Sunday, 7 December 2025

New woodless watercolour pencils

I have been looking at woodless watercolour pencils recently and the Distress ones by Ranger and Tim Holtz seem to be all over the internet.  However, I couldn't really justify the price of those and of course, there are six different sets to correspond with all the different colours in the Distress range.  I looked at a couple of other brands and these came up in my search.  They are Koh-i-noor 'Woodless Coloured Sticks' and for the price of one set of the Distress pencils, I got double the number of crayons (24) in a good range of colours. (I have a large number of Distress products, I use them a lot and they are good quality, but I am trying to look after my pennies a little more carefully!)
So, of course, once the pencil crayons arrived, I swatched them. You knew I would, didn't you?  The pencils feel quite satisfyingly substantial in the hand, which is to be expected as they are pure pigment,  but not so heavy as to make them uncomfortable.  There is a cover around them to stop the pigment getting on your hands.  I haven't yet had to sharpen them, but I have no doubt they will sharpen well and you can keep the sharpenings, add water to them and use them too. There is a good selection of colours and they blended out with water very smoothly. I have been having a play with them and am really pleased with my purchase.

4 comments:

  1. Your swatches are always art works in themselves Ellie. I have not ever heard of woodless pencils so was most interested in this. I am pleased you found the ones you did & are enjoying "having a play". xx

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    1. Thanks, Julie. I do like a colour swatch, as you know! All those colours make me very happy. It is fun playing with new things!
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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  2. Great find on your part. It pays to take some time and do some research. Love the swatch and all the pretty colors. Bet you had fun playing and seeing what they produced. I find when I start a new yarn project, I put it down and stare at the colors often. Colors make me smile and I think they do you as well. Enjoy!!
    Sandy's Space

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    1. Thanks, Sandy. It was fun swatching these out. I have been playing with using them on stamps and then adding water to give a watercoloured look which has given some interesting results. You are absolutely right, colours make me happy too!
      Best wishes
      Ellie

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