Mrs Weasel's Blog - ♥ pencils ♥ [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
Power from the needle to the plastic

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♥ pencils ♥ [Sep. 26th, 2008|12:04 pm]
[feeling | happy]

Wow! How exciting are pencils?

We’re all very excited about pencils here, especially the Cumbrian Pencil Museum - has anyone been? Does anyone live nearby and could go there for me and convey that excitement back to LJ?

Wiki has interesting things to say about pencils.

A good pencil is one of the most satisfying things in the world. And a scratchy one is miserable, as is being unable to find a pencil sharpener. Pencils with erasers that don’t erase can lead to years of misery.

Things written in pencil are so ephemeral, thoughts passing through, not designed to be preserved or kept. A good pencil makes a wonderful sound on the paper. Writing with a soft pencil on greaseproof paper is one of the greatest experiences one can have.

New stationary is the best thing about a new school term.

When I was 4, the best thing about school was the big old fashioned metal pencil sharpener on the teacher’s desk. It was like a massive electric meat grinder and the prospect of using that was enough to motivate an entire class to write and draw and use up their pencils as fast as possible. Then you could go up there, stick your pencil in and feel the vibrating hum as it magically transformed the mangy stump into a clean new point.

Sharpening Kohl pencils is very difficult and messy. Well I think it is, It’s a recipe for make-up bag grot. Sharpening a pencil where the point has gone wonky and returning it to it’s natural shape is a satisfying art. Sharpening pencils that aren’t round is thrilling.

I love how pencils don’t really belong to anyone. They’re nomadic. Most people have an unintentional collection of pencils which makes those collections far more exciting than a deliberate collection.

Nobody ever finished a pencil or threw one away and they keep making them, yet we’re not wading through them in the streets. I don’t really understand that.

Some people use pencils in their jobs, like builders who hang their ears from them, like tapestries on a wall. And way back when I was very young, I used to record the arrival of a new periodical in the library with a sharp pencil in a big ledger book made from smelly old leather.

I want to take photos of my pencils now.
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]sera_squeak
2008-09-26 11:06 am (UTC)

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The pencil museum has the world's biggest pencil in it.
I'm not sure who could write with it though...
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:45 pm (UTC)

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A giant! Is it very impressive?
[User Picture]From: [info]sera_squeak
2008-09-29 07:42 am (UTC)

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It's quite large... It takes up quite a bit of the museum.
[User Picture]From: [info]ihavecake
2008-09-26 11:11 am (UTC)

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The most satisfying way of sharpening a pencil is whittling it yourself using a blunt penknife.
[User Picture]From: [info]pesky33
2008-09-26 02:42 pm (UTC)

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IAWTC
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:46 pm (UTC)

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This sounds terribly dangerous! I thought whittling was for flutes and little wooden unidentifiable animals?
[User Picture]From: [info]claire_wain
2008-09-26 11:11 am (UTC)

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Oh god, I LOVE PENCILS. Is that weird?

I have more pencils than I will ever possibly be able to use, and yet I covet more every time I go into an art shop. My two most recently-exciting pencils are a charcoal pencil, which is brilliant because it means I never have to touch the squeaky disgusting creepy charcoal, and a pencil eraser, which looks like a pencil, but the bit down the middle of the wood is actually a rubber! It's like the anti-pencil!

I love all pencils, from big soft shiny graphite sticks, to propelling pencils with 6H leads, whch are like drawing with a needle.

I have been to the pencil museum, and I thought it was AWESOME! I was surrounded by bored children, whilst I bounced from exhibit to exhibit exclaiming "Look! Look at how they put the lead in!" "OH MY GOD THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PENCIL!!!" and other things which I'm sure were mortally embarrassing to my ex-husband.

The nicest thing about pencils is the smell.
[User Picture]From: [info]nannyo
2008-09-26 01:40 pm (UTC)

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I have an enormous love for great fatleaded soft pencils. I love the marks they make on paper.
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:49 pm (UTC)

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Graphite pencils are my favourite thing about not touching charcol! Watercolour pencils are probably my other fabourites. Pencils should be extreme - a 6B or 3H perhaps. HB is a bit pathetic and neither here nor there.
[User Picture]From: [info]sharikkamur
2008-09-26 11:39 am (UTC)

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I've been there a couple of times - it's brilliant! I had no idea that the history of pencils was so interesting.
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:49 pm (UTC)

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Did it have a good shop?
[User Picture]From: [info]bloomeenee
2008-09-28 06:31 pm (UTC)

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I went years ago, and I loved it and the shop does disciounted pencils, and they used to give you a free pencil when you bought your ticket. Mine was yellow.
[User Picture]From: [info]claire_wain
2008-09-26 11:42 am (UTC)

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OH! I forgot to tell you my pencil related disaster story!!!

I was at my Grandparents' house, sharpening a pencil to a lovely point, over a little metal ashtray by the fireplace. Suddenly!!! the point of the pencil snapped off, and went STRAIGHT INTO MY EYE!!!

I had to go to hospital and have my eye flushed out to get rid of it, and because my eye was a bit scratched, I had to wear an eye patch to school for a week. It was a horrible pink NHS eye patch, with little holes in it. Not Cool.

I think I was eight. Despite being SCARRED FOR LIFE, I can now sharpen pencils without fear. I do prefer those pencil sharpeners with a receptacle for the bits though.
[User Picture]From: [info]pesky33
2008-09-26 02:40 pm (UTC)

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my pencil related disaster story - my mum was running with a pencil when she was younger and fell, and it went through her cheek :0 they had to pull it back out through her mouth, and she ended up with just one dimple
[User Picture]From: [info]tomatorama
2008-09-26 11:45 am (UTC)

*wishes she had a pencil icon*

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*puts hand up* I have some questions!

What are your thoughts on mechanical pencils? They do not give you the same satisfaction as a sharpened wooden pencil, but they have their own charm.

What is your favourite softness of pencil? HB? B? 6B???????

Isn't this great?

Did you ever have one of those giant souvenier pencils, bonus points if it had a packet of miniscult pencils attached to it, and if so, what was it a souvenier of?

Is Hymen a funny name or am I just being silly?

Is there any pencil more queer than the triangular pencil?

Also I agree with you about how we are not drowning in a sea of pencils! The only people I've ever come across to use up an entire pencil was a serviceman who came to our house and left his pencil, which was just a point. I imagine he is very thrifty. And then there are these people: [info]1pencil gawd bless'em, who try.
[User Picture]From: [info]pesky33
2008-09-26 02:39 pm (UTC)

Re: *wishes she had a pencil icon*

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i love 6B pencils
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:58 pm (UTC)

Re: *wishes she had a pencil icon*

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They are win!
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:54 pm (UTC)

Re: *wishes she had a pencil icon*

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Mechanical pencils are mostly rubbish, unless they don't snap all the time.

I like my 6B graphite pencil best, but a nice sharp 3H is good too. And watercolour pencils, because they make pretty.

I definitely had a big souvenir pencil with little pencils - and they had a plastic point protector too, didn't they?

I'm a bit scared of the 1pencil person, and their friend. I wish them luck though.

[User Picture]From: [info]mal1
2008-09-26 11:52 am (UTC)

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Oh lovely lovely pencils... I like that pencils make my writing look better, and they're better for thinking with, and they smell so nice and are just so satifying in so many ways. I have a deep mistrust of mechanical retracting pencils though, with their mean, treacherous, brittle leads that snap as soon as you look them. I want to like them but they always let you down.
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:56 pm (UTC)

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I don't like mechanical retracting pencils either. My dad had a beautiful mechanical pencil for years - perhaps he still has it - but it was the thing of dreams. None of the little leaded plastic dudes I've ever owned were any good.
[User Picture]From: [info]pippaalice
2008-09-26 01:27 pm (UTC)

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I have been to the pencil museam. There is a tunnel which is supposed to be like mining.
[User Picture]From: [info]pink_weasel
2008-09-26 06:58 pm (UTC)

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Mining pencils is like mining for cheese and jam - something from a comedy sketch, but not at all real.
[User Picture]From: [info]pesky33
2008-09-26 02:42 pm (UTC)

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i always have a pen behind my ear like a builder, it annoys some patients when i take it off my ear and give it to them to write with, cause i think they think it's infected with my earcheese
[User Picture]From: [info]anisiriusmagus
2008-09-26 07:38 pm (UTC)

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Pencils ARE WONDERFUL!!!! I've been to the Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria, and I would urge anyone visiting the area to go. [info]pmoodie and his partner recently had a holiday there, and they visited the museum. I'm not sure if they enjoyed it, but at least they went! I love the pencil museum, I love the giant pencil that I was tempted to leave the premises with, and I love that you can watch a bit of The Snowman there, because the entire film was made using Derwent Cumberland Pencils! ♥ pencils ♥