the best stationary shop in Toronto? (a trip to Wonder Pens)

Being back in Canada for a brief few weeks, of course I have a bucket list! #allthethings
Usually my bucket list is centered around my interests: stationary, art, food, coffee, and of course combining all those things with friends, family and my hometown Hamilton.

I've long been a fan of Wonder Pens, a small family run stationary shop in Toronto that specializes in Fountain Pens and hard to find inks. In an increasingly digital world, analogue record keeping and  correspondence has significantly decrease (case in point: as I sit here and blog) but more and more people are finding they miss putting pen to paper. Wonder Pens is a great little shop that meets those needs and has a wonderful staff with great high quality products. They just moved their store from Leslieville to Little Italy and I seized the opportunity to pop in when I was in Toronto a few weeks ago. I also needed to pick up some Noodlers Ink to refill my fountain pens with. As a Zero Waste proponent, I'm a huge fan of refillable fountain pens, and as someone who journals regularly I've found that all I need is one black, archival ink that suits all of my needs. Some people have massive fountain pen collections and a whole rainbow of beautiful inks, but as someone who is a minimalist and travels frequently, it's simple not possible for me. Off I trotted to Wonder Pens to refill my trusty stash and check out the new shop!

In short.. Wonder Pens lives up to its name. Here are some pics of their thoroughly instagrammable interior. Also, they stock a wide collection of hard to find Japanese stationary products (Superior Labour, Classiky, Travelers Notebook), as well as the staples like Field Notes, Rhodia, and Leuchtterm and a huge variety of fountain pens and ink.

love the upcycled coconut milk can ^_^

Liz has scattered great little postcards for purchase around the shop.

Mammoth Lamy pen just chilling in the corner... like nbd. 😂

Love this custom postcard drawn by Gotamago, a local Toronto artist.

green plants everywhere!

It's been so wonderful to to watch Jon and Liz do so well with this little shop. They host letter writing nights (free to join!) and classes and have even been able to hire additional staff. I browsed for quite a while and was impressed with the customer service they provided. Unfortunately, the Noodlers I was looking for was out of stock, but I had a lovely chat with Sarah and went on my way with a little sample to tide me over until the next restock.

ALL THE INKS!

Wonder Pens is a charming spot, definitely check it out if you are an analogue lover. While claiming the store is the BEST stationary shop in Toronto may be rather opinionated, it's definitely in my top three. I have yet to check out Paper Plus Cloth's new shop on Queen West but it features highly on The Bucket List. Until that happens I will reserve my use of superlatives.. 😉

Enjoy this Toronto gem, and if you are a stationary nerd like myself or a fountain pen enthusiast.. these people know all the things.

Hugs,
d.