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Mr. Rafieh’s Tehran Pencil Shop
- hilbert42 5y agoJust wonderful.
- sparrish 5y agoIt's a colorful stall, that's for sure. Does he make the pencils there? I can't read the writing in the photos but it looks like there are no prices (I don't see any numbers). Can someone who is able to read this chime in?
- taken_username 5y agoI don’t think he made the pencils, but he has a huge collection apparently from the basic ones to some ancient ones. I searched a bit online and I couldn’t find any online shop or price samples for the store. This is their instagram page, but not sure if it adds any more information: https://instagram.com/medad_rafi https://instagram.com/medad_rafi
- ginko 5y ago>Does he make the pencils there? The pencils in this photo[1] say 'Germany', so my guess is no. [1] https://www.ana.press/photo/548339/%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%B1%D9%86%DA%AF%DB%8C#gallery-15 https://www.ana.press/photo/548339/%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%A7%...
- eternalban 5y agohttps://media.ana.press/old/1399/09/24/637435502248341625_lg.JPG https://media.ana.press/old/1399/09/24/637435502248341625_lg... [R to L]: White Pencil. Tailor's White Pencil. White Oil Pencil. One the side it says "single colored pencils 250 Tomans". The front matter appears to be a verse from Qur'an and below it in Farsi he declares he has 'entrusted all matters to God, the same God that is the protector of its creation'.
- vidanay 5y agoGod (of your choice), I wish I was multi-lingual.
- Phenomenit 5y agoDo you mean more than two or one?
- vidanay 5y agoMore than one.
- eternalban 5y agoخواستن توانستن است [[R to L]: Khaastan (To desire/wish) Tavaanestan (to have ability) Ast (is)] That's a popular Iranian saying. It means "To desire/To will is to achieve." (Where there is a will, there is a way.)
- rvense 5y agoAlso: Zabaan daani, jahaan daari. (If you know languages, you posses the world.)
- kapitalx 5y agoThere is a 0 missing in the picture. In another photo[1] it says "2500 Toman" which is about $0.10 USD [1] https://media.ana.press/old/1399/09/24/637435501254726240_lg.JPG https://media.ana.press/old/1399/09/24/637435501254726240_lg...
- eternalban 5y agoWas wondering about the exchange rate these days. Good catch.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
- oz_zyn 5y agoI put a translation in another comment. I don't think he makes them, or at least there's nothing that suggests that in the text. He's more of a collector.
- AlbertCory 5y agoI love this. I'm wondering how well he knows his inventory. Like, can you ask for one particular pencil that's stuck in the middle of one of those shelves, and he goes and pulls it right out?
- freshdonut 5y agoKind of like Ollivader from Harry Potter haha.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- drmeister 5y agoCame for this. “Curious how these things happen. The [pencil] chooses the [writer], remember…”
- a1371 5y agoMy guess would be that the pencils of the same property are on each shelf, and the older stuff are buried under newer ones. For example, one of the labels says "oily pencils". So perhaps when you go to him and ask for a purple pencil he pulls out a number of purple ones from the bunch that's relevant to you. Then he explains which one is better for you.
- apocalypstyx 5y agoThere was a BBC documentary called The Secret History of Writing, where a Turkish calligrapher talks about how they save all their pencil shavings and after the person dies the pencil and paper scraps of their lifetime are used to heat the water that will clean their body as part of the burial process. https://youtu.be/TyfIS9b77A8?t=7854 https://youtu.be/TyfIS9b77A8?t=7854
- schnevets 5y agoYears ago, I dismissed photography as a pretentious hobby that would be rendered obsolete as smartphone cameras and digital improvements became more ubiquitous, but I have since learned to appreciate the talent behind a good photo. I only bring this up because I had a similar experience with these photos that I had locally. My Hudson Valley town is a delicate balance of many cultures (primarily white, black, and Central American) and our downtown reflects that blend. Most folks would be quick to dismiss one small storefront with a messy front window of leather goods, sculptures, and various Latin American flags, but inside is an expert leather craftsman from Ecuador who makes most of his products by hand. I never would have bothered entering the store until a local photographer (once recognized as the "town's photo laureate") featured the store in a few social media posts. Some combination of sharing the craftsman's story and recognizing the beauty throughout the store struck the interest of the rest of the town. Suddenly the eccentric storefront became a destination for everyone (kind of like this colored pencil man's stall)
- jan_Inkepa 5y agoI tend to dislike photographs of myself. I once spent Christmas at a gathering hosted by a photographer. He spent the evening walking around taking photographs of people/the general goings on. I remember seeing the photographs after and looking at myself/others and thinking "The respect that the photographer has for the people in these photographs is immense". And yeah we all seemed to be having a good time, but there's some extra layer of dignity/worth/soul that he managed to endow everything with, and I felt so grateful to be able to see myself captured in that way. Your comment reminded me a bit of that.
- totalZero 5y agoAny idea what his town of origin might be? The leather workers in the southern highlands of Ecuador (talabarteros, often specializing in saddles) are exceptional.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y agoYears ago, I dismissed photography as a pretentious hobby that would be rendered obsolete as smartphone cameras and digital improvements became more ubiquitous You just listed a couple tools for photography though. If anything they will lower the barrier of entry for photography and more people will participate (pretty much what happened)
- thomas 5y agoWonderful gallery! Interesting sharpening technique in image 7 with a blunt writing tip. Typically you'd seen a more angled cone [0] and a sharper end, but I guess this means no color is wasted when doing the initial sharpening? Anyone note a list of his brands? I think I see some Faber-Castell but can't ID anything else. [0] https://unsharpen.com/the-parts-of-wooden-pencil/ https://unsharpen.com/the-parts-of-wooden-pencil/
- udev 5y agoA mightily photogenic place, so much colour!
- efazati 5y agoWow Tehran is full of beautiful things that even someone from Iran like me doesn't know
- jacquesm 5y agoI've spent half a day looking through pictures of Iran from before the revolution, it was - and in many ways probably still is - an absolutely amazing country. Sooner or later the mullahs will be given their walking papers and hopefully the country can then recover some of its former splendor.
- anticodon 5y agoYeah, I imagine it: - It would be bombed and looted by foreign army ("In the name of democracy!") - Hundreds of thousands of people will die from bombs, same amount from hunger and civil unrest caused by destruction of the infrastructure and government system (police, hospitals, etc.) - Foreign companies will take control of Iran's oil (the main reason why Iran is considered "hostile country" now is that it controls its natural resources), so that profits from selling the oil flow to other countries (exactly the same happened recently in Libya and Syria) It would become unsafe to visit, and most cities would be in ruins. Crime rates would go through the roof.
- brudgers 5y agoEuropeans have been anti-Persian since before Socrates was a hoplite. It would be better if fifteen hundred years of Islamophobia was disinfected from Europe. It's a double standard where nobody sees a problem with England even though there's a state religion and the religious head and government head are the same person...and unlike Iran, those roles are hereditary. Iran today looks like what throwing off the yoke of foreign influence looks like. So far it has only been going on half as long as the Guerra de los Ochenta Años took to free the Netherlands from Spanish Influence. Never mind the bloody legacy of Calvinism though. The traditional head of the European church launched the crusades and backed the long slog in the Iberian Peninsula. So long as the first reaction is to frame Iran in religious terms, the Mullahs are logically correct in their claims about the enemy without.
- oz_zyn 5y agoHere's a rough translation for anyone interested in the text in the article: The world of Colored pencils Going through the narrow alleys of the stationary bazaar, there's a name that's familiar to all and an address that's hacked on all the tradespeople's minds. If you're looking for colored pencils, everyone'll point you to Mr. Rafieh's shop. "It's been thirty years that I get my energy from setting up kids with their colored pencil box. At the moment I have one of the biggest collections of colored pencils.", he says. Beginner and professional painters alike come to him for recommendations on colored pencils. The rare old models from the west or the ones produced in the country, he has them all. Mr. Rafieh's colorful stall has been drawing the attention of passerby for many years now.
- hilbert42 5y agoThank you very much for that.
- dougSF70 5y agoThe humble pencil is truly an amazing invention. The Gutenberg press of writing instruments.
- ramesh31 5y agoIt fills me with a deep sorrow knowing that I will never be able to visit Iran as an American. I don't know if it's just the "forbidden fruit" aspect of it or not, but it's my number one bucket list destination.
- werber 5y agoI'm not sure what your situation is but I know Americans that have gone through an intermediate country
- ramesh31 5y ago>I'm not sure what your situation is but I know Americans that have gone through an intermediate country It's possible, sure. But the risk of arbitrary detention would make it impossible to enjoy. The state department currently lists Iran as "Level 4: Do not travel", and suggests you have a will in order if you do [0]. There was a brief moment towards the end of the Obama era where it seemed things may have been thawing, but with the Soleimani assassination I don't have much hope for the future in that regard. [0] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/iran-travel-advisory.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...
- brudgers 5y agoYou should have a will even if you stay home. And a living will in case you are vegetating and the plug needs to be pulled. Most people in Iran know there are a bunch of assholes running things there just like there are here. Daily life for most people there consists mostly of mundane things like colored pencils. Travel requires treating irrational fears as irrational. If you want to go, you can find a way. Your life will be different afterwards because that's what any travel does. The ways in which people change from travel is why Americans have been banned from Cuba for sixty years and Iran for forty.
- notsureaboutpg 5y agoWe call it arbitrary detention, but the reason they detain US citizens is frankly because the US is constantly assassinating Iranians (remember the scientist who was killed by a drone recently?) and they have no way of knowing who is a legit tourist and who has been sent by the US to spy on them and kill another of their citizens.
- lakecresva 5y agoHe was interviewed for a TV segment in 2018, seems like a cool guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJHIByLnGVo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJHIByLnGVo
- thinker403 5y agoTo anybody with a cynical view of Iran and its people I highly recommend watching this fairly recent documentary about a British guy riding a motorcycle through the country. The people seem like some of the most friendly in the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
- BeetleB 5y ago> To anybody with a cynical, narrow-minded view of Iran and its people I highly recommend ... Do you expect any reader of this comment to say to themselves "Ah, that's me!"?
- thinker403 5y agoI did not. But I see what you're saying and I edited it to make it more chill.
- xkcd-sucks 5y ago>To anybody with a cynical, narrow-minded view ABSOLUTELY >of Iran ...maybe not
- SyzygistSix 5y agoI am pretty aware that my viewpoints get shrouded and can benefit from a change of perspective. So yes, I admit that I am narrow-minded. It's why I like posts like this and loved National Geographic growing up; the feeling of realizing how narrow-minded and judgemental I can be getting dissolved by fascinating exposes and beautiful art and photography.
- foobarian 5y agoI'd be his regular customer if I lived there. The curation he provides is very valuable; I found this out over the past few years as we went through different brands of colored pencils. Even brands I remember from growing up as my favorite ones turn out to be so bad compared to the best I managed to find. The main two properties I found useful to look at is the color saturation and resistance to cracking of the lead, especially under sharpening. Some noname sets found randomly in clearance bins are so bad some of the colors could not be sharpened even once. Maybe I need a different kind of sharpener.
- IG_Semmelweiss 5y agoI fear that Mr. Rafieh's webstore is either going to feel the HN hug...or his web hosting bill may be quite high for the month.
- nazrulmum10 5y agoI saw the pencil shop collection. Its really amazing