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While performing a search for pencils, it’s hard to not notice the “This site may be compromised” warning that Google displays in the pencils.com listing:

Though I imagined for a moment that Google might be judging the pencils.com marketing practices, the notice is merely about a possible malware infection.

Viarco, a small traditional pencil manufacturer in Portugal, continues to innovate.

The ArtGraf pencils are a pair of 22cm black and white pencils. The matte black finished “Soft Black” is a carbon based pencil, while the glossy white finished “Water-Soluble” is, as the name states, a water soluble pencil.

The format and presentation are unique and compelling, yet modest. Pencils of this dimension are truly unusual (a standard pencil is about 17.5cm) , and the combination of the two artist specialty formulas results in a very nice product.

The specific formulas may be a matter of prefence (I found the Caran d’Ache water soluble pencils easier to use as a beginner), but it is hard to imagine than anyone who likes graphite based artistic media would not be impressed by a gift of ArtGraf pencils.

The Mitsubishi NanoDia pencil is supposed to be something special. The graphite is claimed to benefit from some important and noteworthy quality advances.

The line was announced in 2008, and started with mechanical pencils refills; woodcase pencils were introduced a couple of years later. The features of note include strength and density.

Now considering this matter, I’ve been wondering just how a major pencil manufacturer introduces product improvements. Paint or wood improvements are probably simple enough to introduce, and won’t likely disrupt the user base, but a change to a graphite formula could cause problems. A key differentiator of the top global pencil lines – the Hi-Uni, the Mono 100, the Castell 9000, or the Mars Lumograph 100 – is that they remain the same high quality product, and perform the same way, year after year, decade after decade. That they remain absolutely reliable and stable as tools for artists is a main selling point over readily available and less expensive alternatives.

So how then, does an improvement get introduced? Well, perhaps it depends on what the feature is – if the strength of a lead core can be improved without changing other pencil characteristics, then that feature could possibly be integrated with the main pencil line. But any feature that changes the feel of the lead on paper, or the blackness or luminescence of the line, or the known chemistry between the graphite and paper, probably has to be directed elsewhere. And perhaps even making the lead stronger might be seen as too much change to a formula.

So if Mitsubishi did find a way to make a graphite core denser and smoother, one can see that they may have had a problem on the matter of what to do with their discovery. An established line can’t just be altered. So the features went into a new product – the NanoDia.

NanoDia? Nanoscopic diamonds? Well, graphite molecules are no doubt the cousins of diamonds in the carbon family.

The pencils look like (and are labelled as) a product for children. So what about the scientific advances said to be in the formula? Shouldn’t this be a product in Mitsubishi’s premier Uni range? Here I am lost – if the product is what it claims to be, why is it priced and packaged as a lower end item?

So regarding the pencils – they come in B and 2B grades, and a choice of green, pink, or blue finishes. They are hexagonal with unfinished ends. I bought a box of the 2B with the blue finish.

The pencil does leave a notably dense, rich, black line. I like it, but am undecided about the appearance.

turn it is a wooden top whose axis is a woodcase pencil.

The packaging tells me that the design is by Miguel Soeiro and was produced by ESAD.CR and Viarco.

This is a short video showing the top in action. Depending on your browser, it will open inline in a new window, or download as an .mp4 file:

That was with minimal spin. You can get much more “air time” with practice, and the patterns left by the pencil also become quite intriguing:

I’m sure a crafty person could build something like this on their own. Do you like it?

Longtime readers may recall a 2010 post mentioning some very tiny pencils.

Matthias of Bleistift also received a few of these from Sean, and seeing my post, took pity on me and kindly redirected a few spares my way.

More recently, I learned of the limited edition (I have box no. 296) World Press Cartoon pencil.

Here they are:

The blue pencil is meant to fill out J. C. Penney surveys, and the purple (and hexagonal) pencil is a souvenir from an international cartoonist conference, and was made by Viarco of Portugal.

With a regular pencil for contrast:

I remain amazed that pencils can be manufactured at this scale. Have you encountered pencils like this?

This is the season when we celebrate the harvest. My friends in the US just celebrated Thanksgiving – a holiday which is also celebrated in Canada, though in October. Of course, many countries and regions have their own versions of harvest festivals.

A fond childhood memory for me was the annual fall trip to Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, an event I’ve continued to attend as an adult. They just wrapped up their 88th season.

A particular treat of such an event is seeing less common varieties and breeds of livestock. The preservation of these animals is championed by organizations such as Rare Breeds Canada and their international counterparts.

When Ivy Press contacted me, I was delighted to learn about about the theme of their notecards and other products – less common and endangered breeds of farm animals. They kindly sent me samples of their Beautiful Pigs and Beautiful Sheep notecards.

There is no exaggeration – the products are beautiful. Each item is a boxed set of twenty notecards and twenty envelopes. Each box has four different portraits – five cards each. The pigs were photographed by Andrew Perris, and the sheep by Paul Farnham. The boxes themselves are very sturdy and attractive, and I can’t imagine throwing them out when the cards are gone.

The boxes:

The cards:

Among the sheep, I especially like the Suffolk yearling:

Less familiar but incredibly captivating is the image of the Blonde Mangalitza boar, a native of Hungary:

To me, the theme and photos are very appealing. Though they don’t (as far as I know) sell at retail in Canada, the list price of £8.99 for 20 cards plus envelopes is very good value based on the quality and originality of the product.

Photos of a couple of other sets:

The first and last two photos are official photos from the Ivy Press, and copyrighted by them.