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Woodchuck here, reporting from the Frankfurt Paperworld show in Germany. Paperworld Frankfurt is Europe’s premier tradeshow for Writing Instruments, Stationary, School, Home, Office & Art Supply Products and is held at the end of January each year.
My pick for this year’s big hits when it comes to innovative new pencil products are two new items both by Lyra based in Nürnburg.
The first item is the Lyra Groove which has also been honored by Paperworld as the Product of the Year for School and Personal Use. The groove consists of a series of Jumbo size triangular color pencils with a row of round grooves cut out of the three sides of each pencil. Lyra’s marketing pitch for this item states the Groove “effortlessly shows children how to position their fingers when learning to draw or write. The grooves are offset ergonomically so that all the fingers involved come to rest just where they ought to be. Shown here are pencils from their 5 color set.
Next and even more interesting and innovative from my personal view is the new Lyra Colorstripe. These sleek mini jumbo size triangular color pencils have a larger rectangular lead that is exposed along the full length of one of the three corners of the pencil. Attractively set in dark black-stained wood the colors really chine out. Available in these pencils allow a fine point to be drawn or the use of a broader side face of the leads for shading greater areas. A thin clear lacquer coat safeguards the color lead exposed along the corner edge until the pencil is sharpened back. The 8 color box set shown here includes a sharpener designed for the Colorstripe pencils.
As I reported here in my Timberlines blog last August Lyra was purchased by Fila Group where I discussed the opportunities and challenges presented by this German-Italian marriage. We’ll my kudos are out to both companies for these innovative new items which I am sure will both be home run products for them over the next year.
See my full report on pencil industry trends and news from Frankfurt Paperworld 2009 at myTimberlines Blog here.
Frankfurt's Paperworld Looks Amazing!
This morning, in an effort to procrastinate a bit, I decided to check out what I've been avoiding for the last week, the Frankfurt Paperworld Show. Now Im in the states and can barely understand German and what little Katakana I used to understand is long forgotten, so it's rather difficult to understand the few clues and tidbits I've come across thanks to WoodChuck, PencilTalk.org, Lexikaliker (Germany) and Stationary from Bundoki's Japanese blog. But luckily they've got pictures!
Oh, all those wonderful new products to tempt those of you like myself. Lexikaliker has a photo of a new futuristic table top manual (?) pencil sharpener by Westcott that really pops out at a person because it's shell is clear. You can now see all the mechanical doodads and geegaws chomping away the wood and lead of your pencils. I love being able to watch things do their thing and this is a must for the avid pencilier. There's also a new pencil, other than the beautiful new Lyra Groove, that would go perfect with this sharpener made by Staedtler, the new Wopex (Short for Wood Pencil Extrusion) which is extruded from lead wood and some mystical finishing coat pellets. Okay the lead and coating pellets I can grasp because they can be manipulated chemically and mechanically but wood? Maybe if it's a compressed saw dust composite of some sort. Let's ask WookChuck about this one. Unfortunately, the Wopex, from what little I could gather, isn't going to be available until the end of the year:(
Then I came across possibly the most wonderful pencil accessory of all, to me at least. On Stationary of Bundoki's blog of the Frankfurt Paperworld Show there was one picture that really pulled at my heart and wallet strings. It was of a blue and black Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil that looked like it might actually be had for less than the Perfect Pencil 9000, Faber-Castell's most user friendly and affordable Perfect Pencil so far. If my thinking on this new offering is true then every Palomino, and other pencil, I have shall soon be protected in one of these new offerings as I am utterly brutal on my pencils when working in my workshop and they need all the protection they can get, as well as constant sharpening.
The best thing about the Frankfurt Paperworld show to me is that since there is so little information, and photographs, for us pencil addicts to go on that I was inspired to start designing my own pencil accessories as a result. Now I don't have access to things like plastic extruders, and while I have been known to make a knife or two something as small as a pencil sharpener blade is beyond my skills, but I do have leather and wood scraps galore. So thanks to all the blogs and write ups from those fortunate enough to make it to the Paperworld show, like WoodChuck from here at Pencils.com, I designed a few of the types of products I would like to see offered, supple leather pencil rollups for my Palomino's and other pencils, simple wooden pencil point protector sculptures and display stand combo's as we all want to show off our most prized pencils and pencil holder/display stands for the desk.
I'm sure that some of you have noticed that there are many accessories for pencils but usually they are for many pencils 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 to be exact. What about those of us who only tend to use 1 to 6 pencils most of the time? We need protective products for our beloved pencils too. So that is why my Frankfurt Paperworld inspired pencil acessories are designed for those of us who only need or prefer to carry 1-6 pencils most of the time.
So grab up your scraps of cloth wood and leather, or any other materials you have lying around, and see what you can come up with to protect and show off your most favorite pencils. Maybe you could even show them to the rest of us here on Pencils.com?
So for a few of us school
So for a few of us school and art supplies really are the best gifts as they help inspire and spark the imagination. You should see all the great things a gift of Palominos can help to inspire.
regards,
I Love It!
I too love the blue and black Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. It's their most user friendly and affordable Perfect Pencil so far. Hands down. I use it every day running my home business. If only all pencils were made this nice :-)
re:
I would like to see offered, supple leather pencil rollups for my Palomino's and other pencils, simple wooden pencil point protector sculptures and display stand combo's as we all want to show off our most prized pencils and pencil holder/display stands for the desk.
I love the blue and black
I love the blue and black Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil as well.