Review by Tina Koyama Whenever I see colored leads for mechanical pencils, I have a two-fold reaction: The first is to feel tingly with anticipation as I always do about any colored pencil I haven’t (yet) tried. This feeling is almost immediately followed by skepticism, which is an annoying but realistic buzz-kill. I’ve tried many…
Review by Tina Koyama In addition to high-end, limited-edition, collectible pencils, Blackwing makes a few unique pencil accessories, including the Blackwing Point Guard ($10 each). Available in matte black, gold, silver, and a set of one of each color, the point guard is made in Taiwan of lightweight, machined aluminum. I chose matte black to…
I visited Wonder Fair in Lawrence, KS this weekend and was delighted to find the new Zebra Zensations 2mm mechanical colored pencils. Wonder Fair stocks the set of 12 ($11.76) as well as individual pencils ($0.90 each). The cost for these softly-rounded triangular, plastic, click-advance colored pencils was too good to pass up. I know…
Review by Tina Koyama Ana is not the only one who has a thing for multi pens! I’ve acquired more than my share over the years. For this review, I picked out a few with unique or noteworthy features: The Pilot Hi-Tec C Coleto 1000 ($13.50 for body; $4.50 for eraser component; $3 for graphite…
Do you know the joy of finding a paper tube printed to look like a pencil in your mail box? Sheer and complete bliss. The tube is the new Musgrave Heritage Collection “one dozen of our favorite pencils” ($12.75). Inside the pencil tube, is an assortment of Musgrave classics like the The Bugle and the…
Review by Tina Koyama Back in the day, graphic designers and printers used “non-photo blue” pencils. Certain shades of blue that could not be detected by camera film (or copy machines), so rough drawing lines or notations could be left on the art and would not appear in the final form. Modern scanners can see…
Review by Tina Koyama Once I grabbed onto the Caran d’Ache Klein Blue Maxi pencil, the slope became slippery. I had already had my eye on the Klein Blue Fixpencil ($52), which I had resisted for a while . . . until I realized that it came with Klein Blue leads! And the leads are…
