About Harlow Quill

I spent eleven years as a mechanical engineer out of Perth, mostly working on tolerance specs for mining equipment suppliers in the Pilbara. The job trained me to ask one question before anything else: why does this keep failing the same way? That habit followed me home. I kept notebooks the way most engineers do, one for site notes, one for sketches, one for calculations, and every single one of them bled through, buckled, or fell apart at the spine inside six months. I complained about it for years before I finally sat down and started pulling apart the problem properly, the same way I would have approached a component fault at work.

Before Harlow Quill existed, I was making journals for myself on a fold-out table in the spare room of a rental in Osborne Park. I bought a small guillotine off Gumtree for $85, sourced 120gsm paper from a paper merchant in Welshpool, and spent about four months building jigs to get consistent spine widths. My husband thought I was going through a phase. I did roughly 40 bindings before I landed on a method that held under real use, meaning dropped on concrete, shoved in a work bag, carried in the rain from a car park. I gave six of them to colleagues. Three came back asking where to buy one.

— Built to last, not to impress. — Rachael, Rachael Louise Wheeler

Our team

• Brigitte Tan — Fulfilment and Inventory Coordinator: Brigitte came on board in mid-2022 after spending three years running the stockroom for a wholesale stationery distributor based in Hindmarsh, Adelaide. She manages pick-and-pack operations out of the Goolwa workshop, tracks stock levels across both direct and wholesale channels, and built the reorder spreadsheet system that keeps Rachael from running out of paper mid-batch. She lives in Port Elliot and cycles to the workshop most mornings.
• Desmond Okafor — Online Store and Customer Accounts: Desmond joined Harlow Quill in January 2023 after relocating from Brisbane to Goolwa with his partner, who works at the Currency Creek Arboretum. He handles the Shopify back end, processes customer enquiries, and manages the wholesale account portal for the brand's South Australian and Victorian stockists. Before moving, he spent four years doing e-commerce operations for a small homewares brand in Fortitude Valley and knows his way around a fulfilment problem without needing it explained twice.
• Nora Vukovic — Product Development and Quality Checking: Nora studied industrial design at the University of South Australia in Adelaide and reached out to Rachael in 2023 after seeing a Harlow Quill journal at the Willunga Farmers Market. She assists with new product testing, documents tolerances for each batch run, and runs the quality checks before stock is handed to Brigitte for fulfilment. She is the only other person in the business Rachael trusts to use the guillotine unsupervised.

Frequently asked questions

How long will my order take to arrive?

Standard shipping takes 3–8 business days depending on your location. Express orders placed before 2pm AEST Monday–Friday typically arrive within 1–3 business days. Remote and regional areas may take a little longer.

Do you offer free shipping?

Yes. Orders over $75 AUD qualify for free standard shipping Australia-wide. The discount is applied automatically at checkout — no code needed.

Can I return a product if I change my mind?

We accept change-of-mind returns within 30 days of delivery, provided the item is unused and in its original packaging. Return postage is at your cost for change-of-mind returns. Faulty or damaged items are handled separately under Australian Consumer Law.

Do any of your products contain allergens or irritants?

The Brushstroke Watercolour Pencil Set and Precision Fineline Pens contain pigment-based inks and wax compounds. If you have known sensitivities to these materials, check the product packaging insert before use. Our paper and cardstock products are ink-free and contain no known allergens.

What paper weight are the journals and cardstock?

The Harlow Signature Hardbound Journal uses 120gsm dotted pages, which handles light watercolour washes and most fineliner pens without significant bleed-through. The Karton Recycled Cardstock Bundle is 250gsm A4 — solid enough for mixed media and card-making projects.

Do you offer custom or personalised products?

Not at this stage. We don't offer custom embossing, monogramming, or made-to-order orders right now. If that changes, we'll announce it via our newsletter first.

Do you sell wholesale?

Yes, we work with a small number of independent retailers and gift shops. Send your business details and estimated order volumes to wholesale@harlowquill.com and Rachael will get back to you within 3–5 business days.

Do you offer gift wrapping?

Yes. Gift wrapping is available at checkout for $4.95 per order. We use recycled kraft paper and include a small card if you'd like to add a message — just enter it in the gift note field.

Customer reviews

• 5/5 “Exactly what I was after” Ordered the Harlow Signature Hardbound Journal on a Tuesday and it showed up Thursday — faster than I expected for Sydney. The 120gsm paper handles my Micron pens without any bleed-through, which was my main concern. Really pleased with how solid the binding feels.
• 4/5 “Good pencils, minor gripe” The Flex-Grip Mechanical Pencil Set is well-built and both sizes write smoothly. My only gripe is the packaging could be a bit sturdier — one of the lead tubes had rattled open in transit, though no leads were missing. Would still buy again.
• 5/5 “The watercolour pencils are brilliant” I've gone through a few different brands and the Brushstroke Watercolour Pencil Set is genuinely one of the better options at this price point. The colours blend well when wet and the 24-shade range covers most of what I need for botanical illustration. Arrived well-packaged with no breakage.
• 4/5 “Solid cardstock, good value” The Karton Recycled Cardstock Bundle is exactly what it says — 100 sheets of sturdy 250gsm card in a decent colour mix. Shipping to WA took about six business days on standard, which is fair enough. A few sheets had minor edge scuffs but nothing that affected use.
• 5/5 “Great pens for the price” I picked up the Precision Fineline Pen Collection as a backup set and ended up liking them more than my usual brand. The 0.4mm tip is consistent and hasn't skipped on me yet after a few weeks of daily use. Fast dispatch and they arrived in good condition.
• 5/5 “Beautiful journal, great paper” Bought the A5 dotted journal after seeing it recommended in a journalling group. The cover is firm and the pages lie reasonably flat when open. I use a brush pen on it and there's minimal ghosting on the reverse side, which is impressive for dotted paper.

From the journal

• Six months finding paper that actually holds ink — I went through eleven paper samples before I found one that didn't bleed under a 0.4mm fineline, and it nearly broke me.
• What happens when watercolour pencils meet recycled cardstock — The Karton cardstock behaves completely differently to smooth stock under wet media, and once you understand why, it's actually more interesting.
• The binding jig I built in the shed last winter — I was getting a 2mm variance in spine alignment across batches, which sounds small until you try to close the journal and it doesn't sit flat.
• Summer on the Fleurieu and what I actually drew — January in Goolwa is hot and slow in a way that makes you want to sit outside with a pencil and not think too hard about anything.
• How I found the cardstock supplier I actually trust — Three suppliers, eight sample packs, and one very useful conversation with a printer in Port Adelaide who told me what to actually ask for.