Our New Year's Resolution: Stock More Canadian Stationery
At Phidon, stocking quality items from independent makers and creators has always been important to us, and we are focusing on bringing in more Canadian talent in 2021! In this blog post, you’ll find a snapshot of the Canadian brands that we carry and we are planning to bring into the shop soon (as of January 2021). Keep your eyes open for the new brands in the next few weeks — we can’t wait to share them with you!
To start off, we’re very excited to be carrying a selection of pen rolls from Fieldwork Co.! Fieldwork Co. is a family business based out of Edmonton that focuses on leather and waxed canvas goods. On top of being gorgeous to look at and use, these pen rolls are handcrafted with care by Isaac Haines with his children in mind. Expect a full, detailed blog post on the waxed canvas rolls after they arrive later this month, but for now know that they are water resistant, durable, and ready for every adventure.
Though the details are still being worked out, you can also look forward to seeing some new offerings from MacLellan Books on our shelves in the coming weeks and months. We love working with Alistair, and we love how hyper-local this collaboration is. Though you might be familiar with MacLellan Books’ already, we’ll be expanding our MacLellan offerings beyond notebooks in the next month or so, so stay tuned! You can read all about MacLellan Books and our Phidon Exclusives in our previous blog post.
If you’ve never sent a Canadian card, your recipients are missing out! We’ve been carrying Gotamago and Refinemark for a while, but we’re expanding our Canadian card offerings to include a new brand to the store: Dogwood Letterpress! Dogwood Letterpress is based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, and is run by a husband and wife duo, Lisa Currer and Sean Boag. Their work is inspired by the great outdoors — something Canada is certainly known for — and vintage letterpress.
Speaking of the great outdoors, have you seen that we’re now carrying a series of prints by Toronto-based artist Mac Meek? Meek’s collection “Elke Wolk,” Dutch for “every cloud,” features rural and agricultural landscapes from Ontario. They are in an accessible 4”x6” format, so they are perfect for both hanging on a wall or sitting on a desk. These prints are already available on our website.
As you’re probably aware of if you’ve ever had a conversation with any of the staff members at Phidon, reading is almost as much of a passion as writing in our little community. Toque Magazine, a self-described lifestyle lookbook of the goings-on in the Waterloo Region, has been available for free in our store for a little while. We’ve been featured in Toque a few times, and we absolutely love the publication’s vision — after all, at Phidon we strive to make the everyday extraordinary and Toque does just that.
Finally, we also recently started bringing in another Canadian publication — Uppercase Magazine, based out of Calgary. The first issue that we have available is Volume 48, which focuses on a topic close to our hearts: stationery! In the magazine, you’ll see the best in design from around the world, and you’ll even be able to find a familiar stationery shop from Cambridge Ontario!
Even if you’re not shopping for more stationery, shopping at independent retailers has never been more important than it is right now — especially during a lockdown. You can find out more about all of our neighbours, the amazing businesses in Downtown Cambridge, by clicking here.
Who are some of your favourite Canadian makers and creators? Let us know in the comments, and Happy New Year!