Marionbcn

Marionbcn is the handle of a Swedish artist Raquel, a snail mailer who also creates lots of stationery of her own. She sells her wares both a la carte and with various Patreon subscription packages. The lower tiers are for those who just want the warm feeling of helping out a creator, but the upper tiers are actually some interesting recurring stationery values.

I subscribed to the “Snail Mail Plus” tier, which gives me a monthly batch of snail mailing supplies, usually themed and always including some stickers, letter-writing paper, journaling ephemera, used vintage stamps from various countries, and a roll of washi tape.

My favourite item in both months I’ve received so far is the illustrated paper, which shows reproductions from vintage books, digitally restored and blank on the back. I do wish these were printed on slightly better paper, as some fountain pen inks do bleed through, spoiling the beautiful pictures.

Of course, like most good snail mail lovers, the package in which it arrives is lovingly addressed and decorated and real stamps used to get the goods along on their way. Like Canada, Sweden allows all old stamps to be used on current mail, provided it fulfills current rate schedules. Recent news tells us the UK is ending this ability for its own postal customers, but let’s hope both Sweden and Canada allow it for many years to come!