Materials for Design

Red Cedar (Juniperus spp.)

As a schoolboy lacking in concentration, I found something incredibly therapeutic about sharpening a pencil. Whether it’s with an old fashioned magnesium sharpener or a razor-edged steel craft knife, there is no mistaking the peppery smell of that sharpened pencil and, for some, the irresistible urge to gnaw on the end of one. As an object made of wood it is one that has a direct immediacy with its user. You hold it, digging your nail into its plastic-painted surface, smell it, carve it into a needle sharp point, and chew it. Through its built-in obsolescence it goes from being an object of satisfying proportions to a redundant little stump. For this once young schoolboy it also evokes memories of a material and product ...