Three favorite things… though not so thrilled with the pretend crystals accenting the legs of my new glasses. They are like cut glass, shine kind of white… no lead content means no true sparkle. I’ve got to wait a year before I can pop those babies out and replace them with genuine Swarvoski crystals as remodeling them sooner would void the warranty. The color is “Merlot” so in normal light, it is a wine hue, not quite as purple as they looked under lights bright enough to make plain ol’ glass or acrylic pretend to sparkle. OH WELL… guess the important thing is that I can see again.
Added ten new colors to my Faber-Castell Aquarelles today and, once again, suggested stocking the Faber-Castell Polychromos.
I have written emails pleading for and praising my favorite pencils, but alas… not one damn store that I know of in the entire city & suburbs of Youngstown, Ohio, will sell my pencils.
Okay, so I am a wee limited to stores located on the WRTA bus routes, so if you live around here and know of any store that sells Faber-Castell Polychromos, sets or open stock, please let me know.
I think Prismacolor has purposely cornered the market by fooling buyers for store stuff into thinking that artist grade colored pencils are ye about all the same… why stock two brands of the exact same thing? Prismacolors are slightly cheaper than Polychromos, so they stock Prismacolors and a General or maybe Crayola, couple really cheap brands, call it a day… that is enough variety.
BUT… those are all WAX based colored pencils, so it is like stocking a variety of apples and NO oranges! Polychromos are OIL based colored pencils… major, major difference. Apples and orange are both fruit, but oh so not the same. They can stock grapes (watercolour pencils) but not Polychromos.
Don’t even let me get started on paper… Strathmore is in cahoots with Prismacolor, imo, dominating the local market with some monopoly strategy to squeeze out some very fine papers. Yes, it would be very nice to buy Stonehenge 100% cotton papers locally.
I did buy three sheets today – but not Strathmore. I am boycotting Strathmore. I’d boycott Prismacolor but that would by slightly hypocritical as I already have the entire set… they are “okay” pencils and I suppose Strathmore makes “okay” papers… just galls me that MY favorites are not available locally.
Is this just Youngstown? Or are certain brands dominating your local market, too?
Barnbees 