Awesome Pencils

After building three electric guitar bodies out of colored pencils, Burls Art has stepped up his game by making one with more than 2000 individual pencils, nearly doubling his last effort, and incorporating the neck into the same mold as the body. Watching that crystal clear epoxy poured over the pencils is just so satisfying.

This pencil set from the firm of legendary architect Michael Graves contains 24 colored pencils in his sophisticated palette. Graves’ minimal aesthetic is everywhere, from the essay on color usage in the design process to the die-cut sleeve’s grid of squares — a nod to Graves’ characteristic window pattern.

We’ve seen how colored pencils can be turned into some cool objects, and here’s another one for the collection. Sit back and enjoy as artist Andy Phillip takes hundreds of the pencils, bathes them in resin, and then turns them on his lathe to form a colorful torus. We rather enjoyed watching those resin threads go flying.

John Wick and Heath Ledger’s Joker have both proven that a pencil can be a highly effective weapon all on its own. But it’s makeITcool’s job to make things cooler, so they got to work turning a saw blade into a tiny sword that stows inside of the body of a No. 2 pencil.

Shinrashinge creates amazing interactive manga which play out with the turn of a pencil. Each one is made from a series of opaque and tracing paper rolls that overlay and combine to tell a story. Watch three more of their tear-jerking manga machine stories here, here, and here.

One of the downsides to drawing with a pencil is that you frequently need to sharpen it. But if you keep a pencil sharp, how long of a line could you draw with it? YouTuber President Chay thought it was time to find out, so he covered his treadmill with paper and got to testing with different kinds of pencils and a pen.

Measuring in at just over 4″ long, Kaweco’s short, yet substantial metal pencil feels fantastic in the hand and won’t roll off your desk. Rather than a complex mechanism that can jam, its thick 5.6mm leads are gripped in place, and there’s a sharpener in its pusher. Available in black, brass, and satin or shiny chrome.

As we’ve seen before, DP Truong has exceptional portrait drawing skills. In this video, the artist wanted to see how long they could draw and how many Marvel characters he could crank out with a single pencil before it wore down to an unusable nub of wood and graphite.

Kids today probably have no idea what a pencil even is, but those of us who cut our teeth on Number 2 writing instruments will appreciate this fun desk caddy that looks like a giant sharpener. It’s from real wood and stainless steel, and available in single or double sizes.

Artist Nick Zammeti shows off a wild-looking dining table that he built using a combination of rustic wood planks, resin, and thousands of colored pencils. What makes it especially cool is the river of pencils that flows down its center and off of the table into a waterfall at its end.

Whether you’re an artist, designer, architect, scientist, or student, a pencil can come in handy for jotting down ideas that you might want to change. And a good mechanical pencil gives you a precision point without the need for sharpening. Everyday Carry picks 10 mechanical pencils designed for longevity and utility.

These special pencils from Germany’s Lyra are designed to help youngsters get a better grip, but we think anyone can benefit from their grooved exterior and anti-roll shape. They come in a variety of styles, including blue, metallic, or slimline with regular leads, as well as colored pencils.

Do you suck at decorating cakes? This oversize pencil makes it easy to write words and drizzle icing on pastries and plates. Simply fill it like a syringe, then gently squeeze the pencil to draw fine lines on cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and more.

Maker King Minhvuong shows off a really sweet design for a tabletop Bluetooth speaker. He built it using hundreds of stacked colored pencils set into epoxy resin, then cut, shaped, sanded, and varnished the resulting block to form an eye-catching enclosure.

At first glance, these might look like ordinary pencils, but look closer, and you’ll notice they have a sharp, titanium point. Handcrafted by Sherbet Glass Art, they’re designed to let glass artists sign their art by leaving a permanent line of titanium on their work. We also dig the rainbow-colored metal variant.

Burls Art has made a guitar out of colored pencils before. But this one has its 1200 pencils lying on their sides, giving the unique instrument a more linear and structured appearance. The finished instrument is up for auction on eBay with all proceeds going to Feeding America’s COVID-19 response fund.

Woodworker Andy Phillip shows off a cool art piece he created using a number of sharpened colored pencils arranged inside block of resin he polished into a sphere. It’s a wonderfully satisfying video, and we’re particularly impressed that he didn’t accidentally shave down any of the pencil tips on his lathe.

Specialty colored pencil maker PopColors makes fun sets of pencils with pop culture themes. They recently released a set for Star Wars fans, including colors like Darth Shader, Chewbacco, Maroonium Falcon, and Princess Leialac. Be sure to check out their website for more hilariously bad color names.

We’ve seen footage of pencils being made before, but the guys at Faber-Castell want us to know that their process is the best. Watch as they make black leads from graphite and clay, and colorful ones from powders and wax, then sandwich them into wooden shells, and paint them to match.

School time is here, and while MacBooks, Surface Pros, and Chromebooks are the primary writing tools these days, pens and pencils always come in handy for quick notes, sketches, and test taking. Everyday Carry offers up eight of their favorites that feel great in your hand, and write smooth, clean lines.

Making things out of colored pencils seems to be a bit of a trend. There’s something about the colors and texture that make such things immensely appealing. Angqvist recently made himself a knife handle by laminating together a bunch of sliced up pencils, and it looks fantastic.

After watching Nick Zammeti make a gigantic pencil out of colored pencils, we figured he was out of pencils. But Nick is back to wow us with another build – a working ukulele made from the same stuff. We were wondering how he was gonna hollow out the body. Now we get it.

For no reason other than to see if he could do it, artist Nick Zammeti made a gigantic coloring pencil out of thousands of individual coloring pencils. He adhered the pencils together with resin, turned them on a lathe, then carved it into shape. Its giant lead means it can actually draw.