Viarco soft carbon pencils

Viarco soft carbon pencils

The lack of art and craft in the packaging of modern stationery is regularly lamented at this blog. A manufacturer who is bucking the trend is Viarco, who have launched a new carbon pencil that is beautifully housed.

A set of six pencils are wrapped with paper and tightly bound with string at both ends. This is historically accurate, but with a new design and product.

Viarco soft carbon pencils

The cores constitute a large proportion of the pencil, with the wood slats being unusually hollowed out:

Viarco soft carbon pencils

Viarco soft carbon pencils

Sharpened:

Viarco soft carbon pencils

“Carbon” can signify a range of ingredients. This pencil is very waxy – the core can be indented with a fingernail. If you think of the brittle characteristics of vine or willow charcoal, it is the opposite, while being in the same broad family. On Strathmore Charcoal paper:

Viarco soft carbon pencils

Viarco soft carbon pencils

I salute Viarco for paying attention to the little details that many of us treasure.

9 Replies to “Viarco soft carbon pencils”

  1. What a marvellous packaging! Thank you for showing it. I also like the lettering on the wrapping paper – they have even used the ft ligature.

  2. Gracious, those are gorgeous!
    I have to ask a nerdy question: Can you tell what sort of knot they used on the thread?

  3. Sean, thank you.

    Kiwi-d, hello old friend! The narrow wood casing of the pencils does look like a manufacturing achievement.

    Gunther, you are welcome. The product has many small delights, which I take as a sign of good design. The ligature is indeed very nice.

    John, thank you. Both eyesight (it is a fine and dark thread) and knot knowledge fail me. I might be able to take a daylight photo and share it, but I am away from home for a few days.

  4. If I liked the litho design -modern one- on Poppin pencils, what could I say about these… Wow! their presentation is great and “The narrow wood casing of the pencils” is awesome, I don´t remeber have seen it before, any other example of this fabrication?

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