San Diego Magazine / May 2011 / The Sweet Life of Paper

 Email  Print  Feed

The Sweet Life of Paper

Reviving etiquette and pulp, one card at a time

In this digital age, two La Jolla sisters are bringing back a little etiquette with the humble piece of paper. Theresa Anderson and Julie O’Brien aren’t asking that you mind your Ps and Qs, just that you write them down. In ink. On pulp. Recycled cotton or bamboo, thank you.

The 30-something shopkeepers who opened Sweet Paper last September are harnessing technology, too. They tweet and blog about the custom letterpress invitations, locally crafted moonstone rings or teensy hand-painted treasure chests that fill their shop on La Jolla Boulevard. I sat down with the big-and-little-sis team in their cozy, card-filled cottage, believed to be a former residence of one of Picasso’s mistresses.

What inspired two sisters to open a stationery shop?

Julie: Paper! I love paper, I love greeting cards, I love note cards, anything that has to do with paper. Hand-writing notes is becoming a lost art, but I think people appreciate it so much. And it’s becoming even more special now that people send everything through e-mail. I don’t believe it will ever truly die out.

So is this a pushback to online retailers, or is there still a place for good old-fashioned human contact and the handwritten greeting card?

Julie: When it comes to paper, people need to see it, feel it and touch it, especially when you’re doing something as monumental as wedding invitations. Brides come in all the time and say, "I just couldn’t order it online because I couldn’t really tell." Some of the sensory part of the letterpress, the texture of it and how the cotton feels, you can’t see that online.

Theresa: And I think people get excited when they get something in the mail that’s not a bill. It’s exciting, and it’s fun.

Yet from newspapers to books, that solid sheet of paper is fighting for its life. Why a stationery store now?

Julie: I see people reading newspapers online and reading books on Kindle and iPad. I’m guilty of that as well. But I cannot ever see a time when people send a wedding invitation over e-mail. There has to be a point at which the proper way of doing things hangs on.

Does it horrify you that I got an Evite wedding invitation recently?

Theresa: It’s a little horrifying.

Julie: It does break my heart a little bit. I mean, for all my kids I still send real birthday invitations on paper. But I understand that people are busy and it’s difficult.

What are you doing differently than other stationers in San Diego?

Julie: I think we have a lot of unique, modern, fun, hip stuff that’s not necessarily available in a lot of other places. The two of us source everything ourselves. We love to work with small, independent designers who design the cards and letterpress them themselves. It’s such a great little community feeling, and I love bringing that kind of stuff here.

And there’s a continual need to shop.

Theresa: That’s definitely a bonus. I mean, you’re shopping all the time!

How do you find those small artists tucked away in their studios in San Diego, L.A., New York or wherever?

Julie: Amazingly, one of the things that’s been phenomenal for us, as far as becoming part of the stationery industry, is Twitter, believe it or not. People are constantly sending tweets back and forth, and you hear about this great project, or this person carrying this line, or this new letterpress designer. It’s crazy. I didn’t really get Twitter before.

Kind of ironic, right? But it’s not like you eschew technology. You just love paper.

Theresa: We use Facebook, and we have a blog to share information about the shop, new products we have, just things we find inspiring. I’m kind of addicted to blogs, so I sometimes come across cool new products or designers that way.

Julie: And I have to say, we will tweet and e-mail thank-yous to people — but always also a note goes in the mail.

Mother’s Day is coming up, and an e-card isn’t exactly the same as a sweetly scented lacy handwritten note...

Julie: (gasp followed by a shocked whisper): You can’t give your mom an e-card!

Blasphemy, huh?

Julie: Yes, this is Mom!

7527 La Jolla Boulevard, 858-456-1446
sweet-paper.com