Would you make pencils from Grandma?

According to this post at Mark Ecko's blog, designer Nadine Jarvis is working on a project that turns the cremated remains of your loved one into a large set of pencils (240).  You get one pencil at a time and sharpen the pencils into the container so that you keep some semblance of "ashes" to keep once it's all done.
 Your loved one's name  is stamped into the side of each pencil along with the start and end dates that you'd see on a headstone.

Here's the original post http://www.beingmarcecko.com/blog/2008/11/10/carbon-copy-rip.html

So what do you think, creepy or cool?

I just want to make sure I'm made into a nice 4B...

Video review of Neko Heavy Industries vintage paper notebook

Check out this great video review by Patrick over at Capitalist Bastards of the Neko Heavy Industries vintage paper pocket size sketchbook / notebook.



The single handed camera work kept making me afraid that he was going to drop it but thankfully any dropping was just the websites where you can buy them.

Solidly built and swanky cool books and a great review.

Great review of Neko Heavy Industries sketchbooks posted at Pencil Revolution

These sketchbooks are built like a tank wrapped in a silk glove.   Hand made, acid free and durable.
Check out the thorough review by the awesome editor over at Pencil Revolution.

Books available at www.neko2.etsy.com  and www.sketchbookcentral.com

California Cedar to offer Private Label

If you've ever tried a Republic of California Palomino pencil, you understand how exciting this is.
If you haven't then you owe it to yourself to order up a dozen.  Weather it's the original Palomino or new Blackwing, lovers of smooth dark high quality pencils will find these to be the new high water mark in your collection.

The original Palomino pencil

So with the news that they will be offering a private label option soon, I'm hoping to see more high quality private label pencils.  There used to be a time when companies and organizations wanted to make sure that their name only appeared on the best quality pencils and pens for fear of customers association of a poor quality writing instrument with the overall quality of their product or service.  More recently it seems that cost has won out over quality especially with many domestic companies no longer offering it as a service.

Preliminary private label concepts from CalCedar

My hope is that , if nothing else, this will remind casual users that pencils can be such a simple luxury and they don't have to be scratchy and poorly made.   I would love to see General and Musgrave get on board with this concept as well.

http://www.pencils.com/private-label-coming-soon

(I might also be looking to get a run of Sketchbook Central pencils run depending on the cost...)

What do you think, would your company benefit from these?

Happy Birthday Dave!

Daves mechanical pencils just turned five.  It's a great site for pencil geeks like me and a good resource for mechanical pencil reviews.

Here's hoping for many more!

Awesome tiny sculptures on the tip of pencils

See more at oddstuff magazine

I have a hard time just freehand sharpening pencils at times, doing something like this is just amazing.

It's so great to see the humble pencil used to create art in a way that keeps it in the spotlight.

New sketchbooks available

I finally have photos of (most) all of the book covers available for sketchbook orders.

Once I can get the hosting company to let me back into my website I'll begin to place them up for order. Until then you can contact me to order one.




Just in case you're unfamiliar with my sketchbooks, they're made with smooth, thick acid free paper, card stock or a combination. They are bound with aircraft steel cable coated with nylon and utilizing a ball & socket closure so you can easily open and close the bind to remove and replace pages easily. This allows you to copy, scan or color pages without the usual hassle from a permanent bound sketchbook.
The binding holes are reinforced with brass grommets and the entire book is held closed with an elastic strap that can also be positioned to hold the book open and keep pages from fluttering around outdoors.
I also include a re-positionable bleed-proof sheet that can be placed behind the current page to prevent marker, heavy ink or paint from bleeding through to the next page.
I make each book by hand using the finest materials that I can find and using American made components to the greatest extent possible.

I believe these to be the finest sketchbooks available and stand behind the quality, craftsmanship and functionality of each one.

Drop me a note if you have any questions or would like to order one.