Favorite Things

Rad and Hungry launches pencil sharing program

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

Have I mentioned how much I love Rad and Hungry? Yes, I think I have.

ROCO pencils, bought in Saudi Arabia. The first 10 people to sign up for the Pencil Pals program gets one of these!

They’re at it again, with a new pencil sharing program just announced a few minutes ago, called Pencil Pals. Hen, one of the driving forces behind RAH, filled me in on some details. It was inspired by writing to her long-time pen pal:

I got my first pen pal when I was in the 1st grade and believe it or not but we’re still in touch despite me growing up in Seattle and her in Rochester, NY. I love the concept of pen pals and basically, I wanna be the best pen pal in the world! I include a personal note with each kit and I really look forward to writing the letters. It’s fun for me to really connect with our customers/fans. I hate when I get a package from a friend with no note. It feels so empty. Like something is missing.

Basically, this is how the program works. You sign up at the Rad and Hungry website (check back here for a link), and you get a pencil or two in the mail. They ask that you share some love on your blog, or post a pic of it to their Facebook wall, or tweet it out. Also, send them an email to let them know you recieved it.

RAH will email you the mailing address of another pencil pal, and you’ll have the option of sending along the pencil you received, or a different one from your collection. They strongly encourage you to send a note as well, perhaps telling about yourself or about the pencil you’re sending them. It’s a great way to make a human connection.

As soon as you mail it out, you’re entered back into the queue to receive another pencil.

This sounds like a lot of fun. It reminds me a bit of the “member pencils” that members of the American Pencil Collector’s Society trade (Note to self: You’ve been a member since last summer! Go get yourself some member pencils!)

Hen isn’t just hawking office supplies, they’re selling a way of life, and fostering connections between cultures. Like I mentioned before, what is your boring, old big-box mart office supplies may be a treasure for someone else who doesn’t get that variety otherwise.

This program is just eliminating the purchasing needed for that connection. It’s a way for you to meet your fellow pencileers without spending more than a postage stamp or two.

Visit Rad and Hungry for more details. And if you’re among the first ten to sign up, you’ll receive one of these awesome pencils bought in Saudi Arabia pictured above!

The Palomino Blackwing 602

/ Andy Welfle / 9 Comments

Full disclosure: I do contract marketing work for CalCedar to promote Pencils.com and and the California Republic Stationers brand on social media. Though I am not being paid to write this post for Woodclinched (my personal blog), I’ll refrain from reviewing the performance of this pencil, past a few general statements about it.

So I was getting ready for work this morning; a dark gloomy day in Indiana, when my doorbell rang. It was the FedEx woman, she she was bringing me a package from Pencils.com! Suddenly, the sun came out, and the bird started singing!

Metaphorically, of course.

I opened it right up, and checked out the pencils. I didn’t have a lot of time to examine them, but I grabbed an original Eberhard Faber Blackwing from my desk drawer and one of the new Palomino Blackwing 602 pencils, and headed out the door.

Because Grant was kind enough to send me a pack of pink erasers, I popped one into the signature Blackwing ferrule, and took some side-by-side photos of the new 602 with the old.

So, without getting into details, it does indeed feel firmer than the Palomino Blackwing, but smooth and dark just the same. The real test will happen after Monday, when I’ll be in two or three meetings taking notes.

Here are a few pictures — as I’ve said many times, I’m not the best photographer out there, especially with something as hard to shoot as pencils.

Questions about the pencil? Leave ’em in the comments. Otherwise,  check out the product page on Pencils.com!

Rad and Hungry — office supplies for my generation

/ Andy Welfle / 4 Comments

I’ve been thinking about writing a little editorial about my generation (20- and 30-somethings) and the resurgence of “lo-fi” writing instruments for some time. But now may be a good time to touch on it.

 

Although I didn’t really use the computer regularly until I was a teenager, Ever since, I’ve lived much of my life online. In my current job, probably six of my eight hours each day are spent writing, designing, communicating, and researching using the computer. I have a feeling that most, if not all, of my eight hours per day in my new job will be that way, too.

And for all of the time we spent producing virtual words on a screen, I think the writers of my generation feel a need to mark a real mark on a real piece of paper: through typewriters, fountain pens, printing presses, and my favorite: pencils. 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 →

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.

Continue reading →