A very welcome package just arrived – the first set in Felissimo’s 500 Color pencil series!
As befits such a set, the packaging itself is attractive and noteworthy:
The theme is red. Twenty-five shades of red!
The only printed material was an index sheet in Japanese:
The colourful lineup does not disappoint.
The pencils have some very imaginative names.
I’m not sure how well the translation holds up.
On a Holbein 33YK-2 Multi-Drawing sketch book, the spectrum amazes:
The series sells worldwide for $US33 per 25 pencils, including delivery via Japan Post EMS, which is an air mail signature-required service. If you even occasionally order pencils online, you’ll know that this is a great price.
I can’t wait for the next 475 pencils!
Great stuff, and you’re right, that price incl. delivery seems pretty good.
Do you plan on buying any of the displays? Even if not for these pencils, some of them could be very handy.
Sean, I do. I think the Aurora might be a great display vehicle for vintage pencils.
The stroke samples looks OK, yesterday I was in a stationery store buying an HB pencil marked -“Colombia Papermate Turquoise By Mirado”- (first time that I see -By Mirado-)It´s a Sanford product. Eagle Pencil Company started operations in Colombia in 1956 a hundred years since its establishment in USA and 53 years from now. I been buying some brand pencils in order to know wich one is the best for me in my local market so I take the oppotunity to know the Faber-Castell´s color pencils ” Art Grip colour pencils”, the subsidiary here does not offer “Polychromos Artists”, now I know the difference btwn the American and European pencil colors, I was raised with Prismacolor- Mongol and Mirado- these Art Grip are like Verithin and their colors are ligth for me, I enjoy a waxed rich and vivid color. Are the Felissimo smooth like Prismas or are they like Verithins? It´s for an idea about them. And Wow! 500 different colors…
Nice color chart. Enjoy your new pencils! Polychormos pencils are actually oil-based and another comparable brand worth looking into might be Caran D’Ache Pablo pencils.
Thanks Alberto, that´s my name too by the way- for the info I´ve never used oil based so as soon as posible I´ll do it.
When I try to draw some on my sketchbook with my humble ability and colored pencils, I’ve been always not satisfied with lack of selectable colors. 500 colors seems really great. Well, but the price including shipping fee iw worse to me. :)
Oops, the price varies for different countries. 29 USD for shipping to Korea.
I wonder, are these wax- clay- or oil-based pencils? I’m thinking of subscribing to the set, but before I do, I’d like to know a little bit more about what goes into these pencils… and whether I’d have much use of them or not.
And even if they aren’t obvious in their make, how do they feel to write with? Do they come down smooth on smooth paper, or are they rough and grainy there too?
I recently looked at Margaret Atwood’s poem “You Begin” with a college freshman lit class — it’s a poem about the complexity of the world and our ability to put that complexity into words and images. The poem says something about the difficulty of representing the world with only “nine crayons” (limited means). I’m going to show my students your photographs of these pencils next week.
Thank you Michael, I’m delighted to join the curriculum.
It was quite the same as the one of Japan though had thought the overseas specification.
Kossy, I cannot disagree.
A NYC Aunt gave my children a 500 different colors pencil set(20seperate cases of 25) each marked Felissimo from the felissimo color musuem. They are far too nice for my 6,4,3,and 1 yr old. What they are worth and how I could sell? I would love to put the money in my budding artists college fund?
The original 1992 set? Or is there a way to buy the current set in person in NYC? If it’s the original set, I would try to get one or two thousand. For the new set, four or five hundred. But finding a market is the problem.
how well do these blend with other colored pencils? did you make a swatch and hang it in intense light to see if they fade? reds seem to fade the most….how do they compare with caran d’ache pencils, prismacolors, faber-castells, etc. in terms of softness? do the leads snap off a lot like prismacolors?
Hi HarvestMoon,
Regarding lightfastness – in response to queries from potential customers, I am happy to note that Felissimo has submitted some pencils to a laboratory for testing against JIS (A Japanese industrial standards organization) lightfastness standards. Some results have been published at the FAQ on the Felissimo site.
thanks very much- I will go check it out!
The pencil-tip colors, lovely; the names, imaginative, but after testing the first shipment of 25 blue pencils, I am sad to report the lay-down quality is dry. I cancelled & have not tested for light-fastness. I prefer: Derwent coloursoft or Prismacolor. I feel this is much more of a stylish gimmick than an art tool.