The Pencil Post

This was a hard one to get started on- mostly because the web exacerbates my undiagnosed attention-deficit magpie mentality. In other words- too many damned shiny objects. Search online under "pencil history" and find pencil collectors, mechanical pencil collectors and the world's biggest pencil (at Faber Castell's headquarters in Germany). Look for "pencil art" and find AMAZING illustrators and folks who make art out of pencils- everything from a pencil clock to a guy who carves around the graphite in pencils http://www.infofreako.com/jad/enpitsu-e.html. Looking for other images I came across all sorts of stuff. I drew the line (no pun intended) at the website for "eyebrow hair loss" (all right, a little bit of a pun...) this is true- somehow pencils and eyebrow hair loss are related, but I can't tell you how- If I was going to actually WRITE something tonight (ok, type something into a browser window) I had to stop somewhere. My eyebrows are fine, so I stopped.

I can't tell you the why of this post. It's seems to me that if I spent so much time looking at pencil things and information, it was important to me- and the blog's all about me. So read on at your own personal risk. It's me or Soduko- you choose.

I have always been a pencil fan. As a kid, if you gave me a pencil and almost any paper surface, from brown wrapping paper to the yellow pages, I could be happy drawing for hours. On the telephone I am never without one- my ex-husband had a theory that if you took the pencil away I could not talk- it was not true- at the very least I could yell " Give that BACK".The pencil snatching may also have raised certain trust issues in our relationship... bit hard to remember now so far down the road.

In meetings, I am lost without a pencil. It helps me focus- I take some notes, but mostly I doodle around my notes-somehow it helps me to kind of stay on track, keeps me in the room and present. Fellow meeting attendees have asked for my notes afterwards- for the drawings- I will happily share if they will reciprocate with the actual facts presented at the aforementioned meeting. Special emphasis on things I might have promised to do and forgotten in mid-scribble is appreciated.

My dad gave me pencils as presents. I know that sounds ... odd, but he was an artist. Never formally trained, he drew for pleasure- in Cray-pas, in colored ballpoint, and very often, in pencil. He'd bring home fat-barrelled jumbo pencils and flat carpenter pencils and slender golf pencils and I remember keeping them in an Owl cigar box, hating to sharpen them, each time losing a bit more precious barrel. The specialty pencils did not fit into a conventional sharpener so at 6 years of age that meant I would have to bring my dulled pencils to my dad and have him whittle a point for me with his utility knife. To this day the smell of pencil shavings brings my dad to me. I smile every time.

For college, I went to art school and favored pencil drawing over any color medium. I had received a gift of a beautiful set of Derwent colored pencils- 72 in a cherry wood box. They sat for years in that box, their matte black barrels pristine, while I stuck to my yellow-barrelled #2 Dixon-Ticonderogas. It seems with that lead (ok graphite), it was the hand that made the difference- and every color was possible- depending on how you touched it. An incredible tool, the pencil.

So anyway. Here's some stuff I learned, which will take the space in my brain that might have been used to remember, say, that I have an appointment sometime tomorrow, or the name of someone I run into on the street that I SHOULD know and don't. But that's ok- if I can't remember their name- I can ask for a pencil- and jot the name down, look fondly at the friendly yellow barrel and say..did you know:

The pencil was invented more than 400 years ago, in 1565.

During the 1800s, the best graphite in the world came from China. American pencil makers wanted a special way to tell people that their pencils contained Chinese graphite. American pencil manufacturers began painting their pencils bright yellow to communicate this "regal" feeling and association with China. Today, 75% of the pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow!

Most pencils are made with a hexagonal barrel to prevent them from rolling off desks. (This does not always work...)

The word pencil comes from the latin word pencillus which means "little tail" The Romans wrote on papyrus w/ small brushes called pencillus

Other early styluses were made of lead. Today we still call the core of a pencil the "lead" even though it is made from nontoxic graphite.

Pencils were standard issue for soldiers during the Civil War as a dry, waterproof writing instrument.

Pencils didn't have erasers on them until 100 years ago because teachers felt they would encourage children to make mistakes.

More than 14 billion pencils are produced in the world every year, enough to circle the globe 62 times.

One pencil will draw a line 70 miles long. (big enough to draw a line across RI)

The average pencil can be sharpened 17 times and write 45,000 words.

A good-sized tree will make about 300,000 pencils. ( I'm not sure I am comfortable with the "good sized" qualifier- I got a lot of this from www.pencils.com- I think good sized should be left up to the tree...)

Ferrule- the name for the little metal thingy that goes between pencil & eraser. During WWII this metal piece was replaced with plastic due to rationing.

Thomas Edison kept a 3-inch-long pencil in his vest pocket to jot down notes.

And artist/ inventor Leonardo da Vinci frequently sketched in pencil.

Famous novelists Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck used pencils to write their books.

Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in pencil.

AND... other people like them too ( famous people)

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” Mother Teresa

"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.” Joyce A. Myers

“Map out your future - but do it in pencil." Jon Bon Jovi

“In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing” Vincent van Gogh


“The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead.” Robert Brault


“Ideas are elusive, slippery things. Best to keep a pad of paper and a pencil at your bedside, so you can stab them during the night before they get away.” Earl Nightingale



Pencil Illustration by Mike Cressy http://sugarfrostedgoodness.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Cressy

“A horse may be coaxed to drink, but a pencil must be lead” Stan Laurel

:) X 28.5