Reviving the Blackwing: A Labor of Love or Insanity?
Part One: Seeking Consumer Feedback Over the past two weeks we on the CalCedar & Pencils.com team have been in the midst of a grand experiment. That is soliciting and evaluating the initial consumer responses to our new Palomino Blackwing pencil. This process has generated broad interest and feedback from those who participated as well […]
Palomino fares well in Pencil Test
Recently I came accross yet another pencil bench test comparing various graphite drawing performed pencils including our California Republic Palomino 2B as well as General’s Kimberly and others. Found this posted to our Palomino Riders group page on FaceBook by Tom Smolinski on his smomotion blog. Check out his animation demo reel here. Always glad […]
A Day in the Woods
A nice clear, cool day in the Collins Almanor Forest today where I visited Collins Lumber Company in Chester, CA. Collins is our supply partner for the FSC Certified Incense-cedar lumber used in our own ForestChoice Pencils and CalCedar’s FSC Certified pencil slats supplied to manufacturer such as Caran d’Ache. It was nice to be […]
Maintaining Tradition and Values in the Face of Change
In prior posts I’ve focused on many developments affecting the Pencil industry and how companies have reacted in their business operations and strategies to these external influences. I’ve covered trends such as globalization and growth of imports; consolidation within both manufacturing and distribution channels and the resulting rationalization of brand ranges and manufacturing facilities. I’ve […]
Frankfurt Paperworld 2009: Pencil Report Part 1
Frankfurt Paperworld 2009 is a few days behind me, though I still have quite a follow-up list from my meetings with customers and suppliers. Thus posting my Paperworld Pencil Report for you enthusiasts out there has taken a back seat. I do see there were a few other “reporters” out there covering new pencil related […]
Sustainable Forestry
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted much related to forestry and the timebr business here. Last night this segment appeared on NBC Nightly News. It features the sustainable forestry efforts of Collins Pine Company which has had a long relationship with our company. Collins is a an important supplier of FSC Certified Incense-cedar used in […]
Palomino Riders Unite
I’ve been pleased to see the continuing keen interest and even adoration of our Palomino pencils from our customers. As one happy Palomino Rider recently said, “It’s the way the lead glides over the paper. Hmmmm…yeah, I know. I’ve got issues! It’s an addiction. But…they really do have a nice feel to them. I’m buying […]
The New Pencils.com
After several months of work I am pleased to announce we have completed our redesign project and have now re-launched our “Incense Cedar Institute – Pencil Pages” website under the new name Pencils.com. This has been a project some time in gestation even since I first initiated my Timberlines blog a few years back and […]
New Palomino Items for the Holidays
After a long wait we are happy to announce introduction of an eraser tipped option on our Palomino Blue HB pencils just in time for the Holidays. Now by popular request eraser tips are available for both our Palomino Orange and Palomino Blue lacquer variations. Also for the Holidays we have put together a special […]
