Money & Business: The versatile art of paper Money & Business: The versatile art of paper (April 27, 2005)

Roosters, clocks and castles keep company with the greeting cards and stationery at Paper Chase in Menlo Park

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

When you love paper, says Isabelle Leon, you are drawn to all its facets: its rainbow of colors, world of textures, and agile versatility.

So it seems like an understatement to refer to her shop, Paper Chase at 861 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park, as a card store.

A shopper can certainly find walls of greeting cards, along with other goods you'd expect: custom invitations, wrapping paper and ribbons, blank books and stationery.

Then there are the shiny roosters watching over the shop. A longtime art lover, Ms. Leon also displays and sells many works of art made from paper.

Like the roosters, many of the creations are papier-mache. A winsome pair of red shoes by London artist Julie Arkell graces one table, near a white horse from Vietnam and mariachi musicians from Mexico.

Overhead, so-called Mexican "brothel dolls" line the top of one shelf. Ms. Leon points out that each papier-mache doll has her name painted on her front, representing a different denizen of the brothel.

"Men wouldn't have to be embarrassed asking for the woman," Ms. Leon says with a grin; they could just point at the appropriate doll.

On another shelf, the view is more regal: fanciful castles made from shiny candy wrappers, hailing from Krakow, Poland. Across the room, a Japanese clock of handmade paper and silver hands ticks away.
Growing competition

Paper Chase, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in Menlo Park this year, didn't always have such a global reach. Ms. Leon and her sister Miriam Kotin, who died a few years ago, opened the shop focusing on cards and wrapping paper.

That was in a tiny 300-square-foot space in Los Altos in 1977, and it was a different time for card stores. Hallmark was pretty much the only option, Ms. Leon recalls, and it was difficult to find a wider array of art and photography cards.

The sisters had studied art in school and dreamed of opening a business. With their children in high school or older, the time seemed right, and the two learned about retail as they went along.

"Having a partner was absolutely critical. It's a kind of marriage," Ms. Leon says, wandering around the shop shadowed by Sparky, her apricot-colored miniature poodle.

The shop moved to Menlo Park in 1980, where it now lives in a 1,600-square-foot space and a very different business climate. Shops selling fine greeting cards are now common, and competition also comes from the Internet.

Rather than curling up on the Paper Chase couch and lingering over different styles of wedding invitations, people are now increasingly ordering invitations and other goods on-line, Ms. Leon says.

"In today's society, everyone is in a hurry," she says.

The competition, along with the slumping economy, has hurt business at Paper Chase. Ms. Leon said advertising isn't helpful because the small shop doesn't have the resources to launch a large enough ad campaign to be of any use.

Still, she says, the shop has loyal customers and a long-term lease, and she has no plans to go anywhere.

"We're hanging in there," she says. "This community is quite sophisticated."
Global goods

Sophisticated customers have worldly tastes. When Ms. Leon buys her products at gift shows and stationery fairs in San Francisco and New York, she has the luxury of choosing only items that please her.

But she's also mindful that traveling themes -- often European -- are popular with clientele. Elegant papers from Italy are all the rage, and the shop also carries retro maps of Paris and Rome and old-fashioned luggage labels.

"Who isn't interested in Paris?" she asks. "Anything with the Eiffel Tower is very appealing to my customers."

Also enduring are children's items: picture books, origami paper, jigsaw puzzles and paper dolls. After all, there has to be something to compete with the smell of fresh waffle cones coming from Baskin-Robbins next door.

Another popular area is the do-it-yourself section, which has books and kits on keeping scrapbooks and journals. There are rubber stamps and ink pads, as well as kits for making small books by hand.

The economy may change and the Internet may grow, but one thing remains constant: "People are interested in expressing themselves," Ms. Leon says.

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