Leslie Nava of Brown Line Letters is a letter writer and avid book reader living in Chicago. A self confessed stationery addict, Leslie shares her love of paper stationery and creative letter writing through her Instagram account @brownlineletters
An introduction
I came across Brown Line Letters when Leslie tagged us in an Instagram posts using our wrapping papers to make beautiful envelopes. I wanted to find out more about the person creating these beautiful works of mail art and what the snail mail resurgence was all about. We invited Leslie to tell us more about her work and why she thinks handmade letter writing is important.
As a fellow paper lover, I'm interested to know what it is that you enjoy so much about paper goods and stationery?
I like to think that stationery is a luxury; whether you have personalized stationery or you picked something up from a cute shop. I also love the creative and endless designs out there. There’s paper for every occasion and theme. It’s really all around us and it’s more accessible than ever. I also remember trying to make my own paper as a young girl all because I saw it on PBS Kids.
It seems that letter writing and letter art are having a resurgence, how long have you been involved in the snail mail movement and what drew you to it?
l've always been interested in mail. As a child I had a few pens pals and I often wrote letters to my family and to friends in school (with origami folding of course). Life as an adult tried it’s best to make me forget some of these early passions. I started to get back into letter writing in the past decade or so now starting off pretty simply with season’s greeting cards. I feel like I've been right on time with revisiting some of these interests, as the resurgence has grown at seemingly the same rate. In 2020 during Covid, I picked it back up even more as a way to stay in better touch during the holidays, and I've not slowed down since!
I imagine you have quite a collection of stationery goodies, do you have any favourites, and where do you source your materials?
I’m laughing as you ask because for the record; I can never have enough! Some of my favourite items are rare antique regency era wax seals that I've been able to source. I still collect and need more vintage Sandy Lion stickers and vintage US postage stamps. I also enjoy cute address labels because there are never enough! So, I'm all over the place in terms of my favourites and I’m thankful for my collection because my focus changes pretty often.
I’m lucky to have quite a few shops near me that I frequent and also some good Patreons that l'm a member of. Some of the great stationery shops in Chicago: Paper Source, Paper and Pencil, Foursided, Atlas Stationers, A Favorite Design, and Bari Zaki.
Some mail related Patreons I'm subscribed to: The Postal Type, Via Micaela and Donovan Beeson.
I could go on and on honestly, and please don’t get me started on Letterpress stationery - phew!
Tell us a bit about your process, and who the lucky people are who receive your letters?
A lot of my ideas are feel-based and spur of the moment! I'm a visual person so I take inspiration from anything that catches my eye. I then scour my supplies and or source the rest. Sometimes I lose track of time and get lost in my office writing back to friends and creating more mail. I have some great Spotify playlists, good lighting, and I’ll wear comfy clothes to set the right mood.
I have been fortunate enough to find lovely pen pals on Instagram. I also send letters to some of my close friends, and even my husband occasionally. I also do bulk mail during my favorite holidays such as Easter, Halloween, Valentines day, Mother's Day, and of course Christmas! I mentioned that these were pretty simple originally, but now - Those are WILD times! The entire arsenal of supplies are brought out for the holidays and my office floor looks like a whirlwind came through.
I used to have pen pals as a kid but have no idea how I would go about finding a new one now. How can people get involved in the slowmail movement and why do you think they should?
First of all YES! Get involved. ASAP! Here's how I see it; How awesome is it to get real mail (besides bills junk and physical spam)? Maybe some people haven't experienced that in a long time? It's like… a great
surprise. My favourite thing about receiving mail is knowing that someone devoted a chunk of their time to just you and created something lovely. I truly believe that is special.
People should definitely get involved in the mail movement. I live in a busy city and when life starts to speed up and get hectic, this art helps me slow down and catch my breath. It creates a sort of calm in my life.
As far as how to find pen pals; over time I've collected some resources that l'd like to share. There are a couple pages on Instagram that I really enjoy for pen pal groups such as @snailmailcollective and
@mojavecorrespondenceclub. There are also letter writing groups for grief such as @postalserviceforthedead which can be extremely helpful for anyone who's in need of an outlet. @lettersagainstisolation is another good one. Their mission is to fight senior citizen loneliness by sending letters to seniors. #penpalswanted
or #penpalsearch takes you to countless Instagram pages where you can find posts dedicated to finding new pals. You can also follow pages and simply comment or send a DM and most of the time you'll get a response! Yet another option is to do Postcrossing; the exchange of postcards with other post crossers around the globe.
I will say that the snail mail community is one of the kindest and friendliest corners of the internet. Everyone I’ve encountered has been kind, empathetic, understanding and creative. So, yes - START! You can use anything! You can go to a rummage shop and find so many cool things. There are supplies around your home like magazines and so many other items that you can use as well!
