The Regional Assembly of Text

Carrying on from yesterday’s post, Strikethru mentioned another great Vancouver stationer. A counterpoint to Paper-Ya, The Regional Assembly of Text is not in a tourist area, and focuses on products from individual craftspeople and small presses, rather than prominent brands.

The Regional Assembly of Text in Vancouver

The store is decorated as an homage to typewriters, filing cabinets, and yesteryear’s offices. It also has a small press/zine reading room that Strikethru described. TRAT is quite an amazing place for anyone who likes letterpress, and it is filled with high quality interesting (and sometimes quirky) paper and stationery items.

I picked up a few library and ledger journal inspired items.

The Regional Assembly of Text in Vancouver

Also worth noting – they give pencils as treats to customers!

Paper-Ya

Please let me express my appreciation to Cheryl of Strikethru for this post – it formed a wonderful guide to two stationery treasures that I recently visited.

Paper-Ya in Vancouver

Paper-Ya is located on Granville Island, a vibrant arts district in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The island is easily (and probably best) traversed on foot. Notable landmarks include the Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Paper-Ya is immediately discernible as a labour of love. They stock an immense array of paper items that seems well beyond commercial viability. And I do mean immense – if one could extract the product names mentioned in the last five years from every stationery blog – a good number of them are at Paper-Ya, representing twenty or more countries of manufacture.

Paper-Ya in Vancouver

My suitcase only had room for some very limited purchases, including handmade paper from Papetrie Saint-Armand.

David Hayward Design 5mm Brushed Nickel Scribbler

David Hayward Design 5mm Brushed Nickel Scribbler

The David Hayward Design 5mm Brushed Nickel Scribbler is a very well made leadholder/clutch pencil with an incredible heft. At 66 grams, it is heavy and dense, and by far the heaviest handheld writing implement that I own.

The aesthetic is one of simplicity, with clean lines and surfaces. It is a design for designers – it dares you to not pick it up and start drawing.