Live From Brick Lane: Mark+Fold’s 10th Anniversary & The Stationery Freaks Origin Story
It's the fifteen fifty five of
Speaker 2:Stansted Express service two. Stansted.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Nice to see you. Oh my god. You're as tall as ever.
Speaker:Oh, I was wondering whether you were getting smaller. How's things? You alright, Good journey?
Speaker:we're getting small. Very easy. Yeah. Yeah? Wow.
Speaker:So it it sounds like we're in a pub. Yeah.
Speaker:So we're in do you know where we are, Helen?
Speaker:We're in Bricklane
Speaker:Pizza East is the restaurant. That's where we are. And we are we can say where we're off to now, can't we? Because it's not a secret anymore.
Speaker:It's not.
Speaker:It's not.
Speaker:We have been invited to the anniversary, the ten year anniversary party for Mark and Fold, who people might remember we interviewed Amy, the founder
Speaker:Yes. We did. Yeah.
Speaker:Some time ago, and we are big fans of the stationery.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:They have a pop shop in Brick Lane that they've opened just for probably two weeks or something equally small, ten days. So we're popping along. We're gonna have a little look. We will take some photos which will be all over Instagram.
Speaker:Yeah. Add some videos and we don't know how this podcast is gonna turn out. We're in a very noisy bar. We are gonna move at some point, but we will try and record an episode as well.
Speaker:Yep. Hopefully, we'll see if we can maybe do some interviews. We're not sure about that.
Speaker:The weird thing though, Helen, is we're together
Speaker:For the first time.
Speaker:For the first time in four years?
Speaker:Probably Five years? Since pandemic.
Speaker:Six years.
Speaker:Seven years. I don't think I've seen you since the pandemic.
Speaker:And we're in the same room and we're recording and this should be great.
Speaker:Yeah. I've locked away my stationery because just in case you got the ideas of taking it and stealing it again, I thought, no no, I'll make sure I don't take any.
Speaker:I have my little wingbat notebook with me.
Speaker:Is cute and adorable.
Speaker:And on the train, I was plotting out what I think this episode might end up like, whether it will is another thing, given the audio, given the challenges, given that we're not we're not using our usual setup, which is
Speaker:At all.
Speaker:Us on Zencast or at home in our offices.
Speaker:Nicely controlled.
Speaker:Controlled environment. Absolutely. I am gonna be doing a video for my other channel alongside this. Let's see how that turns out as well. Who knows?
Speaker:But yeah, we're super excited, aren't we? Meeting Amy face to face first time. We've never met her either.
Speaker:We haven't met the stationery, obviously, because both you and I have definitely had stuff in the past. And I am Christmas present shopping. So
Speaker:And you're Christmas present shopping for yourself?
Speaker:Almost certainly. I think my husband's fairly resigned to the fact that I will not be coming home alone. But it would be rude, Rob. In my humble opinion, it would be rude not to come home with something.
Speaker:I think that's fair enough. I'm trying not to spend anything, but who knows? It's hard and cold.
Speaker:It is hard and cold and yeah. It's it's the problem is it's also beautiful. Yeah. It's just so deliciously it's minimalist but luxurious. I love it.
Speaker:I just love their aesthetic.
Speaker:It's awesome. It's awesome. It got me thinking and when I messaged you with what I thought we could talk about in this episode, you messaged back and said the same thing that we've been going for seven years as a podcast. Yeah. And Mark and Folder obviously celebrating their ten years.
Speaker:Yeah. And that longevity, sort of, you know, I guess bound by a love of stationary, of the cool stuff, of the potential that it brings. And I'm just looking at Helen's notebook at the moment. What is that?
Speaker:This this is my
Speaker:It's cool.
Speaker:Little travel it's like I think it's like an a six Hobonichi cover, but I've kind of turned it into with two small a six notebooks, a kind of like traveler's journal. So I have because I sit on trains just I live in the middle of nowhere. So everywhere is a two hour train journey. So
Speaker:What, Tesco?
Speaker:No. No. That's fine. I don't do shopping. But yeah.
Speaker:So I've got a thousand notes in here from all sorts of things. So I use it literally as brain dump. So there's parts of a story in here. There's parts of the book I'm writing in here. There's parts of the notes that I've made from work things on the way to work things.
Speaker:All of it's in here. But it's all very temporary. It's all very, you know, I get home, I transfer it to whatever's meaningful. Usually the Hovenice Tekko, and the rest of this is just junk there.
Speaker:That's awesome. It's very cool. We're gonna take some pictures of that. We'll get it on the Instagram. It gives you hacked you've hacked it.
Speaker:That's the bigger notebook there. That's the
Speaker:That's the bigger one. That's not That's not
Speaker:original for that.
Speaker:No. This one this one came from a charity shop unused, and it was just pretty. I liked it. It's got mountains on the front with some trees. Very sort of foresty American Yosemite kind of look to me.
Speaker:It's very cool.
Speaker:And then the other one is a little Hobonichi Freebee that I got a six again, little tiny note but very thin, that I got with my Hobonichi last year.
Speaker:It's just going. Nice. Well mine, you'll be proud of me. I've got some stickers in here. Look.
Speaker:Awesome. You have as well.
Speaker:The stickers, these were courtesy of Monocle Magazine, which I only buy once a year when I go on holiday. I think I did a an Instagram reel on our account for that. And I just put these stickers in, you know, while I was on holiday and made a load of scrap notes.
Speaker:Did it bring you joy?
Speaker:It did, but I put them in the wrong place. I mean, they're right in the middle of the page. Yeah. I had to sort of write around. You're a
Speaker:big mistake.
Speaker:I've got task lists going on in here. I've got
Speaker:That looks a bit more permanent than mine. Well,
Speaker:I you know what I'm like? We talk about this all the time. Yeah. I only dug this one out for a video I was doing the other day, and I flipped between this and my Oxford notebook, my yellow legal pads, so everything's temporary. Some of these notes, the the last ones in here, they're from holiday.
Speaker:So they're from the holiday, which was August.
Speaker:Oh, right. So then it's like this one. This one gets used when I travel. Yeah. This is literally for travel.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. And this is a script for a video that I did on my channel the other day. And then
Speaker:Some to do lists. There's
Speaker:a little bit of to do list I thought of on the train, and then now it's just outline of today's
Speaker:As today's podcast.
Speaker:Podcast. So I don't have
Speaker:the same kind of sort of notes in here as well because when you pinged me, I was busy trying to come up with a 500 word story that I should have written by midnight tonight, which I won't have done.
Speaker:No. You won't have done that.
Speaker:I won't have done it.
Speaker:So Helen Helen, let's give the listeners a I think we have hinted at this before, but we figured with the Mark Fold ten year anniversary, that longevity, that bind that keeps us together, that creative process. So maybe we give you a little bit of a a sort of origin story.
Speaker:I think origin story is a good way of putting it.
Speaker:So I'm here in the Mark and Fold pop up shop. It's open for, I think, the next seven or eight, nine days. There's a really wonderful table that Helen's perusing. Helen, this table is awesome, isn't it?
Speaker:This table is the thing I want most in the shop. The whole table and everything on it. It is really beautiful.
Speaker:It is. It's got a, you know, planner, it's got a pot full of wingtip pens, pencils. It's got all Blackwing. Blackwing pencils. It's got little to do lists on post it notes and stuff.
Speaker:That's absolutely right. So there's a little checklist with post its, which I definitely think I want some of. And then they've got these monthly postcards. So it's 12 postcards, each with a month printed on it, and I absolutely am walking out of here with some of these today.
Speaker:I think she's gonna pay for them though. So that's Yes.
Speaker:No. Absolutely.
Speaker:So Helen, we got started when we worked together in a company. I'm not gonna say the company name, but they were based in a little area of the world called Maidenhead. I will say that. We worked together way before then.
Speaker:We had and that that although we did probably record our first podcast then, we had been talking about this for a really long time. We had been I mean, we already had the name. We already knew what we were Yeah. Because we talked about it. And it was just that idea of who's gonna wanna it's it's it's just us.
Speaker:It's just us, isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah. We've had this idea. We took this idea, and I'm obsessed at the moment with going from idea to something useful. How do you do that? I mean, how do we do that?
Speaker:We do that with episodes, but here we're talking about the origin story of the actual podcast.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And we've been fans of stationary. We were the odd ones out in a technology world.
Speaker:We thought we were.
Speaker:We thought we were. But I think at the time everyone was obsessed with, you remember mechanical keyboards, everything
Speaker:And was
Speaker:then we worked together as contractors and I remember recording our first episode.
Speaker:I do, in that tiny little room.
Speaker:Yeah, we had a little Tascam portable recorder which glitched. Didn't know it at the time, so we went full steam ahead, recorded our first ever episode of Stationery Freaks. I listened to it afterwards and it just glitched constantly. There is a risk that this one here is going to do the same thing, we won't know till I get back home. Was Do you remember that moment?
Speaker:How
Speaker:did you feel
Speaker:when we were recording? I felt stupid.
Speaker:I felt very self conscious and we were trying so hard to make it useful. Because when we set out, we set out to say stationery makes us more productive. And we were really absolutely clear on that from the very beginning. It was about using stationery to make yourself a more just the better version of you. Yeah.
Speaker:Because it helped to hold everything together. Yeah. I remember recording thinking we were the only people. But we had seen other people around this big company who were stationery folks.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. Which is what kicked, I think, kicked you into going, let's do it because it's always you who's going, let's do it. Let's do it now.
Speaker:There's an idea. You see, the thing is for me, if if if you don't sort of pounce on an idea, if there's a delay, I think, between having that idea and then turning it into something, there's there's a gap there. And I think businesses struggle with this all the time. But certainly individuals who are creative struggle with this. I've got an idea.
Speaker:I'm gonna procrastinate. I'm gonna ponder. I'm gonna make some notes. I'm gonna sketch it out. And we did a bit of that.
Speaker:But I think you're right. At one point, said, let's just do Let's just break the barrow. That's it. Take that first
Speaker:step. Yeah. It glitched horribly. But do you remember the second
Speaker:one? Yeah.
Speaker:Because the second time we did it, the sound was so awful, and I think we still posted it because you know, we can't we can't do that again. Now we do rerecord. Right?
Speaker:Yeah. Well, back then But we did I didn't know what I was doing. We didn't
Speaker:know what I was doing.
Speaker:We were sat in an office at lunchtime at work recording ramble chat about stationery thinking that nobody's gonna ever be interested
Speaker:in this. No. I didn't believe anybody would be interested in
Speaker:this. No. And to be fair, the first few episodes were really bad.
Speaker:They they had some value. But I mean, you have to dig to find the value. We didn't we didn't lay it out. We didn't know how to make it easy.
Speaker:That's it. And the production quality was pretty poor. So you know, that's only really improved in the last year to be honest, when I've worked out what I'm actually doing when I come to edit these things. But I think just the joy comes through in those first episodes. Obviously you can hear the sheer panic and the confusion and the self consciousness.
Speaker:Now we're sat here talking to a zoom audio device, and it feels natural.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It doesn't
Speaker:No, because I think we stopped talking to an audience. We started talking to each other. Yeah. And I think my impression is in my head when we do these podcasts, I imagine that we're talking and our audience is actually sat at the table next
Speaker:to That's us it.
Speaker:So you know how you do in an office and you hear other people's conversations and you are you're not
Speaker:I'm listening for it.
Speaker:You're invited in. It's not like you're not allowed to. Well, it's not a private conversation. Nice. If you had an opinion, you could voice it, which you absolutely could do.
Speaker:Yeah. To me, that's how I imagine. So we're just having conversations that we've always used to have. Because we used do this at the desk
Speaker:Yeah. We did. Yeah.
Speaker:Or over lunch or 100%. You know. Yeah, we we did all of that and it was room that we recorded our first morning was a horrendous shade of blue and pink, navy blue and pink. And it's there's that kind of skew sticks in my eyes.
Speaker:So, Helen, on that point about the audience, obviously, we have a lot of analytics running on the podcast. Know that majority of our audience are actually in The US, USA, brilliant.
Speaker:Significantly more now.
Speaker:Significantly.
Speaker:Yeah. It the the high states. We should do shout outs to those states that have got like even there's countries where I've worked it out. You can work out there's one listener in this one state or this one country. So we're gonna go through that at some point and do a shout out to, you know, wherever it would be.
Speaker:100%. Yeah. I think we had one listener in Ethiopia last time I was looking, which was great. Mean, global reach. We are we are reaching the world.
Speaker:We are. But or did they stumble on it by accident?
Speaker:Possibly. Or they're using a VPN, know. But yeah, we have, we have a lot of analytics, obviously, podcast platform. It, you know, tells us where our listeners are and you know, what kind of episodes do really well. And we try not to be driven too much by that to be fair.
Speaker:We are driven almost entirely by what's interesting to us that week or actually recently we've had a lot of listeners get in touch with us about topics that they're interested in and like, you know, the household stationery, we had Richard on with the commonplace book. So, you know, I think we're trying to involve the audience more. So if you've got an idea, let us know.
Speaker:Yeah. But that's I found that really, really interesting. So what other people want to talk about Do do you remember the one with the travel journal? So I I've now got what is it equates to a kind of travel journal? It's only a temporary one, but it's the same thing.
Speaker:That was a really interesting episode for me because we I've never really done anything with travel journaling.
Speaker:We knew nothing about it.
Speaker:No. And and the same with Richard with the commonplace. I I'm I'm so tempted. I still haven't started because that blank page, but I have the book, you know. I bought it from keeping choosing.
Speaker:So I have the book to start and it was just he made it feel so inviting and Yeah. So accessible. Which evidently is. Yeah. But it's really interesting that if I've got that kind of barrier, other people have.
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:Having that conversation with somebody else prompting saying, well, what do you know about this? What can you say about this? That household stationery one
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Really good. We did a whole episode on And I thought that was gonna be like a little segment. But actually, we went, well, actually, I've got all these other things we want to
Speaker:talk about. We're digging into some of the weeds here, but I think it's really interesting to understand, Helen, who do you When you're talking to the audience, who do you imagine? Are they I talk
Speaker:to you and I imagine that there's somebody listening in the table next
Speaker:to you
Speaker:who likes stationery too. Yeah. They're just not saying that they do. So that's how I do it. So in my head, audience is the person on the table next to me or the desk next to me who really wants to get in on this conversation and just thinks they're the only person who likes stationery.
Speaker:So it's like, no, no, no, you're amongst friends.
Speaker:Join us. Tell
Speaker:us what you like. So who's in your head then?
Speaker:Well, I I don't think I have anyone specific. Obviously, am talking to you and we're riffing off it and we take mic out of each other quite a lot, which is quite entertaining.
Speaker:Easy fodder, be fair on.
Speaker:It is that easy. You know, you're sat here with a cup of tea, and a bottle of sparkling water, and I'm sat here with a pint of Peroni, so other beers are available.
Speaker:But not as good.
Speaker:I think what I'm thinking I I'm thinking the same thing. We're surrounded by people. I I often imagine that we're in the middle we're actually recording a podcast live, which is what I would love to do one day. Yeah. If our audience ever get big enough is to go on the road and go to a theater or a small community event or creative space and sit and record the episode live in front of an audience.
Speaker:And that's what I imagine is in the audience is a mix of artists, writers, filmmakers, managers, leaders, anyone, but they've all got an idea and they really want the potential of the stationery
Speaker:to
Speaker:allow that idea, whatever it is, whether it's picture or film or a new way to do a meeting, it doesn't really matter. Music start again. But to take that idea and then turn it into something, and that to me is the audience, and we're talking to those people.
Speaker:We have CR.
Speaker:So we're here in the Markenfold shop. It's pop up shop. As you can hear, there's quite a few people milling around. I've got a glass of Prosecco. I'm here with Helen, cohost, of course, and we are joined by one of the attendees, Terry.
Speaker:So Terry, Helen's gonna ask you a few questions, And I've seen these questions. They're good questions. Don't worry. Helen's just rooting in her bag trying to find her little traveler
Speaker:My traveler cat So Yeah. So we were just talking in the much much louder party room, and we have sort of recounted to the room, into the that shop, pop up shop, which is lovely. And you very kindly said you'd talk to me because we have just discovered that you are a station freak, but you didn't know about us. Tell me about all the joys of stationery that how did you come to love stationery?
Speaker 4:Oh, well, I was just telling you that I think I found my tribe and lots of people here. I've never been out for an evening event and had so many great conversations already about stationery. I think I've always been a bit addicted to stationery. When I remember there was a time when I was younger, and my great aunt used to come and visit. And she used to try and take me to the corner shop to buy me some sweets, and I used to ask for an exercise book instead.
Speaker 4:Oh,
Speaker:that's cool.
Speaker:Love an exercise book.
Speaker 4:I've always been a bit obsessed with exercise books.
Speaker:And what did you do with them when you were a kid?
Speaker 4:I used to write stories.
Speaker:And did you? Do you still write stories? I still write stories. We have actually had this written conversation.
Speaker 4:And I still write stories by hand.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 4:I write all my first drafts by hand and then I type them up afterwards. Everything is first draft in a notebook.
Speaker:Very nice. So in a notebook you were just talking about, are you a neutrals or color kind of notebook?
Speaker 4:Well, I like I like different ones for different occasions.
Speaker:I have a I'm pulling one out of her bag.
Speaker 4:I have a little tiny one that I I have
Speaker:for Such tiny writing.
Speaker 4:I have the tiniest writing in the world. So I love a tiny notebook, and I love blank pages because Essential. Always the wrong size for me.
Speaker 2:Oh, really?
Speaker 4:Because my writing's so small. So I like to be
Speaker:able to To write my own way. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say that is the tiniest legible writing I have ever seen. And it's so neat.
Speaker:Excellent. So you must use like my like a very fine pen when you're using. What are using?
Speaker 4:Really like the Japanese very fine nipped pens. So this time last year, we were actually on a flight out to Bangkok for my fiftieth birthday and we went to the stationery stores in Bangkok where you can get the finest nibs Japanese pens, which are absolutely amazing. But it's a bit unfortunate that we
Speaker:had to go to
Speaker 4:Bangkok to buy it. Yes. It's obviously dearer to import them here.
Speaker:Not ideal.
Speaker 4:But my partner was very delightful in following me around all these stationery stores in Bangkok in order to find the finest nibbed pens possible.
Speaker:That's so nice. My husband left me unattended in Choosing Keeping in London, which for which I'm Choosing Keeping. Great hugely grateful because Choosing Keeping. There's nothing like a bit of supervision to help you spending.
Speaker 4:Choosing keeping also have very fine nipped Japanese pens.
Speaker:They're very good. Okay. So the next question I want to talk to you about, what is your stationery thing above all else? Is it a pen or is it the notepad? What is the one thing that you would, you know, go for first?
Speaker:Or stickers.
Speaker:Or stickers.
Speaker:Stickers. Yeah. Hand cream not allowed though, Helen. Going back to our Desert Island stationery episode.
Speaker:I I didn't even bring any today either.
Speaker 4:I think I'd probably choose the notebook first because it has to be the right notebook.
Speaker:As you know, so many writers have said exactly that, which is the notebook has to inspire you. Has to
Speaker 4:I need a new notebook for a new project.
Speaker:Yeah. Right. You're not alone. Yeah. Every novelist we've ever interviewed has said the same But
Speaker 4:also, if I start writing a novel in one pen, I have to continue Oh, really? Writing it in the same color ink.
Speaker:Yeah. Can see how that would be distressing, but are you not okay to change the paint? No. I can tell from your look at your face. That's not okay.
Speaker 4:No. And also, if I start writing in an orange notebook, then the miniature version of the notebook that I carry around with me
Speaker:also has to be orange.
Speaker 4:Same color.
Speaker:Okay. That's okay. I I think I can see that kind of aesthetic
Speaker 4:is Otherwise, it doesn't work. And
Speaker:and so when it comes to sort of planning systems, the other question I was gonna ask was, you know, are you a a diary person or a planner there, a bullet journaler, or a you know, we had this little conversation about me, but I'm not sure about you.
Speaker 4:I have the Markham Fold monthly planner
Speaker:Do you?
Speaker 4:Every year. I can see at a glance my entire month.
Speaker:Very nice. I know.
Speaker:I have
Speaker 4:to do that. I also have a smaller Filofax Alright. From the olden times, so I have, like, a little lever bound one that I keep just jot down Yep. Quick work appointments and things like that. But the the the desk planner is really the thing
Speaker:Oh, really? That you can
Speaker 4:just write down everything. And then I have sheets of paper inserted into it with my massive to do lists that are always far
Speaker:too long. Well, that's really good. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Thank you very much. We really appreciate it.
Speaker:And enjoy the rest of the party. I'm here. I've just wrestled my way out of that big party with Vicky who is a bookbinder, and she binds lots and lots of Amy's notebooks here at Market Soul. And they are lots of them are stitched, aren't they, which is really lovely. That's one of the reasons I like them because they lay flat.
Speaker:So Vicky, can you tell me a little bit about the bookbinding world?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I've been doing it since 1990 when I left school, did three years of college, took over dad's business. So we've been going since 1980. Now it's me and my brother. That's retired.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, we do various stitching and pace bound menus, all sorts of things. But, yes, we do Amy's monthly planners and notebooks and travel journals and things like that. But three whole sewn, center sewn, etcetera.
Speaker:Excellent. So that's really nice. And and you went to to college to do this, to learn how to do it? Three years?
Speaker 2:Yep. One year full time, two years part time. But then I ended up actually helping the tutor teach some of the other students
Speaker:how to
Speaker 2:do the bookbinding side of it.
Speaker:You have to show me
Speaker 2:what Yeah. Exactly. But it was a foundation course in printing, so we covered the whole thing. So it was only the bookbinding part I was familiar with. So it was useful to learn the before the before processes.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed that. But, yes, I've been interested in the business since I was seven and helping out all So, yeah, love it.
Speaker:So so are you genuinely a station freak? Do you love your notebooks and pen? Yes.
Speaker 2:A fresh blank page.
Speaker:Who doesn't? Who doesn't? I know. It's a bit intimidating sometimes, but, yeah, fresh blank page. So what is your favorite go to?
Speaker:This is a question I'm asking everybody. Is it do you when you're picking something, is
Speaker 2:it is it a notebook? Is it a a pen? Is it a sticker? Is it a A notebook. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Although I do love I know I I sew them, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but I love the Mark and Fold monthly planners. Yes. Because I love seeing that whole month in one go.
Speaker:I know. We've just talked to somebody else who said similar things.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Just being able to plan ahead and see. Look at it. I don't like it on my phone. I really don't use the calendar facility on my phone.
Speaker 2:I like it written down. Yeah. I love the monthly planners. They're so nice to write in. I do like
Speaker:a paper is really good. It is
Speaker 2:really good paper. She has
Speaker:such a joy to write on.
Speaker 2:It is. Yep.
Speaker:Okay. So that's really good. So when you're buying your notebook, is it neutrals or color that you go for?
Speaker 2:Color. Yeah. I really I'd say color. Do you
Speaker:guys have the same sort
Speaker 2:of color? I mean, I love mustard. I love Exactly that. Was just what I was gonna say. Mustard, pistachio.
Speaker 2:I do like the racing
Speaker:green that she's been
Speaker 2:The racing green, but I did like the pistachio and the mustard. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a rust colored one.
Speaker:And then when you're doing so you've said about the monthly plan, is that the only planning tool you use or do you use a diary or No.
Speaker 2:I use just I use just the monthly planner, actually, because I love just seeing it all in one go and being able to remind myself of what's coming up. So Yeah. Yeah. Without having to turn a page, it's just all there.
Speaker:So yeah. It's lovely. So do you do anything with the stationery other than work?
Speaker 2:No. Not really. Well, I'm a bell ringer. Oh, I'm the tower correspondent. So it's people get in touch with me Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wanting to come to our tower in Goldhanger in Essex to ring. So I tend to put those in the planner so that I can let other people know they've got to let in and we're out. Yeah, I use it for that. But other than that, no. It's just working very well.
Speaker 2:Working very sad.
Speaker:Well, I don't know. You work with Brooks and stationery, so I'm not sure that that's sad for anyone. It's my dream job.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Love it. I must have
Speaker:been Yeah. I love my job. And and how did you come to to to work with Amy? Was that something that, you know, she knew your dad or I you and her
Speaker 2:saw her in I think it was printing world or print monthly. Printing world, I think, about this new stationer. And and I thought, well, that's worth getting in touch with and just sending them some samples of what we can do. Maybe we can help them out
Speaker:here and there.
Speaker 2:And at the time, Amy was doing the three hole sewing, but she was doing it all by hand. Yes. But we've got a machine that does the three hole sewing. It's from 1940. It's a very old, very, very rare machine.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love it.
Speaker:I was gonna say they built them to last Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And so we can do them a lot faster and obviously more Yeah. Cost efficiently for us. So
Speaker:and we And yet the quality is still there because Exactly. It's not changed at
Speaker 2:all
Speaker:with And the
Speaker 2:I've also got a center sewing machine from 1951. Really? And that we do some of the community clothing notebooks with that with the denim covers and the marble paper covers. They're all center sewn for Amy on that machine.
Speaker:Is it is it different working with the denim paper or the cotton paper versus the because I mean, I I've seen cotton paper made, but the denim paper or card that they use on those notebooks, is that different from the normal?
Speaker 2:It is very different. Not so much for our part, but the the foil blockers or the debossers for that because the paper thickness varies so much. I mean, you buy a sheet of color plan, it's the same grammage all the time. It's the same thickness. Whereas the denim handmade paper, it varies considerably.
Speaker 2:You'll get some with quite a flimsy soft feeling cover and others that are really quite fierce.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Quite thick.
Speaker 4:But I
Speaker 2:really like that actually. And I really like seeing all the fibers in there and everything. And some of the blemishes are actually the ones I love.
Speaker:I I was so excited for coming up here because I knew I would be able to pick one up in the shop.
Speaker 2:And I
Speaker:am absolutely going home for one of those.
Speaker 2:I love those ones.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much for keeping talking to We really appreciate the insights into book binding. It's really interesting. Thank you much.
Speaker 2:Nice to meet you. You too. Take care. Bye. Bye.
Speaker:I have no idea if I've done that right.
Speaker 2:We recorded, but I'll
Speaker:need to get Rob to turn it off. Yes.
Speaker:That's that's a duo fold mosaic limited edition.
Speaker:Yeah. That looks rather lovely. UOp, so thank you, cheers! It's always been about creating beautiful blank canvases that will help people get in the zone, do beautiful work, make amazing things happen. So cheers to all the films that have been made, the novels that have been published that started on the pages of our notebooks and everything else in between.
Speaker:Cheers. And cheers to the next ten years. So
Speaker:we're here in the Mark and Fold pop up shop, and Helen is shopping.
Speaker:Lightly shopping. Lightly.
Speaker:Here you go, Helen. There's a classic notebook, three pack.
Speaker:Yes. I don't need three because I currently have more than three. I'm used. But look how fab is this, and it matches my jumper.
Speaker:That's the orange one. Yeah. These are cool, these these x sized books. Yeah. I just think the size of them, though.
Speaker:Was it 48 pages, single sign? We've actually just met the finder, haven't we, Vicky?
Speaker:We did. Yeah. She was yes. And she was talking about the threefold finding. Yeah.
Speaker:Those are really beautiful, aren't they?
Speaker:They are amazing. Is this the gift box that you Yes. Bought yourself?
Speaker:I I did accidentally buy myself one. Yes. But I also bought my brother one. My brother's one was slightly better than the one I bought for myself because I am a nice, kind, and generous sister. But I'm not buying it again, so, you know, obvious.
Speaker:Why is that, Helen?
Speaker:Because I'm not convinced he fully appreciated it, Rob, if I'm honest. Oh,
Speaker:wow. Look at this.
Speaker:I know. Thank you.
Speaker:Wow. Okay. Oh my gosh. Look at that. So we're looking at a 2026 wall planner.
Speaker:That is beautiful.
Speaker:I saw an Instagram, and she did a real reel of all the different planners that they've got. And this was in here. She was talking about that embossing of the, 2026 at the and how rather than start everything on the first and it will be level, how that they'd offset it so that it was sort of back to the year in a much more flowy way.
Speaker:I like how the weekends seem to be called out in bold. Yeah.
Speaker:See, it's important stuff first. Right?
Speaker:Oh, that is beautiful. What's that? 32 pound unframed. So Helen has been Yeah. Sent here with no limits on her credit card.
Speaker:Oh, nice. So I'm trying to encourage Helen to buy as much as possible. Think she should go for
Speaker 2:a massive massive paper clip.
Speaker:What about the the leather folio?
Speaker:I can't I've quite a few a four not a four, a five folio things, cover on cover things from, like, my hobbinic cheap buying fest.
Speaker:Has that ever stopped you before, though?
Speaker:Well, it'll help you. Not helping.
Speaker:These are amazing. Alright.
Speaker:You're not helping me. Really, you're helping me. You're not trying to, are you?
Speaker:I'm not trying to help you, Ellen. But actually, I am. I'm trying to help you spend money.
Speaker:Well, that's because you don't want to spend any of your own, Rob. Right. I think that probably is an absolute Do
Speaker:you not want one of each color, though?
Speaker:I would love one of each color, but my budget will stretch to us.
Speaker:Bundle of three?
Speaker:Well, one of this kind of three? No. Because there's not, like, a bundle of three. You have to buy them individually.
Speaker:No. I think I think that means classic notebook, you get three for that price, which is a saving of
Speaker:three of those. Yes.
Speaker:My maths is correct?
Speaker:I don't I don't need three of those. I've already got an AV one at home I haven't used. Okay. Just like the well, think I like the orange. Maybe I want the mustard, Bob.
Speaker:Oi, you're worse.
Speaker:And if I'm buying two, then I buy three. Right? So we
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:No. Don't need to. Right. This doesn't look very much.
Speaker:No, think you need a bit more there Helen. You've only got what 10 things?
