If you can’t find it here, they say, you can’t find it anywhere. Manhattan is brimming with specialty stores and there must be a shop for pretty much everything in New York. So I wasn’t at all surprised to discover a lovely shop on the Lower East Side that is devoted entirely to pencils. And since IRMA loves drawing and always carries around a selection of pencils, we had to find out more and talked with Caroline Weaver, the passionate pencil lover and founder of CW Pencil Enterprise.
IRMA: What is the initial concept for CW Pencil?
Caroline Weaver: CW Pencil Enterprise offers a curated selection of high quality pencils from all around the world. We’ve created the store around sharing just how great pencils can be, as well as making pencils feel very nostalgic and special. In the U.S. it’s difficult to find a wide variety of pencils, so we’ve created a place for people to find all kinds of pencils and to try them out and learn all there is to know about pencils, as well as get sharpeners, erasers, notebooks and anything else you could need with a pencil.
IRMA: What do pencils mean to you?
Caroline Weaver: Pencils are very special to us! A pencil has a sound when you write with it, a smell when you sharpen it, a very particular feel when you write with it. It’s a very tactile experience. Pencils are also very nostalgic, as you typically only use pencils as a child when you’re learning to write. For me, this all gives pencils a very special feeling, and I find that feeling very inspiring.
IRMA: Since when does the shop exist?
Caroline Weaver: Our online store was launched in November of 2014. We opened the doors of our NYC shop in March of 2015.
IRMA: Do you change collections due to the season, or do you have special events?
Caroline Weaver: Aside from having special items for the holidays, our collection pretty much stays the same. We don’t have any special events really, but we do have sales and discounts and giveaways around certain times of year, like back-to-school season.
IRMA: What does someone find at your place that makes it so special?
Caroline Weaver: When people visit our shop they are normally first surprised that it smells like pencils inside. They also discover that the wide variety of pencils we have is very special — often you won’t find some of the pencils we carry anywhere else in the U.S. We also spend a lot of time helping people pick out a pencil by inviting them to test them out and sharing facts and history about pencils that they may not have known before visiting us.
CW Pencil Enterprise
100 Forsyth Street
New York, NY 10002
https://cwpencils.com/