On a recent trip to Manchester, I walked by a Pull & Bear shop. As far as I know, this chain is from Spain. I was quite surprised to see that all video screens in the shop and most printed posters displayed Faber-Castell pencils, specifically their Albrecht Dürer series in scharlachrot. Red = discounted prices, so it seems like a good choice. It’s nice to come across pencils in unexpected places.
There was also a German sharpener, but I am not sure which make it is so will not comment further.
Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer in scharlachrot
I came across even more pencils when my employer, a university, had a graduate show next to my canteen. There’s just something about pencils that represents so many different concepts, like creativity, ideas, … you get the (happy) feeling that pencils are here to stay for a bit longer, despite the ‘digitalisation’.
Like last year I found new special editions from Lamy in Shanghai, not available in the West.. This time it’s another Line Friends edition: LAMY BROWN The Black Edition.
The amazing aluminium container
The one comes in an amazing packaging: a thick-walled aluminium tube (with screw lid). I haven’t seen any packaging like this for a Pen before.
The Lamy Safari itself is the Matte type with the Line character’s name BROWN embossed in the cap.
The cardboard packaging that goes around the aluminium tube container
It also comes with a leather strap and metal buttons with browns face. The leather strap can be used to attach it to your belt, etc. The Lamy employee wore it around his neck.
The Safari with the leather strap, if worn as a necklace
In previous year’s people contacted me to ask whether I can get them the special edition, but I already left Shanghai at that time. To avoid this happening again I bought two of these special edition pens for interested readers. I hope I won’t regret this decision. If you are interested let me know as soon as possible by leaving a comment here or by emailing me (if you know my email address).
The price is £65 plus postage. The item is in the UK.
I will add this Special Edition to the list of Lamy Special Editions on stationery.wiki in a few days (if no one else has done it by then). That list contains (so far) 26 Special Editions of the Lamy Safari.
Line Friends are popular in East AsiaLine Friends are popular in East Asia
This blog had quite a few Wopex related blog posts over the years – and here’s the latest one: about the new generation of Wopex pencils. This is the third generation I know of, but there might have been more.
Previously… on Bleistift.blog
I got the sheet from the 2010 blog post out and added the new 2017 grades.
Just a quick reminder. Staedtler introduced the Wopex (pencil) in 2009 – it’s an extruded pencil and its body is made from a wood-plastic-composite (which consists of more wood than plastic). In 2010 Staedtler introduced the Wopex in 2B and 2H. I had a closer look at the 2B and 2H version in a 2010 blog post and couldn’t find much difference between the 2B, HB and 2H version. Fast forward to 2016. By now Staedtler is using the term Wopex only to describe the material used to make these pencils. Wopex is not used anymore as a name for the pencil itself – at least not by Staedtler. At the Insights X 2016, they had a few prototypes of the new ‘Wopex material’ Noris eco in 2H, H, HB, B and 2B. At the Insights X 2017, they showed the final product.
Close up of the 2010 vs. 2017 comparison
The new 2017 Noris eco
Looks
The design of the Noris eco is clearly inspired by Staedtler’s European staple pencil, the Noris, but like other Wopex material pencils, the surface of the extruded Noris eco feels rubberised. It is also eco-green, but has the same black stripe pattern as the yellow Noris or the red Tradition: The two opposing, labelled sides (let’s call them top and bottom) of this hexagonal pencil are black. The four sides (let’s call them the two right and the two left sides) are green with a think black stripe in between. I am mentioning this because some of the prototypes had a different pattern.
Unlike previous Wopex material pencils, the new Noris eco has a cap. It’s cool, man.
Great news. There’s a proper difference between the different grades in the new 2017 version. In terms of darkness and in terms of point retention. Compared to the Mars Lumograph in 2B, which is a very easy to erase pencil, the new Noris eco in 2B is more difficult to erase.
Eraser test – the bottom right square has been erased
If you see them in a shop I urge you to give them a try.
Today: Just something I want to show. Something I come across again and again on eBay UK and eBay Germany. I assume other countries are ‘affected’, too.
Whoever set up the stationery categories on eBay seems to think Lamy is a French word – L’Amy..
When I first came across this I thought this is another brand, but it’s really supposed to be our Lamy.
I guess German surnames don’t normally end with a -y, but Lamy is based in Heidelberg and my relatives form Heidelberg also have a surname ending with -y.
Since I got your attention: Something else I came across – in my computer’s app store.
There seem to be more and more apps aimed at bullet journal users – and they seem to get more and more expensive. I neither use bullet journalling, nor do I normally buy expensive apps [1]I’m not keen on the idea of getting used to an app and change the way I work only to discover the app has been cancelled and won’t be supported after an OS update. I guess even big … Continue reading ..but nevertheless, I find this an interesting development.
I’m not keen on the idea of getting used to an app and change the way I work only to discover the app has been cancelled and won’t be supported after an OS update. I guess even big companies are no guarantee an app will stay, small companies are even less of a guarantee. I remember moving from an mp3 player to an Android phone so that it’s easier to listen to podcasts, only for Google to cancel “Google Listen”, their podcast app. Or think of Pebble. Fitbit bought their intellectual property only, but the rest of the company went belly up, leaving customers in the rain.
I came across even more pencils when my employer, a university, had a graduate show next to my canteen. There’s just something about pencils that represents so many different concepts, like creativity, ideas, … you get the (happy) feeling that pencils are here to stay for a bit longer, despite the ‘digitalisation’.
