pencil case Archives

More recycled stationery

6 Comments / Pencil cases, Pencils / 11 July 2012 / Made in Great Britain, Martin Mere, pencil, pencil case, recycled, Remarkable

I found another one of the previously mentioned recycled pencils. This time in the souvenir shop of Martin Mere, a wetland nature reserve. The price was the same as what I paid at the Lancashire Science Festival: 50p (~ 78¢; 63c). Suffice to say that this one isn’t any better than the ones previously shown in this blog. As Kevin wrote in a comment, these pencils are not only not eco, but even anti-eco as they are pretty unusable when it comes to writing with them. A scorched piece of wood writes better than this pencil… This didn’t stop this pencil and the company behind it receiving several awards for it. Oh, well, at least their other, newer products look exciting, like their Saponite pencil holder.

I also bought another recycled item I have previously seen in different shops for quite a while now ^[1]This pencil case must have been available in Sainsbury’s, maybe also in other supermarkets, for at least five years now.: a pencil case made from recycled car tyres. That’s definitely a better use for those old tyres than the horrible pencil made from recycled car tyres shown in another blog post. This pencil case is flexible, only smells a little bit like tyres and is nice to hold, even though it feels a bit wet and oily. I hope the material doesn’t get porous over time, but we’ll see. The case was £4.99 (~ $7.76; €6.33). You can get these slightly cheaper online – in some places these cases cost £4 each or less.

Prices and exchange rates: July 2012

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References
↑1	This pencil case must have been available in Sainsbury’s, maybe also in other supermarkets, for at least five years now.

Pencil cases from Delvaux and Rheita

8 Comments / Delvaux, Pencil cases, Rheita / 28 August 2010 / Belgian, Delvaux, German, pencil case, Rheita, Rheita-Krautkrämer

Delvaux shop in the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert

Over the past few weeks I have written posts about two different pencil cases: the Sonnenleder pencil case Berit and the Eberhard Faber Lederetui. Both are made from leather and price-wise both are somewhere in the middle (Berit: €36 / $45 / £29, Lederetui: €15 / $19 / £12). Today I want show what pencil cases are available at the more extreme ends of the price scale.

I have seen the expensive one I want to present today, the Prisme pencil case from Delvaux, in the posh Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert in Brussels …on a recent trip to Belgium. Delvaux was founded in 1829 in Brussels and describes itself as ‘the oldest fine leather luxury goods company in the world’. This pencil case is available in two colours and will set you back € 140 (~$177, ~£115) …but you will own a pencil case with (the following is taken from their web site) a triangular profile that is pale Basane leather lined and has a double pen holder in leather stitched to the base. Furthermore the brass accessories have a a brushed palladium or brushed gilded finish.

In case you wonder… I did not buy one 🙂

On the other end of the spectrum we have cheap pencil cases, pre-filled with pencils, for children. On my last trip to Germany I saw that most of them sell for about €3 (~$3.80, ~£2.50). If you pay a bit less than €3 you can get a no name pencil case filled with ruler, eraser and lots of no name pencils. If you spent a few cents more you can get a much better one, like this 50 piece pencil case (article number 406-0) from Rheita, which I bought for less than €3.50. It includes colour pencils, rulers, an eraser, paper clips, a sharpener and ink cartridges (in Bavarian schools, possibly even in all German schools, children have to use fountain pens).

Compared to other German stationery companies Rheita, or Rheita-Krautkrämer, is one of the young’uns. Rheita’s history started in 1948, when the brothers Oswald and Fridolin Krautkrämer established “Rheingold-Tafel”, a company with more than 100 employees, manufacturing school writing slates made from slate and wood. The headquarters were near the river Rhein, hence the name. The company was later renamed Rhein-Tafel, which became RHEI-TA.

Prices: Delvaux – April 2010, Rheita – August 2010
Exchanges rates: August 2010

Sonnenleder pencil case

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Sonnenleder pencil case Berit

17 Comments / Pencil cases, Sonnenleder / 22 June 2010 / Made in Hungary, pencil case, Sonnenleder

Today you will get to know my pencil case. I only bought it recently, beginning of April this year, but it is my favourite pencil case so far. I bought it after having used another pen case from the same company for over a year (pictured in the background) and being extremely satisfied with it.

This case, called Berit, is one of many Sonnenleder pencil cases available and is made from cow leather. The leather is tanned using traditional, herbal methods and the cows came from the Allgäu region at the foot of the Alps (I used to go to the Allgäu region in winter). I bought the new pencil case in a small book shop after contacting the manufacturer, Sonnenleder, who gave me the address of this book shop. When I asked about shops that sell their products they also told me that they would ship to me free of shipping costs, because there are no shops near Preston, where I live. I was positively surprised about this because I live in the UK, but they are based in Germany. I assume they will send their products free of charge within Europe, maybe world-wide if there is no shop selling their products nearby, but I have not confirmed this.

The material used is really fantastic. Not only the leather, also the metal zip. The craftsmanship is excellent, too. Unfortunately the case is not exactly cheap. The Sonnenleder cases were actually quite cheap in the past. I bought my first one from Manufactum, but the £/€ exchange rate has changed a lot since then ..it dropped by about 30% and is only slowly recovering. If the exchange rate gets better again I am sure I will buy a third pen case 🙂

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