Author: Andy Welfle

Open Thread Tuesdays: Hex or Round? The Throwdown

/ Andy Welfle / 7 Comments

On other blogs that I’ve been part of, we’ve occasionally set aside a post every once in a while for discussion. I would love to get a dialog going between all of the online pencil bloggers, users, and collectors, because I think we can all benefit from sharing advice, tips, specific interests, etc.

So here goes: I’ll post a topic to get us started, and feel free to keep us on my topic, or start your own. No real guidelines, just keep it clean (as I know you will).

TOPIC: What shape of a pencil do you prefer? Round pencils or hexagonal? Why? Is it for comfort? Grip? Looks?

Gorgeous video of how printing ink is made

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

This blog, of course, is about wooden pencils, but I imagine you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who really likes pencils who doesn’t also like other writing paraphernalia, like paper, pens, typewriters, and ink.

I found this video at Apartment Therapy, a great home style blog. It’s about nine minutes long, so you might want to come back and watch it when you have a little time. But, I guarantee you, you’ll be riveted the whole time. The promotional video for the Printing Ink Company in Canada, it’s well-edited, doesn’t jump around from shot to shot like on How It’s Made, and — dare I say? — just beautiful. The founder and narrator is introspective, poetic, passionate, and there is bright, airy classical music behind it, romanticizing this busy, grimy manufacturing floor. It really shows the craftsmanship behind ink making.

Without further ado, check it out (or click here to watch it in georgeous HD on YouTube.):

Yikes! pencils: Graphite-filled emblems of the 1990s

/ Andy Welfle / 47 Comments

Like many bloggers in their late-twenties, I am proud to be a child of the 90s. I grew up on Nickelodeon, pump-up sneakers, beige Apple computers, Ecto-cooler Hi-C “juice”, and lots of bright, neon colors. And if, like me, you remember the 90s kid culture, you’ll probably remember this commercial from the Saturday morning cartoons:

That’s right. Yikes. I LOVED these pencils. It was a thrill for me every fall to go with my mom to K-Mart and buy school supplies, because she indulged me and let me get these colorful little sticks of fun. Just like the kid in the commercial, they were the opposite of boring. Everything about the design was crafted — from the contrasting (and often, conflicting) color scheme to the odd shapes, from the dyed wood to the bright rubber (and later, polymer) eraser.

And now, they have all but disappeared.

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Open Thread Tuesdays: User or Collector?

/ Andy Welfle / 2 Comments

On other blogs that I’ve been part of, we’ve occasionally set aside a post every once in a while for discussion. I would love to get a dialog going between all of the online pencil bloggers, users, and collectors, because I think we can all benefit from sharing advice, tips, specific interests, etc.

So here goes: I’ll post a topic to get us started, and feel free to keep us on my topic, or start your own. No real guidelines, just keep it clean (as I know you will).

Larry Derrenberger, of Elkhart, Ind. (my home state!). This image was part of an article about the annual American Pencil Collectors Society convention at Minnesota State University in 2006. Full article and photo credit here.

TOPIC: My interest in pencils started with using and reviewing pencils, new ones that were available in the consumer market. I still love them. However, I also delight in finding old, vintage pencils and those with advertising or slogans on the barrel. There seems to often be a schism between pencil “users”, and pencil “collectors“. Where do you find yourself, or are you a citizen of both worlds like me? Why?