Getting to know Tessa Sowry

by Tony Short

Tessa Sowry runs All Things Stationery, a site dedicated to bringing you the very best of the world’s Stationery. Tessa combines a mixture of pens, pencils and notebooks reviews with a a real creative eye for beautiful photographs and videos. If that wasn't enough, Tessa also curates a Stationery resource of physical and worthwhile Stationery shops to visit around the world!

Talented, right! Wait until you read her Q&A...

1) Describe yourself in three objects

A Kaweco Sport fountain pen, because it's small, an Octaevo glasses bookmark (pictured) because I like reading and it looks almost the same as my specs, and a duvet, because life is so busy that at the moment all I crave is a duvet day. Getting To Know Tessa Sowry

2) Wood or Mechanical Pencil?

Wood. No question.

3) Ballpoint, Gel or Fountain Pens?

Tricky… Gel for everyday, fountain pen for best.

4) Sketchbook or screen?

Oooh, tricky again! I use a screen much more than I do a sketchbook, as unfortunately I’m not really an artist… I feel like I should say sketchbook, but I think in reality, it’s screen.

5) Tell us about a couple of your favourite materials to work with?

I’m trying really hard to get better at calligraphy… As someone with a stationery blog my handwriting is probably more under scrutiny than most, and I wish it was better. So for that reason I’ve been spending more time using dip pens, and ink, and I’m starting to enjoy it too!

6) Which country or continent is your favourite for Stationery?

Japan! Like most stationery lovers, I would absolutely LOVE to go to Japan and spend days exploring all the stationery shops, although I would probably bankrupt myself… I’m sure the Japanese stationery we see in the UK only just scratches the surface of what you can get out there.

7) Apart from your own blog, which other stationery blogs would you recommend following?

There are so many incredible stationery bloggers at the moment! You’ve already done Q&As with some of my absolute favourites (especially Adam, Ian and Jenny), so to avoid duplication, I wanted to mention a few bloggers who have been going a long time, are super supportive of others in the community and inspire me to keep producing content; Ana at The Well-Appointed Desk, Brad at Pen Addict and Azizah at Gourmet Pens (who has the most incredible calligraphy skills). Also, a mention for Elaine at Owl Ink who’s relatively new blog is super impressive - and gorgeous looking!

8) Do you practice any productivity techniques or hacks?

Hmmm. Not really, and I desperately need some! I use a weekly planner which helps. I have different sections in it; blog post ideas, to-do lists etc. and then I take things from these lists and put them into each week as appropriate to plan out my blogging schedule.

9) And… we’ve got to ask. What’s in your pencil case?

I don’t actually have one pencil case that I carry around so it’s kind of hard to say. I think the best indicator to what I use the most is what I carry around in my handbag, and that’s always a Field Notes (I’m currently using a Two Rivers), my Kaweco Sport Skyline fountain pen, a few Muji gel pens in different colours (the finer the nib, the better - I get 0.38mm where possible) and I usually have a Palomino Blackwing pencil on the go too.

If like us, you loved this Q&A and want to learn more about Tessa then head over to her Website and Social channels where you will LOVE her graph themed website and regular blog posts at http://allthingsstationery.co.uk along with Twitter and Instagram.