Discovery

Calendar pencils

/ Andy Welfle / 4 Comments

I’m not a one-pencil kinda guy. I have at least a half-dozen kinds sitting on my desk top right now, and several more dozen in the drawer. I know that pencils last a long time, but I just can’t commit to that.

That being said, this is really cool:

Mytton Williams Design came up with this concept a while ago. You get 12 pencils, and you count off the days by sharpening down to the next number on the list. So it looks like once you reach the 27th of the month, you hand starts to cramp from clutching an inch of wood. Continue reading →

Rad and Hungry: For all you former Pencil-of-the-Month subscribers out there

/ Andy Welfle / 13 Comments

Colombian pencils offered by Rad & Hungry

One of the great things about running a specialty blog like this is that if someone is interested enough in something to Google it, chances are they’ll see your site. Big, venerable pencil blogs like Pencil Revolution, Pencil Talk, and others are certainly going to come up before a young upstart like mine, but if a Googler really wants to read about pencils, chances are, they’ll see me (hi, guys!). There just aren’t that many of us out there, compared to, say, Apple blogs or life-hacking blogs.

That’s why I was super excited when I got an email from Hen Chung the other day. She is a traveler, a scribomechanist (lover of writing/office supplies), and entrepreneur. And she has a new business called Rad & Hungry. Continue reading →

Cool Yikes! accessories on eBay

/ Andy Welfle / 5 Comments

Photo from eBay auction page

Man. Man oh man. There is a beautiful Yikes! branded pencil sharpener on eBay right now. Though there are only 3 days left, there are no bids! The last thing I should be doing is bidding on it, as I don’t need a $10-quality pencil sharpener for $20 (or way more). But it would look great next to my collection of Yikes! pencils, wouldn’t it?

Photo from auction page

As I mentioned in my post about Yikes! pencils, the sharpeners seem to be pretty darn rare to find. The seller also has an auction for a couple wacky Yikes! branded erasers, still in their blister packaging. I actually don’t remember these from my youth, so I am loving the language from the back of the package that the seller posted:

Spend more time erasing than writing?  Here’s just what you need—a true triple-whammy of primo mistake-munchers in color combinations from your worst nightmares.

Tow away your worst word wrecks with WRECK-TANGULAR erasers.  Go ape for the shape of TRIANGULAR erasers.  Get your hand on something that’s totally TWISTED.

Now all three are together in YIKES! Mondo-Combo Eraserama.  But use with caution—with color clashes this loud, you could put an ear out.

I wonder how long these items have been sitting in the back of someone’s supply closet?

UPDATE: Ooh! It looks like there is another, alternately colored sharpener, too! This one looks like it must’ve been the option for girls, as there is more pink and purple involved.

Extended Field Notes Letterpress Footage

/ Andy Welfle / 1 Comment

I think me and the Coudal Partners are soulmates. They always know exactly what I like to see. Last month, I posted the video they made about the assembly of the Raven’s Wing black Field Notes packs, and today, they published a 7-minute long video about the guy who runs the presses:

As I’ve said many times before, I love this stuff. Dan from Freeport Press is someone who knows his letterpressing, and it’s clear that he takes a lot of pride in his work. I think it definitely shows in the product.

If you have seven minutes to spare, check it out. If you don’t — well, come back and watch it later!

Ben Cohen’s Halloween Candy Hierarchy

/ Andy Welfle / 3 Comments

I saw on BoingBoing the other day, and then later on Pencil Revolution‘s blog, this handy chart outlining the Halloween Candy Hierarchy.

You’ll note that pencils fall on not only the lowest tier, but the “Tier so low it does not register on our equipment.”

Pencil Revolution noted,

I love candy as much as the next Comrade (and have the love handles to prove it), but this comment makes me almost sad.  I’d love to get pencils for Halloween.  Anyone giving the youngins pencils this year?

I bet these cheap things are a dime-a-dozen, if that, and will fall apart in the pencil sharpener.

I can see the commenter’s point, but I have a feeling he chose the wrong pencil. I really dislike those pencils that have holiday-themed designs shrink wrapped onto the barrel. It’s cheap, lazy, shoddy construction. When you try to sharpen it, the plastic starts to unravel, and often jams your sharpener.

Maybe we should hand out Blackwings? That’s kind of a scary, Halloween name: Blackwing. Or maybe we could get CalCedar to rebrand a Blackwing as “Batwing” for Halloween. (-:

In any case (wooden or otherwise), happy Halloween!