About the shop
Aya Paper opened in 2011 at 17 Papierstraat in Ghent, and Aya Mensah still works the counter.
Founded in 2011, and why six papers
Aya Paper was founded in 2011 in Ghent. The shop is at 17 Papierstraat, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Aya Mensah started it and still works the counter. The range stops at six papers because each one has a job we can say in a few words: long letters abroad, daily writing and printing, letters by hand, fountain pens, cards and backing, watercolour and invitations. A seventh name would repeat one of those jobs. Sizes in between are cuts, not new papers. Leila Benali buys from the mills and does not bring in a sheet the counter cannot explain. We do not keep a house grade, a student grade and a studio grade of the same thing. Everyday Bond is already the sheet for daily writing and printing, for Bram’s thesis and for a household page.
A day on Papierstraat
The day runs in the same order through the open week. At 09:00 deliveries are unpacked. At 10:00 the door opens. Samples are cut through the morning. At 14:00 Hanna stitches the notebooks. At 16:30 parcels leave. Thursday adds the paper clinic from 16:00 to 18:00, which sits inside the same afternoon rather than after it. We are open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00. The counter can feel a sheet, cut it and wrap it in that stretch of hours. Web orders that Ravi has packed are among the parcels at 16:30. Nothing in the routine asks you to book a slot, and the clinic does not replace the morning samples.
09:00
Deliveries are unpacked
10:00
The door opens
Morning
Samples are cut
14:00
Notebooks are stitched
16:30
Parcels leave
Thursday, 16:00–18:00
Paper clinic
The seven people
They are the whole staff. You will not find a separate showroom team or a second shop. If you write to hello@ayapaper.example, the note reaches the same counter. If you come in, you get whoever is on the step you need: Aya to look, Joris to cut, Tomás to wrap, Hanna if the notebook is still on the table at 14:00, Greta if it is Thursday between 16:00 and 18:00 and you brought a sample.
Aya Mensah
Feel · 10:00–18:00
Joris Van Acker
Cut · mornings
Leila Benali
Mills · buying
Hanna Kowalczyk
Stitch · 14:00
Tomás Rivera
Wrap · parcels at 16:30
Ravi Nair
Web orders
Greta Lindholm
Clinic · Thursday 16:00–18:00