Noor came to the shop on Papierstraat with a letter that was not finished. She did not ask for a kind of pen, and she did not ask us to name a favourite sheet. She asked to see the envelopes in the window light. The letter had to leave Ghent, and she wanted to know how the paper would look once it was held up.
Aya Mensah was at the counter. She put two plain envelopes in Noor’s hands and nodded at the glass. One was white. The other was a pale kraft. Noor raised them both. Daylight went through the paper, and the difference was easy to see without a talk about it. This is the first step we use with anyone. Feel comes before cut, and cut comes before wrap. The window does the feeling.
The sheet on the table was Soft Wove. It is A4, 120 gsm, fifty sheets in a pack, €13. We keep it for fountain pens. The plain envelopes are the same weight, 120 gsm, in C6. A pack holds twenty-five and costs €8. One A4 sheet, folded twice, fits that envelope. Noor set a sheet of Soft Wove behind each envelope in turn. The white one kept the letter close to the page she was writing. The kraft one warmed it. She chose the white. Both envelopes are the same pack. We do not sell a second envelope at a second price.
She did not need the rest of the range for this letter, and Aya said so. Airmail Bank is the 45 gsm sheet for long letters abroad. Everyday Bond is the 80 gsm sheet for daily writing and printing. Laid Writing is the 100 gsm sheet for letters by hand, the one that shows chain lines when you hold it to the light. Grey Card is the 250 gsm sheet for cards and backing. Cotton Rag is the 300 gsm sheet for watercolour and invitations. Soft Wove is only the fountain-pen sheet. The plain envelope only takes one A4 folded twice. Noor was matching a letter to packs we already keep, not building a set.
Joris Van Acker was at the mat that morning. Samples are cut through the morning after the door opens at 10:00. Noor did not need a cut. The A4 sheet and the C6 envelope already agreed. If the job had been a card, Grey Card could have been cut to size for nothing. If it had been an invitation smaller than A3, Cotton Rag could have been cut the same way. Cutting to size is free, and so is the kraft wrap tied with cotton tape. A sheet that has been cut cannot be returned. An unopened pack can, within thirty days.
She took one pack of Soft Wove at €13 and one pack of plain envelopes at €8. Together that sits under €60, so a posted order would have carried the flat €7 inside the EU, or €16 elsewhere. She did not post it. She was already in the shop. Ravi Nair handles the orders that do leave by the web. Tomás Rivera wraps those parcels. A pack that goes into a bag at the counter does not need the tape. Parcels that do leave go out at 16:30.
Aya Paper was founded in 2011 in Ghent. The shop is at 17 Papierstraat, 9000 Ghent. Tuesday to Saturday the door is open from 10:00 to 18:00. Noor came while there was still daylight to hold paper in, which is the point of doing this at the window rather than under a lamp in a back room. On Thursday, from 16:00 to 18:00, Greta Lindholm holds the paper clinic for someone who has brought a sample and is not sure which of the six sheets to use. Noor was sure once she had looked. She did not need the clinic.
Aya did not add a second recommendation on the way out. The range stops at six papers because each one has a job, and another paper would repeat a job we can already name at the counter. Leila Benali buys those papers from the mills. She does not bring in a sheet we cannot explain in one sentence. Soft Wove’s sentence is that it is for fountain pens. The envelope’s sentence is that it takes one A4 folded twice.
Noor put the packs in her bag. The letter was still unfinished. That was fine. The shop does not write the letter. Hanna Kowalczyk would stitch notebooks at 14:00, and the day’s parcels would leave at 16:30, and none of that changed the reason for the visit. Noor had stood at the window with two envelopes and one sheet, and she had chosen.