Dear Everyone ~
Saturday, August 6, was the first-ever Stationery Store Day across the country and around the English-speaking globe. I am incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm and camaraderie that BZS shoppers shared in person, online, and via Real Mail. It was a day of stationery serendipity.
Kristen Hermanny was the earliest bird, which is to say, the very first in-shop shopper. Back in the spring of 2020 I featured her “shop by colour” strategy on the blog, which you can read about here. Kristen lives outside the city and comes to visit every so often. When she isn’t able to visit, she will call and ask me to assemble an ensemble in a particular palette. Her latest hue was teal, and you can read about that here. I was thrilled when she texted me to make an appointment for “Stationery Saturday.”
Kristen is a calligrapher and an avid correspondent. When she arrived, she immediately presented me with an envelope she had hand-folded, sealed with washi tape. It had some bulk and some “give” to it, so I was intensely curious to see what was inside. Behold and be dazzled! It’s a miniature Bari Zaki Studio pop-up! When I caught my breath, I asked Kristen if she’d made other pop-ups and she acknowledged, “I have made people’s pets, school themed, sport team themed, mail, birthday, and engagement ones among the regular holidays.” I have installed Kristen’s Ode to the Studio on an elevated eye-level shelf.
Next in: Karen Eisenstadt, who arrived bearing papery gifts as well. Karen has been a customer since I opened the shop in 2015. In 2020 I discovered by happenstance that she had recently become penpals with my postal muse, Alyson Kuhn! I love that kismet. Last year when Karen came to visit, she brought me an envelope that she had watercoloured on the theme of the Heritage Breed Forever stamps, destined for Alyson. The envelope was still open, and she asked me to add to it and then send it off. This visit, her missive to Alyson was a complement, even an homage, to a recent blog post, Karen left half of the card blank for me to add to and then send off. And the colour swatch theme continues! Karen brought in her swatch-keeping sketchbook, so we could ooh & aah over each other’s colour swatches.
And then: Susan Golland lives close by and stopped by unannounced. Her timing was very serendipitous! She came bearing a beautiful bouquet from the farmers market and was eager to see the newest addition to the Velke Losiny repertoire. Susan’s heritage is Slovakian, and we’ve spoken previously about Velke Losiny.
It was also a red-letter day for Real Mail! I received a note from George Jacobson. We’ve been penpals since 2016—I could say fountain penpals. Below are some of the missives I've received from him over the years.
George lives in Wisconsin, and we played phone tag one day when he was in Chicago and happened to be on a quest for fountain pen ink. We didn’t manage to connect, and we’ve still never met. George’s most recent envelope was from a hotel in Jerusalem, featuring Hebrew, English, and a logo-graphic that in fact might be Hebrew letters. I have a hotel stationery collection that dates back to my childhood, so when I saw this envelope, and recognized George’s handwriting, I was over the moon!
I have some post-Stationery Day post to look forward to: a pair of envelopes are en route to me via USPS, from the AK-duo of Alyson Kuhn, my postal muse, and Audrey Kuhn, her very epistolary niece. I anticipate that both will be photogenic, and I will share them with everyone once they arrive. Looking farther into the future, Stationery Store Day 2023 has already been “proclaimed” for Saturday, August 5!
A toast to post-SSD post, Bari