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Here are some pencils that I never thought I would see in person – the first volume of the Colleen Woods series. An amazing masterpiece of pencil making, each pencil in the series of twenty-four (two volumes of twelve) is made from a different species of wood. The set is just breathtaking. Each pencil notes [...]

Colleen, a company we’ve mentioned before, makes double ended colour pencils – in round, hexagonal, and triangular shapes! I simply cannot think of another manufacturer offering a specialty pencil in such a variety of formats. Here is the “Mandarin Orange and Emerald Green” pencil in all three shapes: Offerings like these bode well for Colleen. [...]

The Colleen Pencil Company probably isn’t well known as a major manufacturer by most readers of this blog. Ditto here. The company first came to my awareness via photos in the Pencils book from Marco Ferreri. Colleen’s Woods Pencils displayed a fantastic appreciation of the pencil, transforming a two century old manufacturing process with artistic [...]

Regular readers will know the name “Colleen”. Formerly a major Japanese manufacturer, the firm folded a decade or so ago. Yet the name lives on. A former manager is part of a new undertaking in Thailand, re-establishing the brand. We’ve seen some of their offerings for the Japanese market, especially their exquisite teak pencils. What [...]

The Colleen Woods series represents an exciting vision of woodcase pencil manufacturing. The series is also a profoundly simple and beautiful pencil set. Pencils have been made from cedar for a century or more, and more recently from jelutong, pulai, and basswood. Pine and fir have also been used. Yet – out of thousands of [...]