(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!.)
First of all, Happy First Friday of November AKA Fountain Pen Day! There’s a lot of stuff going on today/this weekend to celebrate FPD, but if you’re in the Los Angeles area on Saturday, November 5th, you can stop by the Flax Pen to Paper shop from 11am - 5pm to celebrate Fountain Pen Day with Kenro Industries and Gena Salorino of Custom Nib Studio. In any case, keep reading!
I recently drove down to Los Angeles, CA to check out Joey Feldman’s latest art show Of An Infinite Solitude - I highly recommend checking it out in person, showing now through November 9, 2022, more info on his website. Also true story, Joey loves the Montblanc 149 and he has several in different nib sizes, but I digress. While I was down there, I made sure to set aside time to visit Flax Pen to Paper, in the Westwood Village area of LA, not far from the UCLA campus.
I met Jeremy Saumure, Jaime Perez and Ryan Finnegan at the SF Pen Show a few months ago and had a great time chatting after-hours, so when I planned my trip to LA, I knew I had to check out their store. In 2020, previous owners Joan (granddaughter of Meyer Flax, who started Flax Art in 1931) and her husband, Phil, passed the Flax torch to Jeremy (right around his “5th year Flaxiversary” as he likes to say), who, along with Jeremy Schuster, Gabriela Acevides-Medes and Ryan Finnegan, have been running both the online site and physical store. True story, Jeremy Saumure is “Jeremy” and Jeremy Schuster goes by “other Jeremy” – if you say “hey, Jeremy”, you get Saumure and if you say “hey, other Jeremy”, Schuster will respond, lol!
On the other side of the store, there are more paper goods like cards, notebooks/paper, bags and more.
While Leuchtturm and Rhodia continue to be big sellers, Flax continues to expand their paper offerings. They have a nice selection of Traveler’s Company items as well as paper products from Maruman and Midori.
In addition to fine writing instruments, inks, stationery and paper, Flax has a variety of gifts and products for the home, including candles, the aforementioned Laguiole knives and even stuff for the pets! I really like that they carry stuff not typically found in your average stationery store.
I’ve been looking into tote bags lately but wasn’t familiar with Bellroy bags until I came here. Maybe it was the variety of bags in various shapes and sizes, or maybe it was the somewhat creepy mannequins that were showcasing them, but now I want one. I was eyeing the Tokyo Tote - I just need to decide on size and color!
While no longer a cornerstone of their business, Flax still has a custom stationery department where you can have personalized cards, invitations, etc. custom-designed and created just for you. You can also buy individual sheets of specialty papers.
This is the kind of neighborhood store that I could easily spend hours in (as it was, I spent almost two hours here), browsing the latest products to arrive, flipping through the ink swatch book and chatting it up with whomever is working that day. As with most brick and mortar stores, you may be paying retail prices but being able to try out products coupled with the friendly service makes it worth it to me.
You can find Flax Pen to Paper at 1078 Gayley Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024, 310-208-3529 or online at FlaxPenToPaper.com. The store is open Tuesday - Friday from 11 am - 6:30 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5:30pm; they are closed on Sunday and Monday.