Thick.
Favorite color? And is that your favorite product color?
-- Black (see black pants and shoes in picture above, lol), fave product color is green.
Stickers or washi?
-- Oooh, this one is so tough, but I’d have to pick stickers.
Are you a Planner or Journaler?
-- Journaler.
Fountain Pen or Ballpoint/Rollerball/Gel?
-- Fountain Pen.
Favorite food?
-- Hot noodle soup.
Coffee or Tea?
-- Coffee, with a splash of half and half if I can, but I’ll drink it however.
Favorite Place to Visit?
-- Costco! Because I love their chips! I’ll also add that our Japan trip this past summer was amazing and we can’t wait to go back!
Thank you so much, Daisy, for taking the time to sit down with me so we could spend some time chatting about Yoseka Stationery! I really enjoyed getting a peek into Yoseka and for us to get to know you a little better in the process!
I had a blast chatting with Daisy - thank you so much!
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(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 her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Keeping pens handy and ready to write is important--and so is showing off pretty pens. This Bello Leathers two-pen holder is a great way to do both.
The pen holder is made of sturdy leather with a thick double-layer base that lays flat on the desk. A thinner piece of leather curves like a wave over it, with two holes cut for the pens to sit in. On the inside of the base, two cut-out circles lined with velvet make a soft spot for the pen's end to rest on. The end rests are set back against the far wall of the base, so that the pen stays at the perfect angle to be removed for use. The seams are hand-stitched with thick cord and all leather edges are smoothed and sealed.
All of the elements of the holder are hand-made, with no machines involved. The quality of this work is evident in the neatness of the finish. It looks very polished and perfect.
The shape and simplicity of the design are elegant and effective, and the holder looks great on the desk. The holder comes in several colors and textures of vegetable tanned leather, and models are available that hold anywhere from one to ten pens. They also offer an engraving service, if you want the holder to be personalized.
Overall, this piece is attractive, works well, and is well-made with excellent materials. All of that factors into the price, which is a bit on the steep side. Stands start at $49, and go up to $186 for a 10-pen model. While that is more than I'd typically want to spend for a pen holder, the fact that the pieces are entirely handmade justifies that price, in my opinion. Given the quality of the work, that's a low hourly rate.
This lovely bit of functional desk art lives on my work desk, now, where it holds my pens handy for an abundance of note taking. I also found it useful for holding eyedropper pens steady while they're being filled. It would be a secure spot to place pen parts while doing maintenance or cleaning, as well. No more pens rolling off the desk! Instead you can feel like King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.
(Brad bought this from Bello Leathers at the 2023 Orlando Pen Show.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
